April 21, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Mike Leven was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp.—one of the great hoteliers of all time and a legend in his business. He’s also what you might call a “wise man.” Here’s Mike telling the story of how he—a Jew—helped start the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories and up next.
You've heard from him before, and by the way, go
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and you can hear Mike
Levin tell all kinds of stories, not just about his life,
but stories you can apply to yours. And that's why
we have him tell them. Mike was the president and
chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Google is
(00:31):
Singapore Casino. Look at what he built, and look at
what he did in Las Vegas. The number of jobs
he created, the options for Americans or people around the
world to go to a great resort and enjoy some
gambling and some entertainment and have it be safe and
clean up. Next, Mike tells the story about he, a
Jewish man, helped start the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's a heck of a story. Take it away, Mike.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Fast forward to nineteen eighty five. I get the days
in job. And the interesting thing about getting the days
in job was that I was referred to Henry Silverman
by a guy that I had been I had fired.
There was a guy named Dick Appleby who was the
sales director of the Americana hotel in New York.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
He did.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
He was not doing a very good job, and I
had to let him go. And a few years later,
I'm sitting in my office at Chicago and I'm on
my way to the airport. I had a trip and
I had these message things. Well, the telephone calls, you know,
you didn't have no cell phones then, and uh. I
go to a pay phone. I call the guy back.
I said, Vic, how are you. I haven't spoken to
(01:41):
you for three or four years.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Why are you calling?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
He said, Well, I'm the sales director for the Tolman
Hunley Company and they're looking for to to recommend somebody
to be the president chief operating officer of days in
and I recommended you. I said, are you would you
be interested? I said, sure, cause we're selling We're selling
the assets of Americana Hotels now. And then I'm not
(02:04):
gonna have a job in a few months. So anyway,
I get the job. And I in order to get
the job, i'd never been in the economy lodging business,
and uh, and I never really be I had some
franchises at Dunefee, We had some Sheridan franchises at Dunfee,
but I never and we had one franchise at Americana,
(02:25):
but I was never really in the franchise business. And
it was very life changing experience too. So I decided
I would go and sit with a consultant who was
at UH, a consulting company.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
In New York.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Guy named Dan Daniellie, who was supposed to be the
guru of economy lodging or it's just like budget hotels,
but you know the the euphemism is economy lodging, you know.
So I go see him and he said, oh yeah,
I said, you know, you have all these curry palaces there.
I said, what's that? He said, well, they're owned by Indians.
(02:59):
I said, what do you mean, Indians soup? You know Cherokee,
No Indians from India. Oh window, those all those Indians,
I said to him. He said, you know, so, so
what he says, Well, apparently UH Heavy Silver and saw
Steinber bought days in in September and it's now UH
(03:21):
February of March of the following year, and they sold
off half of these hotels, many of them to these
Indian hotel owners. Guy's named Patel and Shah and a
few people like that. It's franchises. I said, so, what
are you telling me? He says, well, they're very difficult. Why, well,
(03:43):
there's you know, they call them curry palaces because they
live in them and they cook, so the place smells
of curry and the stuff and that and whatever. You know,
once again, the same the establishment is, you know whatever.
He's the guru or the consulting in this. He's a
nice guy too, actually, but once again, you know, this
is the way people would label things. So I get
(04:04):
the days in and I start meeting with these people,
and about six or eight months later, I hear the
same thing inside the company. Well the quality scores are down,
they don't pay their bills, they blah blah blah, blah
blah blah. So I have a guy calls comes into
my office. A guy calls me up and name Lee Douchef. Said,
(04:27):
who are you? He says, I do projects for people.
I said, come and see me. Just out of blue,
really nice guy comes to see me and he says, look,
he said, Mike, I just want to tell you something.
If you've got a project that you can't do, call me,
(04:48):
I'll do it. I said, what do you mean. He said, well,
lots of times. I find that people like to do
new things in companies, but when they try to do
it with the same people, they can't get them done. Well,
that makes sense, so he goes away. Couple months later,
guy shows up my office named hp Rama. There's a
(05:11):
very very serious Hindu. He comes to see me. He said, Mike,
we have problems. We had billboards up that say American
r American owned, which is really derogatory to us because
people are saying, don't stay in a in a Patel
owned hotel or an Indian owned hotel, stuff like that.
We had problems getting loans from traditional companies, and we
(05:34):
can't get franchises from anybody else other than the lowest
end of the poll.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And w I I I I think he.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Had a day's enfranchise to this guy. I said, I'll
look into it. So I I I talked to Douchev
and I said, come see me. But before he did that,
I had my people study a hundred or so Asian
American owned hotels that we had. Give me the total
(06:05):
amount of quality scores, give me the receivables, give me
all the information on honesty on these hotels. It turns
out they're exactly the same as anybody else in the chain.
There was absolutely, if anything, they paid better. I caught
Brian Lee and HP we have a meeting, and I said,
let's form an association. Let's call it the Asian American
(06:28):
Hotel Association. HPU, get me another good, strong Asian guy
like yourself, Indian guy like yourself. I'll set up a
board of people with some quote white people Asian people mixed,
(06:48):
and we'll start a trade association with the mission being
to take your rightful place in the American hotel lodging industry.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So I went to Silverman.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I sent need a hundred thousand bucks a budget to
run a little conference convention, bring it, some speakers, do
some things like that. And then Lee Douchaftshire was to
not only organize it and also helped position the company
and me in the industry with the Asians. So I
(07:22):
marched in the India Independence State Parade in New York City.
I did various things. He got me education. I started
reading the Bagabay Geeta and other stuff, and h I'd
learned more about Hinduism than the average person would ever know.
We set the membership feet at the twenty five dollars to.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Join the association. We had a convention and the.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Other industry people didn't show up to exhibit. I was
accused of doing it for business pe versus anyway, and
he fast forward now twenty thousand members, the biggest trade show.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
In the hospitality industry. HB.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Round became the president of ah in LA, the American
Hotel and Lodging Association as the first one. They own
over fifty percent of the select service business in the country.
Plus they're all all the sons in the next generation
are all massively successful entrepreneurs. I sit on the board
of a Asian American company. It's worth over a billion
dollar company that they built from one. When I went
(08:23):
to Holiday Inn holiday and no one gave them franchises
I had to get.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I gave.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Once I started to do it, they all started to
do it. They jumped on the bandwagon and I gave
a lot of speeches to Indian groups and whatever. And
the best thing about it is they never forget. They
never forget the.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Bapooh what is their name? Father? It was a name
for Gandhi. They never forgot.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
They never forgot Bapoo. That's Mike's nickname. Any Indian hotel
that's what they call them. And we can all be
bopoo and we can all help the other. And here's
the irony. Mike understood this sting of discrimination and remembering
the sign at the Breaker's hotel that said no Jews allowed.
And by the way, the Jews were the richest per
capita income group in this country despite discrimination, only to
(09:18):
be overcome ten years ago by Indian Americans who were
now number one, fifty percent of all hotel franchises owned
by this small group of Americans. The wealth they of
the massed, understanding capitalism, understanding free enterprise, working hard, risking
and sacrificing the American dream wide open for every religion
(09:40):
and skin color and minority religions like Jews and Hindus.
A beautiful American story. Mike Levin's story, Bapoo story here
on our American Stories
And we continue with our American Stories and up next.
You've heard from him before, and by the way, go
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and you can hear Mike
Levin tell all kinds of stories, not just about his life,
but stories you can apply to yours. And that's why
we have him tell them. Mike was the president and
chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Google is
(00:31):
Singapore Casino. Look at what he built, and look at
what he did in Las Vegas. The number of jobs
he created, the options for Americans or people around the
world to go to a great resort and enjoy some
gambling and some entertainment and have it be safe and
clean up. Next, Mike tells the story about he, a
Jewish man, helped start the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's a heck of a story. Take it away, Mike.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Fast forward to nineteen eighty five. I get the days
in job. And the interesting thing about getting the days
in job was that I was referred to Henry Silverman
by a guy that I had been I had fired.
There was a guy named Dick Appleby who was the
sales director of the Americana hotel in New York.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
He did.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
He was not doing a very good job, and I
had to let him go. And a few years later,
I'm sitting in my office at Chicago and I'm on
my way to the airport. I had a trip and
I had these message things. Well, the telephone calls, you know,
you didn't have no cell phones then, and uh. I
go to a pay phone. I call the guy back.
I said, Vic, how are you. I haven't spoken to
(01:41):
you for three or four years.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Why are you calling?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
He said, Well, I'm the sales director for the Tolman
Hunley Company and they're looking for to to recommend somebody
to be the president chief operating officer of days in
and I recommended you. I said, are you would you
be interested? I said, sure, cause we're selling We're selling
the assets of Americana Hotels now. And then I'm not
(02:04):
gonna have a job in a few months. So anyway,
I get the job. And I in order to get
the job, i'd never been in the economy lodging business,
and uh, and I never really be I had some
franchises at Dunefee, We had some Sheridan franchises at Dunfee,
but I never and we had one franchise at Americana,
(02:25):
but I was never really in the franchise business. And
it was very life changing experience too. So I decided
I would go and sit with a consultant who was
at UH, a consulting company.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
In New York.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Guy named Dan Daniellie, who was supposed to be the
guru of economy lodging or it's just like budget hotels,
but you know the the euphemism is economy lodging, you know.
So I go see him and he said, oh yeah,
I said, you know, you have all these curry palaces there.
I said, what's that? He said, well, they're owned by Indians.
(02:59):
I said, what do you mean, Indians soup? You know Cherokee,
No Indians from India. Oh window, those all those Indians,
I said to him. He said, you know, so, so
what he says, Well, apparently UH Heavy Silver and saw
Steinber bought days in in September and it's now UH
(03:21):
February of March of the following year, and they sold
off half of these hotels, many of them to these
Indian hotel owners. Guy's named Patel and Shah and a
few people like that. It's franchises. I said, so, what
are you telling me? He says, well, they're very difficult. Why, well,
(03:43):
there's you know, they call them curry palaces because they
live in them and they cook, so the place smells
of curry and the stuff and that and whatever. You know,
once again, the same the establishment is, you know whatever.
He's the guru or the consulting in this. He's a
nice guy too, actually, but once again, you know, this
is the way people would label things. So I get
(04:04):
the days in and I start meeting with these people,
and about six or eight months later, I hear the
same thing inside the company. Well the quality scores are down,
they don't pay their bills, they blah blah blah, blah
blah blah. So I have a guy calls comes into
my office. A guy calls me up and name Lee Douchef. Said,
(04:27):
who are you? He says, I do projects for people.
I said, come and see me. Just out of blue,
really nice guy comes to see me and he says, look,
he said, Mike, I just want to tell you something.
If you've got a project that you can't do, call me,
(04:48):
I'll do it. I said, what do you mean. He said, well,
lots of times. I find that people like to do
new things in companies, but when they try to do
it with the same people, they can't get them done. Well,
that makes sense, so he goes away. Couple months later,
guy shows up my office named hp Rama. There's a
(05:11):
very very serious Hindu. He comes to see me. He said, Mike,
we have problems. We had billboards up that say American
r American owned, which is really derogatory to us because
people are saying, don't stay in a in a Patel
owned hotel or an Indian owned hotel, stuff like that.
We had problems getting loans from traditional companies, and we
(05:34):
can't get franchises from anybody else other than the lowest
end of the poll.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And w I I I I think he.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Had a day's enfranchise to this guy. I said, I'll
look into it. So I I I talked to Douchev
and I said, come see me. But before he did that,
I had my people study a hundred or so Asian
American owned hotels that we had. Give me the total
(06:05):
amount of quality scores, give me the receivables, give me
all the information on honesty on these hotels. It turns
out they're exactly the same as anybody else in the chain.
There was absolutely, if anything, they paid better. I caught
Brian Lee and HP we have a meeting, and I said,
let's form an association. Let's call it the Asian American
(06:28):
Hotel Association. HPU, get me another good, strong Asian guy
like yourself, Indian guy like yourself. I'll set up a
board of people with some quote white people Asian people mixed,
(06:48):
and we'll start a trade association with the mission being
to take your rightful place in the American hotel lodging industry.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So I went to Silverman.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I sent need a hundred thousand bucks a budget to
run a little conference convention, bring it, some speakers, do
some things like that. And then Lee Douchaftshire was to
not only organize it and also helped position the company
and me in the industry with the Asians. So I
(07:22):
marched in the India Independence State Parade in New York City.
I did various things. He got me education. I started
reading the Bagabay Geeta and other stuff, and h I'd
learned more about Hinduism than the average person would ever know.
We set the membership feet at the twenty five dollars to.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Join the association. We had a convention and the.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Other industry people didn't show up to exhibit. I was
accused of doing it for business pe versus anyway, and
he fast forward now twenty thousand members, the biggest trade show.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
In the hospitality industry. HB.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Round became the president of ah in LA, the American
Hotel and Lodging Association as the first one. They own
over fifty percent of the select service business in the country.
Plus they're all all the sons in the next generation
are all massively successful entrepreneurs. I sit on the board
of a Asian American company. It's worth over a billion
dollar company that they built from one. When I went
(08:23):
to Holiday Inn holiday and no one gave them franchises
I had to get.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I gave.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Once I started to do it, they all started to
do it. They jumped on the bandwagon and I gave
a lot of speeches to Indian groups and whatever. And
the best thing about it is they never forget. They
never forget the.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Bapooh what is their name? Father? It was a name
for Gandhi. They never forgot.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
They never forgot Bapoo. That's Mike's nickname. Any Indian hotel
that's what they call them. And we can all be
bopoo and we can all help the other. And here's
the irony. Mike understood this sting of discrimination and remembering
the sign at the Breaker's hotel that said no Jews allowed.
And by the way, the Jews were the richest per
capita income group in this country despite discrimination, only to
(09:18):
be overcome ten years ago by Indian Americans who were
now number one, fifty percent of all hotel franchises owned
by this small group of Americans. The wealth they of
the massed, understanding capitalism, understanding free enterprise, working hard, risking
and sacrificing the American dream wide open for every religion
(09:40):
and skin color and minority religions like Jews and Hindus.
A beautiful American story. Mike Levin's story, Bapoo story here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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