Leo the Lion

Take a quick look to your left and you will see Leo the Lion, this gigantic bronze statue. Standing about 14 meters tall and weighing nearly 50 tons, it is considered the largest bronze sculpture in the Western Hemisphere. It was created by Snell Johnson, a former con artist who later became a sculptor after serving five years in prison. The statue was installed in 1998 to replace the original entrance of the hotel, which used to take the form of a massive lion’s mouth. When the MGM Grand opened in 1993, visitors actually entered the resort by walking through the open mouth of the lion, a spectacular idea that quickly turned out to be problematic. In Chinese culture, walking into the mouth of an animal is believed to bring bad luck, and many high-stakes Asian gamblers began avoiding the casino. To address this, the entrance was redesigned and the current statue was placed above visitors, who now pass beneath the lion rather than through its mouth. For several years, the MGM Grand also featured a Lion Habitat inside the casino, where real lions lived in a specially designed space with waterfalls and natural light. This free attraction eventually closed in 2012, and the animals were moved to a ranch in Henderson. Leo the Lion remains the historic mascot of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, whose famous roaring lion has appeared in films since the early twentieth century.