Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was one of the three finalists for the location of the new United States Air Force Academy, but ultimately lost to Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1968, Hugh Hefner built his first Playboy resort in Lake Geneva. The club closed in 1981 and in 1982 was converted into the Americana Resort, and in 1993 to the present Grand Geneva Resort. Royal Records (formerly Shade Tree Studios) was a Lake Geneva music recording studio where artists such as Ministry, Cheap Trick, Queensrÿche, Crash Test Dummies, Iron Maiden, Nine Inch Nails and Skid Row have recorded albums. Lake Geneva is located at (42.592380,
Lake Geneva warrant of English King Charles I, was granted on 16 April 1662 protection in and continued to live at Vevey until his death in 1692. Mary and Percy Shelley and Lord Byron holidayed by the lake and wrote ghost stories, one of which became the basis for the novel "Frankenstein". The Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi) was stabbed to death on the quayside in Geneva in September 1898. Vladimir Lenin rented a little "chalet" at the French bank, near Geneva. Actor Charlie Chaplin spent his final years and died in Vevey (there is a memorial statue of him along the