For the majority of people, the Summer of 1969 is remembered as the Summer of Love.  But for those of us living in Las Vegas it was the Summer of Elvis.   

Here is my remembrance:

For the WW II generation, their icon was Frank Sinatra.  "Liberace would fill a hotel, Sinatra would fill the town"  says Don Payne, former manager of the Las Vegas News Bureau.  In the 1950s and the 1960s, Sinatra was synomous with Las Vegas.  The Rat Pack. The Sands. Frank, Sammy and Dean. The Steam Room.  Drinks for everyone.  "You never wanted to go to sleep.  There was always something going on and I have the checks to prove it." Burton Cohen, former manager of the Desert Inn Hotel.

But in 1969, a rumble began.  Like the sound preceding an earthquake, a mention in Joe Delaney's column, another in Forrest Duke's column, a billboard.  All said "Elvis Presley, International Hotel, August 1969."

Elvis had not toured in years.  After years of routine MGM musicals, he was considered by many to be washed up.  

However, in 1968, he performed on NBC dressed in black leather, looking hotter than women could remember and sounding like a good drink on the rocks.  Songs about love, about lust, about one night with you.   Elvis, with that voice, the hot rock and roller that many had remembered and loved from his pre-Army days, was back.

Phone calls poured in to the switchboard.  People wanted to know when he was coming and how much were the tickets.

Chatter began and grew into momentum.  Every one was talking about Elvis and everyone wanted to go.

A bit of a backstory: 

My folks have loved Elvis from the beginning.  My mom, a young teenager in Battle Creek, MI when Elvis first exploded out of Memphis, still has all her 45s and many of the albums.  My dad says he liked Elvis but not to the degree of my mother. 

In 1963, my dad was a Keno Writer (up from being a shill and Keno Runner) at the Golden Gate.  On Sunday morning, he got off work and stepped outside on the corner of Fremont and Main.  To his surprise, they were filming one of the race scenes from Viva Las Vegas.  My dad stood on the corner as race cars whizzed by.  He claims Elvis was in one of those cars.  Who am I to argue?

We saw the film in its initial run at the old Stardust Drive-In.   That was a wonderful drive-in theater behind the recently demo'd Stardust Hotel.

My mother's birthday is in August (Happy Birthday, mom)  and it would be her thirtieth birthday (she'll love me highlighting that)  that summer of Elvis.  My dad worked two jobs and, unbeknowst to my mom,  saved all his spare money.

For her birthday, he surprised us with tickets for all three of us.  With tickets selling out in advance, how he did it, I'm still not sure but I suspect it included calling in some favors.

A dinner show at the newly opened International Hotel (most people do not realize that Elvis was not the one who opened the showroom at the International.  Barbra Streisand holds that honor.  Elvis was the second main act to play the showroom.)  This required getting dressed up.  Not just any dress up.  Mom had to have a new outfit.  Dad had to get his suit out of mothballs (they are from Michigan after all) and get it cleaned and pressed.  I got to wear my Easter outfit. (Imagine my happiness. Nothing says getting dressed up like putting on a dress with a print that resembles your grandmother's wallpaper.  I'd have prefered a new outfit but no dice.)

That fateful morning mom and I went to the beauty salon to have our hair done (bouifants all around!) and our nails done.  Mom looked fabulous and this was before getting into her new frock.

The late afternoon finally arrived and we finished dressing.  The babysitter arrived to look after my five year old brother.  My folks, were all dressed up for a night on the town - which was a rarity in our household as going to a show usually meant the lounge at the Mint to see Johnny Cash or  the Nashville Nevada Club.  To me they looked like Hollywood royalty.

We climbed into our chariot (an old Dodge) and headed towards the Strip. 

What I remember most of that evening is the booth (very plush and I think it was purple leather), the great view of the stage we had (Dad must have tipped the maitre d' quite well) and the look of joy on my mom's face when Elvis hit the stage.

I don't know that my dad paid any attention to Elvis that night.  He was captivated by the look on my mom's face and I knew that all his hard work was at that moment, to him, worth it.

Elvis returned twice a year to the International Hotel from that summer on.  His shows always sold out months in advance.

Even when he got older, slower and bigger, the crowds came.  They sang along with him, they adored him, they loved him.  And in those moments, Elvis seemed to have found his place.  No one knew to the extant he was haunted by demons off-stage.

Over the years, we watched his television specials and bought his albums.  We still have his Live from the International! two album set.  But we never saw him live on stage again.  We talked for years afterwards about that evening but never tried to duplicate it.  Perhaps we thought it would be like trying to catch lightening in a bottle

In the summer of 1977, I was spending my last summer at home.  Just before Labor Day, like my mother before me, I was to travel to a new city to begin a new life.  But, in those humid,  monsoonal days of August, I was working down in the basement of the airport to earn money for my trip.  My folks and younger brother were traveling through Utah.  I stayed behind to work and  keep an eye on and feed the various dogs, cats, snakes and skunk. 

We always listened to the radio (usually KLUC) down in the airport basement, trying to win tickets to see the Rock shows at the old Aladdin Theater of the Performing Arts (where I actually did see some wonderful, memorable Rock acts).  On that fateful day in August, I heard the news as it came over the radio.  Elvis. Dead. Memphis.

I was shocked.  My first thoughts were how upset my folks would be.

That evening, after work, I stopped by the house to feed the various animals and get ready to go out with friends.  The phone rang.  It was my mom.  They were calling from some small country store in Utah.  They had heard something about Elvis on the radio but didn't get the whole story.

I had to tell my mom that Elvis was dead.
 

For those wondering about new posts and articles: 

Thus began our longest journey together (with apologies to Harper Lee). 

My dad is in ICU at a local Valley Hospital.  I hope by this time next week to be writing new articles and posts about Classic Las Vegas.

In the meantime, read about us in this week's CityLife:

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2007/08/10/news/local_news/iq_15936760.txt

And listen to us talking with David Berns on KNPR's State of the Nevada:

http://www.knpr.org/audio2007/mp3/070809_l-zook.mp3

Let me know what you think! 

Home Movie Day, Vegas Style! 

Home movies.  Those wonderful 8mm and Super 8 celluloid treasures that we have from our childhoods.  Christmas morning, Easter Sunday, vacations at Disneyland.  It's fun to look back at the fads, the clothing, the hairstyles.  But most importantly, they capture a time and place that have faded into history.

It's one reason that I am excited about Las Vegas participating in Home Movie Day this week.  Las Vegas has long held out the lure of second chances and the possibility of re-inventing self.  But, few other cities in the world, re-invent themselves on the scale of Las Vegas.

 Twenty five years ago there were still motels and gas stations on the Strip.  A lot of them.  Places like the Lone Palm, the Desert Rose, the Kit Carson, the Gaslight.   Now the buildings are gone but luckily some of the signs have been saved by the Neon Museum.

 I've been putting together some of the footage that I have bought on ebay.  Other people's home movies.  People, at first, ask why are you buying other peoples' movies?  But then I explain that most people traveling west stopped in Las Vegas.  In between seeing shows, dining out and gambling, they often took a drive Downtown and then back to the Strip.  And, quite often, they took their handy movie camera with them.

Because of that, I have spent the last day looking at the Las Vegas I remember.  The City of Neon.  Places that are long gone and some that are still around.

Helldorado Parades when Helldorado was as big as the Tournament of Roses Parade.  The Hotel floats were elaborate.  Everything from sailing ships to ice rinks, all topped by beautiful showgirls.  Marching bands from around the country.  And crowds so deep you can't see the sidewalks.  But looking east on Fremont Street with the floats coming towards you is to capture the essence of what Downtown used to mean to all of us of a certain age when it was the only place to go to shop, cruise or grab a burger. 

I have seen the wonderful old Aladdin sign.  The team of designers from Yesco, included Brian "Buzz" Leming.  They dubbed the sign the "Ice Cream Sundae" and spent an afternoon at Wonderworld looking for material they could cut up to make the mock up of the sign.

The original front of Caesars Palace with the soldiers on the bottom of the marquee sign.  Buzz and the other designers spent an afternoon at a store buying toy soldiers as a gag for the sign.  When Jay Sarno saw the mock up he wanted to keep the soldiers.  Just wanted them to look Roman.

The magnificent Dunes sign pushing neon into the night sky.  It was always supposed to be there.

The Sands, the Bonanza Hotel, the Stardust (with its planetary front) and the Mori statue advertising the Aku Aku, the La Concha and the Algiers, the camels that used to be near the original Sahara sign.  The Flamingo Capri motel with its very similar sign to its next door neighbor, the Flamingo Hotel.  The old Frontier Village.

Jack Dennison's Copper Cart Restaurant.  Looking at footage of Downtown, there was the Lucky Strike, the Monte Carlo, the Fremont Theatre.  5th Street Liquor.  Before the Union Plaza was built at 1 Main Street it was the Union Pacific Depot and in some of the home movies you can see the Union Paciific sign glowing neon at the end of the street.

It's all there.  In color and in black and white.  The way Las Vegas was.  The Las Vegas of our collective memory.  The City of Neon. 

Join us for Home Movie Day.

On Saturday, August 11th (National Home Movie Day):

Nevada State Museum

700 Twin Lakes Dr

Lorenzi Park (Twin Lakes to us old timers)

10:00 am - 4:30 pm 

Bring your home movies to share or just come watch them.

It's a trip down Memory Lane you won't soon forget.

The Fremont East Entertainment District spent considerable money to install historical markers in the sidewalks of Fremont Street from Fifth to Eighth Street.  These markers form a historical time line of events in Downtown Las Vegas history.  It was hoped that these markers would spur interest in our history as people walk up and down Fremont Street.

We think it was a good idea.  With the coming PostModern Museum at Stewart and Third, the Visitors Center on Fremont Street and Union Park, we believe that there will be renewed interest not only in the history of Fremont Street but in the history of Las Vegas.

There's just one problem with the markers, some of the history is wrong. 

Now this being Las Vegas, where myth trumps most of our real history, some believe it isn't that big of a deal.  But to those of us who believe that the real history of not only Fremont Street but of Las Vegas is much more interesting and much more fascinating than the myths, we believe it is a big deal.

Eighteen bronze medallions were placed in the sidewalks in the Fremont East Entertainment District.  City officials spent $3,600 for each medallion so it is not likely that they will replace the ones with the faulty historical information.

"If people are getting their history from markers in the sidewalk ..." said Las Vegas City Manager Doug Selby.

Well Doug, people tend to think that if a city goes to the effort to chronicle its history either in plaques, sidewalk medallions or signage, that the history they are reading is accurate.  Otherwise, what's the point of spending the money?  What's the point of continuing to perpetrate the misinformation?  Doesn't anyone in the city government care about the real history of our town?

There are plenty of historians here in town they could have reached out to, thus ensuring that the history on the plaques would be interesting and accurate.  Instead, it sounds like those tasked with this mission, got the majority of the "interesting and pithy" historical facts from "intense internet research".  One of the reasons we started our Classic Las Vegas Project and Blog was because we were appalled at the amount of historical misinformation on the Web about Las Vegas.

Mayor Goodman, when first told, had this to say: "I'm going to see what we can do, and I'm going to find out who's responsible for this," he said, adding he would consider tearing up the markers.

The next day however, Goodman had retreated from that statement and issued this one instead:

"It's a fun thing," he said of the markers. "I'm hoping people on the Fremont East are half-lit, and could care less what the markers say."

The fallacy with this thinking is that only drunk people visit Fremont Street. I'm going to go out on limb and say I'm fairly certain sober people visit Fremont Street regularly.  

What about all those folks who will be living in Union Park?  Won't they be taking their out-of-town guests and families for walks down Fremont Street (it will be their closest historical neighborhood after all) and they are not all going to liquored up beyond recognition. 

What about those who tour the PostModern Mob Museum and then want to explore Fremont Street to see some of the historical sites they read about in the Museum?  How many people visit Museums when they are "half-lit"?

Cultural tourism is going to be important on Fremont Street because Fremont Street is one of the few remaining links to our past where people can visit, read and imagine what life was like here in the 20th Century.  By disregarding cultural tourism in his own backyard, Mayor Goodman discounts one of the main reasons for the renaissance that he believes so passionately is coming to Fremont Street. 

If the City of Las Vegas is successful with plans for Union Park, the PostModern, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and other grand plans, then the demographic of those who visit Fremont Street will grow beyond the current demographic of tourists looking for a deal, locals who love the El Cortez and the homeless and addicted who still populate too much of the Street. 

If you are the main cheerleader for better days are coming to Fremont Street because of gentrification and all your efforts to help spur that renaissance then why do you discount and disregard the cultural tourism that will be a main factor of interest?   Isn't the whole idea of a cultural renaissance coming to Fremont Street is because Fremont Street can not survive without it? 

Regarding his earlier pledge to find out who is responsible for the errors, the mayor joked: "That's when I thought there was one (a medallion) about me. I really could care less."

I know that Mayor Goodman likes to shoot from the lip but the message he is sending not only to the people who live here but to those that visit, is that our history is not important and is not anything we should care about.

Our history is worth caring about and worth discovering because Las Vegas did not spring fully formed from a fever dream of Bugsy Siegel or Benny Binion. 

"Is it necessary to debunk a legend and the mystique that continues to draw 40 million people annually to this part of the desert?" asked Scott Adams, director of the Office of Business Development, in a written statement.

Yes, Scott it is because this isn't a John Ford movie, it's our history.  Do people visit Boston or New York City or San Francisco or Los Angeles or Chicago to soak up the wrong history?  No, the people who go on historical tours of cities do so because they are interested in the real history. 

Las Vegas is here because the men and women who lived here and refused to give up on the town they called home despite the many hard times they endured.  When their faith was finally rewarded during the War years and the Post War era, they continued to believe in their town and continued to help it grow.  This history is much more important than the myths that have sprung up over the years.

For City Officials and the Mayor to denigrate their efforts and their accomplishments because "half-lit" tourists could care less does us all a disservice.

At some point, Las Vegas needs to grow beyond the stereotype of catering to the drunken hordes who only come here because what happens here, stays here. 

If Las Vegas wants to be a place of culture, art and history, it is time we all grew up and realize that by denigrating our own history and the accomplishments of the men and women who made this metropolis possible, we continue to perpetrate the myth that nothing of historical significance happened here.

The REI Neon Group has been chosen to build a $9.5 billion sports arena/gambling/mixed use/retail complex near Charleston Blvd and Main Street.  REI Neon is based out of Michigan.  REI has the rights to purchase 85 acres downtown.  Still to be worked out are tax credits, incentives and a timeline for development and completion.

The local Arts District is up in arms about this.  The Arts District, with the success of First Friday, has turned an older, some would say seedier section of town, into a thriving arts community complete with galleries, artists and businesses like Nevada Radiator and the Swim-In-Pool Pool Supplies.

Councilman Gary Reese sees the Arena as a way to connect the Strip, Union Park and Downtown into a large entertaiment area.

George Postolos, former president and CEO of the NBA's Houston Rockets, has joined REI's team. REI was to  meet with NBA executives on Friday about their plans but there has been no word on the meeting in the wake of Friday's breaking story about the NBA Ref who was caught betting and possibly throwing games.   Postolos was a special assistant to David Stern in the late 1990s.  Stern is said to be lukewarm (before Friday's breaking news) on the idea of a NBA team in Las Vegas.

The City Council is set to vote on the preliminary agreement with REI on August 1st.  That will be followed by a 60 day negoitating period for the final agreement.  REI will be required to put down a $1 million deposit once the final agreement is reached.

Some sticklers that will crop up: 

The 85 acres in question are owned by different people and different families.  Each owner will have to agree to sell.  REI says that they agreements with all the property owners and that the sale should close escrow by September.  Steve Wynn didn't have this easy of a time when he bought out the home-owners on the old Desert Inn Golf Course.  Will REI?

On Wednesday, July 25th the State Board will hear a challenge to the City Council's decision last month to re-zone the area for gaming.  Local attorney Chuck Gardner, who is representing the plantiff, a Las Vegas resident, says that REI and the city fell far short when it came to presenting "clear and convincing" justification for expanding the gaming district. (LV Review Journal).

The Culinary Union has also challenged the project.

AEG, another big arena developer (ie the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles) is still moving ahead with their plans for an arena outside of the city limits.  Can Las Vegas support two large arenas and the smaller Sam Boyd Stadium?  Are there that many sports fans in Las Vegas?  Are there that many tourists interested in watching live sports in Las Vegas?

The Arts District:

This stadium will have the most impact on the burgeoning Arts District.  When Cindy Funkhouser and Whirlygig began the idea of First Friday years ago, the area was downtrodden and seedy.  Many of the long-time businesses had closed or abandoned the area for the suburbs.  Since then the area has become a hotbed of galleries, artists lofts, the Holsum Design Center (in the former Holsum Bakery building.  Talk about great re-adaptive use), mid-century furniture (Modify), antique stores and more.  Along Main Street are some of the oldest businesses in town such as the Swim-In Pool and Nevada Radiator.  The entire concept of an Arts District with its monthly street fair atmosphere will be deeply impacted by this development and no one should underestimate them.

From an email circulating regarding the State Board's meeting on Wednesday: 

Subject: WEDNESDAY, JULY 25th, 1 pm. Save the ARTS DISTRICT & our neighborhoods!

Please attend the Review Panel hearing of the Gaming Policy Committee. This hearing will determine if gaming can be expanded into the 73 acre parcel between Oakey, Charleston, Main Street and UPRR tracks.

We believe this naked expansion of gaming and the already-decided stadium project will not only destroy (wipe out) the ARTS DISTRICT but also the surrounding neighborhoods. This includes John S. Park, Glen Heather, Scotch 80s, McNeil Estates and others, since traffic in the area will be GRIDLOCKED. (If these neighborhoods, some of which are well organized get involved....)

Although there will be no opportunity to testify at the hearing, we need to let this Panel know that gaming is not the great panacea, especially when neighborhoods are this severely impacted. Please, please, please carpool and bring others with you and attend this WEDNESDAY's hearing. 555 E. Washington 2nd floor. State of Nevada Building.

This one will be worth watching.