The very first hospital in Las Vegas was in a tent sponsored by the railroad.

As the city got bigger, this hospital was established downtown.

Then this one was built

Sunrise Hospital was built on Maryland Parkway by Irwin Molasky and Moe Dalitz

Southern Nevada Hospital replaced the old Clark County Hospital on the southwest part of town

Do you remember any of these?  Have memories you would like to share?

We had a great time at the TCM Film Festival a few weeks ago.  The Walt Disney Family Museum presented the earliest known animated cartoons done by Walt Disney when he was just starting out in Kansas City in 1921, the Laugh-O-grams.  The Museum was chosen to be the opening film of the Festival and staff historian, J.B. Kaufman, was on hand to introduce the shorts.

It was an amazing fun-filled four days that can only be described as cinema heaven.  Some of the highlights:

To Kill a Mockingbird with a before film talk with Veronique Peck (Gregory Peck's widow) and children, Anthony and Cecilia.  But, wait, it gets better.  After the film, there was a talk with Mary Badham who played "Scout" in the film.

Kirk Douglas and Robert Osborne talking before the showing of Spartacus.  Kirk was terrific, humble and funny.  One of the big moments occurred when he talked about hiring Dalton Trumbo to write the script.  "The sky didn't fall, the world didn't end and the backlist was broken."

Leonard Maltin curated a series of Silly Symphony shorts both in black and white and in Technicolor.  The Technicolor shorts were eye-popping.

An hour plus long discussion with Kevin Brownlow, the film historian and preservationist whose committment to preserving silent films inspired a generation of us to become archivists and follow in his footsteps.

Vince Giordano and His Nighthawks providing musical accompaniment to Buster Keaton's wonderful, The Cameraman.  At the end of the film, Vince and his musicians all put on porkpie hats and pointed to the image of Buster on the screen.  James Karen, an actor who knew both Buster and his wife, Eleanor, brought one of Buster's own porkpie hats for Vince to wear.

Night Flight, long held from movie screens and television due to complicated rights issues screened on the last day.  A precursor to Howard Hawks own Only Angels Have Wings, the all-star MGM cast included Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Helen Hayes, John Barrymore, Myrna Loy and in one of his great scene stealing roles, Lionel Barrymore.  Drew Barrymore appeared after the film to talk about her love of classic films and her grandfather, John, and her great-uncle, Lionel.  Even she agreed, he was quite the scene stealer.

Fantasia on the big screen at Grauman's Chinese with Robert Osborne encouraging everyone in the audience to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum and introducing not only Marge Champion (who was the dancing model for the hippos in the film) but Walt's daughter, Diane Disney Miller as well.

The best part was spending four days not only in cinema heaven but getting to see and talk with my friends from TCM and my film buff friends from around the world.

Here's a short video about the experience:

Thank you, TCM!!!!!  Hope to see you next year!!!!

We've written about Berkley Square, the historic neighborhood designed by Paul Revere Williams.  Now comes word from Councilman Ricky Barlow that the famed neighborhood needs your help.

We need volunteers to help transform the Historic Berkley Square neighborhood on Saturday, May 28! As part of making Ward 5 clean and green, I?m asking you to bring your friends, your shovels and gloves, and join me as we plant 185 new trees at Berkley Square and then celebrate with a community barbecue.

Groups of adult volunteers are needed to help plant the trees. Volunteers will gather at 7 a.m. at the corner of F Street and Owens Avenue; tree planting is expected to take several hours. Each property fronting the street will receive one 15-gallon tree, while properties with corner lots may receive up to three 15-gallon trees. The project will provide shaded, walkable streets in the community at no cost to individual homeowners. The city of Las Vegas received a grant from the Nevada Division of Forestry to place 185 trees within the historic Berkley Square neighborhood for the purpose of increasing the tree canopy. The project is funded through the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act Clark County Urban Forestry Revitalization grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant requires that the trees be planted within the planting strip between the street curb and sidewalk. The planting strip is publicly owned but maintained by the adjacent property owner. Residents will be responsible for watering and maintaining the trees.

Please plan to bring your friends and neighbors, and lets work together May 28 to improve the quality of life in this historic Ward 5 neighborhood!

The Sahara Hotel closes tomorrow, Monday, May 16th at 2:00 pm.  With just a skeletal staff at work, people have been coming in to say good-bye to the Grand Dame of the north Strip.

The Sahara has a colorful history and it was here the Beatles stayed when they played the Convention Center back in 1964.  It was here that Louie Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera and the Witnesses revolutionized the Las Vegas lounge scene in the mid-1950s.  The Casbar Lounge was the jumpingest place in town and everyone from Frank Sinatra to Judy Garland were in the audience to hear the that group.

As Sam Butera told me in an interview I did with him in 2004, "We were the hottest group in the world."

The House of Lords and Don the Beachcomber restaurants, the Space Center convention space that hosted the Jerry Lewis Telethon for many, many years, the beautiful neon pylon, these are all memories now.

Club Bingo prior to becoming the Sahara

When the Sahara opened in 1952, the Las Vegas Strip was much different from today.  The El Rancho was across the street, the Hotel Last Frontier and the Flamingo were further down the two lane highway.  Owner Milton Prell called it, "a jewel in the desert."  He brought in comedian Stan Irwin as entertainment director and comics like Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett rotated the Casbar Lounge with Louie, Keely and Sam.

It was a mythical era in Las Vegas history and the Sahara had a major role in that mythology.

King Louie Prima

The Sahara as she originally looked in the 1950s

Don the Beachcomber menu

Sahara Love In Halloween, 1967

The Camels that used to be out front

Sahara letters in the Neon Boneyard

The Sahara in-house newsletter

The Sahara in the 1990s

Sahara Showgirl Cheryl Thompson

The Sahara in the 1970s

To learn more about the Sahara's colorful history, take a look here:  http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/a-brief-history-of-the-strip/2008/1/22/the-swinging-sahara-hotel-history-1950s.html