For years the Liberace Museum has been near UNLV and Tivoli Gardens, the restaurant that Lee owned.  But, in these struggling times, the museum is moving on up to the Strip in an effort to get more foot traffic through the door.

Liberace and his brother, George at the Museum in 1979

From our pal, Johnny Kats:

The Liberace Museum's days on the corner of East Tropicana Avenue at Spencer are numbered.

We'll put that number at over/under 400 1/2. As always, for entertainment purposes only.

New Liberace Foundation & Museum President Jack Rappaport, a member of the Liberace Foundation Board of Directors since 2006, said today the Foundation is in discussions with an entity on the Strip to relocate the Liberace Museum (and my man Ubiquitous Robin Leach tweeted this earlier today, so right on).

The Liberace Museum has stored and displayed Liberace's costumes, footwear, jewelry, photos, vehicles, pianos, photos, and even bedroom sets in two buildings at 1775 East Tropicana since April 15, 1979. Rappaport says it could be as soon as Thanksgiving or as long as the latter half of 2011 that the museum is fully relocated to a high-density area on the Strip.

"This is not the best spot for us. This is not where we should be," Rappaport, who has taken over the position vacated by Darin Hollingsworth soon after the museum celebrated its 30th anniversary in April, said during a phone conversation this afternoon. The reason the museum is in a bad location — even if that location was decided on by Liberace himself — is because tourists are not interested in moving so far off the Strip to visit the museum. At its peak, the Liberace museum attracted a quarter of a million visitors annually; that number dropped to about 50,000 by the time the 30th anniversary rolled around.

"Liberace wanted to appeal to locals because he was so heavily involved in the community, and here was a time when we had 10, 12 tour busses stop here, but that's no longer the case," Rappaport said. "We're not getting the tourist traffic we used to from the Strip. It used to be tourists would gamble and lie in the sun on the Strip and not do much else, so they would see the museum. But then the Strip, over years, became an attraction unto itself, and we stopped getting so many visitors."

Interns from the UNLV School of Architecture are in the process of drafting plans for the 20,000-square-foot project, which is about what the two museum buildings occupy now. Rappaport says there will be a more intelligent use of space in the new ... space. There will be a plan for an expanded showroom, larger than the cabaret theater at the current museum.

"It is a work in progress, keep that in mind," Rappaport said. "But it will be located in an area where a lot of tourists will already be visiting, and locals will still have a chance to visit the museum … this is long overdue, actually."

What would further inflate visitor numbers is a feature film about Liberace starring Michael Douglas in the lead role, and Matt Damon portraying the pianist's longtime lover Scott Thorsen. I say this because People magazine's Web site reported back in September that Douglas and Damon would star in a film about Liberace, with director Stephen Soderbergh confirming their involvement in the film. Since, Rappaport has sent letters to Soderbergh and United Artists CEO Jerry Weintraub offering to assist with wardrobe, memorabilia, those types of contributions, when the film reportedly starts shooting this spring. He hasn't heard back. No worries, though.

"We've been looking at museums across the country for design ideas, but we're so different," Rappaport said. "We're labeled a museum, but we're more than that. We're an experience." And one that more past and future fans of Liberace should, in fact, experience.

Just some things that irritate me,  make me wonder and really make me mad.  Hey, it's my birthday.  I should get to blog about personal stuff every now and then.

1.  The NBC Late-Night Fiasco.  I know there are folks on Team Conan and folks on Team Leno.  But guess what?   There are no people on Team Zucker and that’s the way it should be. 

 Jeff Zucker, the one-time boy genius who was going to make NBC #1 forever and ever, instead, made one of the worst decisions in network history.  Now Zucker is blaming Conan for not delivering a higher audience for the Tonight Show and blaming Jay for not delivering a higher audience for the Jay Leno show.  

Despite the fact, that he, Jeff Zucker, was the architect of this entire fiasco. 

In the old days of corporate America when you screwed up on a scale this grand, you did the right thing by taking the blame and stepping down immediately.  Not Jeff Zucker, he really wants to be the poster boy for everything that we hate about Corporate America today.  That is, instead of admitting your mistakes and taking your punishment, you instead blame the victims and ask all of America to ignore your hand in designing this fiasco and ask that we all just pretend you’re not to blame.  Sorry, Jeff Zucker, there’s a reason the only person on Team Zucker is you.

2.  Post-Apocalyptic Movies.   They come around every few years.  Anyone remember “The Postman” with Kevin Costner?  Earlier this winter we had “The Road” with the wonderful Viggo Mortensen and based on the acclaimed novel by Cormac McCarthy.  Didn’t do well at the box office.  I’m thinking when it comes to post-apocalyptic movies, movie goers want someone forceful, charming and who offers hope.  Kevin Costner in “Postman” not so much, Denzel Washington in “The Book of Eli”, hell yeah!

3.  Mel Gibson in “Edge of Darkness”.    With all the problems Mel has had with his fans and his personal life the last few years, is this really the time in his career to start channeling Jack Nicholson?  Doesn’t he realize that Jack is still alive and can probably kick his ass for stealing his act?

4.  Smokey Robinson.  Who knew that Smokey was Wayne Newton’s half-brother?  I didn’t .   Did you?  Well, have you seen Smokey lately?  I saw him the other night on an American Masters documentary on Sam Cooke and my jaw dropped to the floor.  There was Smokey, our Smokey, looking like he had gone to Wayne Newton’s plastic surgeon and was proud of it!

 All I could do was hang my head in despair.  Has looking youthful in America sunk so low that someone like Smokey has to chase the fountain of youth to be taken seriously?  For God’s sake, he’s Smokey Robinson!!!!  That should be enough to let him grow old gracefully and still love him!

5.  The Las Vegas Sun.  I read the paper every day on-line.  When I click on News it takes me to a new page where it previews the big Las Vegas news story of the day and has one or two other line items for other news stories.  Underneath it says, More Las Vegas News.  I click on that thinking it will take me to more news stories about what is happening around Las Vegas. 

Instead, it takes me to the weather articles.  Rain in the forecast, not so much.  In the winter, reports of a cooling or cold trend, in the summer, reports of the heat.  I don’t really want to know the weather.  I want to know the More Las Vegas News stories.  Why doesn’t the Sun have a separate weather page?  Or do they really think the weather in Las Vegas changes enough to warrant being the end page for More Las Vegas News?

6. Sheldon Adelson.  He built a new casino in Bethlehem, PA on the grounds of the old US Steel plant.  As part of the deal with the city, he also funded a museum detailing the history of Bethlehem and the importance of US Steel to the community. 

Years before, Shel Adelson built a casino/hotel in Las Vegas called “The Venetian”.  It was built on the site of the famed and beloved Sands Hotel.  We didn’t get a museum detailing the history of Las Vegas or the importance of the Sands Hotel.  The Sands was home to the Rat Pack.  The Sands was one of the first hotels to break the color barrier.  The Sands was the hotel we think of when we think of Classic Las Vegas.  We got squat for all that history.  Thanks, Shel.

7. Cell Phones.  If you are shopping in Trader Joe’s, do you really need to be talking on your cell phone?  Do you really think the rest of us care about your conversation, that we care about who is picking up the kids, what’s for dinner, what your plans of the evening are?  News Flash!  We don’t. Trader Joe’s are not large stores.   If your call is that freakin’ important take it outside and let the rest of us shop in peace.  Because you standing in the middle of the aisle talking away while you and your cart block the rest of us from shopping is only making us hate you more.

8. Trying to park your car while talking on your cell-phone?  Please get off the phone!  Now!

9. The El Cortez.  With all the focus on rehabilitating Downtown, will someone, besides us, please acknowledge that the crew behind the El Cortez ROCKS!  Jackie passed his legacy to a group that understands his legacy.  Thank-You!!!!

10, Endangered Buildings.  As the economy starts to rebound more and more buildings and homes will become endangered:

•  Flora Dungan Humanities Building designed by Zick and Sharp.  One of the last original campus buildings yet, UNLV higher ups want it gone.

• Valley High School- an impeding update will destroy much of the original Zick and Sharp original architecture.

• City Hall, another Zick and Sharp late mid-century modern architecture.  Mayor Goodman wants a new City Hall closer to the Smith Center.  If the that happens, the current building will be torn down to make room for a new casino/hotel.

• East Fremont Motel Auto Courts.  One of the largest and last standing groups of motor auto courts still in existence.  Not to mention the wonderful neon signage still standing.  All are endangered.

• The Las Vegas High School Historical Neighborhood.  Despite being on the Historical Registry of Historical Places, this neighborhood still does not have City Preservation Protection.  Thus, many of the homes that date back to the 1920s-1930s are being torn down and in there place are rising McMansions.  This is our best example of a Historic District and we are letting it go to waste.

And you're surprised?  Without spurs to McCarran Airport and Downtown it still boggles the imagination how the builders thought this would be successful.

The Las Vegas Sun is reporting (scoping the on-line version of the R-J- Proving once again that a two newspaper city is better than one):

The Las Vegas Monorail has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Sun columnist Jon Ralston is reporting this afternoon.

Board member Bruce Woodbury said in December the company hasn't raised enough money from fares to pay off the $650 million in construction and startup loans floated to build and start operating the system in July 2004.

The 3.9-mile system runs on an elevated track linking Strip casinos and the Las Vegas Convention Center east of the Strip.

Woodbury said in December that plans still call for building a $500 million extension to McCarran International Airport and other Strip resorts to boost revenues.

But he says that until the current debt is restructured, the system probably won't be able to attract financing.

The company reported carrying 6,005,024 passengers in 2009, with revenues of $26,974,513 for the year.

That is down from a peak passenger count of 7,917,613 in 2007, when the system had revenue of $30,252,305.

The monorail is the only privately owned public transportation system in the United States. The company was formed in 2000 and acquired the original one-mile monorail that connected MGM Grand and Bally’s. The new 3.9-mile route opened in 2004, connecting many properties on the east side of the Strip from Sahara Avenue to Tropicana Avenue.

Last month we ran the story about the closing of Binion's hotel tower, (the old Mint tower to us old-timers) and pondered what that meant for the venerable Downtown establishment.

Well, our  buddy Johnny Katz is back from holiday and has a follow-up to that story.  And the news isn't all bad, in fact, it's looking up, well sort of:

What's happened to Vegas landmark Binion's over the past five weeks reminds one of the Mark Twain quote, "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

Wait. That's not the line. I'm thinking of the famous quote, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

It seems a great many Binion's customers — past and potential — across the country and even the globe have wrongly deemed one of the city's most famous hotel-casinos as lacking a pulse. Out of business. As in, forever.

No.

It's like this: On Dec. 1 Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel announced it was losing that "hotel" for a time and closing its 365-room tower. The closing date was set at Dec. 14. About 100 hotel employees would be out of work. Binion's Restaurant & Bar, downstairs, would close, too. All of that did happen.

John Katsilometes

Binion's Cafe, home of the $5 burger.

But crucial to this announcement was that the casino itself — including the poker room, all the gaming pits, the great Binion's Ranch Steakhouse and the somewhat great Binion's Café — would remain open for business as usual. The usual being that the steakhouse would be shut for a time in December for its annual two-week scrubbing, but is again open today. Still on the 24th floor, great view, warm wheat bread, flavorful beef-age, all that.

The problem has been that the closing of the hotel has resulted in the following thought pattern from those who have read or heard the news: "Binion's. Hotel. Closing." The reports have been accurate, but as Binion's General Manager Tim Lager said earlier this evening while sipping a Michelob Ultra at Benny's Bullpen Sports Bar andCigar Lounge, multitudes of tourists have mourned the closing of a casino still open.

"The power of our brand is such that whatever happens here makes news," Lager said, "and the news was that the hotel was closing. People saw that in the headlines, or heard it, and felt that was it for Binion's. This happened all across the world. We've received word from Australia that people were under the assumption that Binion's is closed."

Throw another mattress on the barbie, mate.

The evidence is mostly anecdotal, but it has mounted ever since the sad news was sent out Dec. 1: Loyal Binion's guests from tiny towns in Texas who received mailers from the hotel, only to have the postal worker remark, "Sorry to hear that your favorite hotel is closing." The longtime visitor to the poker room who bumps into Lager on his way to cash out his Club Binion's player's card because he wants to reap the benefits before the casino's doors are chained shut.

"I get it all the time," said Lager, who spends about as much time on the Binion's casino floor as I do these days.

The sagging business at the Binion's Ranch Steakhouse is a particular concern, as it is one of the hotel's most famous draws and a popular restaurant in times when it is not rumored to be out of business. Just a year ago, TLC Casino Enterprises, which owns the hotel (Terry Caudill being the owner of TLC, which also owns Four Queens) renovated the steakhouse with new carpet, wallpaper, china, even a new menu. The new ownership also topped the old hotel with an $800,000 roof, as even the finest resort is worthless if rain is pooling on the Pai Gow tables.

These moves were to indicate long-term commitment to Binion's, which has a very big casino floor — 80,000 square feet, more than double that of Four Queens — and needed a lot of vacuuming, to say the least. Caudill's plans were to tackle those rooms, too. The ownership knew it was buying into a hotel that needed some serious work, but those plans were mothballed during the subsequent economic cratering. Binion's operated at a loss as it offered rooms at $19 for a time, even less than the $29 rates offered at such Strip hotels as Imperial Palace. But guess what type of clientele a $19 room attracts: Cheap. These folks aren't lighting Macanudos with $100 bills at Benny's Bullpen, put it that way.

Caudill also has jousted with some of the owners of the land on which the resort sits. About a half-dozen different interests own the Binion's land parcels, many of whom inherited ownership from the original families who bought the land in auction back in 1905. There are dozens of ownership partners tied into those parcels, and TLC has been sued for failing to comply with terms of its lease of the Binion's land. TLC has been attempting to negotiate more favorable lease terms for nearly a year, arguing that if it continues to cut costs to meet the bottom line, customer service would suffer so acutely that guests might stay away even if they know the casino isn't closed.

Lager says the hotel one day will be reopened, but can't yet calculate what the economic indicators would be to start movement in that direction. Many consecutive months of robust business would be a start. There is hope that some powerhouse, one-off PR event — Mayor Oscar Goodman announcing he will or won't run for governor from the Steakhouse, for instance — would jar the public's perception of the hotel. It doesn't need any more name recognition, just a removal of the headstone from the entrance. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Meanwhile, those who had reservations to stay at one of Binion's dilapidated hotel rooms have been "absorbed" by Four Queens. Now, that's a hotel-casino that's doing pretty well. It's still open, and most important, everyone knows it.

Yesterday, Mayor Oscar Goodman, the self-scribed "Happiest Mayor in the World", gave his yearly State of the City address on the future of Las Vegas, Downtown especially.  While in previous years, his optimism has been first and foremost, this year Goodman was a bit more introspect.

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman delivered a State of the City Address on Tuesday night that was somewhat dire, considering the city’s revenue problems.

But Goodman’s annual address was also hopeful as he talked of several public and private projects that could mean thousands of more jobs, as the city works to diversify its economy with medical facilities, a new performance center and a downtown arena.

He compared what happened in the last decade as a time of feast and what has happened during the recession of the last two years as a time of famine.

“Our priority remains the same — to have a world-class city. And we say that even in the throes of this economy,” the mayor told the audience gathered at the Golden Nugget downtown.

Goodman said he picked the downtown casino, which recently underwent a major renovation with its new Rush Tower, as a symbol of what could be accomplished even during a recession.

Goodman opened his remarks by talking about a recent trip he took to London for the inaugural flight of British Airways flights from Heathrow Airport to Las Vegas.

During that trip, he said, he visited a World War II-era underground bunker where then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill conducted business and met with leaders to discuss the war.

“I don’t pretend to say that I have any similarities with Winston Churchill other than we both like martinis and we like Cuban cigars,” Goodman said. “But he was facing the dire times of World War II. And we in Las Vegas have the dire times of the economy.”

During the war, the British maintained the attitude there was no other course but to win.

“And that’s the way the city of Las Vegas is looking at the way we are going to proceed in the coming years compared to what took place in years past,” Goodman said.

Goodman said when he was elected in 1999, no one understood how good the city had it.

“Times were extraordinary, as far as the feast was concerned,” he said. The city was able to move forward with developments on the west side, such as the World Market Center, and also create the infrastructure for Symphony Park.

“It was so easy. And then last year, the famine came,” he said.

But during the last year, steps have been taken to ensure that Las Vegas becomes a world-class city, he said.

The first major step is to have academic medical centers of excellence. To that end, the Nevada Cancer Institute has secured land for a facility. And the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health was completed in Symphony Park, which Goodman called “an absolute miracle.”

He said a future expansion is being considered by the Cleveland Clinic, which, if it happens, will create a “medical Mecca” in Las Vegas similar to what occurred in Houston during the 1970s during the oil and gas crisis.

Goodman said the Smith Center for the Performing Arts will be a place for people to experience culture.

The third step will be the creation of a downtown arena and entertainment district, he said.

Goodman spoke of the city's negotiating an agreement with the Cordish Companies of Baltimore to look into the feasibility of developing the downtown area consisting of City Hall and surrounding city-owned property. A downtown sports arena could host an NBA basketball franchise or an NHL hockey franchise and other events. His vision for the property would also include a new hotel-casino where City Hall now stands and an entertainment district, consisting of restaurants, shops and music venues for live performances that would coincide with the existing downtown.

"When those things are accomplished in these very challenging times, we'll know that we were able to meet our burden in making sure that the city goes forward," he said.

But such projects can't happen if the city's infrastructure is not set up in such a way for the public to rely upon, he said.

"We have to do business differently. Only a dummy would be standing up here and not say that. And I'm no dummy," he said. "I realize the times have made us think differently. We have to be prepared to explore innovative ways in order to be able to address what's taken place."

City Manager Betsy Fretwell has been able to make provisions, "just as Joseph did during the ancient times, to address the famine before we knew the famine was going to be here," Goodman said. Fretwell started having a fundamental review process where each of the city's departments was examined to make sure it was running efficiently, he said. If there were vacancies in positions, they weren't filled without going through the review process.

Part of that process is a series of town hall meetings being conducted through the middle of March in which city officials and administrators will go directly to the public to ask what services are wanted and needed. The information will be used to help address revenue shortfalls. The city has been losing revenue each month because consolidated tax receipts, which come from real estate property taxes and sales taxes, have been down because of the recession. It has been estimated the city will be $400 million short over five years.

"It's put us into a position where we just have to make a change on how we're going to look at the services we provide," he said. "We've been spoiled around here."

The city has been "spoiled not only in services but also with the kind of benefits and salaries" that were brought about by arbitration when the city and the city employees' union couldn't agree on compensation packages, he said. But because the city has collective bargaining agreements with the four unions representing employees, the city's only recourse is to cut services or lay off more employees to make ends meet, he said.

"We have asked our employees to step up and to work with us," he said. The city has asked the employee unions to make several concessions, including reopening contracts to take an 8 percent salary and benefit reduction across the board for one year, and if the economy does not get better, then for two years, he said.

He praised the city's employees. And he said layoffs were "the last thing any of us want to do."

The mayor said the governing bodies in the Las Vegas Valley, including the Las Vegas City Council, the North Las Vegas City Council, Henderson City Council and the Clark County Commission, need to talk about consolidation of government services.

"Elected officials are jealous of and very protective of their fiefdoms," he said. "They don't want to let them go. They don't want to talk about what's best for the community. ... We have to have that discussion because there's so much duplication, there's so much expertise that one jurisdiction doesn't have over another, and there's so much that we could do together as a megalopolis that we can't do together as independent little municipalities ... That discussion has to take place."