There was a time that comedy on the Las Vegas Strip was mainly a boy's club.

But in the 1960s a group of funny ladies took the town by storm and proved once and for all that comedy wasn't just a guy thing.  Comediennes Totie Fields, Nancy Austin and Rusty Warren all had tons of talent and their show dates filled the showrooms and the lounges from one end of the Strip to the other.

Nothing could keep these ladies down.  Totie Fields and Nancy Austin both passed away years ago but Rusty Warren (yes, she of the best selling comedy album "Knockers Up" ) is still with us.

From the R-J:

The "Golden Age of Las Vegas" embraced the late 1950s and '60s, filling it with gaudy lights, excitement, entertainment, booze, broads, and a sexual electricity and sense of danger that will never be repeated.

Las Vegas history is filled with characters.  But the short list of memorable, larger than life characters got a bit longer with the passing of James "Bucky" Buchanan.  Buchanan's funeral reminded us all that he wasn't just a TV reality star but more importantly, he was a true Las Vegas character.  My mother, who has known her fair share of Las Vegas characters, mourned the passing of Buchanan.

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Funerals are typically somber, reverent affairs.

But James “Bucky” Buchanan was not typically somber or reverent, and neither was his funeral held Friday afternoon at Palm Mortuary, 1325 N. Main St.

Buchanan, 74, whose list of clients ran the gamut — from the famous to the penniless — died Saturday evening after suffering a medical episode while driving his Ferrari near his home on Linden Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.

His funeral, though peppered with tears, was punctuated with laughter as family members, friends and colleagues recounted memories of the man everyone calls Bucky, whose sharp wit and unconventional style made him larger than life and seared him into the history of Las Vegas.

Clark County courts were effectively closed for afternoon business as the legal community gathered to bid farewell to one of its legends.

At the start of the service, state Sen. Dennis Nolan played the bagpipes as he led a dozen or so robed judges down the aisle to the front of the chapel.

The pews were packed with at least 200 mourners; those who couldn’t get a seat lined the walls or watched remotely in an overflow room — proving that even in death, Bucky Buchanan could command attention.

While Buchanan had his share of famous clients, he also represented a host of people — from hookers to thieves the homeless — who couldn’t, in truth, afford his services but needed him, said his wife, Gianna.

“Bucky had greatness in his heart,” she said. “Being an honorable man was the way he lived his life.”

Judge Nancy Oesterle addressed the crowd wearing a bright blue judges robe, saying that’s what Bucky, who slyly got away with calling her “princess” as a reference to her royal colored robe on more than one occasion, would have wanted.

“My courtroom will never be the same without Bucky,” she said. “He was a kind character and totally irreplaceable.” And as a lawyer, he was “a force to be reckoned with.”

But Buchanan wasn’t just a lawyer renowned in the Las Vegas community. He was a devoted father and grandfather and a loving husband.

He also had a heart for charity, including a soft spot for the Toys for Tots program. He served on the Board of Regents and left a mark on UNLV, whose swimming pool, the Buchanan Natatorium, is named for him.

Buchanan was also a big game hunter immensely proud of the trophies, which included animals like elephants, water buffalo and big cats, mounted on the wall of his home on Sunrise Mountain.

Buchanan’s love of hunting was a recurrent theme in the stories told about him Friday afternoon. As was a tale about the time when Buchanan, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in the same class as Arizona Sen. John McCain, sunk a ship in the Chesapeake Bay.

He was reprimanded but still graduated and served time in the Air Force. He was given military honors at his funeral.

Buchanan had a background in engineering and worked with nuclear weapons in Albuquerque. As a young man, he fell in love with the West and went on to study law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

His legal career began in Las Vegas, where in 1965 he took a job in the District Attorney’s Office. He opened his criminal defense practice five years later.

Attorney and friend Osvaldo Fumo said that when he learned Buchanan had died, “my first thought was for a guy who was always late for court, God, you took him away too quickly.”

Buchanan was a man who lived life on his own terms and had a “wicked sense of humor,” he said.

Attorney John Momot, whose lengthy legal resume includes the defense of Sandy Murphy in the Ted Binion murder trial, called Buchanan a legendary man.

“He had a particular flair, a style, a smile and a swagger,” said

Buchanan represented a host of clients of note: He defended David Mattsen, who was eventually acquitted of attempting to steal millions in cash from Binion’s vault in Pahrump; in 2003 and 2004, he represented Steven Gazlay, then a member of the 311 Boyz (a gang made up of teens from middle- and upper-middle class homes in northwest Las Vegas) accused and eventually convicted of a felony in a crowbar attack on a fellow teen.

He recently represented Roger Mayweather, the uncle and trainer for champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., on felony coercion and battery-strangulation charges.

His son-in-law, Joseph Wykes, gave the eulogy. He cited a phrase uttered by Mattsen after his acquittal: “I believe in God and Buchanan.”

Buchanan is survived by his wife, Gianna, whom he married in 2001, two grown sons, twin daughters and several grandchildren.

“I admired Bucky so much. I was so proud of him,” Gianna Buchanan said. “To me, he was just like a hero. And while nobody’s perfect, to me, he was perfect.”

Jack Buchanan, who’s taking the reins at his father’s firm, thanked everyone profusely for coming to the ceremony. He also had a message for a chosen few of them:

“I know there are a lot of D.A.s here and if they think that their jobs got a lot easier, then think again,” he said, earning him a round of applause.

“Behind the big Vegas personality … he was the best dad,” he said.

With New Year's Eve kicking off a long-holiday weekend this year, it was announced that firework displays will return to famed Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas Events and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority  announced today that the New Year’s Eve celebration known as America’s Party: Las Vegas New Year 2010 will include a spectacular fireworks show fired from seven rooftop locations along the Las Vegas Strip.

The firing locations (from the south, heading north) include the following resort properties:  MGM Grand, Planet Hollywood, Aria, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island (TI), Venetian and the Stratosphere. 

Fireworks by Grucci of New York will again coordinate the pyrotechnic display.   Locally, Fireworks by Grucci has produced many of Las Vegas’ largest special events and grand openings, including the official Las Vegas Centennial celebration.

 In addition to designing the pyrotechnic display, Fireworks by Grucci will work directly with the Clark County Fire Department and Building Services to ensure both fire and structural safety guidelines.

“We are moving the fireworks show back to where it should be,” said LVE President Pat Christenson.  “Fireworks by Grucci, the Clark County Fire Department and Building Services and the individual resort properties have worked tirelessly since January of this year to address the fire and structural safety issues associated with firing the show from the rooftops.  Our goal each year is to design a show that is befitting of this city and provides a great backdrop for the thousands of revelers on the Strip.”

According to the LVCVA, Las Vegas hosts several hundred thousand visitors for New Year’s Eve.  

"Las Vegas continues to be the best venue in the world to ring in the New Year," said Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the LVCVA. "The fireworks will culminate an evening of celebrity-hosted events at nightclubs, special dining experiences at restaurants, live music at the Fremont Street Experience downtown and much more.  There is no other destination that offers the excitement on New Year's Eve."

Thematic elements and the musical portion of the fireworks show will be announced at a later date.

The Candlelight Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas Strip

From the Las Vegas Sun:

It survived a tricky journey across town, required more than $250,000 in renovation, including a new steeple, scavenged furnishings and electrical rewiring.

But when you’re a 1966 wedding chapel — old by Las Vegas standards — and you have a few stories to tell, somebody’s bound to love you.

That’s pretty much how it unfolded for the Candlelight Wedding Chapel, a quaint, free-standing churchlike structure with steep roof lines that sat four decades on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Originally Little Church of the West Algiers and then All Religions Wedding Chapel, it was the first chapel with an 800 number and limo service. It married so many couples daily that a side door was installed to usher out fresh newlyweds so they wouldn’t bump into wedding parties making their formal procession down the aisle.

When its land was sold to the Fontainebleau project, the chapel sat empty until its former operator, Gordon Gust, scooped it up and gave it to the Clark County Museum.

On Saturday the chapel officially becomes a new exhibit on the museum’s Heritage Street and opens to the public with a party, complete with live music, wedding cake and photo ops for couples who were married at the chapel.

“It’s one of those things you don’t think of as history, but it’s important here,” says Mark Hall-Patton, administrator of the Clark County Museum. “Five percent of all marriages in the United States are held in Clark County. That’s one out of 20 marriages.”

Grants from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors’ Authority and the Nevada Cultural Affairs Commission paid for the renovation, a project of the county’s 2009 Centennial celebration.

It arrived at the museum in 2007. Renovation began in May.

The Candlelight Wedding Chapel when it arrived at the Clark County Museum

The chapel is decorated to its latest incarnation (white), rather than its previous red exterior, paneled walls and red carpet. Its original pews and organ are gone and replaced with a piano and benches rescued from the county courthouse, resized and refinished.

Its large neon sign, which was added later, is across town at the Neon Museum.

Hall-Patton says museum staff had its eyes on the chapel for 10 years, identifying it as a building the museum would like to own if it ever became available. The museum is home to Heritage Street, a tree-lined gravel road hidden from Boulder Highway and flanked with rescued historic homes, a railroad depot and a print shop.

Visitors can sit on the wooden rocking chairs on the porch of the Beckley House and tour homes, each decked out to its era, each with its own nooks and crannies. They’re adorned at Christmastime and welcome trick-or-treaters on Halloween. (For Saturday’s party, the Clark County Museum Guild will serve cookies, with recipes specific to each home’s era.)

The railroad depot, taken to the site in 1976, was the first building to arrive. The oldest home is a railroad cottage (circa 1911-1914) awaiting renovation.

The chapel, inspired in design by the Little Church of the West, is its youngest structure. Celebrities married there include Bette Midler, Michael Caine, Whoopi Goldberg and Barry White.

“When we look at a building, we look at it from a standpoint that we could use it to best teach that part of our history,” he says. “In 1931 Nevada liberated both divorces and weddings. Reno got divorces. We became the wedding capital.”

Candlelight Wedding Chapel being restored

Special thanks to Joel Rosales at leavinglv.net and Allen Sandquist for letting us these images.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, at Palm Mortuary, 1325 N. Main St., downtown.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that gifts, in memory of Bucky Buchanan, may be given to the UNLV Foundation for the Academic Scholarship Fund.