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Cactus Motel

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El Sombrero on Main Street

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Pair-a-Dice Motel

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Starlite Motel in Northtown

Tacos Mexico, formerly a Denny's

"But the world all stopped to watch it, yeah, on that July afternoon,

They watched a man named Armstrong walk upon the moon"  John Stewart, "Armstrong"

Has it really been forty years?  It doesn't seem that long ago.  But the calendar and the television specials all say that forty years have passed since that fateful day on July 20th.

On May 25th, 1961, President Kennedy had said "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

America rolled up its sleeves and got out its slide rules.  We had put Alan Shepard into space and John Glenn was slated to go next.  The Mercury Astronauts caught not only the imagination of the country but of the world.  Every little boy and girl it seemed wanted to either be the Beatles or an astronaut.

I wanted to be an astronaut but slide-rules and math confounded the crap out of me.  And they still do.

We rolled out of bed in the early, early hours of the morning to watch the launches, breaths held as the countdown went down to zero and the button was pushed.

Televisions were rolled into schoolrooms around the country, including Las Vegas, so that we could track their progress.

The Mercury astronauts gave way to the Gemini Project and Ed White became the first American to walk in space.

Each step brought us closer to the goal of going to the moon.  All of this during a decade of turmoil and conflict the likes of which this country hadn't seen in a hundred years.  The Civil Rights movement, the loss of JFK, the Vietnam War, the youth movement, free speech, the anti-war movement, the silent majority are part of our history of the 1960s.

But through it all, even in the dark days (and we had our share of dark, dark days back then), the resolve to complete JFK's dream of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade stayed strong. 

We lost Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom, the beloved Ed White and Roger Chaffee on the launch pad in the  Apollo One fire in 1967 and for a brief moment our resolve wavered.  But instead of scraping the idea, NASA and the country moved forward determined to solve the problems and hold the course.

In December of 1968, Apollo Eight with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Williams Anders became, not only the first Americans, but the first ever to orbit the moon.  That Christmas Eve they read Bible passages to the world from outer space.

As the 1960s were coming to a close, the decade seemed to be imploding on itself.  What had once seemed like a shining, optimistic beacon had become the very opposite.  Death, violence and drugs had taken over and the decade seemed like it was spiraling out of control.

But on a July afternoon in 1969, that shining optimism was recaptured and reborn as the Lunar Module with Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon.

Around the world, people stopped what they were doing to watch history being made.

In Las Vegas, it was a Sunday afternoon.  At our house, we stopped and watched.

In the casinos on Fremont Street and on the Las Vegas Strip, gamblers were doing what they do best, gambling away.

Televisions had been set up around the casinos on both Fremont Street and the Strip so that patrons could watch if they wanted to.

Growing up in Las Vegas, we all know how difficult it is to get gamblers away from the tables and we know the stories of how it is next to impossible to get people to leave slot machines.

But on the Sunday afternoon up and down Fremont Street and up and down the Strip, they did just that. 

They stopped gambling to watch Neil Armstrong descend from the lunar module and "take one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" before erupting in applause and tears.

It was a shared historic moment felt the world over and that included Las Vegas.

I know what you're thinking.  They could have gone upstairs to their rooms and watched.

But it was one of those moments in history when you wanted to be with other people and share the experience.

The Space Race which had begun twelve years earlier with the launch of Sputnik One by the Russians ended with Americans landing on the moon.

We had completed the dream that President Kennedy had set forth eight years earlier with slide rules, mainframe computers and American ingenuity.

And the world held their breath and then cheered with delight as Neil Armstrong set foot upon the moon, July 20th 1969.

The 1960s would all but officially come to a close two and half weeks later with the Manson Family killing spree in Los Angeles.

But, for a brief shining moment on that fateful July afternoon, we reminded ourselves and the world of what the best of America could be.

Turner Classic Movies will highlight the anniversary of the Moon Landing this evening with Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin as guest programmer with TCM host, Robert Osborne.

Films include "For All Mankind" and my personal favorite, "The Right Stuff".  You know where I'll be.

A historical footnote:

The only other time that televisions were rolled into casinos and bars on the Strip and Downtown was in the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in November, 1963.  Like the moon landing, patrons could have gone to their rooms to watch the coverage.

Instead they huddled in bars, lounges and around televisions in the casinos following the reports.

Chester Sims, general manager of the Flamingo that fateful weekend, always maintained the Flamingo closed its casino.

On September 11th, 2001, television screens were the norm in bars and in the sports bars so that televisions didn't have to be rolled into casino areas.

 UPDATE:  CBS will change it's prime-time schedule this evening to include a tribute to Cronkite.  "Walter Cronkite: That's the Way It Was" will air at 7:00 pm instead of "60 minutes"

I know it's not Las Vegas related but he was such a part of my life growing up in Las Vegas:

"From Dallas Texas, a flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 pm central standard time."    Walter Cronkite

He made the news and he made history.  Back when there were only three networks broadcasting on television, he was the go-to guy for breaking and up-to the minute news. 

In today's atmosphere of tabloid journalism, the internet, TMZ, Twitter, Facebook and the HuffPost as well as a cynical, jaded public that doesn't trust their government or the national press, he is a reminder of an era when it was all different.

He reported the news and occasionally, broke the rules, by making it personal.  From JFK's death to Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, he was the most trusted man in America when it came to delivering the news.  Even when that news was devastating, whether it be the death of a beloved president, the loss of three astronaunts on the launch pad or an unwillable war in the far off-jungles of Vietnam.

We trusted Walter Cronkite to deliver the news, both good and bad.

His passing caught me off-guard though I knew he had been sick for some time and he was such an important figure in my life that I suspect I am not alone tonight in mourning.

I am truly saddened.

"Uncle Walter" passed away today, just shy of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing that he relished so much.

The historic moments I remember of my childhood and teen years revolve around him.

Taking off those thick rim black glasses to tell us that JFK had passed away, the moment when John Glenn went into orbit and returned safely, when he reported that the Vietnam War was a lost cause, his exuberance at seeing man walk on the moon, Watergate and every historic moment in between.
It wasn't real until you heard "Uncle Walter" report it.

My only solace on this sad, but envitable night, is that he out-lived  Robert MacNamara.

We shall not know another like him again in our lifetime.

"God speed" indeed.

His obit:

Well, if I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."
-- President Lyndon B. Johnson

This is how Bill Moyers, who had served as a key aide in the Johnson administration, likes to describe LBJ's reaction to a Walter Cronkite editorial about the Tet Offensive, in which Cronkite claimed that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable.

Whether LBJ phrased it as concisely as Moyers has always claimed, the sentiment reflects the amazing stature Cronkite, who died tonight at the age of 92, held in the late '60s and throughout the '70s, and the incredible transformation of TV news in the three decades since Cronkite retired from the anchor desk of "The CBS Evening News."

What newsman today could have that level of influence on a sitting president? Who could cross as many demographic lines, or be known affectionately by so many with a nickname like Uncle Walter?

In fairness, even at his peak, Cronkite had his detractors, as symbolized by "All in the Family" anti-hero Archie Bunker referring to him as "Pinko Cronkite." But for the most part, Cronkite represented a far more unified era in popular culture, one when viewers didn't choose their news based on whether they agreed with the channel's politics, and when the anchorman was often treated as the voice of a god coming down from the mountaintop.

And no holy voice resonated more deeply than Cronkite's.

CBS has long held that Cronkite created the position -- and name -- of anchorman with the way he led the network's coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1952. And even if the role and term pre-dated Cronkite, he came to so embody the concept that in several European countries like Sweden, the position has been referred to as "Cronkiter."

Though he finished in second place in the ratings to NBC's team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley for much of the '60s, it's Cronkite we think of when looking back on landmark moments from the era: the brief pause as he composed himself after confirming the death of President Kennedy, or the childlike grin as the Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the surface of the moon.

The emotion of those two moments -- and the grace with which he tucked his feelings away to get back to work -- sums up why Cronkite was so beloved by so many.

He was shaken by JFK's death, as the whole country was, and you could hear a catch in his throat as he tried to explain that LBJ would be sworn in as the new president, but after that, he kept things as professional as any human could under the circumstances. Intentionally or not, he let his audience know that he felt their pain, and then tried to keep them calm by reporting the facts of the situation as he knew them.

(Compared to the non-stop, better-to-be-first-than-right approach that cable news takes to covering so many of today's top stories, it can be startling to watch archival video of CBS News that day. Not only did Cronkite wait until Kennedy had been officially declared dead to do the same on air, but CBS cut away from his reports -- not once, but twice -- to return to a regularly-scheduled telecast of "As the World Turns.")

Cronkite also worked in radio, where he was far more forthright with his opinion than he was on television. In his 1979 book about the news media, David Halberstam wrote that President Johnson, a radio fan, once said, "If Walter Cronkite would say on television what he says on radio, he would be the most powerful man in America."

But it was Cronkite's usual restraint from inserting himself into the story that made so powerful those rare occasions when he did, as Johnson learned after the Tet Offensive. When Cronkite went on air and declared, "It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam will end in a stalemate," this wasn't Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann delivering yet another rant against their political enemies. This was Uncle Walter, and people listened.

Five years later, he would be named the most trusted man in America in a national poll, finishing 15 points ahead of President Nixon.

CBS' mandatory retirement age took Cronkite away from the anchor desk before he and we were ready, But by stepping down in March of 1981 -- while the three major broadcast networks were still our culture's dominant news source, before his audience splintered along different demographic and ideological lines, before viewers tired of the omniscient voice from the mountaintop and began demanding a voice very much like their own -- Cronkite's peak, and his legacy, were forever preserved.

Classic Las Vegas entertainer, Wayne Newton, is not having a good week, financially speaking:

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Entertainer Wayne Newton has been sued twice this week by creditors claiming to be owed tens of thousands of dollars.

In one lawsuit, Newton is accused of failing to pay $32,384 for hay delivered to his Las Vegas ranch -- presumably for consumption by his horses at the ranch, called Casa de Shenandoah. In the other suit, he is accused of owing GMAC $36,999 for a lease on a Cadillac.

Both suits were filed in Clark County District Court.

Messages were left at Newton's office and with his attorney Thursday, but the entertainer and his representatives could not be reached for comment on the allegations.

Newton is known as a champion breeder of Arabian horses. In one of the lawsuits involving the hay, Austin Eide is suing Newton, the Wayne Newton Foundation and Debby Buck, identified as a representative for Newton or the foundation.

Eide, 19, of Logandale, grows alfalfa in the Moapa Valley north of Las Vegas and this was the first time he had done business with Newton, said his attorney Gregory Mills.

Mills said Newton's representatives had not complained about the quality of the hay and had stopped returning Eide's calls about the past-due balance.

The suit says Buck, on behalf of Newton or the foundation, contracted with Eide to provide 4,032 bales of hay at $12 per bale to be delivered to Newton's residence.

The suit says 18 shipments of hay were made to complete the $48,384 order between July and October 2008, but that Eide has received only partial payments.

Eide said he received $5,000 from the defendant corporation -- the foundation -- delivered by Buck in July 2008.

Eide said the corporation paid another $3,000 delivered by Buck in August and that Buck delivered the last payment of $8,000 in October. The last payment was in the form of a personal check signed by Newton, the lawsuit said.

Attached to the suit is a receipt signed by Buck confirming the delivery of the 4,032 bales.

In the second lawsuit, GMAC said Newton and his company, Erin Miel Inc., in 2005 leased a 2005 Cadillac Escalade and agreed to make 48 monthly payments of $894.39.

The suit says the defendants are in default on the lease and have failed to buy or turn over the vehicle to GMAC. As of April 8, the balance owed was $36,999, the suit said.

A third lawsuit involving Newton is pending in federal court in Las Vegas. In that suit, former Newton pilot Monty Ward obtained a judgment against Newton for $455,250 for past-due wages.

Erin Miel Inc., the company that arranges Newton's performances and pays his fellow performers and staff, intervened in that case in May complaining that Ward is trying to execute a judgment for funds belonging to it and that are now impounded by the court.

A garnishment served on the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas, where Newton sometimes performs, resulted in $91,000 being withheld from Erin Miel Inc. for performances in March and April, Erin Miel said in its court filing.

"Monty Ward's service of a writ of garnishment served on MGM Grand is causing Erin Miel Inc. to be unable to pay the salaries of over a dozen musicians and staff," Erin Miel Inc. complained. "It is interfering with Erin Miel Inc.'s ability to pay ongoing costs and obligations."

Erin Miel Inc. said it employs Newton at a salary of $2,872 per week and has been garnishing 25 percent of his wages to pay the Ward judgment -- except for weeks when Newton did not receive a paycheck.

It argued Newton and another Newton company, Desert Eagle LLC, are subject to the pilot's judgment -- but that Erin Miel Inc. is not and that Erin Miel should receive the money from the MGM Grand that the court is holding pending resolution of the case.

My mother had a similar surgery last year so our thoughts and prayers are with Coach Tarkanian and his family.

Spinal-cord operation on Jerry Tarkanian was declared successful today, and the former UNLV basketball coach is resting in intensive care at Scripps Memorial Hospital near San Diego.

Tarkanian, 79, had a bone spur that was compressing his spinal cord and inhibiting his ability to walk. The bone spur was removed during the 2 1/2-hour surgery. “The doctors said surgery went very well,” his son Danny Tarkanian said.