"Las Vegas isn't concerned with what we were yesterday or
with what we are today," says Hal Rothman, chair of the history
department at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "It's tomorrow
that entices us." And the makeover madness that has swept the
city for the past decade shows no signs of abating.
Vegas being what it is, the city will celebrate its 100th
birthday with a certain amount of schlock: The festivities,
which will start and end on consecutive New Year's Eves with
extravagant bashes on the Strip, will feature stunts like the
world's largest birthday cake and a contest in which 100 winning
couples will get married. In one nod to the past, the neoclassical
post office downtown will reopen during May for docent-guided
tours. The sensational Kefauver organized-crime hearings occurred
at the 72-year-old structure back when it also served as a federal
courthouse.
But if you want more Old Vegas, you're on your own. The best
place to start looking is the Neon Museum. It's not a pretty
sight: two junkyard-style lots-known as the Boneyard-crammed
with more than 100 pieces of nonoperative (but still fabulous)
signage. Among the mountains of metal and broken bulbs are the
letters from the old Stardust sign and the 20-foot high-heeled
shoe that once revolved atop the Silver Slipper's marquee. Museum
folks hope to have a proper site in coming years, but for now,
appointment-only group tours of the Boneyard are available.
Also, 11 of the classic signs are restored and functioning on
the public plaza of the Fremont Street Experience, and the Lied
Discovery Children's Museum has borrowed 30 unrestored pieces
from the Boneyard for an exhibit called "Neon Unplugged," which
is running through July.
Not every old building has been blown up. The El Cortez casino
(a block east of the Fremont Street casino cluster) still has
the same low-rise brown-brick gambling hall and neon lights
from when it opened in 1941, albeit with a newer, high-rise
tower. This is a no-frills Vegas of viscous air, dingy carpeting,
and low minimum bets (25¢ roulette tables-after a $5 buy-in-and
$1 craps). A few blocks west is the city's oldest hotel, the
Golden Gate Hotel and Casino. Built in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada
and renamed in 1955, it was advertised as the definition of
turn-of-the-20th-century luxury: electric lighting, "large"
rooms of 100 square feet, and the city's first telephone. The
facade has changed over the years, but many of the wood fixtures
date back to the beginning. And it still sells the 99¢ shrimp
cocktail, a Vegas cliché that the Golden Gate originated.
About a mile east of the Fremont Street area is the Gambler's
Book Shop, founded by the late (and appropriately named) John
and Edna Luckman. John realized in the '60s that there were
fewer than 20 books about gambling in print, so he set up a
ramshackle little store that went on to publish over 100 titles.
A charming anachronism in the age of Barnes & Noble, it's a
privately owned shop with $1 million in annual sales and a proprietor-the
longtime manager, Howard Schwartz-who has read most everything
he sells. Ask about the gamblers who pop in and out, blaming
or thanking the books for their luck.
Even parts of the Strip have survived. At the foot of the
Strip is the Little Church of the West, a quaint, 62-year-old
miniature of an Old West mining-town chapel built of cedar that
was moved from its original site, outside of what's now the
Frontier Hotel. Dozens of stars have been married inside, both
in real life (Betty Grable, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Richard Gere) and
in the movies (Elvis and Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas).
The oldest standing piece of a Strip hotel that maintains
its authentic look is the Stardust's 49-year-old villas, smallish
two-room suites in two-story white-brick buildings that surround
the original nine-foot-deep pool. Only very old pools like it
and the fantastic one at the 47-year-old Tropicana Hotel & Casino-which
also has a swim-up blackjack table!-are that deep. Pools today
are usually more shallow; blame the lawyers.
Up the block at Circus Circus is the bizarre Horse Around
Bar, lampooned by author Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing
in Las Vegas. On the second floor, overlooking the hourly trapeze
and circus acts, is a circular, open-air, revolving bar that
resembles a carousel: The perimeter is ringed with horses and
poles, but behind each horse is a black cocktail table. In the
center of the room is a round bar.
A few restaurants of historic import remain, most notably
the thatched-roof Peppermill, a 24-hour diner with swooping,
rainbow-colored booths. The bar lost a bit of its onetime Rat
Pack panache when plasma TVs were added. Piero's is another
iconic haunt, serving outstanding Italian food that was once
a favorite of major mob figures. Some of their progeny still
swing by. And over at the Four Queens is one of the oldest and
swankiest of the gourmet rooms, Hugo's Cellar, where an expensive
dinner ($29 to $58 per person) is presented with great pomp:
Every woman receives a red rose.
Believe it or not, the Strip's longest-running show isn't
Wayne Newton's-though he still packs the Stardust's theater
nightly-but the 45-year-old Folies Bergere at the Tropicana.
It's the quintessence of Vegas showgirl extravaganzas; make
of that what you will. At the Flamingo, the 45-year-old Bottoms
Up revue, with its goofball comedy and topless dancing, passed
its 16,000th-performance mark in 2003 and then closed in October.
Creator Breck Wall hopes to find a new home for it. Finally,
check out the karaoke sessions at the 55-year-old Bootlegger
Bistro, which late on Monday nights routinely draws the likes
of Newton, Gladys Knight, Sheena Easton, and Clint Holmes. Young
hopefuls try to impress the established stars or simply chat
them up for advice.
Despite Las Vegas's vast changes, this is still the same old
town-where the neon glow somehow makes impossible dreams seem
within reach.
Lodging
* Golden Gate Hotel and Casino 1 Fremont St., 702/385-1906,
goldengatecasino.net, from $39
*El Cortez Casino 600 E. Fremont St., 800/634-6703, elcortezhotelcasino.com,
from $25
*Stardust Resort and Casino 3000 Las Vegas Blvd., 702/732-6111,
stardustlv.com, from $50
*Tropicana Hotel & Casino 3801 Las Vegas Blvd., 888/826-8767,
ropicanalv.com, from $39.
*Circus Circus Las Vegas Hotel Resort and Casino 880 Las Vegas
Blvd., 877/224-7287, circuscircus.com, from $32
* Four Queens Hotel and Casino 202 Fremont St., 800/634-6045,
fourqueens.com, from $39
Food
* Peppermill Restaurant and Lounge 985 S. Las Vegas Blvd.,
702/735-4177, pastrami and fries $9.50
*Piero's Restaurant 55 Convention Center, 702/369-2305, $21-$45
*Hugo's Cellar Four Queens, 202 Fremont St., 800/634-6045
* The Bootlegger Bistro 7700 S. Las Vegas Blvd., 702/736-4939,
$10-$29
Attractions
*Historic Downtown Post Office 301 Stewart Ave., 702/229-6710
* Neon Museum 702/229-5366, neonmuseum.org, $5 per person
for guided tours of 10 or more, $50 total for smaller groups
* Lied Discovery Children's Museum 833 N. Las Vegas Blvd.,
702/382-3445, ldcm.org, $7, kids $6
*Little Church of the West 4617 S. Las Vegas Blvd., 702/739-7971,
littlechurchlv.com, wedding packages from $199
Shopping
* Gambler's Book Shop 630 S. 11th St., 702/382-7555, gamblersbook.com
