My Blog

Continued from last post ...

The only constant in Las Vegas is change!

Las Vegas is always re-defining and re-inventing itself.

It seems to go in phases. From the 1950s to the 1960s it was Old West and Desert Theme. In the 1960s and 1970s it was Mob Rule.

In the 1990s we had the Great Disneyland Experiment, a new "Family Friendly" Las Vegas with theme parks, pirate battles, and Lions and Tigers and Sharks (Oh My!). That didn't last long, LOL! :)

In the late 1990s and 2000s it was bigger, bigger, bigger, and upscale, upscale, upscale. Every property on the Strip aspired to be the biggest (and most upmarket) with $200 rooms, $100 dinners in absentee celebrity chefs' eponymous eateries, hotels within hotels, and yes, that oh-so-trendy velvet rope ultra-lounge for the El-Lay 20-bopper party crowd!

Marina became (the new) MGM Grand, Hacienda became Mandalay Bay, Dunes became Bellagio, Desert Inn became Wynn (and Encore), Sands became Venetian (and Palazzo).

San Remo became Hooters. (Does that one count?) :)

Boardwalk is becoming City Center.

Stardust is becoming Echelon Place -- uh, not so fast! Hold that thought. ...

But anyway ...

Several weeks before the Big Bang ...

From the perspective of the Frontier parking lot (at that time the Frontier was still open) it looks almost normal by day.

Looking closer, the demolition was obvious.

At night, however, it was eerie and foreboding, illuminated mainly by the reflected glow from the still-open.

Here are some various shots of the closed property, taken from whatever vantage points I could find. Many were shot through gaps in the fence.

About a week before the Big Bang ...

The denuded West Tower, ca. 1991, stands tall, ready to meet her fate.

Likewise the East Tower and Villa are stripped to the bones.

Try as I might, I could not rearrange my schedule to be present for the actual implosion.

In a way, I didn't want to see the implosion and concomitant celebration. I really would not have felt like celebrating at all. :( I admit to getting misty-eyed seeing the Westward Ho lying there, fatally injured, waiting for the bulldozers to haul off her unwanted remains. Had I seen the 'Dust bite the dust, so to speak, I think I would have come totally unglued. :(

It would have been like witnessing the execution of a dear friend, one I had known well, and one who served me well. A friend whose only crime was the capital offense of showing her age, of not being "hip" enough to hobnob with Paris and Britney and the anointed others, but choosing the company of the girls and boys from the other side of the tracks.

Oh, and my did we know how to party! Oh yes, we certainly had more fun together than Britney and Lindsay and Paris and ... the only difference being that we didn't get paid $20,000.00 just to show up!

Yeah, yeah, I know, you're here to see pictures, and not listen to me motormouth and wax nostalgic and such, right?

And then it happened ... >>>>BANG!<<<<

I returned a few days after.

I took four rolls of film with me as I set off to shoot the aftermath. I intended to take maybe 90 shots or so. (Yes, I shoot film exclusively.) I ended up shooting less than one full roll. There wasn't really that much to see. It was really one big pile surrounded by several smaller piles.

Everything in the vicinity was covered in a thick coating of dust.

Stardust to dust!

What, no room specials? No $5.95 prime rib? No Tony Roma's ribs? No bonus players club points? No Wayne Newton, no Rick Thomas, no Lido, no Enter The Night? :( Not even thanks for 48 wonderful years? :(

(No Frank Rosenthal Show?) :)

One thing there still was plenty of, unfortunately, is pornslapper litter! :(

So, where'd the sign go???!!!

Fortunately the greatest sign ever to grace the Strip will be preserved for posterity, remembering the days of Vegas the way it should be.

Epilogue:

Stardust was to become Echelon Place, a mega-complex of a mega-casino and something like six hotels! (Hey, I need only one room in one hotel, not six!) :)

Then something happened that the Powers That Be did not expect, the recession! Work on Echelon Place remains on hold as of the date of this post.

The Powers That Be sure blew it this time! They killed a cash cow, the Stardust. It wasn't the biggest or the most opulent, but it was a thriving popular place. What do they have to show for it? A huge vacant tract with no cash flow! Way to go ... NOT! :(

Will this to-be phoenix ever rise from the dust of the Stardust? Time will tell.

Oh well, so it goes (and so do I). :)

This is part one of two ... I had originally planned to cover the Stardust up through it's untimely demise, but it kept getting longer and longer.

Anyway, my absolute favorite Las Vegas casino-hotel of all times is unquestionably the Stardust.

The Stardust was the indisputable anchor of the North Strip in the Las Vegas area, surviving from 1958 to 2006, and at several times during its history being the property with the largest casino and the largest room count.

My first encounter with the Stardust was on an extended family vacation back in the mid 1970s, when we stayed downtown but visited the Stardust on the Strip. I was very impressed, and convinced my late father (MHRIP) that we should stay there the next year, which we did. ...

My first STAY at the Stardust was a major let-down! :(

Here I was expecting this palatial suite with majestic appointments and what did I get? A dorm room! :(

Most of the Stardust rooms at the time were in long two-story "motel" buildings out to the rear of the main casino. To use the term "austere" for these rooms would be a compliment!

This is the only photo I have of the "dorms", scanned from an old print. All the room needed was a black-light poster and a bookshelf of construction blocks and bare boards and it could have easily passed for dorms at the University Of {whatever}!

A couple of those in my extended family started calling it "The Stalag", but I didn't think it was that bad!

The view above, taken shortly after the larger "west" tower was built shows the "dorm room" buildings still extant to the left. The "dorms" were closed around 1997 and torn down in 1999.

In the heyday of the Stardust, the "Campus" included such features as an auto racetrack, drive-in theater, television studio (see Frank Rosenthal Show below), rodeo arena, countless swimming pools, saunas, etc., and several generations of a convention center, the last of which was housed in a large metal quonset type of structure situated upon the land of the demolished "dorm" rooms.

Lido de Paris, a Stateside version of the famous French production show was the Stardust's feature entertainment until Lido finally closed in 1992.

The former Royal Nevada Hotel, a portion of which is shown above as the Stardust "Villa", preceded the Stardust and was absorbed into the Stardust, adding to its total room count. Originally in an "H" shape, portions were gradually chipped away until in the Stardust's later years, this section resembled more of the letter "F".

The Stardust Race and Sports Book was the standard to which all others in the Las Vegas vicinity were compared! The "Stardust Line" was a term well-recognized by (legal and illegal) bookmakers and players.

The Stardust comes complete with a rich and colorful history, much of it not quite so honorable. It was allegedly built with mob money and in much of its heyday operated by such characters as Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and Tony "The Ant" Spilatro.

It's well documented that Frank and Tony ran the Stardust for the mob, even though all the money in Las Vegas could not buy Frank a gaming license. They just simply rotated him from one schlock job to another (Director of Food and Drink, Entertainment Manager, etc.) under temporary authority. Tony was the "muscle", who was said to be fond of mayhem and violence, as long as he was the one doing the inflicting!

When Frank was Entertainment Manager, he hosted the Frank Rosenthal Show, a weekly talk show featuring many well-known celebrities of the time.

Frank and Frank appear on the Frank Rosenthal Show in the mid 1970s.

Things came to a head during some "family" disputes! Franks car was booby-trapped, and he barely escaped death by inferno after dining at Marie Callenders, having been pulled from the blazing wreck by a quick-to-act waiter. Tony and his brother ended up being buried alive in a midwest farm field following a "disagreement". If all of this sounds familiar, yes, these real-life events, among others, formed the basis of the film Casino.

Eventually, in the mid 1980s, the Nevada Gaming Commission revoked the license of the Stardust, following years of investigation into skimming and book-cooking. The Boyd Group (Sam's Town, Fremont, et. al.) was allowed to purchase and re-open the Stardust, and was in charge until the very end.

The iconic 190 foot sign, perhaps the most-recognized sign in Las Vegas's history, is now part of the Neon Museum's collection.

This particular "cloud of stars" sign replaced the original Stardust sign in the mid 1960s.

The original Stardust sign, a "googie" design of a space-age theme, lasted only about 8 years.

(From a ca. 1960 postcard.)

The particular typeface used for the original Stardust signage and logo is frequently referred to on the web by such names as "Electrajag", "Electra-Jag", "Electra Jag" and even "Electro Jag".

Having previously worked in the printing industry, I'm somewhat familiar with typefaces and fonts, and I had never heard of this particular typeface name. I've been unable to find that name in any typeface catalogs, current or historical. The Linotype Corporation does have several typefaces in their "Electra" series, but nothing like this one.

Doing a Google search for variants of "Electrajag" seems to always bring up the Stardust sign. :)

Anyway ... the original 1960s design of the "cloud of stars" sign retained the Electrajag typeface.

(Above photo from "Mtnman79", Creative Commons attribution)

In the 1980s, the lettering was replaced with what looks like a non-deco Futura Bold, which matched most of the Stardust's newer signage.

The Stardust had two hotel towers, the smaller 1960s vintage East Tower ...

... and the much larger 30-story 1980s vintage West Tower, which was considered to be the first "mega-tower" on the Strip.

The campus was quite compact when compared to today's megaresorts. You could walk from corner to corner in 15 minutes or so at a leisurely pace. There was a lot there, however, as we explore some of what was ...

Leaping waters!

Attractively-lit buildings ...

... very photogenic at night!

The Villa area was complete with such things as swimming pools, hot tubs, jacuzzis, gazebos, a fitness center, palm trees, and yes, outdoor cocktail service.