I guess. The Frontier is next, followed by the Trop and Ballys. I bet they finally get the Barbary Coast too. Circus Circus can't be too far behind either...

and it wouldn't bother me if they dynamited the whole city. It is an environmental disaster and a monument to American greed.

I always found the elaborate sign (was it neon?) was one of the best on the strip - hope they saved it.

As the joint itself - it's notable for being the original hotel in the book "Casino." in the film they called it the Tangiers and shot much of the interiors in the Riveria.

For most of the 80's and the early 90's I was through there a few times a day. Quite a cast of characters, a sort of Guys & Dolls tableau. You could rub shoulders with some REAL badguys though. But on a Pro Football Sunday, College Saturday, or betting Baseball on a scorching summer afternoon it was very conducive to wasting an entire day in the air conditioned comfort.

Anyone from back in the day out there? I'll bet Alan Boston comes across this.

I grew up in Las Vegas, and flyinbrian reminded me of the cast of characters that used to occupy the smoke-filled rooms of the Stardust. As a teenager I followed the careers of Vegas bad guys like Alan Glick, onetime co-owner of the Stardust and his partner Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who once refused in court to acknowledge that he was left-handed. Frank was largely responsible for the design and management of the Stardust sports book. Rosenthal narrowly avoided death when his car exploded outside Tony Roma's restaurant. The press said that the steel plate under his seat cushioned him from the blast, but I heard that Frank started the car by reaching inside with one hand because he feared an attempt would be made on his life, probably on orders from his boss, Tony Spilatro.

Later, I lived across the street from a restaurant owned by Tony "The Ant" Spilatro and his brother, John. John seemed a harmless enough guy and Tony looked far too small of all the evil attributed to him as boss of the Las Vegas Mafia. Neither of them were particularly efficient criminals, and both were eventually killed by their Chicage mob bosses and planted in an Indiana cornfield.

Funny thing, Tony's lawyer, Oscar Goodman, is now Mayor of Las Vegas. I once met Oscar at a movie premier and he's nothing like what you would expect of a mob lawyer. The guy actually has a great sense of humor and seems to understand the irony of his life. He also has a great love for the city of Las Vegas. Oscar isn't the only member of the old school Las Vegas cast of characters to make it in politics. Tony Spilatro was banned from all Las Vegas casinos by the Nevada Gaming Board, then chaired by the current U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid.

Yeah, those were colorful and violent times filled with murder, robbery, and mysterious disappearances of both money and people. The mobsters and the FBI danced, like showgirls on a too small casino stage, through surveillance and indictments and legal maneuvers, finally culminating in the replacement of the Las Vegas Mafia by new corporate casino kingpins. Most old timers will tell you that, in spite of the mayhem, Las Vegas was better run by the mob. One can easily point out that the mobsters stole and murdered, but a reply that the corporations ran the unions out of power and greatly reduced the workers standard of living has some basis in truth, too. All I know is that it was a different era and the Stardust was one of the few remaining remnants of a very colorful time.

That's Ok, it happens to almost everyone. Don't beat yourself up too much. You don't have to take out your frustrations on this great city. Just get back to your boring life in Des Moines and go to Door County next year for vacation.

The Stardust sign was saved.

Interesting little article on its fate, and the fates of a number of other Vegas neon landmarks.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-25-Sun-2007/news/12785910.html

Good quote from the article:

"Neon is our native art form," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "Like jazz is to New Orleans, neon is to Las Vegas."

Here's a memory from the Stardust's most recent tower just after it opened. It is told by my friend Frank:

The new tower of the Stardust is pretty nice. CBW drove me over to check in. We went up to my room to put my stuff down, and CBW noticed that the door from my room (12601) into the next room (12603) was open. We went in and saw a couch, tv, and jacuzzi. Yup, the jacuzzi was in the middle of the room, in a large, black tile stall-like thing. It was great. "Wow!" I thought. "A comped suite. We went out to play some blackjack. I got back to the room about 1:30am local time (4:30am my time) and decided that a jacuzzi would hit the spot. After a twenty minute soak, I went to bed. At about 2:30am, the phone in the other room rang. Thinking it was someone else I was supposed to meet, I ran in to answer it.

"Who are you and what are you doing in that room?" the woman from the front desk asked.

"I'm Frank, and I'm checked into this room."

"What room did you check into?"

"12606."

"Then what are you doing in that room?"

"Er, I meant 12601. (It was 2:30am fercrisake)"

"How much are you paying for that room?"

"I dunno, it's comped. The adjoining door was open when I got in here, so I thought I was supposed to have the suite."

After some discussion and terminal keyclicks on her end, she came back,"I'm sorry if I woke you up, everything's been straightened out. Good night."

Before I could get back into bed, the phone in 12601 rings.

"Who are you and what are you doing in that room?" a different (I think) woman demanded.

"I'm Frank, and I'm checked into this room."

"Mr. S is supposed to be in that room. Mr. V is supposed to be in room 12603."

"No one was in here when I got here, and the door was opened into the other room. There's not a bed in 12603."

"The couch opens up into a bed. Can you bring your registration papers down to the front desk?"

"I'm in bed."

"Ok, you can stay in there. Just close the door into the other room."

"Well, I took a jacuzzi tonight."

"Hmm. Can you tell?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Well, I'll have to send housekeeping up there."

Geez. What a place.