The Monte Carlo is now open again this weekend for the first time since the fire that burned a major portion of the roof and top floor facade. The outside no longer looks fire-damaged. It looks more like it’s just getting a face-lift - some cosmetic rejuvenation. For me it would be pretty creepy to stay in a hotel that was burned out and still showed some of the after effects on the building. I just wouldn’t stay there. I know it’s all psychological but it would be just plain weird.
Things seem to be more or less back on track, and in some ways, this will be good for the property. Where they’ve begun the repainting process, you can really tell how dingy the hotel was already looking. It needed some sprucing up, but, of course, they hadn’t planned on sprucing it up to the tune of $100 million dollars. That’s the cost of the repairs and gaming losses during the time it was shut down. Yipe!
I was up early today, as I seem to be doing more and more lately for some odd reason, and I wanted to get out of the house. I was in the Las Vegas Strip area so I thought I should ride over by the New Frontier’s property and take a look at the aftermath from the implosion. Wow.. I know I can be a bit stupidly sentimental but there was this sort of sad pile of rubble laying there all forlorn. On the top of the pile were a couple of reflective remains of what used to be the huge letters that spelled “Frontier” on top of the structure - the only thing that’s left of the tower where so many millions of people stayed throughout the many years of its operation. For me, it’s a little personally sad, because on a big trip to Las Vegas from Houston, Texas back in the late 70’s, my Mom and Dad stayed there. They actually stayed at the New Frontier two nights and at the Desert Inn one night on their trip. The Desert Inn is long-since gone and the property is now the amazing Wynn Resort. Since my Mom died several years back and I ultimately ended up moving to Las Vegas, it was the only place I could go on rare occasion and take a little bit of solace in the idea that my Mom had once been here, walked these same halls. Now it’s gone. Alas, time must march on and progress with it…
The owners of the property seem to be in high gear to move on with the construction of the new hotel and resort that is going to be built on the property. They own the venerable Plaza Hotel in New York City and are said to be building it’s twin here on this parcel of land where the New Frontier once stood. While I’m excited about a place as storied as The Plaza going in here in Las Vegas, I always cringe whenever I see or hear of developers putting in new buildings that mimic the other great cities of the world’s finest properties. Las Vegas is a world class destination in its own right and we should never be imitators, in my humble opinion, but we should lead the world in architectural style by creating places and spaces that the world would want to imitate. We don’t need to build mini New York Cities or mini Eiffel Towers, but I digress. I’m sure the place will be lovely and employee lovely people who serve lovely guests for decades to come. I just wish that people would lose the whole “themed resort” mentality altogether and let’s build the future without mimicking the past.
Last night proved to be a bit of a trying experience for me. As is often the case, bloggers don’t get the same treatment that mainstream media gets, and our efforts to secure the implosion of The New Frontier here in Las Vegas last night was met with some typical but ultimately funny run-ins with Las Vegas Metro.
This guy told me he could not say “officially” that it was okay to walk down the closed-off Desert Inn arterial to film the implosion from what was a good vantage point (well out of the way and behind lots of television crews below us on the ground, as well as construction/demolition workers and onlookers behind a fence.) He said that it was sort of a at-your-own-risk/knowing what is safe for you sort of thing. So we went.
At some point after we’d carried our equipment a quarter mile down Desert Inn, Officer Dweezle decided that he changed his mind after someone else said something to him. By that point we had no choice… either leave or walk very, very slowly back towards our vehicles, since we were being threatened to be cited or arrested and our cars towed. What ever shall we do officer?!?@#? Drag our feet like we’ve never drug them before, that’s what. The video is shaky and not up to the “While Las Vegas Sleeps..” quality assurance department’s standards.. but it will have to do.
Having a cop on video telling me via his bullhorn that I’m seriously testing his patience is, well, priceless. Enjoy! (I feel a ringtone coming on, baby!)
Thanks to DJ Miss Dust and Kevin Forte for some slick house beats for our video…
Without anything further to add… here’s our New Frontier Implosion Video! It’s complete with normal speed, reverse video, and slow-motion implosion! Complete with DJ Miss Dust providing some groove…
Perhaps the least well-known member of the Rat Pack, Joey Bishop passed away last week at his home in Newport Beach at 89 years old. I had meant to mention his passing but it was a hectic week for me, but I wanted to make mention here now. I’m always a bit sentimental when I think about Old Vegas, Classic Vegas, and what it must have been like back then. I rather think I would prefer some things to be how they used to be. I would love to step into the storied Copa Room at The Sands Hotel to hear Dean Martin on a night when the Sands Hotel’s sign read “Dean Martin” and in small letters “Maybe Frank - Maybe Sammy.” It was those iconic images of Las Vegas that really solidified the legend of this place I call home. You have to respect that sort of thing…
When they were filming the original Ocean’s Eleven, the entire Rat Pack crew was on hand at The Sands every night, as legend has it, and Joey Bishop was a regular fixture in that group, being part of the cast for the film. Joey Bishop, as you may or may not recall, had his own television program for a couple of years in the 60’s - well before my time. He was also the guest host of “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” more times than anyone else, according to Wikipedia.org. He was a familiar face on The Hollywood Squares, and according to Frank Sinatra, he was “the hub of the big wheel” in their group on stage. Comedy Central lists him in the top 100 stand-up comics of all time. He might not have a list of classic songs like Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra did, but he was definitely an integral part of what we now remember as a classic era.
It’s a bit odd that the least-known member of the Rat Pack lasted the longest. Perhaps it was in his personality - the flames that burn the brightest tend not to burn as long…
[ Coincidentally to the timing of his death, the other Sands Hotel and Casino in America - in Atlantic City - was imploded to make way for a new development less than a day after his death. ]
Perhaps the least well-known member of the Rat Pack, Joey Bishop passed away last week at his home in Newport Beach at 89 years old. I had meant to mention his passing but it was a hectic week for me, but I wanted to make mention here now. I’m always a bit sentimental when I think about Old Vegas, Classic Vegas, and what it must have been like back then. I rather think I would prefer some things to be how they used to be. I would love to step into the storied Copa Room at The Sands Hotel to hear Dean Martin on a night when the Sands Hotel’s sign read “Dean Martin” and in small letters “Maybe Frank - Maybe Sammy.” It was those iconic images of Las Vegas that really solidified the legend of this place I call home. You have to respect that sort of thing…