Join us as we separate myth from fact, share stories of the men and women who helped build the town and celebrate one of the most fabulous cities ever built!
Will the Swim-In-Sign ever be repaired and put back up?
A tribute to Betty Willis and 50+ plus years of marketing
Endangered
Pepe's Tacos great redaptive reuse of a former IHOP
Endangered
Tod Motor Hotel still going strong
Fremont Hotel Parking Garage
Thanks to Allen Sandquist for letting us use these images
The Binion name is synomous with Las Vegas. Benny Binion brought his family to Las Vegas in the late 1940s. He opened the Horseshoe Club, went to jail (locals call it Benny went to college) for tax evasion, did his time and returned to his family and his beloved casino.
The hotel/casino was never the same after Benny died and son Jack left over a dispute with his siblings. Son Teddy, they say, had the ability to run the place but his bad choices ultimately made that impossible.
Teddy is today more known for his own murder and the controversy that surrounded it and the bars of silver in a pit in Pahrump than for the Binion name.
The R-J is reporting that Rick Tabish, who was convicted of murdering Ted Binion and then later acquited could be released from prison, on parole, as early as this spring:
Rick Tabish, who was convicted and later acquitted of murdering former Las Vegas casino executive Ted Binion, could be released from prison as early as April 2. The Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners announced today that Tabish, 44, has been granted parole. Tabish, who is incarcerated at Ely State Prison, has been serving time for burglary and grand larceny. The convictions stem from the theft of Binion's $7 million silver stash. Binion was found dead in September 1998. Tabish and his lover, Sandy Murphy, both were convicted and later acquitted of murder in the high-profile case. Murphy already has completed her prison sentence for her role in the silver theft. According to a spokesman with the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners, Tabish will be supervised in Montana after a release plan is approved.
On paper it probably sounded too good but reality is a different dog and according to Mayor Oscar Goodman that dog won't hunt.
Oscar Goodman earlier this evening announced he would not be running for governor of Nevada. Did he take a long, hard look at Nevada finances and see the writing on the wall? Did he decide to not be the fly in the ointment of the Reid Dynasty talk? Or did he look at the Senate race and see another path to glory? Or is wife Carolyn really going to run for Mayor? Or is there something really out there in Goodman's future beyond the City of Las Vegas and local politics?
As always with Oscar Goodman, stay tuned for further developments.
From the R-J:
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman won’t be running for governor of Nevada. Goodman said Monday that he didn’t want to be away from his wife, Carolyn, who wouldn’t move to Carson City, a requirement for Nevada’s governor. “I love my wife more than life itself,” Goodman said during a news conference in his 10th floor office at Las Vegas City Hall. “I would not want to wake up without my wife next to me.” Goodman, who recently changed his registration status to nonpartisan to keep open the possibility of running as an independent, said he was undaunted by the fact that Nevadans have never elected a non-major-party candidate to the governor’s job. “Every bit of empirical data I had reviewed indicated I would have been very competitive,” he said. Goodman said the only polls he conducted were with shoppers at Costco. But the former mob lawyer did acknowledge he discussed the idea of running with Celinda Lake, the self-proclaimed “godmother” of polling and issue framing for Democratic candidates. “I talked to her and she is very sad that I’m not running,” Goodman said. Goodman’s decision leaves the field to four remaining candidates: three Republicans and one Democrat. On the Republican side, incumbent Gov. Jim Gibbons is trailing former federal Judge Brian Sandoval in statewide polls. Former North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon is a distant third. On the Democratic side, Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid is the only candidate. “You would suspect there is some relief in the Reid campaign,” said political consultant Dan Hart. Hart said Goodman would have been a formidable candidate and especially challenging to Reid. The most recent statewide poll that included Goodman as an independent candidate showed Sandoval chosen by 35 percent of respondents, Goodman by 33 percent and Reid by 20 percent. Reid and Goodman “were likely to have drawn from the same well of voters,” Hart said. Goodman didn’t endorse any of the current candidates and said he doesn’t envy whoever wins. The Economic Forum recently reported that state revenue could fall as much as $800 million short of expenses, meaning big cuts and possible tax increases could be on the current agenda. And the prospects could be more daunting in 2011, when the next governor is in office. “I think the state, in large part, is in the toilet,” Goodman said. “The education, I don’t know whether we are 49th or 50th, but whatever we are ain’t good. Social services are virtually nonexistent. These are things I believe the state is responsible for.” The 70-year-old mayor is prohibited by term limits from running for a fourth term in 2011. During his remaining 15 months as mayor, Goodman said, he wants to intensify his role with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “I want to go out and promote Las Vegas even more than I already have,” he said. He ruled out the possibility of running for lieutenant governor, saying his ego wouldn’t allow him to be “second chair.” He also said there’s no chance he’ll change his mind about running for governor. “This is irrevocable,” he said. “I feel like I have a weight off my back.”
The Downtown Cocktail Room is the watering holes for those work downtown and those who live downtown. Michael Cornthwaite and his fiancee, Jennifer Harrington, are doing their part to make Fremont East a viable part of the community.
Our buddy, Johnny Kats, caught up with them a few days ago:
To accurately gauge the viability of downtown Las Vegas, specifically the Fremont East entertainment district, watch Michael Cornthwaite. If he can't make it happen down there, everyone should beware.
The owner of Downtown Cocktail Room just off the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, Cornthwaite is pressing forward with plans to lure at least 20 boutiques, art galleries and various creatively fertile shops to the shuttered Fremont Medical Building on Sixth and Fremont streets. Set amid musty exam spaces, check-in and check-out counters, and a vaguely haunting X-ray room will be a collective known as Emergency Arts. This puzzle-piece project might be open as early as March 1 if Cornthwaite can fill the 20 spaces positioned snugly on the three-story building's bottom floor.
He's confident it will happen. As of this afternoon, Cornthwaite has secured 15 tenants, including a café at the entrance — where the medically needy once assembled is now where you might pick up a nice pastry. Cornthwaite and his fiancée, Jennifer Harrington, are partners in Emergency Arts with landowner El Cortez. They are giving themselves a year to "make it work" on Fremont East. If they fall short, well, Seattle's a nice city. So is San Francisco. It would be a shame for the city to lose these two downtown devotees and visionaries, but the clock is ticking. Even Harrington's own gallery, Henri & Odette, which once taking up residency nearby on Sixth and Carson, will move into the Emergency Arts project.
During our 30-minute interview Monday in the KUNV studios at Greenspun Hall on the UNLV campus, Cornthwaite talked at length about Emergency Arts, but also let opinions and thoughts on other Vegas-tied issues flow as freely as his shoulder-length hair:
• On working with El Cortez: "El Cortez is anchor of the entire (Fremont East) district. Their customer demographic is an older demographic, and frankly it is getting too old. It needs a younger demographic, and I think they're doing very well. El Cortez is the coolest hotel down there; the Cabana Suites are beautifully designed. ... It's a nice situation, and they are very supportive. ... When we had the (Las Vegas) Farmers Market (on Fremont Street), they supported that. They put flyers in the envelopes with the employees' paychecks, things like that."
• On the fate of the moribund 7-Eleven building on the corner of LV Boulevard and Fremont Street, a space that has been sitting unoccupied since the convenience store closed in 2006: "Since I started building (DCR), there have been two signed leases on that space, one of which was really never executed. The first, money was never collected and they just vanished, literally. ... But about a year and a half ago a group came in, showed a lot of interest, signed a lease and actually worked on the space. They demo-ed the adjacent space, so now we've got two spaces that are connected to each other for one, giant 5,700-square-foot space with a 36-foot ceiling inside. Unfortunately, they couldn't get their resources together, either. It was supposed to be like a live music venue, they were going to build a mezzanine level, but it was a fairly expensive project for the area, a $1-$2 million project. You know, they were about $300,000-$400,000 along, with no doubt they were going to be able get the money together. That was mid-2008, when everything started to fall apart. The Hive, is what it was called. It had lots of potential, and it could have worked out, but it's just been an unfortunate situation."
• On the fate of Neonopolis, which sits kitty-corner from DCR on the corner of Fremont and Las Vegas Boulevard: "Nobody has any doubt of the importance of Neonopolis in connecting Fremont Street Experience with Fremont East. That's the only way it could happen. But I take a little bit of a different approach in that scenario. I never wanted to connect the Fremont Street Experience with Fremont East. I wanted Fremont East to be locals-driven and have a locals-based clientele. I wanted a buffer between us and the Fremont Street Experience."
• On Rohit Joshi, who fronts Wirrulla Hayward, the development company that owns Neonopolis: "The gentleman involved in Neonopolis (Joshi) is a wonderful salesman. He has been to the club one time, and he has an amazing skill. I've had several meetings with him, and he has a very positive approach and he gets you feeling really good, and you walk out and you're feeling really good for about two minutes. Then you realize, something just happened but you don't know what it was, and of course nothing ever happens."
• On the proposed Star Trek Experience, which reportedly was on line to move into Neonopolis in May but has not actually moved in at all: "Nothing's going on. It's not going to happen. I would stake my bar on it."
• On CityCenter: "It's beautiful, it's an amazing architectural marvel. It's what I would love to see, what I miss in a vibrant city, and that's what we're trying to bring downtown, into the core of our city. I've heard them say that it's non-themed, but it's a city-themed casino. It's themed as a city. The really smart consumer won't buy into that. Who can afford to shop there? I'm not going to Tom Ford to buy a $650 shirt.
Thanks to Allen Sandquist for letting use his photo.
