One hour of highlights and the best scenes from the 2004 Mark Burnett's (producer of The Apprentice) television reality-show 'The Casino'.
It's the behind-the-scenes story about the two 32 year-old multi-millionaires, Tim Poster and Tom Breitling, who sold their Las Vegas Internet Room Booking company for $105 million dollars and then set out to buy, run and sell the Golden Nugget Casino.
Watch them raise money, count money, eat dinner with Steve Wynn, deal blackjack, and do all the other things new casino owners might do when just taking over an existing hotel-casino.
1. Preview, 2. Intro, 3. Road Show to Raise Money, 4. Grand Re-Opening of the Golden Nugget, 5. Dinner with Steve Wynn, 6. Come to Play, 7. Casino Losses, 8. Inside the Nugget's Counting Room, 9. Gordie Brown, 10. Poker Room, 11. Matt Dusk, 12. Tim Deals Blackjack, 13. Partnership, 14. Tom Brietling's Book Interview
Sixties Teen-Age Entertainment in Vegas What Kids Did for Fun in Sin City
Hippies in Las Vegas?!
As hard as it may be for some people to imagine, Las Vegas - like most cities in the USA had a teenage entertainment scene and drew many of the biggest rock bands of the time to three venues mentioned below (the Las Vegas Convention Center's Rotunda, the Teen Beat Club and the Ice Palace).
Twin Lakes Lodge
The first teen-type festival took place at the outdoor pool area of the Twin Lakes Lodge (Bonanza and Rancho). It took place in the Summer of 1962 and was titled the 'Twin Lakes Twist' and was headlined by Bobby Darin signing his top hits: 'Splish Splash', 'Dream Lover' and 'Mack the Knife'.
The next night's performer was Wayne Newton, performing for the first time, solo, without his brother as his regular singing-duet partner. An outdoor concert was held every weekend thru the Summer of '62 and launched a short-lived teen-age hangout in Las Vegas.
Video of Bobby Darin singing his hit record - 'Dream Lover'
Convention Center Rotunda
The Beach Boys were among the first of the big name, new early 60s rock 'n' roll shows to perform at the Las Vegas Convention Center's Rotunda Room. Their show took place on June 29, 1964 and was presented by two of the biggest names in rock show productions of the time - Las Vegas' own Keith Austin and Steve Miller.
In 1962, Steve and Keith opened the first 'teenage nightclub' in America (near the intersection of Paradise and Harmon) called the 'Teen-Beat Club' and operated the nightclub while also hosting a local radio show, a TV dance show, plus doing their concert promoting .
Beach Boys performing 'Surfin' USA' in 1964.
The death of JFK changed a lot of things for America's youth and they were quite ready for something completely new and upbeat - like Beatlemania.
Actual color photo of the Beatles on-stage in Las Vegas 1964.
Less than two months after the Beach Boy's concert, the Sahara Hotel and Stan Irwin hosted the most famous music act in the world. The Beatles would perform their first West Coast tour going to 26 cities in 31 days - doing their first show at the San Francisco Cow Palace on August 19, 1964. Their second show would be played in Las Vegas the following day of August 20th. They then headed to Seattle for the 21st, Vancouver for the 22nd, the Hollywood Bowl on the 23rd and continued to play other American cities until September 21st.
The Beatles were paid $25,000 for their two 2 shows - one at 4 pm and the other at 9 pm. On the bill with the Beatles were Jackie De Shannon, the Righteous Brothers, and the Bill Black Combo (Elvis' former bass player). 8,408 people attended the first show in an arena built to only hold 7,500.
Other English groups that followed the Beatles at the Convention Center were the Dave Clark Five in November and the Kinks in early 1965.
Teen Beat Club
Now - Club Paradise
In 1962 two Las Vegas rock show promoters Steve Miller and Keith Austin (both just 19) opened the first teenage-nightclub in the USA at 4416 Paradise Road in Las Vegas, called the Teen Beat Club.
Take a good look at the building. You may be vaugely familiar with it. It is now Club Paradise, the strip-club located just across the street from the Hard Rock Hotel.
The Teen Beat Club (seen here in 1965 near UNLV) now functions as Club Paradise. The vacant lot in the background is now occupied by the Hofbrau House, with the Double Down Saloon nearby.
Years before strippers appeared on the stage at left, the Teen Beat Club had the mid-Sixties surf band (the Teen Beats) perform regularly as the club's house band.
During the mid-Sixties Keith and Steve brought in popular LA bands such as the Lords, the Gold Tones, Starfires, the Lively Ones, the Routers, Sentinals, Marketts, Challengers, Chevells, Templars and the Bitter Sweets.
The early and mid-Sixties uniform styled bands would soon be a thing of the past as the Beatle's Revolver and Sgt. Pepper albums led most teens of the time into the more individualistic 1967 Summer of Love spirit.
From 1962 thru 1966, Keith and Steve hosted their live, weekly 'Teen Beat Television Dance Party' on Las Vegas' Channel 8.
During that time their 'American Bandstand' type dance show presented popular music artists such as Little Richard, Dick and Dee Dee, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Vee, Trini Lopez, Wayne Newton, the Beach Boys, and Paul Revere and the Raiders.
As the mid-Sixties gave way to the pre-psychedelic San Francisco bands - the Teen Beat partners began to present groups at the Teen Beat Club with 1966 styled names like: the Weeds, Rats, Pierced Arrows, Zipper, Present Tense, Scatter Blues, Nobody's Children, Misty Souls, and the Peanut Butter Conspriacy.
But, as the more progressive age of the psychedlic sounds of the post-1966 Beatles arrived, things quickly began to change on the Las Vegas music scene. Steve and Keith decided to put on a few shows at a larger, more ballroom-like venue called the Ice Palace. They closed their Teen beat Club in 1968.
The Ice Palace
The year 1967 brought a big change to American Rock 'n' Roll as well as the performing styles of most music groups who appealed to the new (so called, youth-movement) hippies. Dancing the Twist, the Hully Gully, the Jerk or the Fly no longer seemed appropriate to the post-1966 crowd of young people facing an Army draft to Viet Nam and who were now experimenting with psychedelic chemicals.
The care-free era of the early and mid-Sixties was quickly becoming a thing of the past. Dance shows and small dance clubs had become silly and passe. With the rise of San Francisco's psychedlic ballrooms, towns and cities across the United States began reviving the use of 1930s ballrooms and larger facilities like skating rinks to house the growing crowds of kids who now just wanted to sit on the floor and listen to big name bands, while basically just tripping to the light shows and music.
In Las Vegas, this shift to a larger rock-show facility found a home in a place called Commercial Center. In 1955 a huge combination grocery - department store, called Vegas Village (seen at right in photo) paved the way for the early 1960s Commercial Center to open nearby on Sahara Avenue.
In the mid-Sixties Commercial Center exanded their shopping center and added a large ice skating and hockey rink (where the red dot is seen at the left of the photo).
When Jim Morrison and the Doors played at the Convention Center the need for a comfortable, local facility became obvious and Steve and Keith and others began using the Ice Palace as an evening venue for the psychedelic groups that were now starting to tour the cities of the western states.
The Doors performed at the Las Vegas Convention Center on August 25th, 1967 bringing a whole new, more intense and introspective style of listening to what the music might mean. Music groups, in 1967, we're no longer singing lover's laments like 'Help Me Rhonda' or happy songs like 'Little GTO'. The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors changed American youth completely.
Two posters announced the Las Vegas arrival of Jim Morrison and the Doors. A concert production company with the name 'Scenic Sounds' opened the floodgates to further, more intimate concerts being held at Ice Palace (located at the southwest corner of Commercial Center, at Karen and State Street).
Just a few of the highly popular bands to play the Ice Palace are listed below:
* Feb 18 1968 - Buffalo Springfield (with Neil Young & Stephen Stills)
* March 29, 1968 - Grateful Dead and Carlos Santana
* Spring 1968 - Blue Cheer
* May 18, 1968 - Cream (with Eric Clapton)
* April 11, 1969 - Led Zepplin
* October, 1969 - Creedence Clearwater Revival
* Dec 31, 1969 Vanilla Fudge
In the Summer of 1970 a large outdoor festival, headlined by Janis Joplin, was planned to be held at Cashman Field. Plans fell thru due to city hall interferrence and bad planning all around.
With the break-up of the Beatles, the end of the Moon Mission closing in, Woodstock over and Altamont left in shambles - the spirit of the late Sixties was nearly gone and the Ice Palace was no longer drawing the excited crowds it once did.
A few weeks after Joplin's planned performance at the Vegas 1970 Festival she was found dead. A month later the late Sixties icon, Jimi Hendrix was also found dead. A year later Jim Morrison died in Paris. Hunter Thompson aptly brought Fear and Loathing to Las Vegas in 1971. The San Francisco "wave" drifted back and left its "high water mark" .
After 50 years the Ice Place still exists as a hockey rink at the south-west corner of Commercial Center - right next to the Tranny Bar called the Las Vegas Lounge, and near the Green Door Swingers Club, the Hawk Gym, the Fantasy Social Club, and several other assorted, odd-ball sex shops.
Still. The high-water mark exists somewhere here in modern day Las Vegas. And a big, new wave seems to have silently arrived lately. The Beatles are back on the marquee. The Mirage announces LOVE in huge signs. The Palms holds Summer of Love events. City Center is one of the most psychedelic places ever created. Builders are thinking a bit greener. A recent recession has made most people less materialistic. People's egos are getting less inflated and they're acting nicer. A war might be ending soon. The Internet is creating a futuristic cultural and social revolution that advances monthly. The times are changing fast again. Maybe the circle is coming back around. For all we know.
1. 'Break on Through', 2. Break on Through Remix' 3. 'Roadhouse Blues', 4. Mojo Rising singing 'Peace Frog' at the Beauty Bar in Las Vegas - followed by 5. 'The Wasp', 6. 'The End' at Hollywood Bowl, 7. 'L.A. Woman', 8. 'Samba Pa Ti' a 1971 performance by Santana, 9. 'Ripple' by the Grateful Dead, 10. 'California' by Led Zepplin and a final Las Vegas performance by Jerry Garcia playing 11. 'Peggy-O' in 1994.
City Center's Aria Hotel houses a super high-end gaming room on its ground level casino floor. The place is called Carta Privada (which loosely translated into Spanish means "playing cards in private").
Carta Privada is a casino within a casino, sort of like City Center is a city within a city. Privada is a special high-end gaming room that provides Baccarrat and Mini-Baccarrat, and certain other card games.
I'm not a gambler and am not a very high-end person (wallet-wise) so I don't really know what this room is all about. But it's open to everyone and has a great looking bar and lots of lounge seats. If I had a girlfriend and some cash I think I'd take her there for a drink.
Carta Privada is located to the left of Aria's Cashier's Cage, by the south escalators and is just across from the Spin High Limit Slot Lounge.
Carta Privada was designed by a man named Peter Marino. He got his start back in 1975 when he redesigned Andy Warhol's apartment and 'Factory' art studio. Since then he's become known as a high-society architect-interior designer, designing such famous things as Christian Dior shops in Paris, Chanel boutiques in Tokyo and Beverly Hills, Louis Vuitton stores in New York and a Fendi shop in Rome as well as New York's Four Seasons' Hotel's Presidential Suites.
The creators of Aria chose Peter Marino to design Aria's Sky Villas , the Spin High Limit Lounge, the Radience store and Aria's Salon Prive. I'm not quite sure what Salon Prive is, but I suppose it's a gaming room that is even higher-end than Carta Privada. That's no problem though. In Vegas if you got the cash you're welcome anywhere, whether you're using old-money or new-money, you can expect royal treatment in the city where cash makes you a king.
Looking at the dealer thru the transluscent glass of Carta Privada. The designer of Carta Privada says "I want [people] to feel a sense of drama, excitement and high-octane energy".
The bar is really nice looking.
They probably have whatever type high-end bottle brand you need.
The other Carta Privada bar is near the seating lounge area.
Carta Privada. Private high-end gaming for whoever needs it.
City Center's Aria Hotel houses one of the best High Limit Slot Lounges in Las Vegas. The place is called Spin. It's located near the far left side of Aria's casino floor, just behind the Deuce Lounge and across from the high-end Carta Privada casino room.
Aria's Spin High Limit Lounge provides slot-play from $25 - $5,000. That's fairly high-end slot play for sure. But if you're looking for high-rolling slot machines this is the place to be.
The Spin Lounge is very cozy and offers gamblers a sort of sanctuary away from nosier slot playing action on the main casino floor. It's rarely crowded and if you have $25 -$100 extra dollars in your pocket you should try betting it inside Spin, just for the fun and risk of it. You can at least tell your friends you once played on a $25 a spin slot machine.
The odds of winning are usually better on these high-end slot machines than they are on 5 cent and 25 cent machines, so maybe you should give Spin a visit. It looks like it's waiting to pay out some big jackpots.
Spin has some of the most modern slot machines around.
Spin has a front and a rear slot room.
Spin's Slot Desk employees are there to sign you up for Player's Cards or assist you with getting change, info, advice, complimentary meals or concierge type services. There are very welcoming and helpful people working inside Spin. Go inside and say hello.
The great thing about Spin is that they encourage you to come in to play or relax.
Spin's slots, like this Cleopatra one, are super-new and lots o' fun.
If you need to meet friends you should invite them to Spin to relax in a quiet place like this coffee table area. If the people in your party feel like relaxing while you gamble, this is a good spot to for them to take some time-out and watch you play while they enjoy a drink or food.
For people who really need some complete time-out from the gaming action, Spin provides this ultra comfortable relaxtion room, located in the back half of the lounge, thru the left-hand door.
This is the view you'll see from inside Spin. It looks out on the main casino floor and towards the high-end Carta Privada gaming room.
These 'Top Dollar' slot machines provide big jackpots for $25 a spin.
This is the only entry and exit door for the Spin High-Limit Lounge. So, if you invite someone to meet you here you can be pretty sure you'll quickly catch sight of them.
The Spin Lounge opened in December. Everytime I've seen it it hardly has many people inside. Timid types of players seem to foolishly avoid this place. They shouldn't, because Aria wants you to go inside to visit, even if only to get a drink or to talk to the ladies at the Slot Desk.
It's truly worth risking $25-100 just to test your luck in an intimate, high-roller slot room. Don't be afraid of this high-end stuff. You don't need a pedigree or special badge to enter. Just walk on in and check it out. Spin holds no bias, has no special dress code and requires nothing from you. Boldly check it out. Buy a drink and maybe take a $25 buck spin just for fun. The place seems kind of lonesome and wishes you would stop by for a visit.
The Spin High Limit Lounge. Inside Aria Hotel. Ground level. City Center. Las Vegas. Nevada.
View of the Paris Hotel's Jules Verne Air Balloon. The letter 'P' in the name Paris points to the exact astrological position of the vernal equinox and our current season - when the sun travels out of Pisces' Winter and moves into Aries' Spring.
Just Cause for March Madness and Spring Fever
In the Northern Hemisphere Springtime begins on March 21. Officially, that is also the first day of Spring in Las Vegas - even though our hot, desert climate causes flowers to bloom here a lot earlier than in most other locales.
With Spring, Las Vegas gets March Madness from basketball and a large influx of college students who arrive from early March until Mid-April (depending on when their school releases them for Spring Break).
Due to the great Spring weather, in Las Vegas, many citizens from all around the world come to enjoy some fun vacation time here after having spent many cold months locked into their hometown's harsher Winters.
Day-time teperatures, this week in Las Vegas, have ranged from 65-74 degrees. This weekend forcasters have predicted temperatures might reach as high as 82 degrees. With Spring, we still can experience many cold and windy desert nights. But it's safe to say that our temperatures will steadily increase as we move closer to our hot summer months.
What does Spring mean for locals in Las Vegas? Well. Besides doing a bit of 'Spring-cleaning' or starting a home desert-gardening project, it's a great time to experience the great weather we have, that tourists often travel 3,000 miles to experience. This means it's time to get out and go walking along the Strip, visiting City Center, seeing the Spring exhibit at Bellagio's Conservatory, or taking a drive to Red Rock Canyon - while the weather is so beautiful.
This is also a good time to go and catch a local bus to see our great RTC system which gets you most anywhere in the valley with no driving to contend with. Spring weather provides a wonderful opportunity to experience many of the great things Las Vegas has to offer its local citizens.
In Vegas, Spring has sprung full-blown and it's Nature's Way of telling you to get out and party !
Water-globe at the Bellagio Conservatory's Spring Floral Exhibit.
Trees and flowers are blooming on the Strip and across the Valley.
Looking southward from Paris Plaza towards City Center.
Looking northward from the Paris Hotel driveway.
The floral exhibit at Bellagio is lots of fun to see, plus it's free.
Bellagio's floral exhibit is full of ants, bees and butterflies...
...and scary, weird, old trees.
Bellagio's Spring Theme continues thru its esplanade...
...upward to the Spring parasols overhead.
The Permanent Spring of Bellagio's lobby.
Spring at the Harmon Towers of City Center.
Flowers blooming in front of Monte Carlo.
With Spring's arrival and the opening of City Center, people are walking more...
...and girls are shopping more.
Who says flowers can't bloom in the desert?
With the right soil and hydration nearly anything can grow.
In South Nevada cherry blossoms and plam trees live side-by-side...
Erik Wunstell / Solar-Earth Scientist, Las Vegas Street Photographer, and 1980 Founder & 2012 Director of The Earth Ecology Foundation (U.S.Fed. NPO # 95-2687069). 1996-2012 Inductee in Marquis Who's Who in Science, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. State of California & Federal Emergency Management Agency Certified Emergency Program Manager since 1986. Discoverer and proponent of 'The Geometric Progression of Space and Time' and 'The Theory of Solar Relativity'. ErikWunstell@aol.com
EARTH ECOLOGY FOUNDATION
Promoting the Scientific & Humane Use of Manmade Environments Since 1980.
As the mid-Sixties gave way to the pre-psychedelic San Francisco bands - the Teen Beat partners began to present groups at the Teen Beat Club with 1966 styled names like: the Weeds, Rats, Pierced Arrows, Zipper, Present Tense, Scatter Blues, Nobody's Children, Misty Souls, and the Peanut Butter Conspriacy.
Posts
