The Stardust is gone...

[MonkeyFunk]

:cry:

[SeattleGirl]

1. I saw the implosion footage on Countdown tonight.

:cry:

[SoCalDemGrrl]

2. Here's a bit of Stardust trivia - Barry White LOVED gambling at the Stardust!

I worked with his record company in the 1970s and the Stardust was his favorite

place to gamble. He always said it was his good luck charm....

[ForrestGump]

3. I saw it from my balcony

I always find that sort of thing sad, though the Vegas Strip is no longer Las Vegas in any meaningful sense and -- even more so than most of America -- the people who run this place have no regard for history (a relatively short history though it may be).

It's a younger hotel than some they've demolished to make way for the theme-park new wave of resorts (and, increasingly, and disturbingly, upscale high-rise condos) -- I think the tower was '70s or early '80s vintage (I stayed one night in the older section last year) -- but there's some significant history attached, apart from the array of stars who've worked there and Siegfried and Roy getting their start there: it's the real-life setting for events of the movie Casino (De Niro's character, based very closely on Lefty Rosenthal, was simultaneously manager of the Stardust and a couple of the casinos downtown).

I always liked the Stardust's marquee...

[Awsi Dooger]

4. That tower was only 15 years old when the Stardust closed

Built in 1991. I was already here at the time and remember it well. Last November when the Stardust closed the owner conceded they probably never would have built that $300 million tower if they had known the hotel would only last another 15 years.

When I lived in LA during the '80s but traveled to Las Vegas on the weekends to bet football I would crash in one of the old Stardust rooms out back with 3 or 4 other guys. We would get the poker rate of about $16 per room so it was a few bucks apiece.

That sportsbook was always the first hangout place for guys from out of town who came here to bet sports. Then you slowly relocate to fancier spots. I was a regular my first year or so in town, then again in maybe 2001 through 2003. I was also a frequent guest on the Stardust Line sports radio show in the late '80s and through maybe '93. They offered me the cohost job at one point but it was only $40 per show, 10 to midnight Saturday and Sunday, and required a year long stay, which I balked at since I leave every summer and Christmas.

I went back for the final Stardust Line program late last June. Many former hosts and guests were there, people I hadn't seen in years. Then I also went back for the final two nights at the Stardust at the end of October.

This town is changing and none of it for the better.

[Jimbo S]

8. My favorite sports book as well

Easy to get to. Easy to see the screens. All with the feel of one of the big sportsbooks.

Yesterday was the first that I heard the news. I had no idea.

[Awsi Dooger]

13. Happened very quickly

The owners announced last spring that the Stardust would close by the end of the year. Then sometime during summer the last day was set at November 1. The last thing the owner did was shut off the electronic board in the sportsbook. He said, "time to shut it down, boys." The last night of the Stardust they didn't take sports bets and the electronic board said THANK YOU in huge lettering that took up the entire board.

Heck, when I moved to town that board wasn't even electronic. It was a hand board with guys upstairs who had to physically open the board and change the odds. You could see them doing it. I knew one of them well, a black guy named Luther. I had a buffet with him a few weeks ago and reminisced.

I enjoyed walking around the place in the final week. They had pictures on the wall of the hotel's history. Some of it was bizarre. I had no idea they had a horse park on the north side of the property in the '60s, complete with a rodeo ring.

They also had a donkey catapult, if you can believe that. A big tank of water and a donkey who would be catapulted into the water from a raised platform.

[MonkeyFunk]

9. Couldn't agree more...

I used to love Vegas. As you said, you could go get a cheap room, cheap food and a good time.

Now it's expensive and they're doing everything they can to make it less appealing.

We used to walk up and down the strip with a bucket of quarters, ducking into every casino along the way. Now you can barely walk betwee casinos and coins are a thing of the past.

Remember you used to call a change attendant, buy a roll or two of quarters, put 'em in a machine and pull the handle? All gone.

[Awsi Dooger]

14. The lack of coins still blows me away

Once in a while you see a machine where someone put in a quarter or dollar but didn't pull the handle, for whatever reason. My strategy has always been to load it up to the max amount and pull the handle, with the advantage that someone gave me a jump start. I've actually hit some minor jackpots that way.

Now I see it and reach into my pocket for quarters, then realize the damn machine doesn't even take quarters. There's no coin slot at all. You have to put in a bill or voucher.

Get this, I couldn't even get change at Harrahs a few weeks ago. I wanted a quarter for the peanut machine on the way out the back door, and the Harrahs personnel couldn't give me a quarter. I thought they were joking until they insisted the casino doesn't deal with change anymore, other than the cage.

[MonkeyFunk]

15. isn't it weird?

You don't hear coins falling anymore in a casino.

[trof]

17. Almost got 'rich' on one slot.

We were playing the slots one night and my co-pilot came over.
"You gotta see this."

He took me over to a machine he had been playing.
"Watch."
He put in a quarter, pulled the handle, no win.
He put in another, same result.
Then he put in 4 quarters and hit a 2 for 1 jackpot.
The damned thing was paying off every third time like clockwork.
We teamed up and went to bed about $300 richer.
And we carefully marked the location of the machine.

We were back in town 2 days later and couldn't wait to get to the slots. Alas, someone at the casino had noticed the predictable payout and the golden goose was gone forever.

[Awsi Dooger]

5. And about that crying smilie

A bit hard to admit this but I did cry the last night the Stardust was open, when I drove away for the last time. Took me completely by surprise. I guess it signified the last old place to come down, the joints I called home after moving here in the '80s. I find myself spending time at the Frontier because it's virtually the lone old place on the Strip that basically hasn't changed since I moved here.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. yeah, that's it...

it was one of the last of the classics.

I first went to Vegas in the early 80's and it was very different then. And I'm sure it was different 30 years prior to that.

But the Stardust was a great place back when you could acutally walk the strip. Where's Wayne Newton gonna go?

[Awsi Dooger]

11. Newton left the Stardust a couple of years ago

The owners indicated the hotel wouldn't be around for the duration of his 10-year contract, so he left early. I don't know where he is now but I don't see his name on any of the major marquees.

[ForrestGump]

18. He's at Harrah's, part-time, and I think he might play at the Flamingo again, too,

like he did last year. They're both owned by Harrah's now, as is just about everything else on the Strip that's not owned by MGM-Mirage. I really don't like that two companies control most (about 85%, I'm guessing) of the Strip.

I saw the Waynester in December, for the first time (comped...my ex-father-in-law's an old friend of his)....he's still an entertaining dude, and very talented, but his voice is shot -- and by this I mean not that his voice has deteriorated but that it is totally gone.

[Awsi Dooger]

19. I officially hate Harrah's

Get that on record. It's a cheap company with the worst imaginable relationship between profit and taking care of the customers. Not even close. The players card is a farce. You virtually have to earn everything on one day or get almost no credit for it. I used to play the same amount on bonus machines at Harrah's as anywhere else, yet maybe cash in $10 once every six months. In other spots it's more like every two weeks.

I had dozens of buffets in earned comps at the Imperial Palace player's club until Harrah's acquired them. Harrah's immediately retroactively slashed that. Instead of dozens of buffets I had something like $20. It was obscene. Harrah's didn't even give me 10 cents on the dollar. A person who works there told me people were showing up from throughout the world thinking they had enough points for a comped room and everything else, only to be told they had been slashed down to virtually nothing. I heard it was high decibel arguments galore.

Plus they are notorious for not giving out comps in the sportsbook, and evicting locals from the sportsbook if they even threaten to win. I've had dozens of friends permanently booted from the Harrah's sportsbook, for doing nothing wrong. Somehow they let me stay, probably because years ago the sportsbook manager saw me return $100 to a ticket writer after I was overpaid. They did tell me I can't bet golf at their sportsbook.

Harrah's taking over every joint on the center Strip is an absolute nightmare. Many of my friends have left town as a result and I'm heading in that direction. Those sportsbooks are now merely satellites of Harrah's, the same line in spot after spot. Also, Harrah's hates the bonus machines and has taken them all out.

You're right, same thing with the MGM but at least they are more locals friendly and the sportsbook offers more variety, like first half betting.

[ForrestGump]

20. I hate the old Imperial Palace,

because I worked for the f***ers (they broke labor laws like crazy, too -- I'll be among many ex-employees cheering when they blow that place to pieces and, like many, there're certain in the hierarchy I'd like to tie up inside beforehand), but I have to admit that the changes that Harrah's have made there have taken away some of the elements of the IP that were good. I guess that's what happens when two companies have control of everything...not a lot of incentive to offer anything special or alluring.

People I know who worked here in the '60s and '70s all prefer when the Mafia was overtly in charge -- they treated the employees better and they treated the guests better. This is still a unique place, but it is no longer Las Vegas in much of a meaningful sense...Fremont Street, though cleaned up (probably a good thing) and somewhat Disneyfied, is one of few pale reminders left of what this place once was.

And I could easily have a Bahamas vacation -- it'd be my choice, too, anyway -- for less than it costs to stay ion a typical Vegas hotel room for a few days. This place is no longer downright cheap for the visitor and is rarely even a tolerable deal.

[Awsi Dooger]

21. I heard employees complain about the IP

That was one of my main hangouts in the '90s. They had a creative sportsbook with a young crew running it. Now they've relocated to the Hilton.

One of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed was the dog race handicappers who used to hang out upstairs in the IP racebook balcony. They knew how every dog would break out of the box, and therefore which dogs would be wiped out and which ones would get a clear run. They hit so many longshots or semi-longshots it was incredible. Eventually the IP cut down on the bet limits from those guys and they would try to sneak the bets in through myself or others, but it quickly became obvious what was going on so they would cut me off also. Eventually those guys got thrown out of every joint.

Many employees told me how cheap the IP was and the laws it broke.

I rarely go into the IP any more. They consolidated the sportsbook into the racebook so it's not the same. The drive thru sportsbook is closed although the building is still out there. The old blue signature cocktail waitress uniforms are long gone. The little burger joint virtually doubled its prices when Harrahs took over. I assume the same thing happened to the pizza restaurant. The buffet was always a last resort, unless comped.

Most likely when my parents visit my dad will want to see the IP auto collection. Otherwise, no reason for me to go in there anymore.

[Cobalt-60]

6. My grandmother always hit the Stardust

when she was in Vegas.

[Left Is Write]

10. I haven't been to Las Vegas since 1995, and I'm very sad about several of the old places.

[SeattleGirl]

12. Vegas is in a state of constant change.

Haven't been in a couple of years, but I usually go 1-2 times a year, and there is always something different each time I go.

[trof]

16. I used to stay there a lot. Layover hotel. Some memories:

I was flying the Chicago-Vegas-Chicago red eye for TWA.
We got to Vegas around noon, had a 36 hour layover, and back to ORD at midnight the next day (night?).

We got a lot of '2nd level' entertainers going back and forth. Not the big stars, but somebody you might have seen on Carson once or twice.

I remember a standup comic (they just called them 'comedians' back then) named Morty Gunty. He was with us on the red-eye back to ORD. After takeoff we'd open the cockpit door and invite folks to come up. Morty appeared in the doorway and said "Can I ride up here? They got all the lights off back there and I can't sleep. I'm WIRED, man."

Sure. I put him in the jumpseat.
For the next 3 hours he kept us in stitches. Joke after joke and juicy tidbits about other Vegas performers.
The guy was 'ON' until we started the descent into ORD and he had to go back to his seat.

I was surprised that he never made it really big.
Always a lounge act, I guess.