Updated Las Vegas Halloween Happenings

We've got some updates on the Halloween Happenings around Las Vegas this weekend and want to share them with you so you have time to make plans, adjust plans or just plan to have a good time.  Okay, enough with the plans.

John Waters and his One-Man Show at the Palms this weekend:

"Well, I think this year it should be called “This Horrible World,” since it’s a horror convention. It’s everything about my life. It’s sort of like a “feel good if you’re insane” lecture to inspire people who might feel left out of society ... I’ll talk about horror movies. My mother thinks all my movies are horror movies, even though none of them are technically horror movies." (excerpt from his interview with the  Las Vegas Sun)

Fangoria Halloween Weekend at The Palms: The Palms Casino Resort will be the home base for all things creepy and spooky as Fangoria's Trinity of Terrors comes to town during Halloween weekend. Get tickets for concerts, movies and lectures from all your favorite horror film actors and creators plus musicians like Slipknot and Rob Zombie as well as John Waters' show.  Click on the link for more details.

The Blacklist Art & Film Festival at The Griffin: The Griffin will host The Blacklist Art & Film Festival, an event which celebrates creativity outside the mainstream arts scene. Check out a Halloween-inspired event with an art gallery featuring works by local and visiting artists plus a horror film showcase with screenings of award-winning short films that are a must for any horror fan. Click on the link for more details.

Rocky Horror Picture Show at Texas Station: Viva Rawk Vegas at South Padre at Texas Station presents a live performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show featuring the cast of Divine Decadence. Dress as your favorite character and win a share of $500 available to the best costume. Dance to the sounds of DJ Pierre while you enjoy $15 all you can drink draft beer, $4 Jack and Pepsi and 2-for-1 Patron and Jagermeister shots.  Click on the link for more details.

Want something a bit more traditional:

Nevada Pops' Halloween concert at Artemus Ham Hall at UNLV:Get a little culture this Halloween with the Nevada Pops' Halloween concert at Artemus Ham Hall at UNLV. Music from the movie Twilight and selections from Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked will be played. Click on the link for more details.

For more information on other Halloween Haunts around the Las Vegas Valley, click HERE for our extensive listings.

Don't forget, tomorrow is Nevada Day, with many State and Government Offices being closed.

Or if you are planning on staying in:

Turner Classic Movies is offering a 24 hour Scary Movie Marathon  beginning EARLY Saturday morning (note: all times PST):

3:00 AM	Woman In White, The (1948)
5:00 AM	Dead of Night (1945)
7:00 AM	Haunting, The (1963)
9:00 AM	Abominable Dr. Phibes, The (1971)
10:45 AM	Diary of a Madman (1963)
12:30 PM	Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows (2007)
2:00 PM	Cat People (1942)
3:30 PM	Curse of the Cat People, The (1944)
5:00 PM	Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1941)
7:00 PM	Murders in the Zoo (1933)
8:15 PM	Body Snatcher, The (1945)
9:45 PM	Circus of Horrors (1960)
11:30 PM	Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932)
1:15 AM	Son of Dr. Jekyll, The (1951)

Also, TCM and Universal have partnered up on the Universal Cult Horror Collection.

http://tinyurl.com/yhjmfce

HAVE A SAFE AND FUN HALLOWEEN!

Boyd Gaming says Echelon Resort Not Coming Any Time Soon

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Ah, the Stardust, we remember you well.  Maybe not the grandest of places on the new Las Vegas Strip but still a fun, comfy place if you were looking for that classic Las Vegas vibe.  The Stardust was torn down back in 2007 to make room for Boyd Gaming new mega-resort, Echelon.

But then the economy cratered, taking Bill Boyd's dreams of a luxury resort along with it.  To stop hemorrhaging money on the project, he dialed construction back to the bare bones in hopes that he could ride out the crisis.

Early this morning he announced that it will be a tad longer for those waiting for Echelon to be finished.  Another three to five years longer before construction resumes.  That's an eternity in Las Vegas. 

From Howard Stutz at the R-J:

Boyd Gaming Corp. said this morning it doesn’t expect to restart construction of the $4.8 billion Echelon project for at least three to five years.

The company suspended construction of the Strip development on the site of the former Stardust more than a year ago.

"We continue to believe in the long-term viability of the Las Vegas market," Boyd Gaming Chief Executive Officer Keith Smith said. "But given the ongoing weak economic conditions, the significant new supply coming online and a difficult capital-market environment for projects of this nature, resuming construction in the near term is not an option."

The recession reduced Boyd Gaming’s third quarter profits. The casino operator said its net income fell about 27 percent in period that ended Sept. 30.

Boyd Gaming said its net income was $6.3 million in quarter, or 7 cents per share, compared with $8.7 million, or 10 cents a share for the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet Research estimated, on average, the company would report earnings per share of 12 cents.

Boyd said revenue fell 6.6 percent in the quarter to $398.2 million. The company blamed the slump on reduced consumer spending, especially in Las Vegas.

“Improved results in our Downtown Las Vegas, Borgata and Midwest and South regions helped offset softness in the Las Vegas Locals market,” Smith said in a statement. “While visitation levels remained fairly constant, spend per visitor continues to be down significantly year-over-year, as consumers are still being cautious with their spending.”

Jackie Gaughan: Last King of Downtown Las Vegas

For Halloween Happenings around the Las Vegas Valley, click here.

Jackie Gaughan turned 88 earlier this week.  Our buddy John L. Smith has plenty to say about one of the men who helped shape Fremont Street in the 1960s and 1970s:

The last king of downtown moves slowly these days. He can still be found most mornings puttering around the El Cortez amid the clatter of slot machines and din of gamblers' voices.

The king spends hours at a table in the poker room, smoothing the green felt and playing the cards he's dealt. He's in for small stakes, but the chip count doesn't matter. At 89, he's comforted by the rhythm of the game he's played longer than he can now remember.

Outside, the Las Vegas he knew and helped create has grown and changed, gone corporate and strange.

In here, the world still makes pretty good sense to Mr. John D. Gaughan.

His many friends call him Jackie, but to me he'll always be the ebullient, baggy-pants king of downtown.

And he's the last king left in the old Vegas deck. Benny Binion died in 1989, Sam Boyd in 1993, and Mel Exber in 2002. That leaves Jackie.

Legend has it Jackie goes so far back in the gambling racket he watched Palamedes put dots on the first dice, but I trace his wagering roots to the storefront bookmaking shops of Omaha, Neb., in the sunny days before World War II. Those who think Omaha was a sleepy crossroads don't know it once was considered the gambling capital of the Midwest. Those who perceive Jackie as a simple old-schooler should know the World War II veteran earned a degree from Creighton University.

At one time or another, Jackie has owned or had a hand in operating most of the buildings of Fremont Street. An incomplete list: Jackie Gaughan's Plaza, and a partnership with Exber in the Las Vegas Club, the Pioneer and Sundance; he was a major stockholder and board member of the Golden Nugget, and he owned the Gold Spike and Western Bingo, and the Bingo Club and Boulder Club.

Jackie also owned several points in the Showboat and the Flamingo, but as son Michael Gaughan says, "Dad was a downtown guy. He never understood why people would build neighborhood casinos. He liked downtown. And my dad always did well with the local citizens. Even the El Cortez does well today. He's probably had more gaming licenses than anybody else."

And the thing is, Jackie knew his places intimately, visited them daily wearing his plaid sport coats and a sunny disposition. Jackie was never too big to pick up an empty glass or clean an ashtray.

Talk about a hands-on operator. He was a one-man welcoming committee. Years after he could afford to delegate the grind work to a gaggle of assistants, Jackie insisted on making the rounds and distributing his kitschy but profitable "fun books" filled with food discounts and gambling specials.

Big or small, for many years his casinos made money. The coins rolled, the cash flowed, and the net profits made Jackie the envy of some corporate casino titans who strained under elephantine overheads.

"When he was healthy he would walk his places every day," Michael Gaughan recalls. "He always knew the names of all his employees. He cared about his customers and he cared about his employees."

That familiarity, impossible at a mega-resort, endeared him with his workers. That, and a generous pension plan that enabled porters and waitresses to retire in dignity.

Jackie sold his downtown casino interests a few years ago, and today his beloved El Cortez is owned by a group of family friends that includes Kenny Epstein, Mike Nolan, Lawrence Epstein, and Joe Woody. The son of gambler Ike Epstein, Kenny first met happy, hard-working Jackie in Lake Tahoe in the 1950s.

Although Jackie sold the El Cortez, he still lives there as he has for decades. He still eats his meals with Kenny and Co. Epstein wouldn't have it any other way.

"I've met a lot of people in my life, but I've never met anybody like him," he says. "Jackie treats everyone alike, from a porter to the chairman of the board of one of these big corporations. He's just a regular guy. There's nobody like him. He's just a Midwesterner."

Casino impresario Steve Wynn knows Gaughan as a mentor who played an integral role in his career when he took over the Golden Nugget in 1973.

"What I remember and am most grateful for is, as green as I was in that position, Jackie treated me with great respect," Wynn recalls. "He treated me as a young guy that should be helped. He did nothing but help me. If I called him six times a day, he'd be nothing but warm and supportive."

Wynn has met his share of characters, but few match Gaughan. Mention those sport coats, and you can't help but smile.

"He's one of the most colorful, delightful, warm, and sincere men I've ever known," Wynn says. "And he was a real category breaker. No one dressed like him except him."

But unpretentious doesn't mean simple.

When Wynn made the acquaintance of billionaire Warren Buffett, who was the first person the financial wizard of Berkshire Hathaway inquired about?

His old friend Jackie Gaughan.

Gaughan was a gifted businessman, but he could also be a soft touch. He kept the Western open long after it was no longer profitable. He didn't have the heart to tell the employees they would have to look for a new job.

Michael Gaughan laughs at the memory of a late-night phone call a few years ago from his father. Jackie was worried about the homely little Western.

"I said, 'It loses money. Not making money causes problems,'" Michael says. "He took the loss. Until we sold it two or three years later, he took the loss. You don't have people like this any more.

"He sincerely cared about his people. There are some people who talk about it. My dad always cared about his employees, and he had a fabulous pension plan."

I asked the son about his father's generation of royal casino characters who managed to trade notoriety for secular salvation in the land where gambling was legal.

"Everyone else is gone," Michael Gaughan says, wistfully. "Even people you don't know about. He's the last one."

Here's to the town that had such kings in it.

U2 Rocks Las Vegas

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Bono and girlfriend, Christine Monroe

Well, Henderson really.  After all, they were at Sam Boyd Stadium.  But, nonetheless, the rockers from Ireland put on a great show.  From the Beatles to Iron Butterfly to the Doors to Led Zeppelin to Elvis, Las Vegas has always been a lure for rock and rollers.

From our pal Mike Weatherford at the R-J:

The current president appeared in a video graphic and a former one -- Bill Clinton -- was in the press box. But the night belonged to U2, the rock 'n' roll royalty that convenes a party at Sam Boyd Stadium about once every president or two.

And frontman Bono, who's had the ear of those presidents for his social activism, needed only to spin around in circles a couple of times, arms overhead, to rechristen the stadium for a sold-out crowd of more than 40,000 for the "360" tour.

 

But, as he sang in the second song, "Get On Your Boots," it was too nice a night "to talk about wars between nations."

"Every religion has its Mecca," Bono told the crowd. "We (entertainers) end up here, sometimes on our knees, but we come to Vegas."

He introduced his bandmates with comparisons to every entertainer from Bette Midler to David Copperfield before declaring, "My name is Wayne Newton."

Before long, he was leading a "Viva Las Vegas" sing-a-long.

The Irish rockers and Sam Boyd Stadium don't get together too often, but when they do it's an affair to remember, fleeting but passionate.

It started in November 1992 with the "Zoo TV" tour, the first 80-foot stage with 1,200 tons of giant TV screens the stadium had ever known. It continued when the "PopMart" tour launched in April 1997. Parking-lot bootleggers rolled tape (yeah, it was tape back then) on the nightly rehearsals.

But even after a lot of practice, that date was best known for the boys getting stuck, "Spinal Type"-style, inside a giant lemon.

Now the tour is sponsored by BlackBerry and everyone used their smart phones to talk to friends on the other side.

The massive "360" stage made it look like the stadium came out on the losing end of a flying saucer invasion, almost a living-room show compared to a recent stop at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium where photos reveal the earthlings won.

Not many bands can host this kind of party. Festivals such as Vegoose -- already come and gone since the last U2 stop -- mostly replaced single headliners for gatherings of this magnitude. Other stars on the short list, namely the Rolling Stones, opt to play big-money indoor dates on the Strip instead.

The weather smiled on the band's choice to take the path less Vegas on one of those fine desert nights that wasn't too hot, too cold or too windy. The crowd had clearly aged along with the band. Tailgating was light and refined; one party of about two dozen even hired a hosted bar with table cloths and a bartender in bow tie.

As he cooked chicken fajitas for a group in the parking lot, Las Vegan Rick Wylie said he was here for the Zoo TV tour in 92 as well, but there was no cooking then.

"Just heavy drinkin'" he said with a laugh. "That's when we could handle a hangover."

More current pop stars, Black Eyed Peas, were added as the opening act, possibly to youthen the demographic of a stadium light on the "Now Generation" they sang about.

The crowd was more on the cordial side until frontman will.i.am. won them over with sincerity, a shout-out to U2 and other bands who manage to "stay together for the love of the music," and a little humiliation of those who would be "chillin' lackadaisical" up in the stands while Fergie did her "Boom Boom Pow."

Friday also offered a pleasant morning to those who started arriving at 6 a.m. to line up for a preferred spot on the general-admission floor.

Fans debated whether it was better to be inside the race-track ramp that circled the stage or on the outside of the rail.

"We're just addicted to it, to be honest with you," said Pat Dalug, the Princeton, N.J., man who had a place near the front of the line. "Some people don't understand, but we understand. I always tell my wife -- it's better than smoking crack."

Dalug even was on the clock, sort of, passing out sunblock samples. As he eyed other fans sipping coffee or napping on air mattresses, he noted, "You forget about all the problems, all the responsibilities."

"Chicago was a little crazy," Dalug added. But neither U2 nor its fans are spring chickens anymore. "If you get arrested, it's on our record. We're not underage anymore."

Boris "Bowman" Poehland from Hamburg, Germany, was trying to follow as many shows as he could in the United States.

"This show is all about different perspectives," he says. "I've been almost everywhere with this show."

But, he confessed, "U2 is the name of my traveling agency. I love this band, but it's only 40 percent the show. Sixty percent is traveling around the world meeting old friends, meeting new friends, being in G.A. line for two days. That is the fun."

Adam Clayton and The Edge

Photos courtesy of the Review-Journal