Mystery at Third and Ogden

Downtown drag cabaret Celebrity Vegas has disappeared. Just don’t tell anyone

Pj Perez

There's something fishy going on at 201 N. Third Street.


Last month, under the fawning eyes of the media and with the full support of the City of Las Vegas, Celebrity Vegas opened on "The Block," a new nightlife promenade at Third Street and Ogden Avenue that also features Hogs & Heifers, Triple George Grill and Cuba, with more businesses on the way.


Celebrity, the first branch location of a popular Dayton, Ohio, drag-show nightclub, seemed to be on its way to drag queen success. Its grand opening on August 23 featured ever-present Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman on stage himself, and owner Don Troxel bragged about the great location and the equally great future he was going to share with his neighbor businesses.


Troxel isn't singing the same number now.


After persevering through discrimination, litigation, relocation and seemingly endless months of licensing and construction, Troxel has inexplicably given up on his dream of a drag club in Downtown Las Vegas. He and his club are vacating the space that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and many unrecoverable months to renovate and develop.


The trouble is, nobody is talking about it.


Of all the tight lips surrounding Celebrity's closing, Evan Russell has had the most to say about the situation. A partner in the new venture that plans to take over the space, Russell is trying to disassociate the location from anything gay or drag-related. His plan is to make the nightclub into a live music venue. Already, Franky Perez has played in the club for a private party, according to Russell.


The questions remain: How and when did this happen? Just two weeks ago, the Review-Journal was still gushing about The Block and Celebrity, and in that paper, Manager Dwight Key gave no indication that things were not faring phenomenally well. Russell, however, claims Troxel and Key were looking for someone to take over the club a week after opening.


"They knew it wasn't going to work and we were just lucky to get the building," Russell said.


Troxel is refusing to answer any questions about the situation with the club. When contacted at home, he sternly refused to comment.


"Every time I comment," Troxel said, "Things get twisted around."


Well, they're sure as heck not going to get cleared up, either.


Whatever happened with Celebrity, not only are the parties directly involved refusing to go into detail, but neighbors on Third Street seem to have their lips sealed as well.


A call to Triple George Grill, a neighboring restaurant on Third Street, provided some confirmation of Russell's plans. The young woman who answered the phone said that its neighbor was "no longer a gay club," and speculated, "It's more like a live music club now." She then recalled seeing a memo regarding the changes at Celebrity, and put the call on hold while she searched for it.


After a few minutes, a man's voice came on the line, identifying himself as "Jim" and quickly shutting down the line of questioning. "We have nothing to do with Celebrity," he said, sternly. "We have no idea what they're doing. One day they're open, the next they're not."


Though Russell sounded excited at first about his plans to reopen the club with regular live music by January, he later refused to talk about it further until "myself and my partner figure the whole deal out." The legal wheels have barely started spinning on the location's changing of hands, and Russell does not wish to jeopardize that delicate process by naming his partner or giving away too many details.


When Troxel first tried to bring his nightclub and cabaret to Sin City two years ago, he signed a lease agreement with Neonopolis, and spent more than $200,000 making preparations for the club's installation. The Downtown mall's owner, World Entertainment Centers, then informed him that his lease was denied, leading to speculation that there might have been anti-gay discrimination behind that decision. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman condemned the mall's actions and threatened to collect on the city's loans to the company. Troxel sued World Entertainment Centers, finally settling out of court in February 2005.


By then, he had found a new, welcoming location Downtown at The Block, a location that Troxel called "a godsend" in a Las Vegas Sun interview.

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