By John Katsilometes
A man in attendance at the newly refurbished -- or, as the company prefers to term the hotel, "refreshened" -- El Cortez on Monday afternoon remarked, "I wouldn't come in here two years ago" because the casino was so thick with smoke.
The guy making the remark was Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, and when he said it he was standing in the hotel's pristine new porte cochere.
Yes, the old downtown hotel-casino long ago owned by Bugsy Siegel and for more than 40 years operated by Jackie Gaughan, has been refreshened in the same spirit as one of Goodman's Bombay Sapphire martinis. We're judging on a sliding scale, of course. Prior to New Year's Eve the last time I was in El Cortez was about 10 years ago. Smoke was the least of the problems in the old El Cortez, which seemed to be held together by duct tape, semi-chewed Chicklets and kite twine. As a friend of mine once noted, it was the type of place where four security guards are summoned whenever someone asked to break a hundred-dollar bill.
So it needed more than someone to push a Hoover across the casino floor, and General Manager Mike Nolan has delivered. In both the casino and hotel rooms, the carpet has been replaced (and I can't tell you if the new style is better or worse than the old because I could not make out what the old carpet style was, exactly) and new paneling has been nailed to the walls. More than half of the 2,200 machines have been pulled out to make for a more navigable casino floor. A new entryway featuring a $600,000 retro 1960s-era sign is in development. The bars and restaurants will also be refurbished, and across Ogden Avenue the Ogden House wing of the hotel will be given a similar strafe-and-refresh treatment. So far, a total of $12 million has been spent on the project, which will cost $20 million upon completion.
Oh, and the company invested about $500,000 in a new air-filtration system, which judging by the Camel-packing crowd milling around the casino Monday, is already getting a workout.
Gaughan was in attendance and posed with Goodman's ubiquitous showgirls. As photographers snapped away at the homage to Old Vegas, Goodman turned to Gaughan and said, "This is one of the people who built this town." And even gave it a refresher course.
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An ad on Craig's List is offering church pews. For free! It reads, "We are GIVING AWAY" approximately 900 linear feet of church pews. These are used with some nicks and scratches, some need minor repair, but are newly re-upholstered." There are 27 pews in all, ranging from 8 to 18 feet in length. There are hymnal racks ("That's no hymnal rack! That's my sister!") and communion cup holders on the back of each of the pews. Go to Craig's List to make the conscious contact.
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Vegas moment: I was wearing a burgundy-colored shirt, gray slacks and a matching tie as I walked through El Cortez. I must have looked like someone important. As I passed one of the bars an older man who was quite rustic in nature called to me, "Sir! I'll behave! I'll behave!" Eh? Me too?
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Oscar's ride: The Vegas centennial commemorative plate on Goodman's slate-colored Mercedes Benz C320 (which he drove, unaccompanied, to the El Cortez event) reads, LV1.
Fabulous Las Vegas appears daily (well, almost) at this Web site. John Katsilometes can be reached at 990-7720, 812-9812 or at [email protected]