How Las Vegas, Nevada Lost its Status as the #1 Worldwide Gambling Destination - 2012

 

How Las Vegas, Nevada Lost its Status as the #1 Worldwide Gambling Destination

In April 2012, I continued my travel from Los Angeles to Mesquite, Nevada. Already that day, I had taken the Pearblossom Highway to Interstate I-15 North. After observing the new industrial desert at Ivanpah Valley, California, I crossed the state line at Primm, Nevada. Approaching Las Vegas, I had planned for a Las Vegas Freeway “drive by”. Since I was pulling my travel trailer that Thursday afternoon, a drive up Las Vegas Blvd. (The Strip) was out of the question. By the time I approached the city, with rush hour well underway, I took a deep breath and prepared to run the traffic gauntlet that is I-15 through Las Vegas.

Until the 1970s, old U.S. Highway 91, Las Vegas Blvd. and The Strip were all the same road. In North Las Vegas, the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street was also the historic intersection with U.S. 93 (the Salt Lake Highway) and U.S. 95 (the Reno Highway). Other than at The Strip in Las Vegas and in tiny Mesquite to the north, 1967 marked the completion of I-15 in Nevada. Until the 1974 I-15 bypass of The Strip, however, old U.S. highway intersections Downtown were the nexus for all traffic entering or leaving the Las Vegas.

Lost in Nevada history is why it took seven years to build less than five miles of freeway around The Strip. With I-15 truncated at either end of The Strip, the final off ramps connected directly to Las Vegas Blvd. In those days, The Strip was famous for offering every pleasure or vice known to humans. Some might call the freeway delay good marketing. Others might call it shortsighted to delay opening the last I-15 gap in Nevada.

Whatever windfall Las Vegas experienced during the seven-year delay cannot compare to the unending drag that the strategy placed on the economic future of Las Vegas. The 1960’s and 1970’s were the heyday of Las Vegas, growing from a railroad and highway town to the premier international gambling destination. Money goes where it is comfortable and it is now six times more comfortable in Macau than it is on the Las Vegas Strip. In 2012, monthly gaming revenue figures for Las Vegas top out at $530 million. In Macau, a gambling-friendly enclave on the Chinese Mainland, April 2012 saw gaming revenues of $3.13 billion. From today's perspective, a traffic noose tightened around twentieth century Las Vegas left it gridlocked and unprepared for twenty-first century revenue opportunities.

When the I-15 Las Vegas bypass opened in 1974, it was already obsolete. By then, I-15 through Las Vegas should have been well into its first phase of widening and improvement. As a legacy of the old highway plan, I-15 North still makes a tight S-curve as it skirts Downtown. There, it utilizes a highway corridor designed to handle the traffic of the 1960’s. With its grimy bridges and tight turns, you know that you are on an old section of highway. As a consequence, for decades now, one of the few constants in Las Vegas culture is the rush hour traffic tie-up near Downtown on I-15 North.

Despite every lane-addition that highway engineers could manage, at least twice going northbound, the two right-side lanes of the freeway must exit. After years of traffic frustration, local drivers jockey for any possible advantage. At first, they keep to the right and then jam their way back on to I-15 North at the last second. Uninitiated drivers find themselves either shunted off the freeway or forced to act like locals, bulling their way back into traffic. Either way, a weekday afternoon trip on I-15 North through Las Vegas is a guaranteed white-knuckle ride.

From I-15 North, what once was a giant glass pyramid in the desert, the Luxor Hotel, now looks tiny and almost lost on the horizon. Now that I-15 carries far more traffic than The Strip, the latter has become an architectural showplace, beckoning to I-15 motorists. With ever grander and more iconic buildings, The Strip offers a welcoming message to harried freeway drivers. Nearing Downtown, buildings named Wynn, Encore and Trump, stand as high-rise monuments to outsized luxury and gaming revenue. With its combination of overheated traffic and fantastic architecture, a transit north on I-15 through Las Vegas reinforces it own self-image. I can almost see Frank Sinatra, his Rat Pack and the Mob in the 1960s deciding over drinks at the Sands Hotel that everyone should continue to drive The Strip.

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By James McGillis at 06:25 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | Link

Elton John 1973 "Lost Concert" T-shirt Replica Available at MoabJim.com - 2008

Elton John 1973 "Lost Concert" T-shirt Replica Available at MoabJim.com

In late 2002, I dragged out my slowly deteriorating Elton John September 7, 1973 Hollywood Bowl vintage concert t-shirt and assessed its sad condition.  The silkscreen image on my vintage Elton John t-shirt was crumbling further with each washing.

A spirit told me that I might have the last souvenir t-shirt from that magical Hollywood night, so I decided to restore my vintage 9/7/73 garment.  After snapping a digital picture of the t-shirt, I began the laborious "re-pixilation" of that image. 

Over the course of several months, I spent at least 200 hours restoring my 9/7/73 Elton John T-shirt image to as close to the original merchandise as possible.

The Elton John replica concert t-shirt is a MoabJim worldwide exclusive item, not found on TV or in any store.  Be the first on your block to relive Elton's classic live concert of 1973 in bright red style.  To learn more or to make a secure purchase via PayPal, go to MoabJim.com and click on the word "Apparel". Ten dollars of every purchase will go to the Elton John Aids Foundation.

January 5, 2014 - Author's Note - After shipping another Elton John replica t-shirt to a customer, I received the following note from fellow concert attendee, "N.K.". His vivid recollections of that night and the concert itself help us all to remember that special night with Elton John at the Hollywood Bowl.

I received the t-shirt and washed it per your instructions, but haven't worn it yet.

Elton's 9/7/73 Hollywood Bowl concert has become one of my favorite stories, one that I tell over and over again. Just walking in with everyone to find our seats was an experience, as I'm sure you remember that the crowd was really into it as a "happening" and LA did it up right. Everyone was dressed and ready for a party, and Elton sure gave us one. One thing I remember was seeing someone wearing clear plastic platform shoes with live goldfish in them, and everyone was dressed to the nines.

Remember the mermaids? The stagehands carried out a couple of women in full mermaid costumes and set them down in the fountains, which started flowing and lit up with colored lights. All the "celebrity" guests walked up the stairway and then down to the audience, and when they lifted up the lids of the five pastel-colored grand pianos that spelled out "E-L-T-O-N" on the lids, all the doves flew out of the pianos, and circled round and round in the colored spotlights pointing up above the audience.

The smoke from all the joints going in the crowd was like fog in the air, and when Elton walked down the stairs in his furs and plumes, and his glasses lit up to spell "Elton", the crowd went crazy.
As I recall, he did a set with the band, then a solo set at the piano, and then brought the band back for the finale, and each song was one that everyone knew. I think it was part of the Yellow Brick Road release tour, and as Elton himself said, he was at the peak of his creativity.

Thanks for the effort you put in to recreate the T-shirt - I'm looking forward to wearing it for the first time and saying "This shirt? Let me tell you what that concert was like..."

Cheers, N.K.

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By James McGillis at 01:53 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (0) | Link

Elton John Live at The Hollywood Bowl - 9/7/73

Hollywood Nights - Hollywood Lights

Elton John Live at The Hollywood Bowl - 9/7/73

 

News items for

September 7, 1973:

 

• Palestinian commandos and five Saudi Arabian hostages depart Paris in a Syrian Jet, heading for Jordan.
• Cambodian Guerrilla fighters sweep through the southern half of the strategic Kompong Cham Province.
• The U.S. Senate votes to forbid television blackouts of professional sports events that sell-out 72 hours in advance.
• The Grateful Dead play live at the Nassau, NY Coliseum, including their first live performance of “Let it Grow”.
• The U.S. Senate Watergate committee loses a bid to gain access to President Nixon's White House secret tape recordings in time for its final hearings.
• The Merv Griffin Show features Jack Benny, Mel Ferrer and Twiggy.
• In a transcendent performance, Elton John plays the Hollywood Bowl.

 

For several weeks prior, a huge billboard of Elton John, pictured in Fred Astaire-style white tie & tails, hat and cane had graced the Sunset Strip, adding to the hype of the big night to come. 

 

As the lights went down on a classic Hollywood Bowl night, an electric air of anticipation swept the crowd.  Searchlights swept the Hollywood night, as MC for the evening, porn star Linda Lovelace descended a grand staircase and introduced a series of celebrity impersonators, including Queen Elizabeth II, Elvis (The King), Mae West, Groucho Marx, The Beatles and Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster.

 

Having whipped the audience into frenzy, Linda went on to announce, “Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the biggest, gigantic, most colossal…  Elton John”.  Resplendent in a white feathery cowboy outfit that spangled and sparkled from every seam, Elton descended the staircase.  At that moment, five colored grand pianos opened together, spelling ‘ELTON’ on their lids. 

 

As hundreds of white doves flew from the five pianos, Elton launched into the rocking “Elderberry Wine”.  One of the doves flew nearly straight at me, bouncing off the fan standing next to me and landing at our feet.

 

Maybe once, maybe twice in a lifetime, we are present at a creation so different from its precedents; it sweeps us away to a new dimension.  Critics and fans alike agreed that September 7, 1973 was such a night.  Remarking later about this time in his career, Elton said, “It was magic; that creative period of my life will never come again.”  Chris Charlesworth, in Melody Maker's September 15, 1973 issue, called this show “Elton's finest hour”.

 

If my memory still serves me, a live crocodile crawled across the stage during the band’s rendition of “Crocodile Rock”, while Elton John's sound engineer played electric piano dressed as a crocodile! 

 

Released just that day as a single in England, Elton sang, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and "Candle in the Wind", later turned into a paean for his fallen friend, Princess Diana.  “Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting” rested comfortably that day at #8 on the Billboard Chart.  Other songs played that night include “Honky Cat”, “Rocket Man”, “All the Girls Love Alice”, “Daniel”, “Madman Across the Water” and “Teacher I Need You”.  

 

Perhaps it is a cliché to say that a lot has changed in the past 35 years, but little has changed as much as the cost of concert tickets and concert memorabilia.  At that time, tickets to one of the best live performances of the 20^th Century were less than $15.  Each of the 16,000 attendees who was willing to wait in line received a free concert t-shirt, showing Elton John, dressed in tails, with a top hat and cane.

 

Several years ago, I dragged out my personal t-shirt from that night and assessed its sad condition.  The silkscreen image of Elton looked as bad as Leonardo da Vinci’s, The Last Supper, prior to restoration.  Something told me that I had the last souvenir t-shirts from that magical night... and I wanted to save it for posterity.

 

After snapping a digital image of the t-shirt, I began computer “re-pixilation” of that image.  Over the course of several months, I spent many hours restoring the image to one that is nearly identical to the original. We are happy to say that exact replicas of the t-shirt are now available. For more information, click HERE. Or, click HERE for secure PayPal purchase of your own exact replica of the original Elton John Hollywood Bowl 9/7/73 t-shirt. Ten dollars of every sale will go to the Elton John Aids Foundation.

 

While researching Elton John’s September 7, 1973 Hollywood Bowl concert, I found several written references, but no images at all.  Could the pictures you see here be the only remaining images of Elton John, in his glory, at the pinnacle moment of his career? (Answer below)

 

Comment By Harvey Jordan on Thursday, March 17, 2011 08:30 AM | - Elton Live at the Bowl - Harvey wrote,  "Thought I'd show you one of my 9/7/73 shots. I was in the 10th row with a telephoto lens." 

 

<--Click on Elton for a larger image, by legendary Rock & Roll photographer, Harvey Jordan.

 

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By James McGillis at 01:09 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (3) | Link