Get a piece of the Stardust ...

Stardust, the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, closes on Nov. 1. On its website, www.stardustlv.com, there is a page devoted to an upcoming auction for stuff in the casino. Interested parties can check it out here:

http://www.stardustlv.com/site/whatsnew/

 

I walked through the Stardust a couple of weeks ago and it was beyond depressing. One of my favorite Vegas memories is watching the Virginia Tech-FSU national title game at the sports book while sitting next to Jimmie Walker. Talk about a crusty, bitter dude.

I'd like to put in a bid on the big Stardust neon sign. For my money, that's one of the best in Vegas.

 

Mrs. Wretch is going to be cursing you for alerting me to this auction. I wonder what a Stardust poker felt is going to fetch?

 

Sure sounds like Stardust was holding out on me when I visited them two weekends ago. I have a friend who'd love to buy a blackjack table and put it in his basement.

 

This was a decent, cheap choice back when Vegas catered more to the decent, cheap crowd. As the center of the Strip has moved south, the prices have gone with them.

 

I've been to Vegas three times and always stayed at the Stardust. I'd like to get the secret hot tubs / grotto out behind the pools, but I don't think I could get that into my living room.
Good times, good times.

 

Here's a Jimmie Walker story: 10 years ago he comes through town to do a one-night gig at a brew pub/restaurant. It's my job to interview him for a story. I get there and go upstairs to the office and he's on the phone. He ends the call a few minutes later and I tell him who I am and yadda yadda. He tells me to hold on and makes another call and proceeds to talk for 15 minutes, as I stand there getting pissier and pissier by the minute. He looks at me every so often, and finally after 15 minutes I walk to the door. He tells me to hold on and then I tell him to fuck off.

His act that night was usual dirty jokes and foul-mouthed vulgar, a lot of it funny. He made a funny joke about Madonna, which I mentioned in the story, not so much the punchline but the general sentiment about the joke. Next day the M.E. gets a few calls completely irate that I'd put that in the story, but he went to bat for me and basically told them the same thing I told Jimmie when he gave me the cold shoulder. Dickhead.

As for the Stardust ... it was fun place to stay in the late 80s, early 90s.

 

That's sad. The Stardust was one of the first hotels in Vegas that really gave a shit about the sports betting aspect of the place. A lot of the other hotels basically would make you walk through the entire place until you found the sports book, hoping you would get sidetracked someplace else and lose your money at slots or something.

The Stardust had its sports book right next to the door, and you basically had to go through the sports book to get to the blackjack tables, etc. They seemed to be saying, 'hey, even if you're not staying here, you're playing here.'

 

Still was in summer of '06 too.

 

AP story on Stardust's finale. Story also explains what will happen to the 18-story sign out front.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061102/ap_en_ot/stardust_memories

 

The Stardust is the only sportsbook that I know of that had breakdowns of referees and their calling patterns.