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TRAVEL BLOG10.31.06
R.I.P. Stardust Hotel
I visited the Stardust on Sunday to pay my respects. The famous sign was still there, a relic from another era. A marquee touted the final Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme shows, which ended Saturday night. Inside, a mostly older crowd was playing slots. A few diners were strolling out of the Cocoa Palms Buffet, with its $12.95 prime rib dinners. A sign near the rewards club members’ desk said, “We regretfully inform you, due to the closure of the Stardust, all points become invalid on Nov. 1, 2006 at close of the Stardust.” I sat down at a blackjack table to play a few hands. The dealer, a grim-faced woman in her 40s, absently shuffled the cards and wondered where she would find her next paycheck. “I’m still young,” she said. “I can’t retire yet.” There was talk of older dealers struggling to find new jobs, as if to confirm the stereotype that this is among the most shallow of cities. A guy next to me wondered which classic hotel would be next to go. His money was on the Riviera. A story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, not available online, noted that the Stardust was among the first Las Vegas hotels to be aimed at budget-conscious travelers, and that, “in a sense, the Stardust was the prototype of the mass-market casino resort”—a precursor to the likes of Circus Circus and Excalibur. The Los Angeles Times seemed to get it right when it noted Sunday: “When the Stardust shuts its doors, it will have gone from the world’s largest hotel to one of the smallest on the Strip, from glamour to infamy to middle-class normalcy.” And soon it will be simply dust. Photo by heather0714, via Flickr (Creative Commons). Categories: Weblog • Hotels • Las Vegas • R.I.P. 
Permalink • Comments (12)
COMMENTSAlthough I am not a fan of Las Vegas, I hate to hear about these venerable places being torn down. By Rhea on 10.31.06 at 11:21 AM
Beautiful eulogy, Jim. Can you please post pics of the “scantily clad nurses”? By on 10.31.06 at 06:31 PM
I hate to see these old places go too, Rhea. Thanks for the kind words, TambourineMan. As for the nurse pics, I’m pretty sure there are specialty sites covering that. Not that I’d know, of course. By Jim on 10.31.06 at 11:12 PM
Through the magic of Google maps you can still see it before it’s too late,. By on 11.1.06 at 09:28 AM
Nice story..
By on 11.1.06 at 03:38 PM
I stayed at the Stardust in 2002 . Always thought it looked great at night
By on 1.3.07 at 08:59 AM
Nice epitaph. I played poker last June at the Stardust and didn’t know it would be closing down so soon. It’s a shame - it still looked great at night and was one of the friendlier places to play. End of an era indeed! By on 2.15.07 at 08:36 AM
Me and my girlfreind stayed there in 2005. I have to say it was a nice and friendly hotel/casino. Also I think the prices was really good too. We would have stayed there again. Sad to see it go. But as someone else mentioned, we still have the memories.... By on 3.22.07 at 11:12 AM
What a shame to see it go. reminds me of the movie ‘Casino’ with Robert DeNiro. How the big hot shot commercial developers have taken over the friendly hotels and basically run Las Vegas. I guess it got rid of the mobsters. By David Murphey on 2.12.08 at 04:10 PM
Wont be long before all the old ones are gone. There is just way to much money to be made in the Casino industry, so all the old shops that are not making ‘x’ amount of money will be up for grabs. By Sports on 3.15.08 at 08:36 PM
Stardust Closure is news to me. I had been once in 2002 and enjoyed . It’s sad to get to know that it’s near closure.
By Climent on 5.12.08 at 05:59 AM
Xcellent writeup and it will be a sad thing to hear the closure! By Roselin on 5.21.08 at 08:28 AM
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I spotted the guy in the ghoulish grim reaper costume, gripping his faux scythe, at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas Saturday night. He fit right in among the other Halloween revelers—the scantily clad nurses, the Top Gun pilots in their flight suits and reflective sunglasses, Richard Nixon and his entourage of Secret Service agents. But the grim reaper really should have been skulking several blocks up the strip at the Stardust, where death loomed like a hazy cloud of casino cigarette smoke. On Wednesday, the half-century-old hotel with the strip’s most iconic neon sign will close for good. The usual implosion will follow in several months, paving the way, as the Vegas hotel life cycle dictates, for a new megaresort.
