You have until Nov. 17 to get a 3/4-lb. Mega Dog at the Westward Ho. Photo credit: Susan Hawkes
It is with a heavy heart that we deliver the news that the Westward Ho will close its doors on Nov. 17, after which it will be demolished to make way for… does it matter? It won’t approximate “the Ho” as we affectionately called it. It won’t come close to the Ho for its loopy, relaxed ambience, it’s cheap beers and margaritas, its representation of Middle Aged Vegas.
Going down with the Ho (or shortly after) will be Slots O’ Fun, Circus Circus (and that slice of Hunter S. Thompson lure), The Stardust and the Frontier. A vast swath of Vegas, erected in the last 40 years or so, will succumb to the momentum that has already claimed the Dunes, the Sands, the Hacienda, the Landmark and the Desert Inn. And although our personal Vegas experience only begins with our first visit in 1988, we still remember all those establishments fondly. And while the new “mega-resorts” are pleasant and charming in their own way, we lament the loss of the funky, older, cheaper spots– the ones with history, the ones sporting glorious black and white portraits from the era when the entertainers created the aura and not the buildings or the decor or the food.
We’re told that the swath of casinos that is so unfortunate as to be situated between the Venetian and Paris will also be obliterated– that’s the Casino Royale, the Barbary Coast, Imperial Palace, Bally’s and Harrah’s. Along with Harrah’s will go the Improv. And, unless and until they find a new home in LV, that’ll be three fewer slots for comics in the desert. We’ve been hearing for some time now that the Trop is scheduled for an appointment with the dynamitologist, too. Three more slots bite the dust when that goes down. (Correction: We have it on good authority that the Trop will remain standing for three more years. If true, this means that the Stop at the Trop will continue as well. And rumors are flying around Vegas that there’s been a management shakeup at the top of the Catch a Rising Star chain, further impeding their re-entry into the Vegas market.)
We hear that the Riv is safe… for now. From our room on the 20th floor, looking north, we can see seven cranes in the not-too-distance. The development– residential and casino-al, is encroaching. The Riv is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The old black and white pics are everywhere– on the walls, the placemats, everywhere. In 1955, Wladziu Valentino Liberace sliced the ribbon on this slice of Vegas history. We were told by one of the maitre d’s that the lounge from which Shecky Greene ruled this town is now Penny Town, a slot enclave just inside the Riv’s northwest corner which opens out onto Las Vegas Blvd.
Comedy, with a capital “C,” is still a major component of the entertainment scene here– Carlin, Clay, Spade, Wayans, Rudner, Wallace– all of them are headlining rooms up and down the strip. But will small-C comedy survive? The room here at the Riv is going strong with great crowds, two shows a night, seven nights a week. It’s deceptively large– 350 maximium occupancy. And it has a great, small club feel. Will mega-resort owners put in 350-seat rooms like this one? Who knows. If they didn’t, would that be the end of small-c comedy? We’re inclined to think not.
When the mega-resort Borgata opened in Atlantic City a couple years ago, the powers-that-be installed the state-of-the-art Borgata Comedy Club. It seats 900, it has a 3-comic format and it is, from all indications, a success. Perhaps this is the wave of the future. Maybe small-c comedy has matured to the point where the Steve Wynn’s of the world are inclined to provide it with glittering 900-seat venues like the one in A.C. Perhaps the outlook is actually better than ever. Perhaps instead of promoting two shows a night in a 350-seat room, they’ll do one show a night with 700 to a thousand. Either way, the crowds get a real kick out of seeing live standup comedy. The two experiences are different– for both the crowds and the comics, but they’re both wildly entertaining. Maybe the large and the medium rooms will co-exist, as they currently do in A.C.