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Speaker 1: Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and my buddy

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Speaker 1: Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, folks, this

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Speaker 1: is Paul Anka.

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Speaker 2: And my name is Skip Bronson.

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Speaker 3: We've been friends for decades and we've decided to let

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Speaker 3: you in on our late night phone calls by starting

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Speaker 3: a new podcast.

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Speaker 1: And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet

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Speaker 1: some real good friends of ours.

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Speaker 2: Your leaders in entertainment and.

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Speaker 1: Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even a sitting

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Speaker 1: president or two.

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Speaker 3: Join us as we ask the questions they've not been

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Speaker 3: asked before, tell it like it is, and even sing

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Speaker 3: a song or two.

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Speaker 1: This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.

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Speaker 4: Hey, what do you have to did you hear? Beyonce's

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Speaker 4: new album, Cowboy Tarter System came out this week.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, everybody should be in the country music because I

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Speaker 5: think it's the tourist form of American music is country music.

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Speaker 5: I mean, I grew up on it back in Canada.

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Speaker 5: You know. It was just it's the greatest form that

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Speaker 5: we have that in jazz. But it's a great album.

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Speaker 5: The single's very very cool, and the Joelene they changed

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Speaker 5: the lyrics. I think she sings it with Dolly Partons.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's just amazing. Isn't country music the number

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Speaker 4: one format now?

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Speaker 3: I think so.

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Speaker 5: I don't know the answer to that. I know that

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Speaker 5: it's a very important part of the whole mosaic of

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Speaker 5: music because it's not just country anymore. It's country pop.

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Speaker 5: It's got a little country R and B to it.

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Speaker 5: You've got, you know, a lot of the performers, the stars,

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Speaker 5: they've got the it. They're all glammed up. You never

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Speaker 5: saw that years ago. Beyond that story, the force today

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Speaker 5: in music for me, and she tops it off now

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Speaker 5: are women. There's a song out now by a girl

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Speaker 5: called Dasha and it's called Austin, and it's so real

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Speaker 5: and authentic. The way this girl sings it and the

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Speaker 5: way they've produced it. It's an amazing, amazing record. Dasha Austin.

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Speaker 5: You've got all these women who've come out now and

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Speaker 5: they've got stronger presents than the men.

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Speaker 4: And talking about country. When you first started, wasn't rockabilly

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Speaker 4: that was sort of the precursor to rock and roll.

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Speaker 5: Well, rockabilly started. There was a guy in England called

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Speaker 5: Lonnie Ganigan and I used to sing it as a kid.

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Speaker 5: It was that kind of music, the first of its kind,

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Speaker 5: and who tried to make it, Pops little rear. It

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Speaker 5: was Bobby Darren. Bobby Darren's first record on Decca was

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Speaker 5: Rock Island Line David Diggen When You Getting In and

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Speaker 5: it was exactly that. That was Darren's first record on Decca.

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Speaker 5: Of course after that he went rock and roll, But

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Speaker 5: you're right, that was probably one of the first. Ronnie

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Speaker 5: Donogan I think his name was a British artist.

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Speaker 4: Huh, yeah, can you remember what you had for breakfast?

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Speaker 5: Me? What's that? God? I don't know where I get

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Speaker 5: this from. Yeah, you know what? You know what I'm

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Speaker 5: excited about. Man. The response to our brother Steve, Steve

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Speaker 5: Winn for the rest of them. I can't believe the

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Speaker 5: response I got. How was it for you?

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Speaker 2: Unbelievable?

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Speaker 4: Got so many calls, texts? Yeah, people were you know.

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Speaker 2: The stories.

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Speaker 4: Look the guy, he's got great stories and is a

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Speaker 4: great storyteller.

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Speaker 5: He's a wordsmith, you know the way he puts it

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Speaker 5: all together. And but you and I know that for years,

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Speaker 5: I think what would be cool? Do you want to

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Speaker 5: call him or do you want me to call him?

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Speaker 5: I think we should get him for one more episode.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it should because I want to get into

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Speaker 4: the design process. You've probably heard this. He does a

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Speaker 4: whole thing about how conflict and tension are so critical.

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Speaker 4: You know, when he first did the Mirage, a tropical

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Speaker 4: themed resort in the middle of a desert, like the

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Speaker 4: last thing you'd ever expect, And that's always been sort

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Speaker 4: of his thing. And I also know he always told

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Speaker 4: me that the movie South Pacific, you know, that really

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Speaker 4: inspired him. So it'd be fun to ask.

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Speaker 2: Him about that.

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Speaker 4: I think it'd be cool.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we should take a shot at him

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Speaker 5: and get him on again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And then also, we didn't have time to talk about

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Speaker 4: what you did to he and I and Monte Carlo,

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Speaker 4: which was cruel but funny.

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Speaker 5: He didn't think it was so you didn't think it

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Speaker 5: was so funny.

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Speaker 4: No, I didn't like it, all of it.

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Speaker 5: Everybody, You'll never you you know what you want to

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Speaker 5: tell everybody? How do you guys? You've ever had an argument?

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Speaker 5: You and Skip? I said, you know what, We've never

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Speaker 5: ever had an argument because Skip is very, very very

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Speaker 5: smart and I'm always right.

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Speaker 2: The perfect combination.

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Speaker 5: There you go. Okay, let's let's take a shot at

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Speaker 5: let's get them.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, let's do it. Okay, you remember what you had

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Speaker 4: for breakfast as well as you remember the rockabilities think thinking,

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Speaker 4: I'm thinking. So you always can remember everything, but you

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Speaker 4: can no longer guarantee same day delivery, right.

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Speaker 5: No, I can't. It's very very eclectic day delivery are out.

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Speaker 2: Here is not very well. I'll you.

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Speaker 3: And look at the way you've changed everything. I mean

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Speaker 3: with the Mirage that was the first absolute game changer.

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Speaker 3: Was what seven hundred million dollars and changed everything with

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Speaker 3: the Mirage became a place where everybody had to see it.

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Speaker 3: It was a musty attraction. Didn't matter where they were staying,

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Speaker 3: if they were in Las Vegas, they had to come.

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Speaker 2: It was the first three thousand room hotel on earth

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Speaker 2: in the.

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Speaker 3: World, and a level of quality that had never been

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Speaker 3: seen in the town. And then with the Belagio getting

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Speaker 3: to the next level after that, in a town that

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Speaker 3: was known for no good places to eat and no

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Speaker 3: really no good shopping, turned it around to a place

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Speaker 3: that where Las Vegas became a culinary capital and where

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Speaker 3: every major retailer in America had to have an outpost

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Speaker 3: in Las Vegas. The changes you know, not to be

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Speaker 3: a sick event, but the changes that all stemmed from

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Speaker 3: your creative jo.

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Speaker 2: It was like being a football team.

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Speaker 1: He was the big dreamer that came in and change.

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Speaker 2: I was I called a play I was like a quarterback. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but we had we had all pro wide receivers and

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Speaker 2: running backs and the defensive and offensive line. The team

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Speaker 2: that got together. You know, once we started having good

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Speaker 2: taste and imagination, A lot of people with good tastes

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Speaker 2: and imagination want to join up, and you end up

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Speaker 2: with a gang, a really wonderful group. And it only

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Speaker 2: takes eight or nine people like that, maybe six or

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Speaker 2: eight people, and you got You got Gangbusters. It's great.

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Speaker 2: You can really go to town.

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Speaker 3: But I would see you sitting in that design center

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Speaker 3: hour after hour, agonizing over the font for the men's

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Speaker 3: room sign, sitting originally with Joel Bergman and then later

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Speaker 3: the writer Butler.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 3: I never really thought of you. This is going to

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Speaker 3: sound funny. I never really thought of you as a

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Speaker 3: developer in the true sense of the word, because a

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Speaker 3: developer is a guy that has to go out and

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Speaker 3: get the entitlements, the right to build all that. You

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Speaker 3: were a designer. You had this vision where you had

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Speaker 3: your imagination that big. Yeah, no one could compare, and

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Speaker 3: you changed the town. You totally changed the town. And

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Speaker 3: then everybody else when you up to your game, you

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Speaker 3: forced the other operators in town to up their game.

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Speaker 3: That's the reason they did it because they had to

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Speaker 3: otherwise they would just get taken under by this tsunami

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Speaker 3: that you had created. So everybody then had to do

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Speaker 3: something great, and.

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Speaker 1: They sat by thinking he was never going to make it.

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Speaker 2: No, it wasn't that easy, no question. If you guys

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Speaker 2: look and people listening to this conversation, you think of

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Speaker 2: modern Las Vegas with all of the massive developments up

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Speaker 2: and down the strip. Some of them are part of

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Speaker 2: Blage and Mirage and win resorts. I think we did

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Speaker 2: five of them. But I can tell you the moment

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Speaker 2: there actually was a moment where modern Las Vegas was born,

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Speaker 2: like a like a big bang theory of the universe.

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Speaker 2: I can track it to the to a two day period.

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Speaker 2: You know, it was what it was up until you know,

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Speaker 2: we did a great job downtown and we made money

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Speaker 2: in the Atlantic cities, sold it and came home and

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Speaker 2: we got our hands on the property that is now

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Speaker 2: Treasure Outland and Blajio and Mirage, and we had money

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Speaker 2: from that we had made by selling the Atlantic City Place,

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Speaker 2: and I bought the property from Howard Hughes's nephew that

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Speaker 2: was Hughes's and now we were on our way. With

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Speaker 2: the help of Mike Milkin and Trexel Burnham, we could

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Speaker 2: design a new hotel. And there were hotels that had

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Speaker 2: fifteen hundred rooms, the Hilton and MGM. It was big hotels,

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Speaker 2: fifteen hundred rooms and they had and Caesar's Palace had

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Speaker 2: twelve hundred rooms. And the Hilton was convention business. MGM

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Speaker 2: was touring travel and slot machines. Caesar's Palace was big fights,

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Speaker 2: glamorous entertainment, you know, the next generation after the Sands.

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Speaker 2: And although they had twelve hundred rooms, they made more

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Speaker 2: money than the other two. But each of these three

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Speaker 2: programs was different. I came up with the idea with

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Speaker 2: my colleagues that we were going to build a three

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Speaker 2: thousand room hotel. We were going to have the glamour

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Speaker 2: and the fanciness and the imagination of Caesar's Roman theme.

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Speaker 2: We're going to do tropical, but we were going to

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Speaker 2: have convention space like Hilton. We're gonna have the amount

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Speaker 2: of rooms in the shops of an MGM. We're going

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Speaker 2: to combine all three ideas in a modern hotel. And

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Speaker 2: that was a town where no one had ever spent

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Speaker 2: more than one hundred million or sixty million to build anything,

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Speaker 2: and we were going to spend north of a half

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Speaker 2: a billion, six hundred and fifty million dollars. And we

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Speaker 2: had some money from New Jersey. We had a couple

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Speaker 2: hundred million that we had made, and we're going to

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Speaker 2: borrow money from Drexel Burnham. And we just sat down

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Speaker 2: and decided how to I remember, I remember I had

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Speaker 2: a two seater Mercedes two EIGHTYSL that was powder blue,

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Speaker 2: and we had just finished by in the land and

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Speaker 2: it was time to start dreaming up the Golden Nugget

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Speaker 2: Strip Hotel. We didn't ever mirage name yet and I

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Speaker 2: took it was a beautiful day, and I drove out

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Speaker 2: to the Sands, which was across the street, the original Sands,

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Speaker 2: and I knew the Valet Parkers for several years. This

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Speaker 2: I stave as I can, I park my car right

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Speaker 2: here by the sidewalk. The Porkershire came out and the

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Speaker 2: column that held up the end of the porkersheare was

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Speaker 2: right next to the sidewalk, and I pulled in and

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Speaker 2: I parked next to the column that was next close

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Speaker 2: to the sidewalk, and I got out of the car

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Speaker 2: and I sat The top was down, and I sat

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Speaker 2: on the left front hood above the headlight, my feet

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Speaker 2: on the ground, my butt against the car, looking across

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Speaker 2: the street at the property that I had just closed on,

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Speaker 2: which included a Castaways motel that was closed there wasn't

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Speaker 2: have to be torn down, some empty property, and then

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Speaker 2: two service stations, a souvenir joint, a budget renner car,

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Speaker 2: and a home owned by a woman named Bracy Hayes

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Speaker 2: that was in an old folks home. But she had

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Speaker 2: owned that house and for some reason preserved it and

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Speaker 2: the Hughes people could never get their hands on it.

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Speaker 2: But they did own the empty land and they owned

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Speaker 2: the Castaways, and I had bought that from Howard Hughes's nephew.

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Speaker 2: And I'm sitting on the car, my arms crossed on

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Speaker 2: my chest on the hood, saying what are we going

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Speaker 2: to do? Okay, here you are. You got a big

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Speaker 2: fat strip location. Turns out to be big enough for

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Speaker 2: two hotels. But what are you going to do? Perfect

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Speaker 2: pristine moment? Now, what you're gonna do? The night before

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Speaker 2: I had been watching Johnny Carson before I went to bed,

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Speaker 2: lay in bed and watch Johnny Carson, and he had

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Speaker 2: Neil Simon on as a guest that wrote all those

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Speaker 2: great comedies. And he said to Neil Simon, how do

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Speaker 2: you how do you make how do you why do

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Speaker 2: you write that humor? How do you write that comedy? Neil?

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Speaker 2: And Neil Simon was like mister Rogers, he was very

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Speaker 2: prefatorial kind of izers. Well, Johnny, I look for conflict

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Speaker 2: because the tension created by conflict gives you a rise

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Speaker 2: for humor and of course tragedy as well. And going

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Speaker 2: to bed saying yeah, tension, conflict creates tension. What you're seeing,

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Speaker 2: what you what's your mind tells you're looking at? I

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Speaker 2: went to sleep. And I's always been a nut about

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Speaker 2: Broadway musicals, and I love South Pacific, and I had

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Speaker 2: seen the movie South Pacific. And in the movie South Pacific,

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Speaker 2: Lieutenant Cable lands on the island on his mission and

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Speaker 2: he's walking up the beach. He bumps into Bloody Mary

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Speaker 2: played by Juanita Hall, and she sees this handsome lieutenant.

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Speaker 2: She calls him lieutenant and thinks he's handsome, and he says, hello, Lieutenant,

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Speaker 2: you're very handsome. And he says hello, and she says,

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Speaker 2: I'm a bloody Mary. And she's a Tunkanese, heavy set,

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Speaker 2: you know, pear shaped woman, not very attractive. And she's

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Speaker 2: decided that she wants to fix up Lieutenant Lieutenant Cable

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Speaker 2: with her daughter, who's over on a neighboring island called

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Speaker 2: bally High. And she said, Lieutenant, you'll see this bally High,

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Speaker 2: very beautiful. You could go there, I take you. He's

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Speaker 2: there in a mission to fight the Japanese. This a

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Speaker 2: World War two movie. And then in order to wh

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Speaker 2: she says to him, look look at bally High, a

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Speaker 2: little talent look island of dreams. And she sings, come

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Speaker 2: to me, bally High, bally High, your island dreams or whatever.

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Speaker 2: He just starts singing the beautiful song from South Pacific

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Speaker 2: called your own special island, bally High. And as as

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Speaker 2: she's singing this beautiful song with full orchestration, you see

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Speaker 2: this gorgeous island a mile or two away, And the

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Speaker 2: director Josh logan used too many orange filters, so it

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Speaker 2: almost this sultry red heat of the afternoon makes it

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Speaker 2: look like it's almost on fire. It's beautiful with this

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Speaker 2: beautiful song. Come to me, Bally Eye. And for some reason,

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Speaker 2: I'm sitting on that damn Mercedes hood and I'm looking

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Speaker 2: at the castaways and and the thing from from Doc

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Speaker 2: you know, from the Night Before from Johnny Carson Show.

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Speaker 2: I say, Bali Eye a dream, Isle of dreams. Suppose

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Speaker 2: what you see with your eyes is in complete contradiction

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Speaker 2: of what your brain. This is the harsh Southern about

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Speaker 2: a desert. Hardly anything grows here. It's cold in the winter,

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Speaker 2: it's one hundred and seventeen in the heat in the summer.

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Speaker 2: Suppose you saw BALIHI suppose you saw a tropical paradise

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Speaker 2: South Pacific. And I swear I heard one ay to

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Speaker 2: Hall's voice in my ear. It'said a tropical hotel with

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Speaker 2: an adream. You could see through the glass the conflict.

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Speaker 2: If you stood on a strip and you saw waterfalls

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Speaker 2: like in the and like in the South Pacific movie,

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Speaker 2: with coconut palms and elephant ears and banana trees, you'd say,

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Speaker 2: wait a minute, this is not supposed to be here.

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Speaker 2: This is wrong. The conflict between which your brain saw

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Speaker 2: and which you thought should be there would create the tension.

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Speaker 2: And I said to myself, people would say, we got

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Speaker 2: to go inside and see what this place is all about.

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Speaker 2: And at that moment is when I dreamt up the

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Speaker 2: Mirage and went and told my colleagues, and everybody got

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Speaker 2: into it, and all but everybody started coming up with

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Speaker 2: great ideas, and the Mirage got designed, and we're spending

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Speaker 2: six hundred and fifty million, and the Wall Street Journal

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Speaker 2: and the Forbes magazine and our competitors up and down

294
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Speaker 2: the strip said, ah, the six hundred and fifty million.

295
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Speaker 2: His overhead's going to be a million dollars a day.

296
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Speaker 2: He'll never make it because nobody had an overhead like that.

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Speaker 2: There used to be two three hundred thous in expenses

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Speaker 2: a day. We actually were going to be a million

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00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:09,840
Speaker 2: one a day. And they wrote articles that the Mirage

300
00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:14,840
Speaker 2: was going to be the great bankruptcy. But it also

301
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:18,840
Speaker 2: is a question, is the demand for Las Vegas so

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00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:24,399
Speaker 2: elastic that that could happen? Are we all living in

303
00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:28,600
Speaker 2: an era where small was good, But the world has

304
00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:32,160
Speaker 2: moved past us is Las Vegas the kind of place

305
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:34,880
Speaker 2: you can invest a half a billion or a billion dollars.

306
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,160
Speaker 2: When we first showed the model of Mirage at the

307
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:43,320
Speaker 2: Golden Nugget downtown, it was called the Golden Nugget Strip property.

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Speaker 2: I said, when this place gets built. We had a

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Speaker 2: press conference and it's on tape. When this place is

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Speaker 2: built in three years, its most famous contribution will not

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Speaker 2: be that it's a great place it makes money. It will,

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00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,200
Speaker 2: but it's going to show the world that Las Vegas

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Speaker 2: can take that kind of money and the demand for

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Speaker 2: Las Vegas is elastic that it won't scavenge the other

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Speaker 2: hotels that'll bring more people to Las Vegas. And I

316
00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,879
Speaker 2: did go on record at the opening reveal of the

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00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 2: model downtown at the Golden Nugget that that's what I

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00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:23,040
Speaker 2: thought would happen. Well, as I say, they watched it

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00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:28,479
Speaker 2: go up, massive place on sixty acres eighty acres, and

320
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,720
Speaker 2: the whole world was it'll never make it. The overhead,

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00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:34,240
Speaker 2: the word got out that it was going to be

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00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:36,840
Speaker 2: a million over a million dollars a day to break even,

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Speaker 2: seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days

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00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:46,280
Speaker 2: a year. Well, the time came The opening was November

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Speaker 2: twenty second Wednesday, the anniversary of Kennedy's assassination. Actually nineteen

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00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:54,480
Speaker 2: eighty nine. November twenty second noon on a Wednesday was

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00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:56,760
Speaker 2: going to be the opening. We were going to reveal

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00:19:57,560 --> 00:19:59,879
Speaker 2: nobody was allowed in accept workmen in this and the

329
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:04,960
Speaker 2: people hired, but there was an idea that something extraordinary

330
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:07,240
Speaker 2: was in this building that was done at a scale

331
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,320
Speaker 2: it was different. A whole bunch of us had done

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00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:14,480
Speaker 2: our best work there. Really talented people contributed to making

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00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:16,920
Speaker 2: that place what it was. Plus we had Sigfried and

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00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:23,639
Speaker 2: Roy and white tigers and elephants. Well, we had the

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00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:27,480
Speaker 2: street roped off, and the press was that we're going

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00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:29,800
Speaker 2: to have a secret We're going to open the hotel

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00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:34,240
Speaker 2: by checking in our first secret guest to the hotel.

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00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,080
Speaker 2: And they had ropes down on the sidewalk so you

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00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:40,119
Speaker 2: couldn't come up the driveway, and we had the cameras

340
00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:44,480
Speaker 2: there and the governor and other VIPs. Mike Milkan was there.

341
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:50,520
Speaker 2: We were going to welcome the first check in mystery guest,

342
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:53,960
Speaker 2: and then we were going to open up the drop

343
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:58,760
Speaker 2: the barricades and let them come. And here's what happened.

344
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:06,400
Speaker 2: A rolls Royce pulled up convertible with Siegfried and roy

345
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,440
Speaker 2: in the front seat and two white tigers in the

346
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 2: back seat, and they got out of the car with

347
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:21,679
Speaker 2: Acbarkabul and Neva, two giant white tigers with leashes, and

348
00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:25,080
Speaker 2: walked into the hotel, shook hands with us and took

349
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,359
Speaker 2: the animals into there that no one knew if we

350
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 2: had them on display, and we welcomed our new guests.

351
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:36,720
Speaker 2: We're two white tigers. And then I had a handheld

352
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:43,840
Speaker 2: mic and I said, security opened the gates, dropped the ropes. Well,

353
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,560
Speaker 2: the governor, Mike Milkan, and I and David Hersey, who

354
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 2: had been the landscape architect that did all the trees

355
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 2: in front and all the waterfall. They ran from both driveways,

356
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,640
Speaker 2: you know, it was a circular driveway. In the lead

357
00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:02,040
Speaker 2: were young kids that could run, asked, but there were

358
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,840
Speaker 2: tens of thousands of people all the way up the strip,

359
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:08,639
Speaker 2: and they came running and we were right in the middle,

360
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:11,000
Speaker 2: and I said, oh my god, they're not going to stop.

361
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 2: But they had also roped off. We were standing, and

362
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:16,400
Speaker 2: they got to the rope and they all just stopped

363
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,879
Speaker 2: so we could make remarks. But for a second we

364
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:23,159
Speaker 2: thought we were going to get trampled. Well, seventy thousand

365
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:25,920
Speaker 2: people went through the hotel the first day. It was awful.

366
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:30,280
Speaker 2: You couldn't move. Women came with strollers. It was I stopped.

367
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,400
Speaker 2: I stopped the strollers after the first day. But seventy

368
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 2: thousand people the first twenty four hours. Now Wall Street

369
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,080
Speaker 2: and the financial community wouldn't know if if we're the

370
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,440
Speaker 2: last week in November, we're going to have a short

371
00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 2: report for the end of the year, and then we'll

372
00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 2: publish those earnings at the end of January, no one's

373
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,159
Speaker 2: going to know anything about numbers or financial success or not.

374
00:22:55,400 --> 00:23:00,800
Speaker 2: But in Las Vegas the night that the opened on

375
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:06,960
Speaker 2: Wednesday night, by midday on Thursday, every executive at every

376
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:10,919
Speaker 2: one of the other properties on the strip knew everything

377
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,600
Speaker 2: about the Mirage. Number one food and beverage guys talked

378
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:20,639
Speaker 2: to other food and beverage guys. Casino executives talk to

379
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:23,639
Speaker 2: other casino executives. You know, the hotel guy talks to

380
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,960
Speaker 2: the other hotel guy. So they're all talking to each other,

381
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 2: these pals that work at these different hotels. They're saying

382
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:32,840
Speaker 2: every room is booked, that we every room has been

383
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 2: booked for almost thirty days already the prices are one

384
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars a day more than we thought.

385
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,280
Speaker 2: You can't get a space of a slot machine. The

386
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:48,239
Speaker 2: crap tables are overrun. And everybody in the business in

387
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 2: Las Vegas knew within twenty four hours that Las Vegas

388
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 2: had turned the corner and that if you build it,

389
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 2: they would come. The Mirage did that, and within a

390
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:07,119
Speaker 2: week the price of real estate, the adjacent lands on

391
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:10,840
Speaker 2: every hotel had doubled because every one of those CEOs

392
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,639
Speaker 2: up and down the street knew that they had to

393
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:17,040
Speaker 2: expand that the Mirage was going to take it away

394
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:20,159
Speaker 2: from him, or the Mirage was going to show that

395
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,040
Speaker 2: there was so much money left on the table. If

396
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 2: you built it in Las Vegas, the world would show up.

397
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 2: And the Mirage actually had the market grow by twenty percent.

398
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 2: One hotel did that. We were supposed to make a

399
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 2: hundred you know, we lose money or go broke, but

400
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:39,479
Speaker 2: our own numbers showed that we'd make one hundred and

401
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,679
Speaker 2: forty to one hundred and sixty million dollars on the

402
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 2: six hundred and fifty million dollar investment. Pretty fancy. We

403
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 2: went right to two hundred and twenty five million. The

404
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 2: world loved it, and it was the late eighties early

405
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 2: nineties when the Japanese were in the country. So Mirage

406
00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,400
Speaker 2: opened up just at the right time, just the right

407
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:04,440
Speaker 2: moment in the history of Las Vegas, for Las Vegas

408
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:06,919
Speaker 2: to take its next step. If it hadn't been me

409
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 2: and my crowd, my game, it would have been someone else.

410
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 2: But we were at the right place at the right time,

411
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 2: and that was the moment. The modern Las Vegas was

412
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 2: born in the last week in November of nineteen eighty nine,

413
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 2: and during the nineteen nineties, four billion was spent and

414
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 2: the town lent from eighteen thousand rooms to one hundred

415
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:33,119
Speaker 2: and fifty forty thousand rooms in ten years. And between

416
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two and nineteen eighty nine, nothing but the

417
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 2: Mirage had been built. And then in the next eight

418
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 2: years it culminated with we did Treasure Island three thousand rooms,

419
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:51,240
Speaker 2: we did Blagio three thousand rooms, but so did the

420
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 2: other guys, and that's how what you see in Las

421
00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:00,080
Speaker 2: Vegas today came about. But there were seventeen years where nothing.

422
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 3: In the past year, probably the most dynamic thing to

423
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 3: happen in Las Vegas was the F one race this

424
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 3: past fall, and of super and in the nineteen nineties,

425
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 3: the mid nineteen nineties, you, Paul Ank and I went

426
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 3: to Monte Carlo because you had an idea.

427
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:31,600
Speaker 2: Terrible thing you did, Paul.

428
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 3: You had you had an idea to bring the F

429
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,680
Speaker 3: one to Las Vegas and you wanted to have if

430
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,639
Speaker 3: you recall, the finish line was going to be the

431
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 3: port Coashier.

432
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 2: You're going to come up and make of the Bolagio

433
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 2: like when you go through the town in money.

434
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,399
Speaker 3: And we got we got on on the plane and

435
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 3: we went there and you at that time were very

436
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 3: interested in having an audience with Prince Renier to talk

437
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,600
Speaker 3: to him about their casinis, their gaming.

438
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,120
Speaker 2: And Paul he asked to see us because yeah, yeah,

439
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 2: he had come and stayed at them.

440
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 3: At Paul will let you pick up Bobby.

441
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:09,639
Speaker 2: There was three of us that when.

442
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: I think Bobby went, we stayed at the Hotel de Peri.

443
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 2: For the audience to say Bobby Baldwin was one of

444
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,640
Speaker 2: the key executives that ran our business.

445
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:27,679
Speaker 1: You know, and we go over and we're being treated royally. Obviously,

446
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: everybody's happy. Steve is there we're looking forward to meeting

447
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: with Bernie Ecklestone.

448
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:37,679
Speaker 2: I think the guy who owned them had given us

449
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:38,879
Speaker 2: his suite at the hotel.

450
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: The hotel and I was sitting around one day and

451
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,439
Speaker 1: I'm saying, okay, this is a little too quiet for me.

452
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: We're waiting to go to the events. We'd already gone

453
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,919
Speaker 1: around the track with schu Macher. Remember he put us

454
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: in the car. So we did our thing. So I

455
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: picked up the phone and I called up.

456
00:27:59,160 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 2: Treacherous sent them.

457
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:05,199
Speaker 1: I called up Skip, this is mister Bronson, This is

458
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 1: Henry L. Lewis over at the palace. We are honored

459
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,200
Speaker 1: that you are here with us, you and mister Vinn,

460
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 1: and we wanted to just let you know that the

461
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 1: Prince is very interested in meeting mister Vinn over here

462
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:26,959
Speaker 1: at a private, private, little meeting before the cocktail, before

463
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: the cocktail party. And I said, it's very important that

464
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 1: he'd be here at five point thirty, but in a tuxedo.

465
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 1: He must be in a tux.

466
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 2: Sedo explained that when they had the Grand Prix, Prince

467
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 2: Reinier would have a big cocktail party up at the

468
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 2: palace on the night before the race, and it was

469
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 2: a big thing to get invited, right, But that was

470
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 2: that from six thirty to eight or nine.

471
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: And the meeting was to be before and this for

472
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: the cocktail party.

473
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 2: The manager, the chief of staff of Prince Reinier calls up,

474
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 2: going to be but skip catch the call, says the Prince.

475
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 2: He called skip on purpose. The Prince wants to have

476
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 2: a private meeting very important with mister Wynn at five

477
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 2: point thirty before the big cocktail party, and he'd like

478
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 2: him to come in a tuxedo. Correct, please be at

479
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 2: the palace at five thirty, Prince Rainier, I would like

480
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 2: to talk to him, mister Winn and skip.

481
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: You turned him down. He turned me down.

482
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 2: That's not possible, And I said, he puts on this accent.

483
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 1: I put my French action.

484
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,160
Speaker 2: Jacques Jacques said, do I'll even tell you the name

485
00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 2: you use. This is Jacques said, with the French accent,

486
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,719
Speaker 2: the chief of staff of the palace for Prince Rainier.

487
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 3: And I said, you know, mister Wynn has some vision issues,

488
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 3: so I'm going to have to be with him. And

489
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 3: they said no, no, no, no, that's not possible. He's going

490
00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 3: to have to be here. It's it's going to be

491
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 3: one on one. It's going to be Regner and mister

492
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 3: Wynn and no one else, No one else can be

493
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 3: with him. I'm thinking, well, why is that. Well, we

494
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 3: have very special protocol and already, so I called Paul

495
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 3: and I said, Paul, you're ready for this. There's going

496
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 3: to be a meeting. Steve's going to have a meeting

497
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 3: of one on one with Prince Renier. And Paul says,

498
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 3: you're kidding. It's fantastic. And I walked down the room

499
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 3: the hall to Steve's sweet and Steve's in there. He's

500
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 3: putting his tuxedo on. He's getting all ready, the whole thing.

501
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 3: No tuxedo, I said, I better check and make sure

502
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:27,719
Speaker 3: you know. I was on the bed in my underwear. No,

503
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 3: but you were getting ready to get dressed up. So

504
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 3: I called over to the palace just to make sure

505
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 3: everything was going to be coordinated properly. And they said,

506
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,040
Speaker 3: there's no one here by that name. And I said, well,

507
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 3: that's not possible.

508
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 2: He called.

509
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 3: I spoke to him myself, Well no, that's not possible,

510
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 3: and we don't know anything about any meeting. There isn't

511
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 3: I said, what, No, No, you're not listening you're obviously

512
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 3: not in the loop. This has been arranged, it's all

513
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 3: been coordinated. Everything he's been taken care of. You don't

514
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:00,320
Speaker 3: know who the chief of staff is. Connect it is

515
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 3: someone who does exactly.

516
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, I run the Steve's room because I figured this

517
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: has gone too far and you walk in.

518
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:11,560
Speaker 2: Before they gets off. He gets in an argument with

519
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 2: the oppers. If you don't know who it is, I

520
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 2: want to speak to the cheapest staff, Jacques the do

521
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 2: I've spoken to him. Now put someone on who does

522
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 2: know what's going on there. The operator is obviously intimidated.

523
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 2: It works at the palace. Click click, ring ring, hello, Hello, my,

524
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 2: I'm just get Brian word from mister with mister Wynn

525
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:33,840
Speaker 2: and we're supposed to have this meeting. We're meeting the

526
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 2: chief of staff for the Prince Rainier speak a five

527
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 2: point thirty and I need to get some I need

528
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 2: to communicate on behalf of mister Wynn. H to the

529
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 2: chiefest staff, Jacques sad silence of one counter. I am

530
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 2: the chief of staff of Prince Regnier and there is

531
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 2: no such person as Jacques said, do in the palace.

532
00:31:59,480 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 4: Now.

533
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 2: This guy is a British naval officer with a straight back,

534
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 2: no sense of humor, and he must deal with screwballs

535
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 2: all the time protecting his boss. And he doesn't like

536
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 2: this phone call. And he tells Skip hisses at him.

537
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 3: Did he hang up on your did you? He's furious that,

538
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,320
Speaker 3: so I called Paul to tell him what had happened.

539
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 1: Well, you could know. First I went over to Steve's room.

540
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 2: He's with me.

541
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: I had decide to mend this again. Right you walked in,

542
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 1: I'm there with him about to tell me you were

543
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: on the phone with Elaine. As you walk in, Steve,

544
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 1: I just want to let you know I spoke to

545
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,880
Speaker 1: the palace. I got this guy blah blah blah blah.

546
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 1: He didn't get it, and I told him you're not

547
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 1: in the loop, so don't worry. I straightened it out.

548
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm saying, Skiff, there ain't no meeting. I'm

549
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: sudou forget about it.

550
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 2: His host, Skip runs and takes a look at Anka.

551
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 2: I think maybe Paul's life is in danger because he

552
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 2: had just made such a horse's ass of himself. Well,

553
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 2: and you're telling me, yeah, I'm on the phone with

554
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,680
Speaker 2: my wife, Paul. Paul says, it's got a guilty look

555
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 2: in his face that maybe this one spun out of control.

556
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 2: This ain't like the Chipriani, this was well, there was

557
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 2: indeed a cocktail party at the palace and we were

558
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 2: indeed invited, and Renier was looking for us. And we

559
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 2: end up by the buffet, myself and Paul with Prince

560
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:42,239
Speaker 2: Renner on this beautiful Saturday night or whatever night it

561
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 2: was Friday night and having drinks in the open courtyard

562
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 2: that was beautiful, and Skip walks up and in a

563
00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 2: few minutes I start to tell the story, and a

564
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 2: guy walks up about six to one, sort of sway back,

565
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 2: you know, real straight, you know, his back, very British

566
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 2: looking with the dark suit and the full windsor tie.

567
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 2: Humorless looking guy like a security garden. Mister Win his

568
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 2: chief of staff. Ah, And I say, you know, we're

569
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:29,960
Speaker 2: we're having a giggle for a but a very embarrassing thing.

570
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:36,160
Speaker 2: We are an apology. But the superstar or whatever it

571
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 2: decided to have some fun poor mister and played that

572
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 2: practical joke that caused him to make the call. And

573
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,919
Speaker 2: Reinier and I we lay out what exactly what Paul

574
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 2: had done, and Rainier is lapping it up and starts laughing.

575
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 2: This guy has a face like ice, like rock ice season,

576
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:03,160
Speaker 2: not even not even a curl of a lip. Dead quiet.

577
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:07,560
Speaker 2: He glares that the three of us like what kind

578
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:11,839
Speaker 2: of jerks are you guys? And walks away. He did

579
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 2: not get the joke, did Yeah?

580
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,879
Speaker 1: Till the end of that story, though, Steve, you meet

581
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,399
Speaker 1: with Bernie. You're bringing it to Vegas. This guy's all

582
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,280
Speaker 1: teed up and he flies in to meet you in Vegas,

583
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:29,040
Speaker 1: and everybody's in.

584
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 2: The US into the office with six people.

585
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 1: And meanwhile you got the new shepherd. I ax, I

586
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 1: think it was.

587
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,200
Speaker 2: Rumbus, and I know it was. It was Ramas.

588
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: Okay, So now here's the scene. Everyone's in the office.

589
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,200
Speaker 1: You're getting ready to start this meeting with Bernie, who's

590
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,880
Speaker 1: flown all the way in. He leans over.

591
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:48,759
Speaker 2: On his way to the Melbourne Grand.

592
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,080
Speaker 1: Prix, and he leans over to pet your duck.

593
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,879
Speaker 2: Grab somebody ears right, and what happened the dog? There's

594
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:56,920
Speaker 2: all these people come in and he reaches down and

595
00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 2: grabs Rambus by his two ears. Ramas doesn't get it

596
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 2: and snaps and takes off the nose of his nose,

597
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:07,319
Speaker 2: the top from his bridge of his nose down to

598
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:12,080
Speaker 2: the tip about a half inch wide. A strip, but

599
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 2: I mean a strip. He stripped it off.

600
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 3: The blood shot all over and there was something I

601
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 3: could look like there was a mass murder in there.

602
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 2: They had a rush into a plastic surgeon. Guy had

603
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 2: never been in a hospital out of his life. Bernie Ecklestone.

604
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 2: He had a big nose. But we should have done

605
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:31,000
Speaker 2: a whole nose job. But they took him behind his

606
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:35,239
Speaker 2: right ear and made a skin graft. But in order

607
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 2: for it to work, the skin hasked. The part that

608
00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 2: you patch that you put on top has to be

609
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 2: held down so to be a blood supply. So what

610
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 2: they do is they take a gauze and double it

611
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 2: up and make a pressure bandage, and then they stitch

612
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:51,440
Speaker 2: threw the skin of his nose over the top of

613
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:55,759
Speaker 2: the gauze two loops and tie it down. Now, this

614
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:58,439
Speaker 2: piece of gauze one inch long and about a half

615
00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 2: inch or tree cores an inch wide is sewn to

616
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:03,799
Speaker 2: the top of his nose, and of course it's bloodstoked,

617
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,960
Speaker 2: so pretty soon it turns brown. But it's stitched to

618
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 2: his face and has to stay there for ten days,

619
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,840
Speaker 2: so that the skin graft will take instantly. It worked perfectly,

620
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,800
Speaker 2: but he had to go to the Melbourne Ground Prix

621
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:19,360
Speaker 2: with a great big piece of gauze sewn on the

622
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,759
Speaker 2: top of his nose. Poor guy.

623
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 1: A year later we go and visit him in London.

624
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: I said, God, you look good. That nose is the

625
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:29,879
Speaker 1: best looking nose for a dollar. And then we're over

626
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,799
Speaker 1: there seeing fay Ed because now you are into Belago

627
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:38,400
Speaker 1: and we were touring Europe. Right, we're meeting everybody. We're

628
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:40,520
Speaker 1: going around everywhere trying to.

629
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:45,240
Speaker 2: Spend three radio programs about your dirty tricks, practical joke.

630
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 1: What was cool? The bolage was called Bauabash, right yep.

631
00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:55,240
Speaker 1: And we're floating around you all to Italy. We're staying

632
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: in Italy at the Villadesta, at the Villadest and in

633
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 1: the middle of like Como, which is shaped like the

634
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 1: letter Y.

635
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:08,279
Speaker 2: So when it splits, and it's like why upside down,

636
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 2: So this part that goes north then it splits like

637
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:15,280
Speaker 2: a letter y almost ninety degrees and there's two sides,

638
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:19,759
Speaker 2: but in the middle it to split is land and

639
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:25,080
Speaker 2: that's the town of Blagio and it's a beautiful old town.

640
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 2: And a friend had a boat gil Nichols. Gil Nichols

641
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 2: had rented a house and brought his antique chriscraft to

642
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 2: Lake Como for the summer. And he came to the

643
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 2: villa to st and picked up an Anka and Elaine

644
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:47,200
Speaker 2: and I and we went for lunch at Plagio. And

645
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 2: we're coming back at about five miles an hour in

646
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:55,239
Speaker 2: the criscraft on this gorgeous July day. And I said,

647
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,880
Speaker 2: what a pretty word Belagio is. There's also a street

648
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,840
Speaker 2: in Beverly Hill called Bolagio, where the bel Air Country

649
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:06,480
Speaker 2: Club is. I said, what a mellifluous word, Belagio. I

650
00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 2: wonder what it means in Italian. Well, Paul's wife Annie

651
00:39:13,239 --> 00:39:16,799
Speaker 2: had in her purse one of those Italian English dictionaries

652
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,280
Speaker 2: that you can put in your purse when you're traveling

653
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 2: and the boat's going along, put put putt, and ann

654
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:28,440
Speaker 2: Ankus says, listen to this Belagio. Whether it was the

655
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:31,400
Speaker 2: town or the words, she says, she got the book

656
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 2: a place of elegant relaxation. And Paul and everybody in

657
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 2: the boat goes, ooh, what a good name for hotel.

658
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 5: Ooh.

659
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,160
Speaker 2: And we were halfway back to the Villa de Esk

660
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:48,600
Speaker 2: and we were going to call the hotel in Las

661
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 2: Vegas beau Ravage, which is pretty riverside or watershore beau Ravage,

662
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:58,760
Speaker 2: and we said, whoa, And we agreed on the boat

663
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 2: that the noon name for the Strip hotel was not

664
00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:04,880
Speaker 2: going to be beau Ravage. It was it was halfway finished,

665
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 2: was going to be Blagio, and we'd use beau Ravage

666
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:11,680
Speaker 2: as the name of the other hotel. We're a building

667
00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 2: at the same time with two thousand rooms in Biloxi, Mississippi,

668
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:20,720
Speaker 2: and on the spot, because of his wife, we changed

669
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 2: from beau Ravage to Belagio and used beau Ravage in Mississippi. Well,

670
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:30,320
Speaker 2: it got famous with the fountains and all that stuff.

671
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 2: And we got a letter from the mayor and the

672
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 2: city council of Belagio, Italy. Dear mister Wynn, we are

673
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 2: so proud that you named your hotel after our town.

674
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:46,200
Speaker 2: And so this is a proclamation designating Blagio, Las Vegas

675
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 2: as a sister city of Blagio, Italy.

676
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:52,320
Speaker 3: Always going to talk about what happened when you first created,

677
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:56,759
Speaker 3: Sir the sole at the tent behind the mirage, and

678
00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 3: people couldn't relate to the fact that this was a

679
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,760
Speaker 3: circuit us without animals, and you know, people weren't really coming.

680
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:06,480
Speaker 3: And we were sitting at a board meeting, our small

681
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:11,000
Speaker 3: Mirage Resorts board and you clapped your hands and said

682
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 3: taxi cabs. And we all looked at you, like, what

683
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:17,439
Speaker 3: what are you talking about? Taxi cabs? We're talking about why,

684
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:20,560
Speaker 3: you know, we don't have enough enough people excited about

685
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:23,520
Speaker 3: coming to see this circus. And you said, what's the

686
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:25,920
Speaker 3: first thing that happens when people flying to Las Vegas,

687
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:28,080
Speaker 3: they get in a taxi cab and they say to

688
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 3: the cab driver, Hey, what's a you know, what's good

689
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:33,760
Speaker 3: to see here in town? And I want to invite

690
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:36,799
Speaker 3: all the taxi drivers in Las Vegas to bring their

691
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 3: families to come, no charge for anything and see the show.

692
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:45,440
Speaker 2: And get a dinner, get dinner, and get a dinner.

693
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:49,520
Speaker 3: Right, And they came, and they got so excited, and

694
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 3: when people started coming to town, they started talking up.

695
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,400
Speaker 1: People went all the way back to the sixties cab drivers.

696
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 2: You know, we we went to an extreme with that

697
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 2: when we built Wind deliberately decided to take it to

698
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 2: another level. When you came off the strip. You know,

699
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 2: cabs line up in order to be called by the

700
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 2: doorman to pick up the next fair Well, guys are

701
00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 2: driving all the time. They need to take a leak,

702
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 2: they needed, they want to get a drink, don't carry

703
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 2: some in the front water or something. They have a cooler.

704
00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:38,799
Speaker 2: So when we designed the wind and Encore, we put

705
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:43,520
Speaker 2: special ramps that went underground before you came up on

706
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:48,279
Speaker 2: the portkachhere and when you went underground there were two

707
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:52,799
Speaker 2: lanes and on the left there was a little alcove

708
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 2: and there were vending machines and a men's and ladies room,

709
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:02,200
Speaker 2: and all of the cart tunes and the decorations were

710
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:06,520
Speaker 2: about hacks and cab drivers. And then at Encore we

711
00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:11,480
Speaker 2: went even further. We had the Ferrari thing going and

712
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 2: we were doing business with Roger Penske, and Roger invited

713
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:20,920
Speaker 2: Mark and I to the you know the race on

714
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 2: Memorial Day and we got to walk out while they

715
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 2: were on the ready to start, you know, out on

716
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 2: the lined up. I thought it was so exciting when

717
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 2: you're in the pits to hear all the engines rivving

718
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:35,600
Speaker 2: as they're on the lines, you know and rows. And

719
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 2: I said to Roger, can we get someone to photograph

720
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:42,839
Speaker 2: as if you're sitting in the driver's seat of your

721
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,480
Speaker 2: car and you take a picture of the people on

722
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 2: your right and the people on your left. He said, sure,

723
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 2: or just the people on your right. And someone went

724
00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:58,880
Speaker 2: and did that at one of the races of the

725
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 2: Indye cars, and we had them blown up and we

726
00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:06,319
Speaker 2: made these things that would stick to the wall. We

727
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 2: made tile walls in the tunnel and when you went

728
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 2: in your car and you pulled in, because then you

729
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:16,319
Speaker 2: went up or ramped right into the porkishere and there

730
00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:18,920
Speaker 2: was room for like five six cars in this tunnel.

731
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 2: The walls had the drivers as if you were looking

732
00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:28,359
Speaker 2: to the right at other cars on the line, and

733
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:32,040
Speaker 2: we recorded the music the sound of the cars, and

734
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:35,160
Speaker 2: we played it on an overhead speaker, so the guys

735
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 2: would come down. They'd be sitting the car and they

736
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 2: looked to the right and hear the sounding to see

737
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 2: the cars all in color at life size on this

738
00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 2: mile our tape that we made these things that go

739
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 2: on the wall, and you know, we decorated the wall

740
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:52,479
Speaker 2: at life size like you were looking at a rows

741
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:55,760
Speaker 2: of cars on your right, and we had nice vending

742
00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:00,080
Speaker 2: machines and really clean bathrooms. We kissed up to the

743
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,439
Speaker 2: and then we invite all the cab drivers in Las

744
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:08,440
Speaker 2: Vegas when the wind opened to have a free room,

745
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:13,360
Speaker 2: one night, free room. The hotel was just for the

746
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 2: cab drivers. Just before we opened two days, all the

747
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 2: cab drivers and their wives a show and dinner and

748
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:26,440
Speaker 2: a room and they could get massages. How could they

749
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:29,279
Speaker 2: know to explain the hotel if they hadn't experienced it.

750
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:32,520
Speaker 2: And you know, they got all dressed up, and the

751
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:36,840
Speaker 2: wives would come and say, almost win. And the husbands

752
00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:40,280
Speaker 2: they were so grateful, you'd think them as sort of salty.

753
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:44,399
Speaker 2: They weren't. No one's ever done as we love it.

754
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:47,880
Speaker 2: We own the cab drivers. And it's true even today.

755
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,480
Speaker 2: Do you miss it? You miss the data. I wouldn't

756
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:52,120
Speaker 2: take it if I could have the whole thing for

757
00:45:52,160 --> 00:45:54,960
Speaker 2: a buck. As God is my judge on my wife's life,

758
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:59,120
Speaker 2: I wouldn't go to Las Vegas if he gave me

759
00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 2: the whole town for a because to art work, boring crowds,

760
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:12,080
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven, payroll problems, the design, the competition,

761
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:17,520
Speaker 2: the credit, the government, the whole idea of keeping the

762
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 2: place a sharp stay on top of it. Been there,

763
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:26,000
Speaker 2: done that, Oh yeah, fifty one years. I didn't realize

764
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:29,799
Speaker 2: what a tunnel I was in. I got up, did

765
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,440
Speaker 2: it twelve fourteen hours, went to bed, and got up

766
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 2: and did it again. I even lived in a hotel.

767
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 1: When did you fall in love with the whole art thing?

768
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:50,440
Speaker 1: Because I took the first trip with you to Japan

769
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,799
Speaker 1: when we went to I think Tokyo, that was our

770
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:55,680
Speaker 1: first trip with Bill Ackuaveella.

771
00:46:55,840 --> 00:47:01,520
Speaker 2: Well, the question was, how does Blagio trump Mirage Baldwin.

772
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:05,200
Speaker 2: Baldwin didn't want to build another hotel. It'll scavenge the Mirage.

773
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 2: We already had the top hotel. Why do you want

774
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:10,880
Speaker 2: to build another one? I said, well, someone's going to

775
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 2: build a better hotel than Mirage, because you know, it

776
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,680
Speaker 2: had a one hundred and sixty foot bathroom, you know,

777
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:21,600
Speaker 2: a shower tub, one shower in the tub together, an

778
00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:25,000
Speaker 2: open toilet and a single sink about one hundred and

779
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:29,240
Speaker 2: sixty feet. But in a four or five star hotel

780
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:32,440
Speaker 2: you have to have two sinks. You have a separate toilet,

781
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:35,440
Speaker 2: I mean a separate shower, a separate tub, and the

782
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:40,120
Speaker 2: toilet should be enclosed or at least be roomy enough,

783
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:44,719
Speaker 2: and we had We had a fabulous public area and

784
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 2: casino and showroom and all that, and volcanoes and dolphins

785
00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 2: and tigers, but we had really a three star bedroom.

786
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,240
Speaker 2: The sweets were gorgeous, but the twenty seven hundred regular

787
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:09,520
Speaker 2: rooms were three star. The three hundred sweets were another story.

788
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:14,680
Speaker 2: And I said to my pals, I said, look, someone's

789
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:19,239
Speaker 2: going to build a better hotel than us, and we'll

790
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 2: be second. If we build it, then we could be

791
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:29,799
Speaker 2: first and second. Bobby wasn't real impress but he was conservative,

792
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:32,840
Speaker 2: but I wanted to do it. And we bought the

793
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:39,840
Speaker 2: dunes for four hundred thousand an acre seventy million dollars,

794
00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:42,399
Speaker 2: but then they had to close at which cost him

795
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:46,759
Speaker 2: five We really only paid sixty five million for one

796
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:52,360
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty six acres plus water rights pre nineteen

797
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:55,400
Speaker 2: fifty y five water rights so we could build a lake.

798
00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:58,920
Speaker 2: It was against the law to do that because you

799
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:02,319
Speaker 2: couldn't use city water for lakes, but if you had

800
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 2: private water rights. The predated nineteen fifty five, there were

801
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:09,520
Speaker 2: only two places on a strip that had private water rights,

802
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:14,000
Speaker 2: the dunes seven hundred acre feet and the desert in

803
00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:18,520
Speaker 2: one thousand acre feet. Both companies that built golf courses

804
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:24,440
Speaker 2: in the early fifties, and they had built when the

805
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:27,719
Speaker 2: desert didn't built the water rights. When the desert inn't

806
00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 2: built the homes that were around the desert In, there

807
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:35,960
Speaker 2: was no water service there in the county. So in

808
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:38,759
Speaker 2: order to build the golf course and the homes on

809
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:42,920
Speaker 2: the golf course, the desert In guys Mo dalits and

810
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:46,240
Speaker 2: those guys had to find there had to dig wells

811
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:51,120
Speaker 2: and create a utility, the desert In Water Company, and

812
00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:55,560
Speaker 2: it went under this authority of the Public Service Commission

813
00:49:56,760 --> 00:50:00,400
Speaker 2: like the regular water company. When I we bought the

814
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:04,160
Speaker 2: dunes the desert In in nineteen two thousand, I got

815
00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:08,320
Speaker 2: the water company with it, and then we bought the houses.

816
00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 2: We got the the state Engineer and the State of

817
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:18,960
Speaker 2: Nevada to say that we no longer were required to

818
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:22,400
Speaker 2: comply with the Public Service Commission the State of Nevada

819
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:24,920
Speaker 2: because there were no more homes that we were servicing.

820
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:29,600
Speaker 2: The dunes had water rights. So I wanted to buy

821
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 2: the dunes, and they wanted to sell that it was

822
00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:39,840
Speaker 2: in bankruptcy, and and my argument to my colleagues was

823
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:45,720
Speaker 2: that if we've got money. Now we built all these hotels.

824
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:49,319
Speaker 2: We're now a bigger company. We could we could build

825
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 2: the greatest hotel in the world where the dunes was

826
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:56,719
Speaker 2: to kill you an idea. How desperate we were to

827
00:50:56,800 --> 00:51:00,400
Speaker 2: make sure that was true. We built an eight and

828
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:05,240
Speaker 2: a half acre lake with twenty three million gallons of water,

829
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:09,920
Speaker 2: the fountains of Belagio on the corner of the Strip

830
00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:16,760
Speaker 2: and Flamingo Road. The entire Dunes Hotel was in the lake.

831
00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:23,600
Speaker 2: Casino ballrooms, everything was in the lake. Belagio was on

832
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:29,879
Speaker 2: the old Dunes golf course. That was a radical thing

833
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:33,160
Speaker 2: to do, to not have that up on the street.

834
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 2: What about to walk in, said everybody, people promenading up

835
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:41,959
Speaker 2: and down a strip. It's it's the old story. It's

836
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:47,839
Speaker 2: like Treasure Island. It's like Belagio, like a mirage. Make

837
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:51,560
Speaker 2: him die of curiosity to want to get in, make

838
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:57,600
Speaker 2: the place aspiration. If what they see in the outside

839
00:51:57,680 --> 00:51:59,839
Speaker 2: is so terrific, they'll say, let's go see what it's

840
00:51:59,880 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 2: like on the inside. It's the oldest story in the world.

841
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 2: It's window dressing. What is every retail street in America?

842
00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:09,759
Speaker 2: How you dress your window makes people want to go

843
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:18,440
Speaker 2: in the fountains, the pirate shows, volcanoes interrupt they're window dressing.

844
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:21,000
Speaker 2: They are the things that provoke you and entertain you

845
00:52:21,080 --> 00:52:28,880
Speaker 2: and say, come to me your favorite island, bally Bally,

846
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:31,080
Speaker 2: same old story.

847
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:33,719
Speaker 1: Well leave it on a singing note, listen for me

848
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 1: and skip. We've so looked forward to this. I got

849
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:40,640
Speaker 1: to tell you, we could probably go on for another

850
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:43,040
Speaker 1: twelve hours with this, and it's.

851
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:45,320
Speaker 2: Been three of us with our own personal stories of

852
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:46,200
Speaker 2: our adventures.

853
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:48,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we want to thank you very much for

854
00:52:48,239 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 1: taking the time. We hang all the time, but to

855
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:54,000
Speaker 1: be a part of this. You know, we're getting our

856
00:52:54,040 --> 00:52:57,080
Speaker 1: feet wet. We're lal your buddy, we know that we're

857
00:52:57,080 --> 00:52:59,320
Speaker 1: all skippy. Yeah, we're all brothers.

858
00:52:59,360 --> 00:53:01,320
Speaker 2: What it's been a blast.

859
00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:02,320
Speaker 1: That's made a big difference.

860
00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:04,719
Speaker 2: We talked this way when when there is no microphone,

861
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:07,120
Speaker 2: that's what's the difference. That's totally true.

862
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:11,319
Speaker 1: What's the difference. You're just making me reminiscent a lot

863
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:13,800
Speaker 1: of people. It's going to make a big difference because

864
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:17,319
Speaker 1: a lot of people have not heard or even understood

865
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:21,640
Speaker 1: about Steve Wynn. They've seen it, they've experienced it, but

866
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:25,120
Speaker 1: to hear you articulated believe me, You're going to touch

867
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:26,960
Speaker 1: a lot of people in a new.

868
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:29,080
Speaker 3: Way in the level of details. You know, I did

869
00:53:29,200 --> 00:53:30,240
Speaker 3: they take it for granted.

870
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:32,120
Speaker 2: They don't know. I love doing it with you guys

871
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:35,080
Speaker 2: because we've been together all our lives. But you know,

872
00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:39,000
Speaker 2: the people, the television producers, you know, they wanted to

873
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:41,719
Speaker 2: make a series, you know, like they're doing Netflix series,

874
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:48,000
Speaker 2: and I just wasn't motivated. You know, I'm not crazy

875
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:52,080
Speaker 2: about worrying about posterity. But when you're sitting shooting the

876
00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 2: breeze with a couple of buddies, I could go on

877
00:53:55,280 --> 00:53:58,760
Speaker 2: like that forever, because you guys remind me of those stories.

878
00:53:59,560 --> 00:54:02,280
Speaker 2: I don't want ground thinking of the modesty paul I note,

879
00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:05,879
Speaker 2: but I like what we just did. I don't want

880
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:07,799
Speaker 2: people going to hear this. Who cares? But it was

881
00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:10,360
Speaker 2: fun just talking about it. We loved it. It's a blast.

882
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:11,280
Speaker 2: You're ready for dinner.

883
00:54:11,360 --> 00:54:12,280
Speaker 1: We're ready for dinner.

884
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:14,120
Speaker 2: Let's go.

885
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:21,360
Speaker 1: Our Away with Paul Anka and Skip. Ronson is a

886
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:23,360
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

887
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:28,840
Speaker 3: The show's executive producer is Jordan Runtog, with supervising producer

888
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 3: and editor Marcy Depina.

889
00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:34,719
Speaker 1: It was engineered by Todd Carlum and Graham Gibson and

890
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:37,240
Speaker 1: mixed and mastered by Doug Bone.

891
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:39,839
Speaker 2: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave

892
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:40,560
Speaker 2: us a review.

893
00:54:40,880 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 1: For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

894
00:54:48,000 --> 00:55:20,160
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite children did the

895
00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:02,040
Speaker 1: fat

896
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 2: Pa