Desertwind
Head of the Day Shift
NEW FRONTIER owner Phil Ruffin has some unfinished business planned for the famous stage that featured such icons as Elvis, Ronald Reagan, Wayne Newton and Siegfried & Roy. Ruffin and local dealmaker Jack Wishna will return next week and dig up some buried treasure at the New Frontier, which closes tonight for the last time. They will tear up the stage floor and salvage the wood to create commemorative plaques for Nancy Reagan and Lisa Marie Presley & Newton and S & R. A buffet coffee shop built over the stage in the late 1990's when Ruffin purchased the historic hotel and casino. The property and land was sold for $1.2 billion in May to the El-Ad Group of Israel and New York. A $5 billion Plaza Hotel modeled after New York icon will be built on this site. The hotel Last Frontier opened on this site in 1942 amd was renamed the New Frontier in 1955. Reagan performed there in 1954 and Elvis made his first appearance there in 1956. Newton was there for years in the 1960's and Siegfried & Roy were there for 7 years, starting in 1981. Howard Hughes, who used to own it and the Desert Inn [now Wynn] would sneak through a tunnel connecting the two properties. "Newton has told the story of taking the tunnel when he had to fill in for other entertainers"! I've benn there and gambled there, it's sad.. all the old hotels/casinos from days gone by are being imploded
NOrm Clarke LVRJ
NOrm Clarke LVRJ