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| Sunday, June 19, 2005 | PRIOR ISSUE - ARCHIVES |
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| New Marathon To Debut, Tony Curtis Art Celebrates 80th, Elvis Search Scheduled, Chris Cagle Headlines, Jax Serves It Up, Chefs Present Cooking Classes, Arts District Growing, Andre Agassi Slots Benefit, Las Vegas Centennial Texas Hold 'Em Winner, "Seussical: The Musical" Starts Season, "Splash" Revamped, 100 Couples Married, "Hottest Mom in Vegas", More... | |
The Las Vegas Marathon will debut on Dec. 4, with a fireworks display set to Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas," when a field limited to 15,000 participants will become the first in history to run the Las Vegas Strip.
The 26.2 mile race will attract elite athletes from around the world with $400,000 in cash prizes and appearance fees. The event will offer the world's largest cash bonus, $2.5 million to be split between any man and woman to break the world record. The race organizers will also award $10,000 each to the first local man and woman to cross the finish line and a Siegfried & Roy Inspirational Award of $10,000 for the person who overcomes the most adversity to compete in the marathon.
The race will start and finish at the Official Hotel, Mandalay Bay, and also run through downtown's Fremont Street Experience.
Participants crossing the finish line will receive a special medal commemorating their achievement and all finishers will be sent a personalized Certificate of Accomplishment and an Official Results Book.
The race will offer personalized bibs for anyone who registers before Sept. 1, so spectators can "personalize" words of encouragement. Online registration is open now at www.lvmarathon.com. For information, call 702-731-1052 or e-mail elvis@newlasvegasmarathon.com.
The event will begin on Dec. 2 and 3 with a new Las Vegas Marathon Expo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and a Vegas-style Pasta Party buffet.
The MGM Grand will present a weekend of art and celebration to honor film legend Tony Curtis on his 80th birthday. The three-day event, June 24-26, will showcase more than 130 one-of-a-kind pieces of the actor's original artwork in an exhibition that will help raise funds for the Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary, which is an organization started by his wife, Jill Vanden Berg, who has about 50 horses living at their ranch.
Curtis has been sketching, painting and constructing beautiful artwork for nearly five decades. The exhibition will be open to the public at no charge on Sunday, June 26 from noon - 5 p.m.
Elvis-A-Rama, the popular Las Vegas attraction that hosts more than $6 million in authentic memorabilia, will launch its worldwide search for the ultimate Elvis tribute artist with an open casting call, Aug. 8-9. The Vegas shoot is open to all tribute artists worldwide, who are encouraged to show up for the pilot.
The Las Vegas-based museum will follow up with elimination-style events in Memphis, New York, London, Madrid, Munich, Moscow, Sydney, Tokyo, Beijing, Honolulu and Mexico City. The results will be captured for a reality television series that will crown the ultimate impersonator, who will be rewarded with a lucrative recording contract.
The top artist, as selected by the event's celebrity judging panel, will record a song co-written by Elvis Presley and Paul Terry King, "If I'd Only Bought Her Roses," which never saw vinyl. The release is expected to be an immediate, national hit. The Elvis-A-Rama acquired 50 percent rights to the song earlier this year.
The first casting call, conducted on stage at the Elvis-A-Rama Museum, will also provide a spotlight for another hopeful star: a youthful Elvis impersonator between the ages of eight to 17. The winner of the contest will receive a $3,000 scholarship.
The search for the King of would-be Kings will be aired over 16 episodes. Hopefuls will sing several songs, and judging will be based on vocal talent, appearance, stage presence.
A casting call for two hosts / hostesses for the reality show is also being held at the 3401 Industrial Rd. location on June 24 between 1 and 7 p.m. For information, visit their website.
Country music's honky-tonk hunk, Chris Cagle, will perform in The Hideaway Theater at the Silverton on Friday, July 8. Tickets are $30, call 702-914-8557 or 1-866-946-4373.
Raised near Houston, Cagle at age six began guitar lessons. At 19, he left school and Texas to pursue music full time. He moved to Nashville in 1994, and spent five years performing odd jobs while polishing his songwriting skills. In 2000, he was signed to the Capitol Nashville label, home to Garth Brooks, and released his debut album, "Play It Loud," which spawned the hit songs, "Laredo" and the chart-topper, "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out." The album went Gold and a self-titled sophomore effort followed. Cagle took home the inaugural, fan-voted County Music Television Flameworthy "Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award" in 2004.
Wolfgang Puck Chefs will be presenting cooking classes and the newest techniques in restaurant settings. The cooking class schedule is as follows: Mark Ferguson, Executive Chef Trattoria del Lupo - June 25; Marc Djozlija, Executive Chef Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill - July 16 and 23; John LaGrone, Executive Chef Postrio Aug. 20 and 2; Terence Fong, Executive Chef Chinois - Oct. 8, 15, 22 and 2; Eduardo Perez, Chef de Cuisine Spago - Nov. 12 and 19; and Christophe Ithurritze, Exec. Pastry Chef Spago - Sept. 10 and 24.
All the classes begin at 10 a.m. and are $45 with a limit of 30 people per class, call 369.0360 ext. 10.
The Riviera's Syn City, the Nightclub, will present its first "Hottest Mom in Vegas" contest on Thursday, July 7, at 10 p.m. Ladies are admitted free and the winner will receive $1,000. On July 8, the club will hold the first "Bike Night on The Strip" featuring a sexy biker babe contest with $500 going to the winner. For promo details, call 702-794-9426.
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The Riviera is home to Jax restaurant specializing in European country food. It is independently operated by partner/owner Chef Jacques LeForestier, who, along with Chef Charles Limbach, opened their first restaurant, La Chirane, in Seillams, France, in 1970. Jax is next to the Splash Bar and the Riviera's show, "Splash," and operates from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for breakfast and lunch, and 5:30 p.m. to midnight for dinner. All baking is done on the premises and Gavina Family coffees are served. For information, call 702-697-4233. An arts renaissance is happening to downtown Las Vegas and the newest addition to the Arts District is the Holsum Lofts on Charleston Boulevard near I-15. Jeff LaPour bought the former Holsum Bakery in 2003 and renovated it to a clean facility that has kept its original signage, concrete floors and exposed ceilings. He invested $6 million and now the facility has more than 20 business spaces with display spaces ranging in size from 250 to 12,000 square feet. Another highlight is the Grill, which is a restaurant and one of the Lofts' distinctive businesses. The bakery originally opened in 1954 and provided bread to Las Vegas that was fresher than what was shipped to the city. Two more buildings went up in 1955 and the bakery went through different owners before it closed in 2002. Lifelong Las Vegas resident and professional tennis superstar Andre Agassi now has his image emblazoned on slot machines by Aristocrat Technologies. It is a penny-based game with a tennis theme and graphics complemented by secondary bonuses and progressive jackpot elements. There's' one more twist, a percentage of the slot machines' proceeds and licensing fees will go to Agassi's Las Vegas-based charitable foundation. The first machines are being rolled out at the MGM and eight Station Casinos properties. Jenny Kang outlasted more than 450 players and took first place in the Imperial Palace's Las Vegas Centennial Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament that took place over two days. Kang won $93,000 first place prize, and more than $90,675 was split among the next four places. The two-day tournament attracted several of the top world players and served as a good warm-up for the World Series of Poker, taking place through July. The Imperial Palace poker tournaments return 100 percent of contestant entries to the prize fund. The next large tournament will be next January, and the hotel conducts daily no-limit tournaments in its poker room. Gavin Smith of Guelph, Ontario, won the second annual "Mirage Poker Showdown" beating out 317 players. The Mirage and World Poker Tour (WPT) awarded $1,128,278 to Smith as well as a $25,000 seat in the 2006 WPT World Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The final table of the tournament was filmed for The Travel Channel. The WPT is broadcast every Wednesday on the Travel Channel at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The WPT consists of 16 nationally televised poker events, filmed in casinos around the world, where finalists compete for multi-million dollar prize pools. Season three of the WPT is currently airing. The Super Summer Theatre's 30th anniversary season has begun with "Seussical: The Musical" running through June 25 at the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, located about 18 miles west of Las Vegas in beautiful Red Rock Canyon. Watching the outdoor musicals under the open night skies is a joy not to be missed. The rest of the season's lineup is: "Once Upon A Mattress," - July 13-30 and "Guys and Dolls," - Aug. 10-27. A special performance by Nevada Ballet Theatre will round out the season Sept. 1-2. Tickets are $8 in advance ($10 for the ballet) and $10 at the gate; call 702-594-7529. Original choreographer Jeff Kutash has returned and revamped "Splash" at the Riviera. The revised show debuts this week. On June 9, 100 couples got married under the Fremont Street Experience canopy in celebration of the Las Vegas Centennial. A fun time was had by all. Wonder if anyone will do a study to see how many couples remain together! The 17-piece John Haig Orchestra will headline the eighth annual Lamont Patterson Big Band Dance at the Stardust tomorrow, June 20. Patterson was a Las Vegas-based jazz and entertainment columnist for more than 15 years. The three-hour concert lead by trombonist Haig will start at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Zany comedian Bruce Baum, who can be seen on reruns of "America's Funniest People," headlines the Riviera Comedy Club, beginning Monday, June 27, for a week. Known to millions of television fans, Baum is a fixture on practically all stand-up cable network comedy shows. Motion picture audiences know Baum for his performance in the cult classic, "Shakes The Clown," as well as his appearances in "The Adventures Of Babyman" and "Crossing The Bridge." New show times for the Riviera Comedy Club are 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., nightly, Tickets are $17.95 plus taxes, 702-794-9433. Greg Morton is headlining The Comedy Stop at the Trop this week through June 26. He's hailed as a "young hyper Bill Cosby." More humor is downtown at The Plaza with Benny Baker doing his 10 p.m. "Hellbent 4 Humor" show, Saturday-Wednesday. His show is a one-drink $6.95 minimum. "Tropical Heat Wednesday" pool parties at the Las Vegas Hilton have been cancelled. The "South Beach Sunday" pool parties are continuing from noon to 7 p.m.; cost is $10.
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