Getbig Bodybuilding Boards > History - Stories - and Memories
Stories - Inspirational / Las Vegas
jwb:
Man I hope for your sake you're in his will!
onlyme:
he no longer has it. His big gambling days are over. he has settled down sold his house in Huntington Harbor and the one in Lake Tahoe. He lives up at the end of Sahara now in Vegas. Steve Wynns wife was their secretary I think I heard him say. Oh I just remember the mayors name. Ron Lurie. 619 do you know who that is. I think at the time he was the mayor of Vegas. I think his dad is Art Lurie.
My uncle warehouse is on Valley View behind the Palms. He also had a store in the Tropicana but close it down when items were being stolen. We knew it was the guards but no tapes showed anything. They were blank. They stole allot of stuff throughout about 6 months. You must know who Michael Gaughn is and his dad who I can't remember his name. He owns the Union Plaza I think and the Gold Spike and I think he owned the Frontier at a time. I think I heard he owned 17 casinos.
onlyme:
Okay here is boxing story. My uncle got allot of tickets to the boxing matches. I mean allot. Like 40 or more at times. Casinos give comps and because he played and everyone he brought played he was a good customer. Unlike Stallone who no longer gets any tickets for free. He is a cheap ass.
Anyway I was in his office when his secretary is on the intercom and says line for you. He picks up the phone and starts to talk then puts the phone on hold about a minute later. He says to me you won't belive who is on the other line. It's the secret service. I said what. He said there are a few of them in Vegas and wanted to know if they could get some tickets to the upcoming Tyson/Bruno fight. I said no way. He gets back on the phone and ended up calling the casino to get them a couple comp tickets. Iwas really funny. He was a very large cash contributor to Bush. There were pics of him and Bush all over the office and he went to some fancy party at the White House and crap. He was named Veteran of the Year one year for the Korean war or something. He also got some award for raising 100's of thousands of dollars to buy radios for all the troops in Desert Storm or someting like that. He did allot fo charity work.
Anway, we go to Vegas on hos plane of course and got there the night before the fight. AGain we eat at Michaels (619 have you eaten there). SO we gambled that night. The next morning we meet at the cafe for breakfast. Tony Halme is with us this time and it is when I first met him. Well the Keno girl comes by and he doesn't know what the hell t is so I explain to him and he ends up playing. He gives her a $20 and wants change back. I said no just play with that. He said no I don't gamble, so he ended up play $5.
Well I swear to god he won. I can't exactly remember what he played but he won $5,000. If he played the $20 he would have won I think it was $100,000. Man I couldn;t believe it. Him and his girlfriend were so happy. She worked and managed the Crazywear warehouse.
SO anyway, the day goes by and then we all gathered at the hotel to go to the fight. I think we had 15 people with us. Each and everyone of of us had one of those spakle jackets like the one below. Tony Alamo the owner of the company made them for us all and we each had a different one on. When we got to the fight I swear everyone wanted to take pics with us. WIth the lights these jackets just shined all over.
So we sit down and we are in the 5th row right behind a bunch of the casino owners and excutives. When you go to these fights everyone around you all get up and say hi and introdcues themselves to you. They knew my uncle so it was easy. Anyway about 15 minutes or so later after everyone in the place took our picture we hear this huge roar and chanting. we couldn't out what they were saying. Then all of a sudden as we are looking around it's Arnold. He just wlaked in and everyone went crazy and was yelling.
If you haven't been to one of these they are packed with famous people. Anyway the fight starts and sitting tht close you can actually hear and feel the punches thrown. When Tyson hit Bruno it was awesome. Well the big bet in town was that the fight wouldn't go past 5 or 6 rounds I can't remember. Well after the 5th or 6th round ended all the owners and execs stand up high five each other and then leave right after the bell. I ask my uncle why they are leavig and he told me about the big bet. They left cause they were happy the big bet lost and the casino didn't have to pay out millions of dollars. Well the next round Tyson knocked him out. Pretty funny.
SO we are walking back tothe hotel with me, my uncle Tony Alamo, Ron Lurie the mayor and Bob Sidell. Maybe a couple others but can't remember. Well I had my fart machine. So I start farting on everyone as I walk by them. All they guys are behind me watching me. ANd just start laughing so hard. Well I came up to a couple hookers talking to some guy. I stood right next to them sticking my head right in netween them to hear them and to make sure they know I am there. Well I start to fart. The girls go ballistic and start yelling at me calling asshole and fucking pig and all kinds of stuff. I turn around and I swear to god the mayor of Vegas is sitting on the curb laughing so hard he is crying. He was having a blast. Tony Alamo is a church going guy big time and is on the ground next to him. In fact my uncle told me I should n't fart in front of Tony because he is so religious. Well man they had a blast. Ron was so funny on the ground. Some people actually recognized him too.
SO we head off and that was the night. We didn't play that night cause everyone was tired. We left the next day around noon. More later.................
stuntmovie:
Glad you brought this subject up, Only.
If anyone has any doubts of Uncle J's existance, I'll be glad to substantiate the fact that he does exist and is/was one of the major players in this crazy patch of desert.
I myself have been going to LV since 1961 and have a few other unbelievable stories to pass on to one and all, but some of these too will have to be placed on hold for fear of retaliation by some well known desert critters and their decendants.
Since this is a bodybuilding board, let me start off with George Eifferman who some of you might recall but most have never heard of. Not because you're stupid or something, but most of you are just too damn young to remember or even give a damn.
George had a gym in one of those old time shopping centers with loads of uncovered parking in the center. I kind of recall it being located about a mile east of the Strip on Sahara Blvd.
I forget the first year I actually started going there but George was usually at his desk to the right of the entrance making sure that everyone paid or had a membership during his time on duty.
None of us training there were too impressed by George's personality but he did offer a decent place to train before Gold's and others entered the valley. Most of the people in the place were Las Vegas locals, with a large part of them in the local entertainment business. It was always a great place to meet the "show biz folks" and some of them were exceptional characters in their own rights.
Over the years I got to know George pretty well and soon learned that he was one hell of a great guy. We never spent our off business hours together but before he passed away, he gave me a silver medallion with his image on it and a great inscription on the back. One evening his wife took me aside and said, "George doesn't give those to just anybody. It's his way to showing just how much he appreciates you as a good friend!".
That made me feel great to say the least.
The years rolled by and someone called me to let me know that Steve Reeves was ill and in the hospital. A few hours later I got a call that he had died and was asked if I would let George know as George was a very close friend of Steves.
We I reluctantly made that call, or an attempt to make that call, but I found out that George was in the hospital himself and could not be contacted at that moment.
A few hours later, I got a call from someone close to George in LV who asked me not to tell George that Steve had passed away as he was in no shape himself to get that kind of news.
So I never did tell George about Steve's passing. I don't know if he was even aware of it before he himself passed away.
George was a great man who never got the tribute that he deserved from the bodybuiling industry. Yea, and there are a lot of others too.
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(More LV stories to follow if ya all promise to keep them secret!)
onlyme:
A little more on Eifferman. When my friend Will Friedman opened up the first Gold's Gym in Vegas it closed down George's gym. Will felt really bad and knew George was an icon. So he hired George to work at Gold's. Basically he just let George do anything he wanted. If he wanted to sit in the back all day then he did. It didn't matter, the gym is where he belonged.
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