LAS VEGAS | HOTEL REVIEW
New Frontier closes to make room for something newer
One of the oldest hotels on the Las Vegas Strip closed its doors Monday, ending a 65-year-run during which it headlined entertainers such as Elvis Presley, Wayne Newton and Siegfried & Roy.
The New Frontier, known for its bar featuring a mechanical bull, shut its doors at 12:01 a.m., two months after the announcement that it was bought by the Elad Group, owner of the Plaza hotel in New York.
Elad plans to raze the old hotel-casino and build a $5-billion multiuse complex to open in 2011, including a luxury hotel with about 3,500 rooms, private residences, stores and a casino bearing the Plaza brand.
"I hate to say 'bye, but I must say 'bye," Helen Madison, a New Frontier casino porter for 34 years, said at closing time.
Strip lounge legend Norman Kaye, a vocalist and bassist in the Mary Kaye Trio, sang two songs with the Dry Martini Orchestra for a crowd of about 1,000 people late Sunday. He called it his first Las Vegas performance since 1966.
"I thought I'd come and say goodbye," Kaye said of a property where he first played in 1947.
The 105-room Hotel Last Frontier opened in 1942 on the now-famous Strip. It was renamed the New Frontier in 1955, and expanded by various owners until it was bought by Howard Hughes in 1967 for $14 million.
Kaye recalled the Mary Kaye Trio as a mainstay on the Strip, playing with performers such as Judy Garland.
Elvis made his first Las Vegas appearance in 1956 at the New Frontier. Las Vegas icon Wayne Newton performed there in the 1960s, and Siegfried & Roy played there in the 1980s before making their debut at the Mirage hotel-casino in 1990.
Sandy West, a regular customer since 1966, recalled seeing Siegfried & Roy eight times during their seven-year run at the New Frontier.
"It's the last place, if you think about it, where families could afford to stay on the Strip," West said.
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