Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 10:55 a.m.
LOS ANGELES -- More than 200 Hollywood stars turned out Thursday night to honor Steve Wynn's contributions to the world of entertainment and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the City of Hope Medical Center's cancer research.
The Mirage Resorts Inc. chairman said he was gratified to be only the 18th person to receive the Friars Club's Lifetime Achievement Award, joining such legendary celebrities as Johnny Carson, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope and Liza Minnelli.
"But the real reason we're here is to advance the battle against this devastating disease," Wynn said.
"I'll be 58 years old next month," he said. "But the wonderful privilege of growing old is tempered by the miserable experience of watching friends after they've gotten that terrible phone call telling them they're suffering from cancer.
"In this room tonight are many of the people I love the most. What we're really here for is to try to protect people from getting that type of call about a disease that can be so devastating physically, financially and spiritually."
The City of Hope, which began treating tuberculosis victims in tents in the Southern California desert 86 years ago, has grown into an internationally recognized institution fighting cancer, diabetes, AIDS and other diseases. It has been at the forefront of gene-therapy research and has pioneered a host of medical procedures now used to combat illnesses.
It has long been one of the charities supported by the Friars Club, which was formed by entertainers such as Jack Benny, George Burns, George Jessel and Milton Berle in 1946. The club's charitable foundation has raised millions of dollars for hospitals and nonprofit organizations around the country.
The club also periodically presents its Lifetime Achievement Award to individuals whose contributions to the entertainment world and community involvement have bettered the lives of others.
"The Friars honor only those they dearly love and admire, and Steve Wynn is one of those people," said Friar's Club President Irwin Schaeffer. "He has played an integral role in transforming Las Vegas into a world-renowned entertainment and resort destination."
"When he limped into my office with a broken leg 21 years ago, I knew within an hour I was listening to another Walt Disney," said Michael Milken, the junk bond financier who helped Wynn raise the money to remake the Golden Nugget into the premier hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas and later financed construction of the Mirage on the Strip.
"It was the perfect marriage of talent and capital," Milken said.
Wynn has taken heat from some critics on Wall Street for the disappointing performance of Mirage stock over the past year. Up until a week ago, the company's share price hadn't participated in the upsurge enjoyed by other casino stocks bouyed by increased visitation to Las Vegas.
But Wynn has dismissed the criticism, saying that as the novelty of the new megaresorts built in Las Vegas over the past 15 months wears off, Mirage's entertainment-themed properties will recapture market share. And in the past several days, more and more investors and analysts have begun to believe him, launching a buying spree that has moved Mirage stock sharply higher.
"We're doing the same thing we've done for the past 27 years," Wynn said Thursday night. "We open with an excitement level that's as high as we know how to make it, offer the best service we can, and let customers make their own decisions on where they want to stay when they come back to Las Vegas.
"It's all about repeat business. And we've never opened a hotel that didn't do better in its second year than it did in its first."
Bellagio, the $1.6 billion Strip resort Mirage opened in October 1998, is now on track to generate about a quarter billion dollars of cash flow in the year 2000, analysts say. And the company's other high-end Strip property, the Mirage, is quietly moving back into its position as one of the preeminent revenue-producing resorts in Las Vegas.
Wynn's wife, Elaine, who joined her husband on the star-studded dais, said it was "gratifying to have a city like Los Angeles acknowledge Steve's contributions to entertainment."
"I've always thought he was an extraordinarily gifted and talented person," she said. "And when other people confirm that, it is truly gratifying."
Emceed by talk-show host Larry King, the festivities at the Century Plaza Hotel Thursday included performances by singer and composer Lionel Richie and many of those joining the Wynns on the dais.
Those attending read like a who's who of Hollywood, including Sid Caesar, Angie Dickinson, Barbara Eden, Hugh Hefner, Dennis Hopper, Lainie Kazan, Jack Klugman, Harvey Korman, Martin Landau, Rich Little, Stephanie Powers, Don Rickles, Rod Steiger, billionaire Los Angeles real estate investor Donald Sterling, Stella Stevens, Alan Thicke, Jerry Vale and others.
Former Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca and Chuck Mathewson, chairman of International Game Technology, were among the business executives who attended.
In his brief comments to the crowd, Wynn lauded the "32,000 wonderful people I work with who make this all possible."
"We in Las Vegas feel like we're first cousins to all of you here in the entertainment industry," he said. "And that relationship is going to get even closer over the next few years.
"But I'd never have had the chance to achieve any of this without my dear friend Michael Milken ... and my second dad, Perry Thomas."
Thomas is the founder of the former Valley Bank of Las Vegas, the first bank to lend significant amounts of money to the gaming industry.
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