Goodman’s 70th birthday is a Fremont Street experience

By John Katsilometes

Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009 | 3:19 p.m.

A month ago, we tracked down Oscar Goodman in deep chill as he was wearing a long, faux-fur overcoat and matching hat during an appearance at Minus 5 Experience at The Shoppes at Mandalay Place. The event was an unveiling of an ice-encased visage of the mayor, and the chilled temperature was lowly equal to the name of the club. It was so cold we were concerned the mayor’s famously bulbous schnoz might freeze into nose cube and crack off.

Last night it was a full-swelter affair for our now-septuagenarian mayor. The thermometer crept higher than 100 as thousands of fans marinating in the sticky heat saluted Goodman, who turned 70 on July 26 but celebrated publicly days later. It was a fittingly mayoral event only if you are Oscar Goodman and the city is Las Vegas: a birthday party on Fremont Street’s First Street Stage plaza. The performance platform was laden with Strip entertainers and dozens of sequined beauties wrapped in boas. Those who appeared to perform in quick-shot segments included Flamingo comic magician and contest show frequenter Nathan Burton, the Fantasy Girls from Luxor, brownish singing duo Zowie Bowie (soon of the Monte Carlo) and The Venetian’s full-arsenal headliner Wayne Brady. None were onstage for more than 15 minutes in the sample-plate showcase. At the end, a video montage of scrapbook photos of Goodman’s life flashed from the Fremont Street Experience “Vision Show” to Paul Simon’s “Kodacrhome.” KLUC 98.3-FM’s Chet Buchanan was the emcee, and retro band Psychedelia, which can be described as “groovy” based solely on its name and tie-dye stage attire, bookended the show.

By now, it is pointless to ask why Goodman takes part in such events. The answer is always that he loves to promote the city and himself, in whichever order. Over the past month, he’s also attended a ribbon-cutting at the new Paymon’s on East Charleston Boulevard next to the Arts Factory and been willfully plugged by a revolver as a guest cast member in “Marriage Can Be Murder” at Fitzgeralds. Goodman’s contributions to these events usually lead to some level of media coverage and often revenue for hungry charities -- last night those benefiting from the $20-per-ticket event were the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Opportunity Village and Three Square food services.

While nipping at a Good-Man Martini (Bombay Sapphire gin being the chief and secondary ingredients) at the VIP party at Gold Diggers at Golden Nugget, Goodman said this was his most fulfilling birthday party since his bar mitzvah at the Adelphia Hotel in Philadelphia.

“I became a man,” he said during a chat at the bar as he was flanked by a showgirl on his right and his wife, Carolyn, on his left. “It was a big deal for my dad, a sign of achievement for him. It was really fun.”

I asked him the customary question about running for governor. “I’ll make an announcement in the next few weeks, I’ll have to be fair to the other candidates,” he said. When asked if that meant we’d know by the end of August, he nodded.

In discussing this decision with Goodman over the past few months, I believe that, in his head, Goodman knows he would win a statewide election. He relishes the competition, the idea of running and winning. Beating the odds seems to invigorate him. I’m not sure, though, how interested he’d be in governing from Carson City. Why leave all this?

Spiral notecase

More from GoodmanFest: Firefly opened its new downtown outpost, softly, last night at the Plaza. The Firefly sign looms over Fremont Street now, from where the glass-domed Center Stage Restaurant stood for decades. ... Zowie Bowie performed an all-standards medley. The duo of Marley Taylor and Chris Phillips will have an 18-piece orchestra for its new standards show at Monte Carlo and is expected to reach out to locals who aren’t too fond of trekking to Monte Carlo for entertainment. Gradually, I expect Z.B. to ditch the hip-hop set and focus on Old Vegas material, the Rat Pack classics, Bobby Darin, all that. … Remembering some old days at the Tap House on West Charleston with Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown. I believe we met there one night over a game of shuffleboard, a long time ago. He noted that the Tapper is one of the city’s safe havens for media types, elected officials, business figures and the like to spend some social time and even wager on shuffleboard. … Never met Golden Gate co-owner Mark Brandenburg until last night’s VIP party. A Las Vegas native, Brandenburg has owned the Golden Nugget since 1990 and partnered with Derek Stevens (whose family owns the 51s) as an investor last year. Brandenburg says the current economy is as challenging as he’s ever seen at his 102-room hotel, the oldest in the city. … Goodman’s wax figure from Madame Tussauds at The Venetian was set up in the back of the club. … Tony Sacca has some big news -- big! -- rivaling the distribution of his roulette wheel clock a few years ago. He’s keeping us in suspense about what that news is, but he looked terrific in a cream-colored suit. … City of L.V. public information officer Jace Radke is still chuckling about trying to tastefully shoot a photo of Goodman and adult film star Sunset Thomas a couple of weeks ago, when Thomas showed up to interview Goodman for a boxing Web site and was draped in a see-through dress.

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