Diplomatic Community

"I'll bet they all came here."

So says John Edmunds, general manager of The Diplomat Apartments. And by "them," he means the legends of the past who lived there -- Judy Garland, Louis Prima, Ann Margaret and Lola Falana, to name a few.

"I'm sure Frank Sinatra (and) Dean Martin all came through here for a party or to visit someone," he says.

The Diplomat is an unassuming apartment building on Paradise Road near Spring Mountain Road. Its nearly 40-year history reflects the excitement and small town camaraderie that defined Las Vegas in the '50s and '60s.

Jasmine Especiale, a medical transcriptionist, was 9 years old when her family moved into The Diplomat after arriving from New York in the early '60s. She was in awe of the desert community and her famous neighbors.

"We were new to Las Vegas so it was really neat. 'Ooh, Louis Prima lives here,' and, you know, he was a big star back then and he was in our pool with a bathing cap on because of his toupee," she says. "We used to laugh at Louis Prima, we thought it was really funny."

Especiale, her sister and other kids from The Diplomat "neighborhood" put on holiday shows, "and all of the neighbors would come," she says.

Those neighbors included Prima, Terry Gordon, then the vice president of Caesars Palace, local band leaders, musicians and performers whose names have since been forgotten.

"It was an exclusive neighborhood, very elegant, a prestigious address" Especiale says. "Las Vegas was very small back then and (The Diplomat) was the place to be. It even felt that way when we lived there because of all the (famous) people who lived there."

The bowtie-shaped apartment building sat alone when first built -- the convention center to the southeast, the Flamingo hotel-casino to the northeast.

"It was the only thing out here," Edmunds says. He has heard many stories in his seven years as general manager.

"A man came in who used to deliver papers here," he says. "He remembered there was a doorman, and he couldn't deliver the papers to the door because it was a nude pool. You know, for the showgirls."

Edmunds has also been told that the property was originally built for entertainers to have an upscale place to live while in Las Vegas on lengthy engagements. The closets are oversized. "They're big closets for all their clothes, costumes," he says, noting that the location drew many performers, as it still does today.

"We have lots of musicians," Edmunds says.

"I love it here, it's so quiet and the neighbors are really great," Tracy Baillie, a two-year resident of the apartment and singer at the Orleans, says.

Wayne Bernath, Lance Burton's director of publicity, recalls the Diplomat's heyday.

"Those were the days when things went on all night," Bernath says. "Entertainers like Don Rickles would have lounge parties all night after their show. A lot of entertainers lived there so they could just walk right home, don't have to worry about driving. And it was really a nice place."

"It was a community unto itself," Cork Proctor says. The musician and stand- up comedian is currently executive director for Coast hotels. "It was a mixed bag, very eclectic," he says of the residents. "There were showbiz people, business people and some nefarious types.

"It's a shame that the good years have gone with the implosion of all the hotels," he says. "It's not what it used to be and it never will be and I kinda miss that."

Kenny Gragson, a local realtor and son of former Las Vegas Mayor Oran Gragson, agrees that it was one of the first luxury apartment buildings of its kind here. "It was one of the first secured buildings," he says, meaning that you had to have a key to get in.

Gragson, who was The Diplomat's realtor, listed the property on the market 25 years ago and remembers the prestige its name carried. "It had that large swimming pool in the middle and was kept up excellently. It was across from the (Desert Inn) country club, and that was about the only thing around back then."

Tenants also included those in and around the business of Las Vegas -- the entertainment and gaming industries. "It was the place to stay if you rented. A lot of dealers ... and casino people, vice presidents lived there."

Some of those interviewed for this story seemed shocked that The Diplomat was still standing in a town famous for razing its history.

Today, The Diplomat delicately holds the memories of the past with an elegance reminiscent of cocktail parties and the Rat Pack, with few noticeable scars from its sometimes rocky past.

But the Diplomat's luck wasn't always a lady.

In 1991, California resident Sam Ghodsian purchased the 177-unit property (since 1960, additions have been made to its 88 original units). He says it was "terribly neglected."

"It was quite run down. The courtyard had dead trees and branches, and inside the apartments it was dirty (with) cockroaches, broken toilets," Ghodsian says. Since then, most of the apartments have been painted, re-carpeted and had the plumbing improved, and the courtyard was cleaned.

"You have to keep up the appearance of the (apartments), otherwise it turns into a dump," Edmunds says.

The delapidated Diplomat is overcoming an obstacle that other older buildings have succumbed to -- time.

Lila Rideout, a retired local business owner and resident of the Diplomat for 21 years with her husband, Ron, watched The Diplomat fall from its glamourous perch and rise from a decade of neglect to regain some of its lost charm.

Her home is stacked with mementos of her life: paintings crawl up the two-story living room wall; furniture is nestled amid end tables, books and knickknacks. She moves easily through the 1,800-square foot apartment.

"This is my corner," she says, spreading her thin arms wide to include the towering palms that nestle outside her home in the southeast corner of the building. "This was the place to live when I moved in."

At that time, Paradise Road was two lanes, and you could still glimpse the golf course stretching out behind the Desert Inn Estates across the street.

"I wanted to settle in a lovely place -- this was it," she says. "There were a number of Strip stars that lived here. Ann Margaret lived in Number 16."

Rideout's daughter, Adrienne Lee, has lived at The Diplomat on and off for 15 years, now in an apartment across the courtyard from her mother. She also has been dating her mother's neighbor for more than two years.

Mother and daughter sit and talk at a table directly outside Rideout's door -- with extra chairs for neighbors to join in -- beneath palms taller than the two-story structure and beside a courtyard that spreads quietly before them to the pool.

"It's just real nice here," Lee says. "Neighbors are real nice."

The Diplomat's past has been re-painted and primed to continue on its aging legs into the future. The mirrors may have lost their luster, turning dark with age, but The Diplomat lives on in a town known for a lack of compassion for its star-studded history.

"In Las Vegas, everything is so new," Ghodsian says. "Anything older than 20 years, I suppose it has some history."

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