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Siegfried Fischbacher, Roy Horn and Larry Ruvo at the Keep Memory Alive 14th Annual Power of Love Gala at the Bellagio on Feb. 27, 2010.
Published Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010 | 7:56 a.m.
Updated Monday, March 1, 2010 | 4:40 p.m.
Audio Clip
- Larry Ruvo
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Wolfgang Puck, second from left, joins dancing Barry Manilow fans at the Keep Memory Alive 14th Annual Power of Love Gala at the Bellagio on Feb. 27, 2010.
Holly Madison and Barry Manilow at the Keep Memory Alive 14th Annual Power of Love Gala at the Bellagio on Feb. 27, 2010.
Brad Garrett and Larry Ruvo at the Keep Memory Alive 14th Annual Power of Love Gala at the Bellagio on Feb. 27, 2010.
The money flowed like chilled Dom Perignon at the Bellagio on Saturday night, and once more the Keep Memory Alive "Power of Love" gala ignored economic realities elsewhere and continued to plow ahead with a blade dipped in gold.
Twenty-seven million dollars was raised during the 6 1/2-hour lovefest on the Strip. That's the entire announced total, counting table and individual seat reservations (which ranged from $15,000 to $75,000 per table and $1,500 to $7,500 per seat), live and silent auction items and a handful of individual anonymous contributions that exceeded $1 million. The money raised goes toward the further development and operational costs for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, brainchild of Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada head and Las Vegas native Larry Ruvo.
It was an unforgettable accomplishment, far and away a record for a fundraising endeavor that started 14 years ago with 20 people meeting for dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Spago at the Forum Shops at Caesars. Even so, the Clinic's founder left nothing to chance.
"If you remember anything tonight, remember this: Cleveland Clinic, $27 million," Ruvo said from the stage, after new Paris Las Vegas headliner Barry Manilow boogied off the stage to the familiar rhythms of "Copacabana."
Two other-worldly donations helped Keep Memory Alive, the Cleveland Clinic's philanthropic division, arrive at its goal for the evening. After it was estimated that the night would draw a total of $23.5 million, the night's honorees, former International Gaming Technology Chief Executive Officer Chuck Mathewson and his wife, Stacie, simply made up the difference with a check for $4.5 million. This was critical to the Clinic's goal of paying off, entirely, the $27 million bond issued by the city of Las Vegas to the Clinic, which is dedicated to treating and curing Alzheimer's Huntington's Parkinson's ALS and other memory disorders.
Then, with Cleveland Clinic Chief Executive Officer Dr. Toby Cosgrove standing next to him, Ruvo announced that the evening's top donor was Anchor Gaming CEO Stan Fulton, who donated $8 million to the center. Cutting a multimillion-dollar check to charity is not foreign terrain for Fulton, who donated $6 million to the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV. He is a frequent contributor to Republican political candidates, and was not actually in the room when his gift was announced, departing just before Ruvo told the crowd of about 600 of the donation.
Mathewson did stay until the end. If you donate $4.5 million, you may as well enjoy some Barry.
"I pay it forward, yes, sir," he said. "I very much believe in that. Good things happen when you pay it forward."
Before the late announcement of the night's largest gifts, the live auction provided the head-spinning bids that have become a "Power of Love" tradition. Private dinners prepared by celeb chefs Puck and Thomas Keller combined for $230,000. Two nights at Meadowood in Napa Valley, Calif., where the winner is invited to drive exotic cars with a group of Robb Report editors, went for $260,000. An hourlong tennis lesson from Andre Agassi and Stephanie Graf, followed by what we can expect is a really nice lunch, went for $130,000. The auction lots came in all shapes and sized, to be sure: Danny DeVito announced lunch with him and his wife, Rhea Perlman, at their "trailer in L.A.," which went for $60,000. Brad Garrett announced a star-studded poker game featuring his friend Ray Romano, went for $100,000. As Garrett said, referring to Romano, "You've not lived until you seen a person with more money than God complain about losing $4 on a poker hand."
The night concluded with a Manilow medley, as some of the more sprightly guests near the stage responding to his invitation to dance out the night with Lola, Tony and Rico at the Copa. The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is already seeing patients at its site in Symphony Park, just east of World Market Center, and its grand opening is April 1. But as anyone who has seen Ruvo and his friends operate, this group is nobody's fool.
More from the gala
Siegfried & Roy, centerpiece of last year's gala, were on hand but did not take the stage. ... Interesting sighting: Mayor Oscar Goodman chatting up Sands Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson as the two entered the room side-by-side. Goodman has long refused to attend events at Adelson's Venetian because of its status as a non-union property. ... County Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid meeting up with Agassi and Graf near the red carpet. I don't believe Reid ever felt Goodman would run for governor. ... On a night when cuts to the state's higher education budget were being finalized in Carson City, UNLV President Dr. Neal Smatresk was in attendance. Scores of potential donors to the university were in attendance. ... Fleeting sighting: Sen. John Ensign, leaving the men's room. ... Former Govs. Richard Bryan and Bob Miller and Holly Madison, all sighted separately. ... Garrett again dropped into his great impression of Romano, mocking his friend's wealth with: "I dropped my wallet on a chair and broke it." ... Determination: One of the city's best-connected people who is not necessarily a famous person is Ruvo's right-hand man at Southern Wine & Spirits, Michael Severino. ... A Bellagio valet attendant, who drives any variety of exotic car, said the finest car she has ever driven is a 2010 Ferrari F450.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
All Larry Ruvo cares about is building a fancy building and throwing fancy parties. This is what rich people do when they get bored. START HELPING BRAIN PATIENTS ALREADY!
$27 million raised is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money they spent building that thing. I would love to look over the budget on that monstrosity and compare what they spent on architecture to what they spent on medical equipment.
This is such a disgusting waste. Just help people.
Congratulations, Mr. Ruvo, for your fundraising success and for having the vision necessary to ignore critics and press ahead with building an amazing, world-class building to house an amazing, world-class institute. Thank you for your dedication to Las Vegas.
Congratulations to Larry Ruvo for his vision and his legacy in honor of his Dad, Lou Ruvo who was a wonderful man. The lights in Vegas shine a bit brighter due to the hard work and commitment of so many people for this worthwhile cause.
I guess Toby is finally amongst the people he caters to the best. And I hope they are the only patients there, because the stars are the only people his hospitals have ever given good care to. All the regular people are thrown to the wolves they call doctors there.
I agree, what a waste of money. Cosgrove is always all show.
see kidneytransplantkiller.com
It's really sad to see all of the negative comments about something so fantastic. Is there anything that you haters are capable of praising?
My grandmother died due to complications from a terrible, all-too-common brain disease. Now, my aunt is staring at the same fate. Neither could afford celebrity-level care, but how do you think such immense innovations are realized? The drug my aunt is on was released only a few years ago...I'm certain after tens - if not hundreds - of millions of dollars in r&d, countless tests, and infinite studies. Without the top-level institutes like the Ruvo Center, there are no new drugs or treatments.
I couldn't be more thankful for this family's efforts.
Thank you Mr. Larry Ruvo for having the vision to build a world class facility for the RESEARCH and treatment of brain diseases. Cleveland Clinic is a prestigious institution in the medical field. Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is a welcome addition to our community!! Thank you!!
There are so many empty abandoned recently constructed buildings in Las Vegas. The next time someone wants to start a clinic - instead of throwing all their donor money away - maybe they can use one of the existing buildings and help people. It might not be as glamourous, but if someone's intentions are to research and cure disease - it should not matter how gorgeous the building is as long as it is functional.
@ jaycooke
You are barking at the wrong tree, your comment should be directed to our elected officials wasting our tax money in Carson, they should be renting a small vacant office space instead of wasting my money in the Capitol pretending to be working.
Congratulations, and thank you very much to Larry Ruvo, and all the generous donors. Been to the clinic twice already. It's beautiful, and everybody is very, very nice. Hope to see CC expand soon in LV. We badly need to improve the quality of medical care here. Hurry, hurry!
ive been following this story for awhile now and i'm wondering if the ruvo brain instute would be interested in helping my son who recieved a tramautic brain injury a little over 4 years ago.how about it ruvo brain instute
Riesling, you make a good point - but I am going to keep barking up this tree.
Look at the Nevada Cancer Institute. They built a functional reasonably attractive state of the art center for $53 million. People go there to get better not because the building was designed by a famous architect. How much did the Ruvo beast cost?
This is a pharaoh complex, plain and simple.
In other news, Barry Manilow is one of the creepiest people on the planet.
@jaycook
There are far too many mediocre buildings in the world and I'm glad the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health did not go this way with their facility.
Donations were made by prominent people including Mr.Ruvo to have a world class facility to be built in our city. I don't see anything wrong with it, part of the reason why they want a world class facility is for the institution to be able to attract the best doctors to come to Las Vegas and share their knowledge. It is a win win approach for Las Vegas in getting a treatment, the best doctors, a world class institution and hopefully finding a cure for brain diseases. My grandfather passed away with Alzheimer's disease so yes this facility is definitely a welcome sight in my community.
Riesling, I would hate to meet the doctor who would refuse to work at a facility because the building was mediocre. Do you think these doctors would accept a lower wage because a great deal of money was spent on how good the building looks? Or would the center be better off using that money to recruit great doctors and offer them a better wage or better equipment or a better operating budget?
The money that went towards architecture could have easily gone towards equipment, research costs, and staff. I honestly want to see their budget on this beast. Cures do not come from an impressive-looking building. What happens instead a facility is more important that what is happening on the outside. For every million dollars they spent on needless architecture - that is another millions dollar further away this center is from curing a disease like Alzheimer's.
I have no problem with commercial ventures spending a crapload of money on the appearance of their buildings. But when an organization devoted to public health does it - that offends me. Disease is not impressed by architecture. Frank Gehry isn't going to perform extensive and expensive research on brain disease.
Now everyone can go back congratulating and thanking Pharaoh Ruvo. I hope he feed these people well at his party. His pyramid is complete - let's see if he actually accomplishes something with it. If not, he can always be buried in it.
jaycooke,
Why would what they spend offend you? I am betting none of it was your money. There is no tax payers money involved in this project. This money was raised from those that wanted to pay for it.
Once you put your money where your mouth is then you have something to say about how they build their buildings and run their operation.
@ jaycook
Not everyone wants to work in a dump, even doctors. How would you know Cleveland Clinic will pay these doctors minimally? Doctors are paid based on their expertise at least that is how one should be paid and nothing wrong with wanting to work in a place especially constructed for them. But anyway, many prominent people donated their time and money for this institution so we should be thankful a world class facility is in our community.
Vegaslee, tax payer money was involved according to this article. The city gave them a bond. The center is going to pay this back presumably from their donations from this party. But my taxes were involved.
And I have put my money where my mouth is. Last year I choose to donate to the Nevada Cancer Institute instead of the Ruvo pyramid. They care more about curing cancer than building something that looks like it has been melted down. When I donate to a cause I want to know my money is going to be on the ground actively working to help people. Ruvo's first priority is publicity. I am never going to donate to a cause like that.
And to riesling - I am not asserting that the clinic doctors will be paid minimally. I am stating that their budget is going to affect by how much they spent on architecture. **The money they spent on LOOKS could have been spent on RESEARCH.**
And is this center really a world-class facility YET? I would like to see what happens first before I declare something world-class. You have been brainwashed by avant garde architecture. Just because you throw a lot of money at a pretty building does not mean magic will automatically happen inside.
@jaycook
If we take into consideration the work of the architect in many parts of the USA and the world in many 1st class cities, it is safe to call the Cleveland Clinic Lary Ruvo Center for Brain Health as world class.
Not all is pleased like yourself and as you have mentioned it is safe to assume you probably would have wanted these prominent people donated their time and money with the Cancer Institute.
Publicity is good, it brings in attention to the facility and it may bring in world class doctors wanting to work in the facility, you are looking at the facility in a negative way.
Goodluck with the Lary Ruvo Center for Brain Health and may it advance the treatment of brain diseases through its research and hard work.
Riesling - come on. You consider the building "world-class" and know nothing at all about the quality of the clinic. No one does.
World-class doctors will look the quality of staff, equipment, and operating budget before the quality of the building. If you think they care about the building first, you are wrong.
I am dealing with 3 Brain tumors called Meningioma.
I had an 11 surgeon in NY Presb. in 2006. My husband put the house on a reverse mortgage to pay for the plastic surgeon I HAD to have. In 4 years all the money we got for our house is gone.Used to pay Physicians,co-pays and still I suffer with deficits that no one seems to care. NO MONEY NO HELP.To make matters worse my husband is real sick. Had to have a Zenkers fixed in his throat. A Melanoma in his navel area and now more test to see why he's have pain in his intestines.The co-pays have doubled. He is 67 and when I put him on Humana Advantage it took off Medicare and we're reponsible for a large 20% of bill.We worked hard and we have nothing now.That reverse mortgage is eating away the little we have left.Life is so hard. Being ill and not having enough to even buy essentials and the electric bills and all else.A building is nice to have. But money for us is more important and to find a cure or help us with basic things. That's all we need. We need state of the Art innovations. Not go to the same Labs,same Doctors that don't care if your dying and want cash up front to see you. Now Doctors aren't taking Medicare patients. And if you are seen by one of them they want to be paid up front..Hopefully, the Doctors will do more research on MENINGIOMAS as well as other brain tumors.