Make Room for Emmy

Erin Neff

Thursday, June 17, 1999 | 9:22 a.m.

Esther Jane Paul has become something of an awards show pro.

As the executive producer of a regional Emmy awards program for five years, she's learned how to cue the presenters as they strut on the stage of a cavernous theater with hundreds watching from cushy velvet seats.

When the Southwestern Regional Emmys ceremony comes to Las Vegas on Saturday for its 25th anniversary show, though, a few of the classic elements Paul is used to dealing with will be missing.

Like a stage.

And walls.

Or neat rows of theater seats.

Before any presenter asks, "May I have the envelope please?" the San Diego-Southwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will push the envelope of the traditional awards show by holding its Emmy awards outside at downtown's Fremont Street Experience.

"Generally we have the physical elements like the walls, the stage and the audience in place," said Paul, president of the San Diego NATAS chapter, which includes Las Vegas and areas of Southern California outside of Los Angeles.

"Now we have to bring all of that in," she said. "The walls, the stage, even the seats. It's going to be interesting."

Most regional Emmy awards -- which are presented at 17 NATAS chapters nationwide -- are given for local news programming or documentaries. (The prime-time Emmy awards, held each fall in Los Angeles, and the Daytime Emmys, held in New York City, are given predominantly for entertainment programming. So if you head to the cordoned-off Emmy area with hopes of catching a glimpse of Lisa Kudrow or Paul Reiser, you'll be disappointed.)

Las Vegas Emmy nominees in a variety of categories are KLAS Channel 8, KVBC Channel 3, KTNV Channel 13, KLVX Channel 10 and KVVU Channel 5. There are no plans to broadcast the ceremony locally.

The Emmy plan is to set up shop in an area of the Experience at First Street, near the Golden Nugget hotel-casino. Revelers who trek downtown for the nightly light shows on the pedestrian mall's canopied roof can still get to the laser productions from other parts of the Experience.

Dan Garrison, a producer at Channel 10, won a regional Emmy in 1997 for his "Water Rules" documentary and will be on hand Saturday to see if a program on Great Basin National Park, which aired on "Outdoor Nevada," wins.

With this being the first outdoor Emmy ceremony, the program title alone could prove to be an advantage.

"I think it'll be a big improvisation, we'll be winging it," said Garrison, who has attended regional Emmy awards for three years and will also be a presenter Saturday night. "But that's sort of (emblematic of) Las Vegas anyway."

Local tourism officials are hoping the exposure from the regional Emmy awards will help broaden downtown Las Vegas' appeal as a viable center for similar ceremonies and conventions.

"We think it's going to be a wonderful way to showcase the venue to important people in the media," Kim Daskas, advertising and public relations director for the Fremont Street Experience, said.

Although the Experience was designed to save downtown's older hotels in light of upscale competition on the Strip, it has become recognized as the hip place for live television in Las Vegas.

The Fox Network broadcast a live special from the Experience in which a stunt man set himself on fire. MTV filmed segments for its "Spring Break" specials there, and thousands treat the enclosed setting as the party place to be at on New Year's Eve.

"People are starting to realize it's a good place to have a party," Mark Paris, president of the Fremont Street Experience, said.

Jonathan Dunn-Rankin, administrator of the Southwest regional NATAS chapter, said members overwhelmingly favored holding the show in Las Vegas when asked in a survey.

"Usually we're in a banquet room or a theater," Dunn-Rankin said. "There are not many hotels (that) want to give up their cabaret room on a Saturday night."

The Golden Nugget will act as the host hotel, holding a champagne reception and dinner in its Bel Air Room prior to the 8 p.m. awards program outside.

"They're going to extend a red carpet out from the hotel, around the pool area and through the lobby," Paul said. "Most of the people don't have any idea where it is being held."

Although rain is not in the forecast, the triple digit temperatures will probably prove troubling to the chapter members from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, where cooler weather prevails.

"We're just going to have to see what happens," Paul said.

There is one uniquely Las Vegas element to Saturday's program that wasn't present in San Diego, where the regional Emmys were held for the past two years: Showgirls.

"Two showgirls, dressed -- and I emphasize dressed -- will be the trophy bearers," Paul said.

The awards show will highlight 75 winning entries over the 2 1/2-hour program. Three breaks are built into the ceremony so that television officials can watch the laser show. Daskas said the laser shows will those commonly seen on Fremont Street, but will include added elements relating to the Emmy awards.

The Emmy awarded regionally is slightly smaller and with a different base than the statuette of a winged woman holding an atom, given at the national awards.

But for local television it holds the same stature and carries the same weight.

"It is a big honor," Garrison, who was awarded Channel 10's first Emmy in its history, said. "It's also nice to get all dressed up."

City officials hope the glitzy atmosphere -- even sans stars -- will help boost Fremont Street's reputation and lure other events and award shows to its outdoor arena.

"We always saw Fremont Street as an events theater," Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones said. "The Emmys coming here just shows other events how adaptable we are."