Columnist Kate Maddox: Mysterious donor enlivens St. Jude’s Gala

Kate Maddox

Friday, Nov. 5, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, only in the Las Vegas. To subscribe to the Sun, call 383-0400.

More than $300,000 was raised at last weekend's St. Jude's Gala at the Resort at Summerlin. That's not bad for a weekend of parties, celebrities and local bigwigs, but what is remarkable is that almost half of all the money raised was donated by one person.

One hot item purchased at the St. Jude's auction by the mysterious donor was a U.S. Open flag signed by golfer Payne Stewart, who recently died in a tragic airplane accident. The flag sparked a fierce bidding war, outdoing all of the other items up for sale.

Tony Thomas, brother of Marlo and son of the late Danny (who founded St. Jude's in 1962,) opened the bidding for the golfing memento at $5,000 and it quickly shot up to $10,000. But the winner cinched his purchase with an astonishing $20,000 bid -- blowing everyone else out of the running. The buzz in the room went from what was for dinner to who was that man?

Turns out the local hero, who wanted to be discreet about his generosity, is none other than Charles "Junior" Johnson, president and CEO of a highly successful Internet company called purchasepro.com, an online e-commerce business. The word on Johnson is that he had apparently just wrapped up some lucrative business deals involving purchasepro and he was feeling rather flush at last week's event. St. Jude's was the lucky benefactor.

But Johnson wasn't satisfied with the mere 20 grand he dropped at the auction. The next day he gave Tony Thomas a check for $100,000, bringing his grand donation total to $120,000. Kudos to Johnson.

Speaking of hot auction items, a bidder paid $12,075 for a tape recording of the first time an announcer ever said the famous words, "Elvis has left the building."

The words were first uttered by Horace Logan, a radio announcer in Shreveport, La., where Elvis was performing on the Louisiana Hayride program in 1956.

The public auction, held last week at the Venetian, was conducted by Collectors Universe One-Of-A-Kind Auctions. *

Infamous restaurant "playmate" Robin Leach has been spotted all over town this week. Leach even entered the Venetian, home of his recent notorious escapades, and dined at Stephan Pyles' Star Canyon restaurant.

Leach was also spotted at the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and the MGM Grand. And why was the shameless former host of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" galavanting around town? He's on assignment for Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah's production team is in town, scouting locations and shooting footage with Leach for an upcoming show on fabulous Las Vegas. The segment with Leach at the Venetian is scheduled to air at 4 p.m. today on Oprah's show, seen locally on KTNV Channel 13.

I guess reaction to Leach's behavior with several ladies, some whipped cream and a "private" room at Delmonico's, hasn't been so bad in Chicago. Lucky Leach should be thrilled to be working with the soon-to-be multimedia queen, Winfrey. The talk show host launches her website, Oxygen, as well as her new women's magazine, in the spring.

Look for the Showboat hotel-casino to change its name and theme some time in the next year. The hotel, recently sold to a new group of owners, will be a whole new place in the new millennium.

The opening of the megaracing-theme restaurant, Race Rock, brought a crowd of more than 2,000 to the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard on Wednesday night.

Racing legends and superstars Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon and Don "The Snake" Prudhomme were all at the rowdy party to kick off the festivities at Race Rock. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman also showed up -- as well as a few other local politicos who were excited about the prospect of the new restaurant bringing business to the downtown Fremont Street Experience area.

A couple of outstanding racers who were missing from the party were Mario and Michael Andretti. They were both scheduled to appear, but Andretti patriarch Alvise, Mario's 90 year-old father, passed away earlier this week.

In this column last week I reported that the morning team at KOMP 92.3-FM had beaten Howard Stern in the 25-49 and the 25-54 demos last quarter. I should have added that these were demos for MALE listeners. And, along that same theme of toppling Stern's radio rule in Vegas, Mark and Mercedes, the morning team at KMXB 94.1-FM, handily beat Stern in the female demographic ratings for the quarter and slid past him by a slight margin in the overall demos for those age groups.