Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: A treasured tradition

Thursday, April 27, 2000 | 9:16 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

Some traditions are meant to endure.

Last week I joined friends and family at a Passover Seder that celebrated the exodus from Egypt of the Jewish people who were slaves to Pharaoh. They left in a hurry at the behest of Moses, who led them to the Promised Land. Passover is a retelling of that remarkable story of freedom. It is a tradition that has endured because only through keeping that story alive do we keep the blessings of freedom close to our hearts.

Joining us at the Seder was Theodore Bikel, the man who played Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof." After dinner he entertained us with his great sense of humor and his warming renditions of a few songs from that wonderful play. One of the songs that he made famous, of course, is "Tradition." As a father deeply mired in the ways of his forefathers, Tevye had trouble first understanding and, then, bending to the ways of his children. When he finally gave up, he summed it up by saying, "Tradition! Eh!" And that was that, tradition was gone and the new ways had taken over.

I thought of the importance of tradition Monday night at the 50th birthday party for the Desert Inn Hotel because that theme was readily apparent in all that was done to mark the golden anniversary of one of the very first hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. While some traditions are meant to be ended a la Tevye's struggle to change his ways to mesh with those of the newer generations, some are meant to endure, because in their life we learn much about what continues to make us great. There were great and glorious Las Vegas hotels that no longer exist because whatever tradition they brought forward was not enough to justify their continued existence. Those were sad days when the Dunes and Sands hotels were returned to the dust, but who can argue with the Bellagio and Venetian hotels that grew up to take their places?

The Desert Inn is different. Perhaps it is a personal feeling of tradition that makes me believe this way, or perhaps it is the fact that in celebrating the 50th birthday we also recognized the contributions of longtime employees of the hotel, some of whom were there when the doors first opened. The people who build and make the places work, after all, are what give continued life to any thought of tradition in this business.

The Desert Inn always held a soft place in my father's heart, too. As Wilbur Clark's original partner in 1947 in a $90,000 dream that my dad described as being just a couple of million dollars short of reality, he helped open the hotel on April 24, 1950, as the director of publicity and partner. That job would last just three weeks because the siren call of the newspaper profession lured him to a more exciting life's work. There was hardly an anniversary of the Desert Inn, though, that passed without some mention in "Where I Stand," and it usually centered on the man who started it all, Wilbur Clark.

As Hank once wrote, "Las Vegas and the Desert Inn became more than a town and a hotel. It was the beginning of the host image and it was all wrapped up around this good, kind, warm personality, to whom publicity just gravitated and who could go anywhere in the world exciting countless reams of newspaper and television exposure. Wilbur was the shy, subtle type with unprofessional air who could walk into the Savoy Plaza in London and get as much attention as the Prince of Wales ... Wherever he traveled, he spread warmth and hospitality and this became the hallmark of the Desert Inn."

This past Monday night the showroom at the Desert Inn was packed by celebrants, most of whom had something to do with the growth of the DI but almost all of whom knew of its beginnings only through hearsay and history books. There were four people, though, by my count who were there when it all started and who must have felt the deep, deep pangs of nostalgia, as well as a good bit of "where did the time go," when the audience sang "Happy Birthday" -- for the 50th time in the hotel's career. Bernie Rothkopf, who helped open the hotel in 1950 and who has opened many more in his long career, was there. So, too, was Hugh Taylor, the original architect of Wilbur's dream.

The other two people are as close to me as my own family. In fact, one of them is and the other has always been. With Hank Greenspun on opening night was his partner and my mother, Barbara. She was at the Desert Inn 50 years later looking every bit as beautiful as she must have looked a half century ago. I learned at a very early age about the woman for whom my sister Jane Toni was named. She was the best and most elegant friend my parents had in those early days and she is Toni Clark, a family friend who has endured in all of her elegance and charm, even more so than the hotel that lives the dream she and her Wilbur had so many years ago.

When I think about tradition, which ones should stay and which should go, the Desert Inn is one of those that must endure, for in its rich and long history is the stuff from which Las Vegas was made. A tradition of service, of style, of warmth and of friendliness. It is a bit of an anachronism in these days of multithousand room "cities" of tourists with its few hundred elegant rooms and its smallish casino. But it has managed to hang around when all others had written it off years ago.

The question remains whether there will be a Desert Inn during the next 50 years of Las Vegas' incredible growth. The rumors have been flying for weeks that there is a man who has the talent and ambition to continue in the best tradition of the Desert Inn. I suspect and hope that any day now a sale to Steve Wynn will be announced, and with it will go the great burden of continuing the dream that Wilbur built 50 years ago while adding to it the brilliance for which Steve has become known as Las Vegas' most talented impresario.

If that comes to pass, Steve will have a tradition, started by Wilbur Clark, upon which he can build a magnificent future. It is the tradition that has made Las Vegas famous.