Friday, Nov. 4, 2005 | 8:25 a.m.
About $1,300.
That's what it would cost for the best seats, a single ticket, for concerts and events being held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena this month -- U2 tonight and Saturday, the Rolling Stones on Nov. 18, the Ultimate Fighting Championship's "Full Force" fight card on Nov. 19 and Paul McCartney on Nov. 24-25.
The Stones lead the pack with a $472.50 top ticket price (and if you run that figure by a longtime Stones fan, he'll tell you about how he saw them for $10 at a club in Queens in '72).
With those prices as a backdrop, a Las Vegan with a history of tracking ticket prices played a guessing game with me Thursday afternoon. On New Year's Eve 1962 the Rat Pack -- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop -- performed at the Sands Copa Room.
Adding dinner, he asked, how much was the ticket price?
After carefully measuring the talent onstage, dinner and the venue, I said, "Twenty-five dollars."
Nope, off by $20. That price, that night, was $5, which today is a decent valet tip at the MGM. Or a pack of smokes for Keith Richards.
NoteMart
"Me llamo Glen Lerner ...": The intonations of one Glen Lerner, aka "The Heavy Hitt-ah," were unmistakable over the old Sony. So was the language -- Spanish. The Las Vegas attorney and one-time Duke University soccer player ("The Heavy Hitt-ah" played soccer, not football, in college, according to his Web site) has cut a series of Spanish-language commercials. The ads are playing on KINC Channel 15 and KBLR Channel 39. And yes, I now have his jingle going through my head ...
Fab anniversary: Many fabulous anniversaries are being celebrated this weekend, including the "Sirens of TI" at Treasure Island (No. 2) and the Palms (No. 4, already), but we take a moment to honor The Fab.
The good-time Beatles tribute band has been banging out great music for 10 years, dating to the late, great Mad Dogs and Englishmen pub. Tonight and Saturday they are at the Club at the Cannery ...
Who's on First: First Friday in the downtown Arts District (now formally known as 18b) is upon us. A map, schedule and other information is available at www.firstfriday-lasvegas.org; the free trolley from the Clark County Government Center to the par-tay runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. ...
Sign language: The view from a few tables at Capital Grille on the third level at Fashion Show mall is of what will one day be home to Trump International. The Trump project is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2008, and next year the Frontier will be leveled. But that priceless, vintage Frontier sign -- so ugly it's beautiful -- should be salvaged ...
S.I. language: From the great Bill Scheft of Sports Illustrated, a number of scenarios for the upcoming (and unfortunate) "Rocky Balboa" movie, which is due in 2006. For Scenario No. 5, Scheft writes:
"Balboa's old nemesis from 'Rocky III,' Clubber Lang, agrees to a rematch after the Las Vegas revue he stars in, 'Mr. T and A,' closes down due to an outbreak of good taste. The hotly anticipated fight is delayed over an hour while Lang takes off all his jewelry before going through the metal detector at the Thomas & Mack Center, then canceled when Paulie is unable to find a tube of Fixodent to keep Rocky's mouthpiece in place."
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