Thursday, April 13, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.
If former Pittsburgh Steelers star Terry Bradshaw had shown the mobility in his NFL career that he displayed onstage Wednesday at the Mandalay Bay convention center, he wouldn't have had his bell rung so many times.
The excitable Bradshaw was the keynote speaker at the Las Vegas International Hotel & Restaurant Show awards luncheon, which honored Boyd Gaming Chief Executive Bill Boyd as Hotelier of the Year, and Emeril's New Orleans Fish House and Delmonico Steakhouse Director of Operations Scott Farber as Restaurateur of the Year.
Introducing Boyd was Irwin Kishner, in his role as a longtime Boyd friend (47 years long) and member of the Hotel & Restaurant Show Board of Governors. Introducing Farber was Nevada Restaurant Association Chairman Michael Coward. The emcee was Hotel & Restaurant Show Chairman Robert Ansara, owner of Ricardo's restaurant in Las Vegas.
Farber and Boyd both gave brief, stately acceptance speeches, leaving the stage to Bradshaw and his untethered approach to public speaking. He quickly stepped in front of the podium (defying the spotlight), shed his jacket and for the next half hour or so regaled the ballroom in a disjointed but entertaining recounting of his career and philosophy of life.
Bradshaw said his life philosophy is: "1. Be thrilled to be alive. 2. Smile and enjoy life." No. 3 was "Love your family," but before advancing from No. 2 to No. 3 he spent several minutes sharing a wild anecdote about one of Rocky Bleier's great games with the Steelers.
"Now Rocky's been in the Army - he was drafted in the first round by the Army and in the 17th round by the Steelers ... He gets shot in the foot in Vietnam and it's just a little scratch on his toe! But he's written a book, 'Fighting Back,' and has had a movie done about him also called, 'Fighting Back.' He does 175 speaking engagements a year and all of them are called, 'Fighting Back.'
"Anyway, he says he wants to carry the ball a couple of times. 'I have friends and family in the crowd and I have a book signing tomorrow, and I'd like to carry the ball just twice, so I won't be embarrassed.' So I give him the ball and wow! Nine yards! The crowd goes crazy. Then I give it to him again, 11 yards! Then 18 yards! And the crowd is going 'ROCK-Y! ROCK-Y!' And it got good to me! So I gave him the ball 17 straight times. I hear the announcer saying, 'An NFL record for Rocky Bleier! Seventeen straight carries!'
"But I don't realize that Rocky is in such bad shape because he smoked Camels, three packs a day - he learned to smoke in the Army - and he's doubled over, 'Uhhurrrp! Uhhurrrp!' and John Stallworth is saying, 'Get this guy away from me! I don't like this!' And Franco Harris, being a smart Penn State guy, is saying, 'He out! He out!' But dang it, we're on the one-inch line and Rocky earned the right to score the touchdown, and he did!"
After the talk, Bradshaw was offered lunch - the entree was herb-crusted filet of beef paired with balsamic-glazed sea bass, roasted garlic pomme macre, oven-dried tomatoes and fresh asparagus.
He declined, saying, "I'm going to Metro Pizza."
NoteMart
Our Cher?: The Irish Examiner (now there's an offbeat subscription), pulling from PageSix.com and appearing here in the Sun, reports that Cher is planning to take over for Celine Dion at the Colosseum at Caesars next year after Dion's run there has concluded. On Wednesday, Harrah's Entertainment spokesman Kenneth Langdon said there is nothing to announce, but the venue is always in conversations with world-class entertainers who would work well in the 4,000-seat theater ...
Rock show: Billboard.com repo rts that the vaunted lineup of Judas Priest, Kiss and Queen will record a VH1 "Rock Honors" special on May 25 at Mandalay Bay Events Center. The show is scheduled to air on May 31 ...
Quite a lift: Businessman and noted musician/vocalist Tommy Rocker is traveling to Vienna, Austria, next week. He's doing what most international travelers do while in Europe - checking out parking garages.
Rocker is taking a look at Austrian garages because that country - and all of Europe - is the world leader in automated garages. Rocker's plans to build a high-rise project on his Tommy Rocker's Cantina site on Industrial Road near Flamingo Road, include an automated garage (like an elevator for vehicles) to save space.
Rocker will spend a little more than a week checking out the real deal before returning to Las Vegas. The high-rise project should be finished by late 2008.
This week Rocker also held court for dozens of Cirque du Soleil performers Monday night/Tuesday morning when members of "Ka," "Mystere" and "O" held a group party at his place. "They do that every so often. They're like a big family and they call ahead to make plans to hang out at our place," Rocker said Wednesday ...
The long and short of it: The CineVegas Film Festival announced Monday that Laurence Fishburne and Christina Ricci will be honored with Half-Life Awards at this year's festival, set for June 9-17 at the Palms. Also announced was an all-Las Vegas jury for the Best Short (which will be given a $1,000 prize). Those on the panel are UNLV film professor David Schmoeller, Fox 5 anchor Jason Feinberg and Teller of Penn & Teller.
Passes for the festival can be purchased at cinevegas.com ; individual tickets will be available for $10 each at Brenden Theatres at the Palms beginning May 22 ...
She's a sellout: The May 27 Madonna show at the MGM Grand is an announced sellout ...
All mixed up: Master mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim is giving a seminar for prospective celebrity bartenders at 6 p.m. Friday at the Museum of the American Cocktail at Commander's Palace in the Desert Passage mall at the Aladdin. The event runs until 7:30 p.m. and costs $45.
No strings attached: The U.S. Air Guitar Championships are hosting regional competitions across the country; the finals will be June 22 at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. I mention this because Las Vegas - home to the Big Daddy Burger competitive eating championships and the USA Rock Paper Scissors finals - is somehow not among the host cities ...
Muscle truck: A silver pickup truck - methinks a Dodge Ram - parked at the baseball fields at The Trails park in Summerlin had the plate BONDS25.
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