Sunday, March 19, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.
For the old-timers in town, this has been a rough month.
Wally Pinjuv, Davey Pearl and Herb Tobman - three familiar faces at the annual Las Vegas Old Time Reunion - died.
For the last decade, old-timers, defined as those who have lived in Southern Nevada for at least 30 years, have gathered every fall to celebrate, swap stories and reminisce.
This year they'll remember the three, and they'll have a chance to say goodbye to another old friend. For the last nine years they've held the reunion at the Stardust, which is slated to be demolished next year to make way for the $4 billion Echelon Place.
Organizers of the reunion that each year draws about 1,000 Las Vegans - everyone from busboys to billionaires - vow that despite the losses of key members and their longtime home, the 11th annual event Sept. 24 at the Stardust won't be the last.
"One of the reasons we have this party is to come and see who is still alive," said Ken Johann, a longtime local Realtor and co-founder of the event. "I'm 99 percent sure it will go on" after this year.
That is provided they can find a new host resort that will charge them a price comparable to the $35 per-person that the Stardust charges for a meal, two drinks and top-flight entertainment.
"I think anybody will take us, even at that (low) price," said co-organizer Herb Kaufman, a longtime local businessman. "We are going to miss the Stardust. The people there have gone way out of their way for us. But we are looking at other places. We'll definitely have it (the reunion) again."
Organizers say they hope to strike a deal with Old Time Reunion regular attendees such as Bill Boyd of the Boyd Group, owner of the Stardust and other properties including Sam's Town, or Kirk Kerkorian, majority shareholder and director of MGM Mirage, for use of one of their resort ballrooms.
Kaufman and Johann say that while they are saddened by the recent deaths of their three longtime friends, they are heartened by the fact that each year new old-timers, including those who moved to town during the population boom of the 1970s, become eligible to join the reunion and pump new blood into it.
Pinjuv, who died March 10 at age 84, was a native Las Vegan and general contractor who worked on construction of UNLV's Maude Frazier Hall. The annual Walter Pinjuv Golf Tournament in Las Vegas has benefited people with speech, hearing and language disorders.
Pearl, who died March 12 at age 88, refereed 70 world title boxing matches, including the first Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks world heavyweight championship. He also owned Davey's Locker bar and helped recruit basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian from Long Beach State in 1973. He was also one of the event's eight founders.
Tobman, who died March 13 at age 81, was president and general manager of the Stardust in the 1970s and '80s and owner of Western Cab Co., since 1968. He served on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board in the 1980s and was a longtime local real estate investor and philanthropist.
The founders of the Old Time Reunion were part of a breakfast crowd that gathered in the mid-1990s at Bagelmania at Swenson Street and Twain avenues.
"We used to sit around and talk about the old days - everybody had great stories," Johann said. "So we decided to have a gathering for more people to have a chance to share their memories."
The other living Old Time Reunion founders are Art Lurie and Thalia Dondero. The other late founders were Jack Kogan, Paul Endy, Joe Delaney and Pearl's twin brother, Lou Pearl.
Arizona Charlie's was the reunion's first host hotel and 500 people attended the inaugural event in 1996. The Stardust took over the next year and has hosted the reunion ever since.
Several entertainers, including Wayne Newton, have performed at past reunions for free.
Johann, 81, said putting on such an event is time-consuming. He said he and his assistant, Carolyn Whelan, spend about two months selling tickets and arranging the seating. That, Johann admits, can be "a real pain" given some feuds and personality clashes.
"I put the gamblers on one side of the room and the politicians on the other," he said, "and I have to be careful not to sit someone next to an ex-wife."
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