The New Frontier Has Closed

 

Without ceremony, the Frontier quietly closed its doors on Monday July 16, at 12.01am. The resort was recently sold to the real estate investment group El Ad properties for $1.2billion.

 

The Old Frontier was only the 2nd hotel to be built on the Las Vegas Strip when it opened in 1942. It was renamed the New Frontier and re-modelled in 1955 with a space-age theme to reflect the atomic era with the nations optimism in exploring space in the 1950s, and Elvis made his debut appearance in the aptly titled Venus Room the following year.

 

Source: Various / Updated: Jul 18, 2007

 

Vegas certainly wasn't ready for Elvis at that time :o but it's a shame that another Elvis-related site bites the dust :(

 

From elvis.com B)

 

April 23 - May 9, 1956

Compared to the usual hysteria, Elvis has lukewarm acceptance for his two-week engagement at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. He is not exactly what the adult audience of Vegas gamblers relates to very well. During these two weeks, the single Heartbreak Hotel and the album Elvis Presley both hit number one on the Billboard pop charts.

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/elvis1959/vegasdance0456.jpg

 

The Toledo Sports Arena being demolished :(

 

http://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_toledo.html

 

Implosion Date Set For The New Frontier :(

 

Its been expected for some time, but the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas is to be imploded at 2.30am on November 13, to make way for The Plaza, a multi-billion dollar resort which will open in 2011. Elvis made his Las Vegas debut at the New Frontier in 1956 in the futuristic new showroom - the Venus Room.

 

From the Western-themed hotel that had opened as the Frontier in 1942, the resort was re-modelled in 1955 and renamed the New Frontier with a décor that encompassed the nations growing curiosity with space travel, featuring planets and flying saucers in the Cloud Nine dining room and celestial chandeliers hovering over the casino, where six alien figures headed towards its entrance.

 

The Venus Room, where Elvis appeared, was a circular showroom and could seat up to 972 people, who surrounded the revolving stage, but Elvis' appearance did little to excite the stuffy Vegas clientele, when he was used to performing to screaming teenagers. Elvis was reportedly paid $12,500 a week, during an era when headline acts could command double that amount in other resorts.

 

It was at the New Frontier where agent Bill Miller, who was booking acts for the Dunes at the time, spotted Elvis and is quoted as saying 'Boy, some day I'm going to fire up this guy's career.'

 

So, at the close of the next decade as the booking agent for Kirk Kerkorian’s International Hotel, Bill Miller booked Elvis for his famed Las Vegas comeback in 1969 and the rest, they say, is history.

 

Source: Elvis UK On-line / Updated: Nov 5, 2007