ent001673-018

This item has not been digitized in its entirety. The original item is available for research and handling at the UNLV University Libraries. Additional digitization is available upon request. Please contact Special Collections to request additional digitization or with any questions regarding access at special.collections@unlv.edu. for most shows, but by Fischman?╟╓s admission, it suffered from a certain amount of marketing neglect until now. Bally?╟╓s Las Vegas strategists were necessarily focused on the areas vital to increasing revenue and bringing the company out of its Chapter 11 status. But that?╟╓s been done. The management team has implemented programs that pumped fresh bursts of life into the once sagging fortunes of this resort. The future appears brighter than ever, now that cash is available for upgrades throughout the operation. Example: operating profits during 1992 were the best ever in the history of this hotel and casino. This includes its years as the MGM Grand. Official numbers are not available but sources outside the company estimate operating profits topped $56 million during 1992, a better than $10 million improvement over 1991. It was the sort of year that makes it possible for Bally executives to turn to other items on the list of priorities as the company prepares for a future that includes three major resort openings over the next year within a mile of the Bally front door. Because of this new competition, ?╟úJubilee!?╟Ñ is a priority as these new resorts prepare shows that will give new meaning to the area?╟╓s self-proclaimed reputation as ?╟úThe Entertainment Capital of the World.?╟Ñ Within the last couple of years, existing resorts have also tapped into the necessity for new entertainment offerings, the simple result being that ?╟úJubilee! ?╟Ñ as attractive as it still is in its present form, faces more competition than ever. Here?╟╓s a look at some of the recent changes in other showrooms. The Stardust replaced the aging ?╟úLido de Paris?╟Ñ production with a new song and dance production, Siegfried and Roy opened at The Mirage three years ago and continue to be one of the hottest tickets in town. Cirque du Soleil which will have a permanent home at Treasure Island seems destined to help rewrite traditional definitions of Las Vegas entertainment The same is true of new shows planned at MGM Grand and Luxor. MGM officials, for instance, were not talking specifics as of early this year, butare expected to stage a new production show that will be created on at least the same scale as ?╟úJubilee! ?╟Ñ But hotels and casinos are going in several directions during recent years. The Desert Inn has spent millions hiring a stable oftriedandprovenperformers (Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, etc.,) while throwing in occasional fresh faces (in Las Vegas) such as Whitney Houston and Garth Brooks. The longest running production show in Las Vegas, die ?╟úFolies Bergere?╟Ñ at the Tropicana continues doing well more than 30 years after it opened. But none of the productions now on local stages compare with ?╟úJubilee!?╟Ñ in terms of the numbers of singers, dancers and special effects on one stage. Still, most of these shows and the policies that created them are new since ?╟úJubilee!?╟Ñ received its last significant overhaul. ?╟úTen years is a very long time to go between changes in this business,?╟Ñ says Fischman.?╟Ñ What makes the work of Bally executives easy in this case is that they are beginning with assets that in many respects, are the envy of other properties. The only two stages in America that even come close to rivaling that of Bally?╟╓s in Las Vegas are at the Reno Hilton (formerly Bally?╟╓s Reno) and the stage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Sets for ?╟úJubilee!?╟Ñ were built entirely by personnel of the former MGM Grand, with 80 people working on them at the height of construction. Having a total width of 190 feet, the ?╟úJubilee!?╟Ñ stage is half the size of a football fieldandis 15stories high from the bottom of the pit to the top of the roof. All of that space is needed for the storage of sets and back drops. Visitors can even see the unusual design of the stage roof from the street, the reason for the roof can be easily understood when audiences see the destruction of the temple by Samson. One of the things making the ?╟úJubilee!?╟Ñ stagesoelaborate is the multiplicity of elevators used for such sequences as the sinking of the Titanic and raising dancers on lighted staircases. There are three main elevators in the Ziegfeld Theatre, each with thecapacity tolift 100,OOOpounds. Inaddition, there are six small elevators and tworevolving elevators. Operating all of the sets, stage, elevators, lights, soundandequipmentduring the show requires about 50 crew members. There are approximately 100,000 light bulbs in the sets used in the show, and the cost of replacing them runs to about $50,000 a year. There is more than 125 miles of wire in the sets alone. Because of the expected life of the show, the sets and equipment are built to last. For instance, the bull?╟╓s head used in the Samson and Delilah action weighs more than three tons. Some of the other gee-whiz st< istics associated with ?╟úJubilee!itrequires r ghiy 4,200 pounds of dry ice weekly to reate some of the special smoke effects. Riv-| are 50 pyrotechnics effects per show ai d lo pounds of gunpowder are used night! There is one scene in the -oiler room sequenceof theTitanicepisodeiii /hich burly stokers are seen shoveling coal i to the huge furnaces. That?╟╓s real flame belch ag out of the furnaces, even if it does corn from bottled natural gas. As for the costumes, one of the production?╟╓s biggest expenses... me. than 1,000 costumes are used. Many of them woe designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee. The initial outlay was $3.5 million and they are kept in good shape by the 18 peopa who work in wardrobe, both mending and! iping with the many fast changes thatarenec sary. If they look expensive, it?╟╓s because they are. That?╟╓s real velvet, you see bp there on the stage, genuine fox, etc. Thela?╟╓ cage beaded gown for one of the singe cost $5,000. Most of the feathers in the sh ' are from African ostriches. The white ather pieces in the finale cost about $20,00.) each and weigh about 17 pounds. Showg are advised not to have a headache whe they report for duty, or it will be much worse by the time they leave. Many of the head-dre s are three feet or more in height. Dancers in the show go throi; g 20-dozen pairs of tights every two mom and 13 hours a day is spent by seamstress just mending tights. There are 325 wigs a the show and about 7 5 hours a week are spent just in styling them. The total cost of t| the feather fans used in die show was $44 ;W0. Just a few of the reasons why ?╟úJubilee!! ?╟Ñ has been termed ?╟úThe show f the decade.?╟Ñ Fischman explains that it cos $10 million to create, but to duplicate this efi A in terms of today?╟╓s dollars would cost more shan $20 million. ?╟úWe?╟╓ve got a show people iave been talking about for more than 10 y irs, Fischman says, ?╟úand we are going do what?╟╓s necessary to keep it that way.?╟Ñ And as another of the re; ft s executives noted, ?╟úThis is not one of diose cases where you help yourself by not spei !in?║ money. We think it is the biggest anc the prettiest show around. In terms of the marketing of this hotel, it means a lot to ?╜s that audiences should continue to feet the same way.?╟Ñ ^ 12 Las Vegas styije March 1993