Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 53

I MANGIIN' OUT GUY RICHARDSON I 5 Tempus fugit; Gloria Monday s. 'ometimes it's sobering to realize that recarpeted the whole place, spending $30,000.. When the job was done, he looked at the new carpet proudly, then stuck some silver tape' ctatn for tonight's grand opening: "So it would look natural and people would still feel at home I've had that tape for the last seven years." We also got cultchah last week at Caesars Tahoe, the Reno Philharmonic played Beethoven's Ninth and, on the most miserable weather weekend of the year, it drew 1,200 people. The night before the show, Bill Cosby at Harrah's Tahoe started an on-stage monologue about having seen Nevada marquees carrying almost every conceivable star, but only Tahoe had Beethoven. In the audience, Philharmonic conductor Ron Daniels suddenly stood never does things like that," said his wife, Diane) and said "That's right Bill, and it'll be a great show Cosby stopped, looked into the darkness and said "Who are you?" Daniels said "I'm the conductor." "Come up here," ordered Cosby, and did 10 minutes with Daniels who luckily didn't die of nervousness at all.

For six bucks this weekend you can quaff all the great wine you can hold. That's the price of a ticket to Harrah's Reno Wine Adventure in their convention center. (To me, $6 is the price of about three bottles of wine, but we're talking class here, OK?) Winetasting starts Saturday and continues through Sunday, for those still conscious. Representatives of 40-odd California wineries will teach you how to appreciate the stuff (first lesson, if the cap unscrews rustily, let the wine decant for a few minutes). Experts like Sam Sebastiani and Michael Mondavi will show you the rest.

I'll be with Mr. Ripple. "The older they get the better they were when they were younger." Jim Bouton. t5 now being cut apart for apartments when they aren't torn down for fast-rise condos. Perhaps today's Reno is better and perhaps today's houses with two bathrooms, color TV, garbage-disposal and postage-stamp yards are better.

But you can't help but wonder. For me an era ended this year when they carted off Ernie Primm's last towering showgirl-statue from the top of what once was the Primadonna. As a callow kid, I pruriently looked upon my first pinkly topless dancer at the old Golden. Now bare-bosomed showgirls seem ho-hum. But years hence, some youth now 12 or so will write of Reno's glorious '80s.

So it goes. And last week Kiah's Squeeze Inn filed Title 11 bankruptcy. And here am now doddering at the typewriter but remembering late nights of Jim Nabors strapping on an apron and going behind the grill to cook for people waiting beneath fly-specked walls for the best breakfast in town while they gossiped about who had done what to whom. But gradually the business drifted away, and even though the walls are covered with photos of the famous, the famous and not-so-famous quit coming so often. Ah, it seems we've done it to each other, finally.

The spirit lives on: Sixteen years ago, Karl Berge opened a little casino in Sparks with only 50 feet frontage. The Silver Club grew into seven connected buildings with interior walls torn out to make a big, rambly club with worn carpets joined in places by silver duct tape. Then Berge today's kids will remember the '80s as a golden age. To each generation, the era in which they reached puberty seems the best, and looks better and better as it retreats with years (the era, not puberty, which often hangs on for decades). Different generations of old-timers swear that Reno's Golden Age ended when (a) the bookkeepers took over gambling from The Boys, or (b) Reno ceased being a university town and became a divorce-mill, or (c) gambling replaced divorce as top industry, or (d) they paved the highway over the Pass, or (e) the white man came.

For me, the golden era ended when Big Money hit town and tried to make us into a shoddy Las Vegas (if that's not redundant). But all those golden days blur together look around downtown at older buildings' tops. Ground floors are pseudo-modern, but higher you can see the old, ornate brick-work done by craftsmen. Drive up by the college as trees bud greenly and find Walter Van Tilberg Clark's lovely little city of trembling leaves. From UNR, go south on Virginia and look behind the courthouse at the few big mansions left standing with quiet dignity now mostly lawyers' offices.

Drive still farther south and turn east at Holcomb to discover where solid burghers lived in strong houses with front and back yards homes built to last for generations and fJk 1 1 1 1 SEAGRAMS V.0 1.75 ltr 15.29 WALKERS RED SCOTCH 1.75 ltr 15.29 RON RICO Lt. or Dk. RUM. 1.75 ltr 9.19 BARTONS GIN 1.75 ltr 6.99 AMERICAN CREAM 750 ml 4.99 BLACK VELVET 1.0 ltr 5.69 KORBEL BRANDY 1.75 ltr 11.29 CLUB COCKTAILS esc, 49 u3 ti 11 111111,11 111 1 HARRAHS at Reno's First Address RckHobsoiis CM CM CO Ki MIZPAH HOTEL PLAZA LOAN llHjPrf BI-RITE MARKET 210 LAKE STREET BUS ENTRANCE 323-1159 2ND STREET HotelCasino.