The Ballad of Davy Crockett by Bill Hayes
Today’s Monday By the Numbers column focuses on the Riviera, which closed about noon today.
Figures related to the place that, upon opening, said it was “The New High in the Sky”:
23: Number of stories tall was the hotel’s main tower.
21: Number of production shows the hotel hosted — not counting the Riviera Comedy Club, headliners and lounge acts — in its heyday (“Splash,” “Crazy Girls,” “Evening at La Cage”).
25: Number of years Pinball Hall of Fame founder Tim Arnold, who donated some of his machines to the Riviera for play near the hotel’s food court, has lived in Las Vegas.
52: Number of machines Arnold moved into the Riv.
63: Months those machines were in the hotel.
6: Members of recurring Riv headliners The Village People.
7: Number of dancers depicted in the famous “No If, Ands Or …” statue and billboard promoting “Crazy Girls.”
17,256: Total number of performance for “Crazy Girls” at the hotel.
9: Number of weeks that Charo’s residency at the hotel lasted in the summer of 2009.
9: Where, in line, the hotel fell among those to open on the Strip.
$350,000: The weekly salary commanded by Dolly Parton for her headlining run in 1980.
0: Number of performances by Sammy Davis Jr. and Elvis Presley, who nonetheless are honored with stars from the Las Vegas Walk of Stars on the sidewalk in front of the hotel.
0: Days of operation of the rooftop pool, installed in the early 1990s. As former Riv entertainment director Steve Schirripa remembers, “They tried filling that pool, it leaked into the casino, and nobody ever swam in it.”
32: Years since David Copperfield opened for Shecky Greene at the Riv.
1,300: The total number of employees who have lost their jobs as a result of the hotel closing.
3: The number of hotels that have closed on the Strip near the Riviera over the last decade, which has undercut the hotel’s walk-up business (New Frontier, Stardust and Westward Ho).
2,100: The estimated number of attendees at the most recent 12-step convention the 48th Las Vegas Round-Up (the annual event moves to Westgate Las Vegas this year).
2,100: Number of rooms at the Riviera.
1: The Billboard chart position of Bill Hayes’ “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” on April 20, 1955, the day the Riv opened.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
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