In the 1940s Las Vegas was being looked at by certain gentlemen and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel built and opened the Flamingo out of downtown into what was the desert and the die was set with the mob owning what was to become known as the Las Vegas Strip. Due to some business irregularities, Bugsy got wacked in Los Angles in the late ’40s, but he is memorialized today in a bar called Bugsy’s Bar in the Flamingo Casino. The “organization’s” lawyer for many years, Oscar Goodman, eventually became the mayor until recently when term limits eliminated him from running. So, his wife, Carolyn, became mayor, a position she holds today.
One advantage of Bally’s is that directly across Flamingo Road there is a combo fabulous dive bar, the Stage Door Casino, with an attached convenience store that has real world prices. If you indulge in alcoholic beverages, this 24-hour bar has cheap prices, great female servers, and cheap fast food.
Back in August, Bonhams sold a Ferrari for 38-million bucks (!) at the QuailCarmelValley auction so we’re not dealing with a schlock, Johnny-come-lately operation. Since the late 1700s, Bonhams has been one of the oldest and most respected auction houses on earth. They hold auctions throughout the world offering everything from high-end jewelry to art of the masters. While they don’t sell huge numbers of vehicles, they do sell exceptional quality.
Bonhams Group CEO and auctioneer, Malcolm Barber, and Bonhams US Head of Motorcycles, Nick Smith, welcomed us and explained that Bally’s was concerned about their “beautiful imported from China carpet” and plastic sheeting is unsafe so that’s the explanation for the drip pans under the bikes in the photos. The high quality of the offered bikes makes up for the ugliness of the pans. If Bally’s had a brain, they could have required Bonhams to shampoo the carpet after the auction which I’m sure they would have done!
Anyhow, you can see the class and quality of Bonhams motorcycle offerings meets the high bar they’ve set year after year. If you’d like to check out the results of the auction, click on over to Bonhams’ web site https://www.bonhams.com/ and do the math.