Bob Stupak Dies @ 67

 My first employer in Las Vegas

by Vegas Taxi Driver
September 25, 2009

It was a very hot September afternoon in 1991 when I drove into Las Vegas for the first time in my life. I was driving a 1976 Chevy Impala with no air conditioning. I had driven through the desert from Reno to Vegas with all of my belongings in the back seat of my car, after leaving Seattle the day before, sleeping in my car along the way. I stopped at a gas station on Sahara Avenue and bought a map.

The Strip Hotel was located at 201 East Utah, about two blocks away from the White Cross Drug Store located on Las Vegas Boulevard, and about four blocks from Bob Stupak's Vegas World. The Strip Hotel was $88 a week and featured a black and white television, but the showers in the hall were shared. I found an ad for The Strip Hotel in a copy of the Las Vegas Review Journal in the Seattle Library. I ended up staying there the whole time I worked for Bob Stupak, except for a couple of weeks when I slept in my car to save money.

My boss at the 13 Coins Restaurant in Seattle told me I should move to Las Vegas, because I was young and I had nothing going on in life. Maybe he was just trying to get rid of me, but I was the one who brought up the fact that I was not looking forward to surviving another winter in a rainy town like Seattle. I grew up in Portland and the constant drizzle and dripping is quite annoying (in fact it has been used as torture). He said that if he was me he would take off and go move to Las Vegas where it is warm and there is always lots of work. So I did.

(I told the owner of the 13 Coins in Seattle that if they opened up a restaurant in Las Vegas I would go to work for them. They told me that Las Vegas would not be good for them because Las Vegas is only about cheap food and tacky restaurants. If they would have followed my cue they would have made a fortune in Las Vegas http://ihid.us?i=ovi )

So my first night I walked downtown and spent all night walking around Downtown Las Vegas. Fremont Street really was a street with cars honking at each other as they crawled up and down the street gawking at all the lights. I walked all through every casino downtown: Lady Luck, Fitzgerald's, Golden Nugget, Union Plaza, Las Vegas Club, California, Binion's Horseshoe, Golden Gate, Four Queens, Fremont, Sassy Sally's, and my favorite one - The Pioneer Club. I was broke (thanks to Steamers Restaurant in Portland where I got fired because they falsely accused me of stealing their safe). At Fitzgerald's I saw a guy who had just got off of work filling out a ticket, and I asked him what he was doing. He showed me how to play Keno. I played a few dollars and lost. I bought a roll of nickels and played a nickel Keno machine in the Pioneer Club. I wasn't there to play. I wanted to work.

The next morning was Friday and I bought a newspaper. I read all the help wanted ads. I had been reading the help wanted ads in the Las Vegas newspapers every day for two weeks while I was still in Seattle. So when I saw an ad for a waiter at Vegas World (in those days it said "waiter" and they wanted men) I knew it was a new ad, and anyone who starts running an ad on Friday instead of Sunday is usually serious about doing some hiring. So I was the first one in the personnel (that was before it was called human resources) office that day. When I completed the application, one of the old bitties explained to me that they would give me a call if bla bla bla. So I was standing by the elevator waiting for it to arrive, and Larry Lewin's personal secretary came running down the hall and yelled at me and said, "Did you just apply for the waiter job?" 

She brought me back to her office and explained to me that they needed to hire three waiters on that very day. But there was no time to waste. I needed go to the health department and the Clark County Sheriff's office to get some cards. I also had to pick up a black bow tie and a black vest. I was there at 3 pm ready to start working that afternoon. That is not the way hiring is done in Las Vegas any more, but I was glad for it then.

That afternoon I helped Estevon Vilanova and Peter Moroz and Michael Cifaldi open boxes and set up tables and chairs. We then had to make a work station in a fire escape hallway, and plastic trays were set on the floor under containers of dressing and plates and a big bin of lettuce for salads. At five o'clock the table cloths and napkins were in place, and the doors were opened. 

That was the night I had the good fortune to meet the famous Bob Stupak, the owner of Vegas World, and also my first employer in Las Vegas. There are lots of things I could say about Bob Stupak, but that will be saved for another time, as much of it would be appropriate on this day. But for all of his quirks and mannerisms, I can honestly say that I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to meet him and work for him, because Bob Stupak is a big part of the history of Las Vegas. He was colorful and flamboyant and extravagant and cheap and strange all at the same time. 

It is tempting for me to reminisce about old times and supply my readers with interesting stories and anecdotes, but instead I would just like to say that I am sorry for the loss to his friends and family.

by Vegas Taxi Driver
September 25, 2009

Make Money Online >>> click here