Excerpt

Foreword
We were young together. That’s how we like to think of the Stardust. It was our performing home for six years and they were some of the most exciting years for all three of us.

It was 1970. Las Vegas had bloomed into a glittering neon oasis, a place where the famous and infamous mingled. Up and down The Strip, each night was like an elaborate production show, with visitors from around the world dressing up to play their part.

And the Stardust dazzled like no other.

We were brought to Las Vegas to star in Donn Arden’s Lido de Paris. It was a glamorous stage production, brought to the Stardust by Frank Sennes, and our role lasted all of 15 minutes. At first, the thought of two German boys finding a home in Las Vegas was impossible to us. But the city, and the Stardust’s general managers, Al Sachs and Herb Tobman, welcomed us with arms as wide as the desert itself. The Stardust was known for originality and taking chances and was always one step ahead of the others.

Here’s a part of history not many people know: The first time Siegfried & Roy made a tiger disappear was on stage at the Stardust. Thankfully, we also knew how to make that same tiger appear again, or we wouldn’t have lasted long.

We played at the Stardust until 1973, and then returned to headline Lido in 1978, our names on the giant marquee and lumps in our throat on opening night. We played 15 shows a week and would have played more. We broke the mold that said magicians couldn’t be stars in Las Vegas, and the Stardust made it possible.

We’d go on to have separate but successful futures, the Stardust and us. We moved down the block a ways, while the Stardust remained right where it was, one of the original, defining resorts on the Strip.

But Las Vegas is a city in constant evolution. New resorts fill the Strip today, new entertainment fills the theaters and we celebrate it all. The same spirit that gave two magicians from Germany a chance to live their dream gives that same chance to new ideas.

From the land beneath the Stardust will come a spectacular new resort that will bring the same sense of wonder that the Stardust did a halfcentury ago.

But the memories of the Stardust, memories we share with those who worked and played there, are permanent. Many of them appear in these pages. Memories, after all, are not tigers or elephants. Even we can’t make those disappear.

Magically,
Siegfried & Roy

Siegfried, left, and Roy on the red carpet for the premiere of Cirque du Soleil’s Love at The Mirage on June 28, 2006.