The Final Days of the Mirage Las Vegas

After 34 years in operation, the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada closed its doors this week. The former home of Siegfried and Roy, Beatles Love, and the iconic erupting volcano is now set to become another "remember when" on the Vegas Strip as Hard Rock completely transforms the property through 2027.

Over the last few years, following the sale and eventual closure announcement, I've made a point of coming back here a handful of times to explore. It really was a unique place. Even through the cigarette smoke, the Polynesian theme made the Mirage one of the best smelling casinos.

The construction of the Mirage in 1989 would forever change Las Vegas and inspire a lot of future construction through the 1990s. It was touted as the first mega-resort on the Strip and was the brainchild of Steve Wynn. It kicked off an era of spectacular free street shows - which themselves have been largely disappearing.

For me, the Mirage was cemented in my brain because of all the Vegas Vacation reruns on TBS back in the day. What a time to grow up! At least I've now got a lot of embarrassing pictures of myself here as an adult to remember it all. Farewell to the Mirage.

 

South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park

A few visuals from the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. 

Desert View Watchtower in Grand Canyon National Park

A few visuals from a stop at the Desert View Watchtower (also known as the Indian Watchtower at Desert View) along the South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. 

Our Last Picture Show at the Monarch

That's it! That's all! That's a wrap! No really, the screenings of Your Cinema Needs You at the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta have officially come to an end! 

Yesterday's matinee marked the 16th screening of the documentary at the historic Monarch Theatre, and frankly, after spacing out these shows over 5 months and with more than 5,100 tickets sold - I'm confident that we reached 99% of the local audience who was interested in seeing this in the movie theatre. 

I think it's easy to gloss over just what a big turnout this actually was because we're so rarely in packed movie theatres these days. But, the attendance for these 16 shows at the Monarch Theatre was the equivalent of selling out every seat in all 10 theatres of Medicine Hat's Cineplex Galaxy 3 times over, and then still having 700 people waiting outside to get in.

And let me say it again, this was for an indie documentary! Not exactly the genre known for blockbuster turnouts. You absolutely exceeded all expectations, Medicine Hat!

Thank you to everyone who came out to one of the shows. Thank you to the incredible cast and crew who made this movie possible. And to the staff and volunteers at the Monarch 1911 Society who could not have been more enthusiastic collaborators in running these screenings.

The last thing I did before leaving the theatre yesterday was I had everyone hold up all of the random ticket variations that I handed out at the door before each of the 16 shows. My only hope is that someone finds one of these tucked away in an album 50 years from now and goes on a hunt to figure out what it was. What an incredible ride this turned out to be - thank you all!

Experience Medicine Hat: Monarch Documentary

Hey girl, I'm not just a good time, I'm a full page in this year's "experience Medicine Hat" travel guide lol (see the original post on @editingluke). My thanks to the team at Tourism Medicine Hat for the feature and interview about my documentary, Your Cinema Needs You in the 2024 issue of the new Medicine Hat guide out this long weekend. 

I know what you're thinking, "Luke, you've barely talked about this documentary - it's about time!" I couldn't agree more lol. Seriously though, it was fun to share a small part of this story and to help further promote the Monarch Theatre. The next time you're in Medicine Hat, Alberta come and see Canada's oldest, surviving, purpose-built movie theatre for yourself.

 

Front Page News: Your Cinema Needs You

Yesterday I got a text from my mom, and she goes, "I saw you on the front page of today's paper. You really are a big deal." Just totally glossing over the fact that I've been telling her what a big deal I am since at least 2002. 

In all seriousness, I did a quick interview over the phone earlier this week about the final shows of "Your Cinema Needs You" and had no idea it would be front page news. It's as good a time as any to say thank you again to all of the local journalists who have covered the progress of this documentary from the first days of the production to the premiere shows to this festival run. Not only is it fun to share the excitement, but it's played a huge roll in getting this story to spread outside of Medicine Hat, which was always the intended goal. 

We've been fortunate to see a few of these stories about the doc get picked up nationally over the last 3 years, but to be honest, having the movie make the front page locally just seems so undeniably wholesome. You can read the full story here.

If I haven't said it enough, thank you for all of the support! 

You can grab movie tickets for the finale screenings of Your Cinema Needs You at the Monarch Theatre from May 30 to June 2 here.