"My Strange Uncle" starred Cloris Leachman. The film was backed in-part by Caesars, in an attempt to get something into the theatre other than museum films. Unfortunately it bombed big time, boxoffice wise. There was still a print of it stored in the booth (as of '96, the last time I worked there) but we weren't allowed to run it, even privately. Apparently there were financial/legal problems with that production that rendered even a mention of it taboo.

Sam White was the Head Projectionist from practically the first day until he retired in 1995; I broke in as an IMAX operator under him (Art Schruhl, my IA mentor, was the dept. head during construction and the first month or so of operation). Dave Huskinson was the only other Head Projectionist at the place. If you fit in, Caesars is a very good place for a stagehand to work.

Caesars is in the middle of a long-term expansion and modernization project, and the focus on entertainment in the hotel is being scaled back. Originally the dome was going to come down in 1996, but it got a reprieve until now due to hotel ownership and expansion plan changes. My understanding is that the phase-two tower (adding another 850 rooms) is to go up where the dome is now. The hotel has already announced that the Circus Maximus showroom will be closed later this year, to make room for the phase-three tower (another 850 rooms plus more high-roller suites).

Yeah the dome screen looked terrible--it was an embarrassment to all of us. The problem was the dome leaked badly from day one, and continued to do so despite repeated attempts by the hotel over the years to seal it. We used to take the theatre down for a week once a year, mostly to clean the rusty water stains from the screen. Then around 1990, some accountant figured he'd save some money by painting rather than cleaning the screen. Some Spitz Dome people heard about this and came by to see the result--and just laughed. The paint job, plus more water stains on top of it, finished us off image quality wise, and the hotel didn't want to pay for a new screen (about $300,000 USD at the time). The opening of the Luxor 3D IMAX (staffed by a non-IA ex-Century crew) and a 3D IMAX DOME simulator ride (also non-IA) next door in the Forum Shoppes were more nails in the coffin. The hotel started booking only the cheapest titles that IMAX producers were offering, refusing to get into bidding wars with the competition. That pretty much killed the old place off.

Local 720 is hanging in there with about 900 members, but the emphasis of the work is changing. It is a mixed local with three active Craft Divisions--1-Stagehands, 4-Convention Techs and 5-Wardrobe. Craft 2-Theatre Projectionists died in the '80s when Syufy (Century) and UA bought all of the screens in town and took them non-IA. Craft 3-TV Techs exists but most of its members work non-union these days. Craft 1 has been dominant with the most members, but with more old showrooms closing (and many of the new ones voting to be non-IA) the emphasis is shifting more and more to Craft 4 and convention work. In the mean time, the internal politics of the local have gotten nastier with lots of factional in-fighting (in the same year I earned a 20-year pin, I became a target of one of these factions and was forced to withdraw my membership). I think eventually the majority of IA720 members will be in Craft 4.