It's been more than a month since we last looked into this (see QoD 3/29/2012) and there's been a deafening silence from the direction of Casa de Shenandoah in the interim, so we passed this question on to our Stiffs & Georges blogger David McKee for his take on the project. Here's what David had to say:
Like a British nobleman on his uppers, a monetarily strapped Wayne Newton is planning to open his 52-acre estate to the visiting public. Casa de Shenandoah is scheduled to receive tourists some time this spring but details are still hazy. As with the Tropicana’s unfortunate Mob Experience (now retitled The Mob Attraction), the value of your visit will probably depend on how much you have to pay to see the 14,000-square-foot mansion – built in 1965 -- and its grounds. (Newton and his wife will be moving into a smaller, adjacent residence.)
"We frankly don’t care if it’s a money-maker or not," Newton claims. If he means what he says, then ticket prices ought to be affordable. By county decree, visiting hours will be between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., with closing time extended to 8 p.m. in warm-weather months.
"Mr. Las Vegas" has been fighting a running battle with his neighbors. They overwhelmingly opposed the project, particularly on account of the traffic – six shuttles per hour -- it is expected to draw. A 600-seat, 71,187-square foot theater, plus a museum, chapel, parking lot (500 spaces), and car wash planned for 10 acres on the northwest corner of the Sunset Road/Pecos Road intersection, across the street from Newton’s estate, also stirred up ire. One neighbor complained, "I invested $9 million in my home. I don't want to live next to a museum." Newton, however, prevailed with Clark County authorities, paving the way for Texas developer Steve Kennedy to realize the tourist attraction.
Clark County commissioners granted almost every request and zoning variance Newton wanted but nixed the chapel and a gift shop. A Sunset Road entrance to the property will also have to be created. (Newton had requested to permission to run shuttles on residential Tomiyasu Lane, a serious bone of contention with neighbors.) If Newton builds the heliport he has mooted, tempers in the area could fray still more. The museum and theater are now being built on the Newton estate itself, partly to accommodate a larger car wash than originally planned.
According to The Associated Press, last October, February was the revised target date for public tours, but that deadline has come and gone. Local reporter Susan Stapleton more recently noted that the timeline had been pushed back to a vague "later this year." On Feb. 4, the EverythingLV.com forum posted a comment from "vegas babe," saying that the tourist attraction was "on hold indefinitely," citing an archivist who had catalogued Newton’s enormous holdings.
If the attraction comes to pass, items displayed will include a Johnny Cash guitar and Nat King Cole’s last wristwatch. Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra souvenirs will also be on view, as will 20 antique cars. According to the AP, Newton’s collection includes "South African penguins, [70-plus] Arabian horses, Impressionist paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and 17th-century antiques collected from European castles," as well as sloths, wallabies, monkeys, and exotic birds. There’s even what Newton describes as "a horse swimming pool."
One of the stranger attractions will be a Fokker F-28 that had been sitting derelict on a Waterford, Mich., tarmac, tied up in a dispute involving $60,000 in storage fees and $700,000 in repairs. (Newton also had to satisfy $501,388 in back wages to pilot Monty Ward.) The vandalized jet was disassembled, shipped to Vegas and put back together. Its fuselage and tail can be seen towering over the wall of Newton’s back yard – looking quite surrealistic – when you drive down Sunset.
In earlier, flusher years, Newton spared few expenses. The mansion’s gate is made of porcelain. Inside, it has a crystal staircase, and the living room is plated in gold leaf and dotted with little topiaries. One historical event likely not to be commemorated is the February 2010 confrontation at the Casa de Shenandoah gate between Clark County sheriff’s deputies, attempting (unsuccessfully) to enforce a half-million-dollar judgment against Newton, and the singer’s own security detail. The sheriff’s men scuttled away, their collective tail between their legs, ceding victory to Mr. Las Vegas in the bloodless Battle of Pecos Road.
