Question of the Day - 13 April 2020

For various observances, the lights on the Strip have been turned off -- at least for a moment, at least in parts. 

The only times the Strip has gone dark for a 60 full minutes have been for Earth Hour, held on the last Saturday in March. An annual event staged to conserve energy and raise awareness of climate-change issues, Las Vegas has participated, albeit patchily, each year since 2009 (except this year, for obvious reasons).

Otherwise, the last time we know of that the Strip went dark to commemorate a person was a tribute to Robert Goulet (who died Oct. 30, 2007). The Strip didn't go dark, but most casinos flashed a video tribute with graphics and his photo (by then, casino signs were giant video screens that were easily programmed).

Prior to that was a three-minute dimming on June 11, 2004, in memory of President Ronald Reagan. The gesture is usually reserved for ex-Strip headliners, and Reagan had topped the bill at the Last Frontier for two weeks in 1954.

On Sept. 14, 2001, three days after 9/11, non-essential lights were doused all night long at Caesars Palace, Bally's Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Hilton, and the Flamingo. Other casinos do not appear to have followed suit, although the Venetian, New Frontier, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mirage, Treasure Island, New York-New York, and Golden Nugget all suspended casino play for an entire minute at midday.

In early January 1999, Excalibur turned down its lights for eight minutes, following the death of King Arthur’s Tournament creator Peter Jackson. It also marked the end of the show’s eight-year run, though it was basically just upgraded to the current Tournament of Kings.

A year before that, on May 15, 1998, Strip lights were dimmed "albeit briefly and haphazardly" (according to coverage in the Las Vegas Review-Journal), in honor of Frank Sinatra a day after his death.

That ceremony was a bit more prompt than the one for Dean Martin, on Dec. 28, 1995, which occurred three days after Dino’s demise. The Strip might have missed that one entirely had it not been for some nudging by agent Mort Viner and photographer Don Pack, who prodded civic leaders into hitting the light switch.

The May 16, 1990, death of fellow-Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr. had been followed by a light-dimming commemoration without fuss, apparently.

Area historians can recall only two other such obsequies. One was for George Burns, following his March 9, 1996, death at the age of 100.

The first was after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- the only president besides Reagan accorded such a Strip commemoration.