{image1}Visitors to Las Vegas may feel like they've walked into a casting call for American icons. The images of celebrated locales (the New York City skyline, Bourbon Street in New Orleans) and celebrities (Elvis, Frank Sinatra) are everywhere on the Vegas strip.
Las Vegas is our nation's assembly of great icons, and Milwaukee has a place at the table. Milwaukee is represented by two establishments in Las Vegas' collection of larger-than-life images: the Harley-Davidson Café and the Liberace Museum.
Between sessions at the blackjack table, OnMilwaukee.com paid a visit to these two destinations:
Harley-Davidson Café
A 28-foot-high replica of a motorcycle appears to ram through the exterior of the Harley-Davidson Café. In most towns the oversized bike might qualify as a spectacle, but on the strip it's just one of many exaggerations. Since 1997, the Harley-Davidson Café has stood at the corner of the Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon.
The spectacles continue once you enter the two-story restaurant: an American flag composed of 44,000 chain links hangs next to the dining area; a giant map tracing the path of Route 66 covers the ceiling over the bar. For those who want to gamble rather than gawk, the bar has a few slot and video poker machines.
The café is as much corporate showcase as it is a restaurant, so a stroll through the restaurant may be in order before you dine. Dozens of historical photos line the walls, including a shot of the founders, Bill Harley and Bill Davidson. A newspaper photograph shows President Kennedy greeting the motorcycle cops who had escorted him to St. John's Cathedral in downtown Milwaukee.
The café flaunts Harley-Davidson's popularity with celebrities. Some well-known Harley riders are pictured atop their bikes, including Willie Nelson and Bob Hope. There's a large collection of the Harley "tear drop" engines on display, each signed by a celebrity, such as Sting and Chuck Norris. (A few of the celebrity signatures seem out of place -- seeing the autographs of David Hyde Pierce and Carol Burnett made us wonder if this display was planned by the same guy who picked Elton John to headline Harley's 100th Anniversary concert?).
Visitors can purchase Harley clothing and memorabilia at the gift shop, which has a separate entrance next to the restaurant. The shop is small, and often there is a line outside to enter.
Oh yeah, there is food at the Harley-Davidson Café. Dinner entrees fall in the $10-$20 range and include steak, chicken and different barbecue dishes. Of course there are the inevitable thematic names on the menu: some of the cocktails include the Shock Absorber, the Wheelie, and the Sturgis, appetizers are called Kick Starts, etc.
The Harley-Davidson Café is located at 3725 Las Vegas Boulevard South (702-740-4555), between the Aladdin and MGM casinos. Their Web site is harley-davidsoncafe.com.
{image2}Liberace Museum
It's a bird, it's a plane ... no, it's a big, pink piano. Yes, it's just the sort of understated display that one would expect to find at the Liberace Museum, where pink neon lights form the shape of a piano with candelabra above the entrance.
Were it not for the threat of a lawsuit, this display might be a Milwaukee attraction (and perhaps the 'Pink Piano' would have been a precursor to the 'Blue Shirt' controversy).
According to a Liberace biography, in the 1970s the entertainer planned to establish his museum in a Victorian mansion on Milwaukee Avenue in Wauwatosa. When the owner of the property and its tenant both threatened to sue him, Liberace decided to look elsewhere. He settled on its current site, in a strip mall just a few miles off the strip, and the museum opened in 1979.
The museum consists of two buildings. An exhibit in the first details the life of the famed pianist, who grew up in West Milwaukee and West Allis. Via captioned photos we follow the entertainer from his childhood, through his early years of public performance in Milwaukee (when he played at the Red Room in the Plankinton Arcade, and weekly on WTMJ radio), to the birth of "The Liberace Show," which became the nation's most-watched TV show by 1954 and propelled him to worldwide fame.
The first building also displays two of Liberace's personal collections: his customized cars, which include a pink Rolls Royce and an English taxi cab; and 18 of his 39 pianos. A rhinestone-covered example in the exhibit was used by Liberace in his last public performance at Radio City Music Hall in 1986, just a few months before his death.
The second building, across the parking lot, is where Liberace's famous costumes are displayed, as well as some of his jewelry and a re-creation of his bedroom at his house in Palm Springs, Calif.
On the building's exterior is an homage to Liberace's hometown: a wall displays the musical notes to the "Beer Barrel Polka."
Several times a week the museum features "a musical tribute" to Liberace by a musician, (have all the Elvises given the word 'impersonator' a bad name?). The show takes place at 1 p.m. and the cost is $10.
The Liberace Museum is about 2.5 miles east of the MGM casino, at 1775 E. Tropicana. The museum runs a free shuttle from the strip several times a day. However, we suggest splurging for the short cab ride, as the shuttle makes a lot of stops, and it was way off schedule on the day we visited.
Admission to the museum is $12, but $2 coupons are in some of the free Las Vegas guides found in hotel lobbies as well as on the museum Web site, liberace.org.
Other Milwaukee/Wisconsin sightings in Vegas:
Both the New York, New York and the Venetian casinos have Houdini Magic shops in their retail areas
A huge Milwaukee postcard is displayed at the America restaurant New York, New York
Milwaukee's Marcus Corp. is planning a high-rise condo just off the strip
You can check out the Hofbrau Haus in Las Vegas before it comes to Milwaukee -- it's across the street from the Hard Rock casino.
