Las Vegas Weekly

October 15, 2009 · 1:11 PM

Mayor’s itinerary includes Santa Claus and London trip

By Robin Leach

Zowie Bowie attend a press conference in advance of the Great Santa Run.

Photo: TVT

Siegfried & Roy and NASCAR star Kyle Busch will lead this year’s 5th Annual Great Santa Run on Dec. 5 in an attempt to wrest back from Ireland the Guinness World Record of most Santas.

Yesterday, Mayor Oscar Goodman, his two stunning showgirls, Zowie Bowie and yours truly gathered at Opportunity Village’s new campus on South Buffalo to make the official announcement. It was the first appearance of the holiday season for Santa Claus and his Mrs. visiting here from the North Pole.

This year, the event is moving the start location from downtown’s Fremont Street Experience to Town Square near McCarran Airport to handle the larger and expected 15,000-plus runners and walkers. We have to exceed 12,000 Santas to reclaim the title.

Yesterday, Alan Rothwell and Steve Martin from competing Santa Runs in Liverpool, England, and Tasmania, Australia, respectively, joined our local festivities. They revealed that two other cities -- Manchester, England, and Belfast, Ireland -- will join in this year’s global competition.

All monies raised from the Great Santa Run will benefit our beloved Opportunity Village. Said Linda Smith, chief development officer: “The great thing for Opportunity Village is that it is a fantastic event where all of the proceeds -- 100 percent of the proceeds -- go to Opportunity Village, now a 57-year-old Vegas charity that serves people with intellectual disabilities."

Our merry Mayor of Mirth and wife Carolyn leave this weekend for a weeklong visit to my long-ago hometown of London. They will be staying on the Strand near the hip, swinging Covent Garden area of the British capital. It’s the first visit to England for both of them.

They return to Las Vegas on Oct. 25 on the inaugural British Airways flight marking the new, direct routing between Heathrow and McCarran airports. B.A. will service the 10-hour, 50-minute daily flights with three classes of service.

Oscar, who filmed a segment for Holly Madison’s new E! reality TV series Planet Holly this week, told me: “It is a major triumph for us to celebrate. It will give Vegas tourism tremendous benefits. Some 15,000 passengers a year will be able to visit from London. Heathrow is the gateway to all of Europe now for us. We have been at work on securing this route for several years, and it’s finally happened. It is so important for us.”

Two Las Vegas showgirls will travel with the official Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority delegation. Oscar promised me that today he will track down a bowler hat to wear on his visit and that he and the showgirls will pose on Tower Bridge for a special Vegas DeLuxe photo with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in the background.

The mayor will depart Heathrow on Oct. 25 at 3:35 p.m. British time and arrive here in Las Vegas at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time, taking advantage of the eight-hour time difference. A group of key media reps and London VIPs will make the journey, and I will be on hand for the official greeting when they all land back here.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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