The Aussie circus king trying to bring a Californian ghost town back to life

‘Excited to see what Spiegelworld has in store’

Nipton has fewer than two dozen residents, primarily clustered in a small RV park. Most are seasonal miners who stay for a few months at a time and keep to themselves; others, such as Jim Eslinger, have lived there since 2009 and are offering themselves as informal partners to Spiegelworld.

“This is my idea of paradise out here,” said Eslinger, 66, a former long-haul trucker who grew up in Washington state and came to Nipton in 2009 after 18 years on the road. “It’s like Hotel California — I checked in and I never plan to leave.”

Nathan Will, 30, an industrial construction worker from Plain City, Ohio, came to Nipton in January to take a job at the nearby rare earth mineral mines. His wife and 1.5-year-old son are waiting for him back home, and nights in his camper with his two dogs, Max and Honey, can be quiet.

Mollison said he has made it a priority to include the local residents in his plans for Nipton, and in a smattering of small events that Spiegelworld has held on the grounds so far, he has made sure to invite them.

In late February, Mollison decided to give a party in Nipton. Two dozen Spiegelworld performers and employees drove in from Las Vegas. As they gathered in Nipton’s abandoned saloon for a festive sukiyaki dinner, inspired by a hot pot soup that Mollison had recently enjoyed in Japan, Will and Eslinger were guests at the table.

“My biggest hope for Nipton is you don’t forget what makes us special,” said Will, raising a beer in a toast while everyone else sipped sake cocktails. “Family comes from a lot of places other than blood, so if Nipton keeps this, sticking together with the people, it will thrive.”

The circus comes to town

Mollison, who signed a $US75 million deal with Caesar’s Entertainment in 2021 and reportedly dropped $US30 million just on the artwork for his Las Vegas restaurant Superfrico, brings an immense amount of muscle to a town long accustomed to fending for itself.

Alex and Frank Strebel are production managers, the back-of-house crew who keep theatre performances running behind the scenes. They met Mollison three years ago when he hired them to build props for OPM, Spiegelworld’s space-age themed variety show at The Cosmopolitan hotel. Mollison liked their handiwork, and he also liked their lifestyle: The couple, both 35, met at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and were living largely off the land of their home in Pahrump, Nevada, a town of 40,000 straddling the California border.

They had what it takes, he felt, to turn Nipton around.

“We rolled up our sleeves and fired up the tractor,” Frank Strebel said. “Our contractors are two hours away, but we have experience in doing things locally since we built our own house.”

‘An escape from the drama’

Gypsy Wood, an Australian burlesque dancer who performs in OPM, arrived at the February dinner party in her red convertible with her dog Marcello. Like many of Spiegelworld’s artists, circus life was handed down to her by her parents, who were travelling performers in her hometown of Adelaide.

Gypsy is her given name — “I wouldn’t have chosen this as my stage name. I would have chosen something else, like Annabella,” she said — and she said she is counting the days until the dream of Spiegelville is a reality.

“Circus life is like being on a bus trip that you can’t get off. Vegas is so seductive in that way. But you can’t leave, and there are like three coffee shops, so you see everyone all the time. Nipton might be an escape from the drama,” she said. “It will help you get yourself together.”

That has certainly been the case for Niko Novick, who has been living in one of the toiletless cabins since July. Novick, 32, who refers to himself as Spiegelworld’s “cocktail clown”, runs the beverage program for the company, designing for the multiple bars at each of the company’s three shows, as well as Superfrico, their twisted, debaucherous take on dinner theatre where Italian dishes are served with a side of strippers, acrobats and raunchy comedy.

He has a house in Los Angeles, three hours away by car, but prefers to be at Nipton with the company of Mala, his 13-year-old dog. He uses an outdoor shower and restroom, or pops into one of the two bathrooms at the town’s tiny Hotel California, where actress Clara Bow often stayed in the 1920s. Today, its five bedrooms serve as guest quarters for friends of Spiegelworld who stay the night.

“Deep down, I love solitude,” he said. “Coming here allows me to recharge. And that’s when creativity is most rampant.”

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Mollison is committed to fostering creativity, so much so that he estimates he’ll spend about $US20 million to make his dreams for Nipton come true. But he isn’t rushing the process. “People come to Las Vegas, and dinner theatre is like someone pretending to be Frank Sinatra and you’ve got to sit there for 30 minutes waiting for it to end,” he said. “The thing about this place is that it’s a surprise, and it’s different from what’s out there. We’re in no hurry.”

A few hours before the dinner party was set to begin, Mollison got into his Cirrus aeroplane and flew over the town, grinning while surveying his purchase from the sky.

He wasn’t thinking about the town’s history of failed endeavours. He was only thinking about his delight in planning its future.

“I want Nipton to be growing as long as we have great ideas,” he said. “And I’m so excited about this idea. It’s just so much fun.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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