Fireworks explode this morning over the Strip, where hundreds of thousands gathered to celebrate the arrival of the new year. Photo by John Gurzinski. Confetti falls on crowds just after midnight to ring in the new year on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, where 17,000 people, including Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, with his martini, and his showgirls, gathered. Photo by John Locher. Showgirls Jennifer Gagliano, left, and Kate Hintz wait in the Fremont Street Experience offices before going to work on New Year's Eve in downtown Las Vegas. Photo by John Locher. Mike Henry and Debora Benner, both of Las Vegas, watch the show on Fremont Street during the New Year's Eve celebration. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Cousins, from left, Paradise, Christy and Corrina Lopez have their picture taken Sunday night with Rocky the Leprechaun of Evergreen, Colo., on the Strip near Tropicana Avenue. The cousins are all from Moreno Valley, Calif. Photo by Sarah Tramiel / Review-Journal. Hannah Berente, 2, plays with her New Year's horn Sunday night in the arms of her father, Istvan, on the Strip near Tropicana Avenue. This was the first time the Berentes, of Salt Lake Valley, Utah, celebrated the new year in Las Vegas. Photo by Sarah Tramiel / Review-Journal. John Fein of New York parties Sunday on Fremont Street. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

It was a night of parties, attractive women in slinky dresses and probably more than a few vodka martinis -- served shaken, not stirred.

James Bond would have been proud, even if the typical New Year's Eve reveler in Las Vegas lacked his quiet sophistication.

"Vegas is beautiful, beautiful. I'm drunk, drunk -- having good time," said Mark Aldenuder, 21, of Israel, grinding against a woman's leg in front of Caesars Palace as midnight approached.

Aldenuder was among the hundreds of thousands of people who packed Las Vegas Boulevard to ring in the new year and watch the $500,000 fireworks show, dubbed "Vegas Royale 007" in honor of London's top fictional spy. The show, which went off without a hitch, was accompanied by James Bond theme music.

About 17,000 others partied at the Fremont Street Experience, where Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman appeared with his usual cadre of showgirls. Each wore new headdresses for 2007, featuring a deep red velvet turban topped with a fan of red feathers and white spangles.

The costumes provided the backdrop as an amused Fox News Channel correspondent asked Goodman about the party on Fremont Street and then turned to the drink Goodman was toting.

"My martini would be twice this big," Goodman told the national television audience as he held a standard-sized martini glass. "This is a prop."

The crowds featured the usual New Year's Eve collection of oddball characters.

Among them was Las Vegan Mike Henry, 33, who attracted nearly as much attention on Fremont Street as Goodman and his showgirls. Henry wore a giant, blue, fake-fur overcoat, boots covered in blue glitter, light-up sunglasses and a sparkling blue glittering mohawk. He was loving the attention as tourists approached him to have their picture taken with him.

"I just like getting funky, you know," he said. "If you're gonna do it, do it all the way. Everybody comes out in their little party hats. No, man, do it all."

In front of the Monte Carlo, a small, stocky man with fake ears taped to his head was also a hit with camera-toting tourists.

"Girls; oh, yes, the girls," he said, beckoning a group of young women toward him.

Rocky the Leprechaun -- he insisted that was his legal name -- flew in from Colorado to pass out stickers of four-leaf clovers.

"I had to come here to share the luck," he said. "After all, Vegas is where the pot of gold is."

Californian Mark Streand, 24, came to the Strip with his own brand of cheer: a beer keg in a wheelchair.

For five years, Streand and his buddies have toted their beer on wheels to Las Vegas, offering "keg stands" for $5. That involves him and his pals holding participants upside down as they suck on the end of a nozzle and try to consume as much as beer as possible in about 10 seconds.

Streand said he borrowed the wheelchair from his grandmother, who has Alzheimer's.

Unlike some recent years, the New Year's Eve celebration wasn't marred by threats of terrorism in Las Vegas. But that didn't stop the usual contingent of police officers from lining the Strip. Nearly all of the Metropolitan Police Department's 3,000 officers worked through the night, most of them along the Strip watching for unruly behavior.

"Mostly people just getting drunk and fighting, that's basically it," officer Shane Price said from his post outside The Venetian.

Sheriff Bill Young, overseeing the final New Year's Eve of his law-enforcement career, said he hoped to make his final arrest before the night was through.

"There is somebody out there with my name on them," he said. "I don't know who's going to be my last arrest. I am going to make one tonight, I'm sure."

With the massive police presence, the Nevada National Guard deployed soldiers around the area. Some soldiers helped patrol McCarran International Airport, North Las Vegas Airport and Henderson Executive Airport, while others helped with local security where needed.

Some soldiers flew overhead in Black Hawk, Chinook and Kiowa helicopters.

Police said they had arrested 20 people by 11:45 p.m.

About 12:25 a.m., a crowd of revelers leaning against a barricade caused it to collapse. The collapse injured at least four people, who were treated by emergency personnel.

Authorities also nabbed a man who used fake credentials to get onto the roof of the MGM Grand about 8:45 p.m. An official with the Clark County Fire Department confronted the man, who ran away before being caught by hotel security.

Agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security interviewed the interloper and concluded that he was merely a fireworks enthusiast trying to get an up-close view of the show, Fire Department spokesman Scott Allison said.

Allison said he didn't know whether the man would face charges.

County public works crews placed 18- to 24-inch diameter metal "rat collars" around traffic poles along the Strip to prevent people from climbing up the poles, said Stacey Welling, a Clark County spokeswoman. When revelers rang in 2000, a man died after climbing a traffic pole and falling to the ground.

This year's celebration continued the recent trend of celebrity-hosted parties. This year's cast featured a number of tabloid fixtures.

Former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee performed with current band Rock Star: Supernova at the Fremont Street Experience. When an interviewer asked Lee how he planned to party on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, he responded, "Naked."

The interviewer followed up with, "Who do you kiss at midnight?"

Lee answered, "Everybody," drawing a distinctly feminine cheer from the crowd.

Farther south at The Venetian, Lee's famous ex-wife, Pamela Anderson, hosted a $300-a-head party at the Tao nightclub. A party across the street at Jet nightclub in The Mirage featured Anderson's estranged husband, singer Kid Rock, and another party at Pure nightclub in Caesars Palace featured pop queen Britney Spears.

Back on Fremont Street, Goodman played the part of celebrity as he walked with a showgirl on each arm.

"I hope that my dreams for the city come true this year," he said. "That's my resolution: To work very hard to make Las Vegas the world's greatest place, not just the entertainment capital of the world, but the greatest city in the world."

The mayor drew startled glances from gamblers at slot machines as he walked through Fitzgeralds.

"We're all, 'Who is that?'" said Fawn Richardson, 26. "I thought he was a winner. I'm like, 'Can you teach me how to do that?'"

Outside, Chad Reiner, 25, and a couple of friends from Nebraska smoked cigars and drank beer.

"We can get pretty crazy in Omaha, but obviously we've got nothing like this," Reiner said.

However Reiner had a couple of complaints. "These beers in footballs suck. There's no handle, and they're making my hands go numb. And second of all, there's no strippers," he said, pointing to the shuttered Glitter Gulch Gentleman's Club.

One partyer saw a higher meaning in the Las Vegas New Year's celebration. Myra Runge, 37, from Saskatchewan, Canada, said the atmosphere made her feel like peace on earth was possible.

"It's wonderful," she said. "The people are from all over the place, and they're all so friendly and having fun together -- united. Canadians and Americans can all get along."

Review-Journal staff writers Molly Ball, David Kihara, Francis McCabe, Lawrence Mower and Benjamin Spillman contributed to this report.