Pawn shop booms after reality show

What recession? These are boom times at Gold and Silver Pawn, thanks to the History Channel's hit reality series "Pawn Stars."

Back in July, before the show started, about 70 customers a day showed up at the 713 Las Vegas Blvd. South address.

And now? "We do about 1,000 a day," said Rick Harrison, who co-owns the shop with his father, Richard, and son Corey.

The 35 episodes of national TV exposure have doubled revenue and generated a waiting line of 50 customers throughout the day, which usually ends at 11 p.m. The Harrisons have added a surreal touch for their customers: a velvet rope for crowd control, ala a nightclub.

Two of the more shocking items that recently arrived: a bronze medal from the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics and a 1998 Denver Broncos Super Bowl ring.

Rick Harrison said he paid $700 for the medal and $11,000 for the bejeweled ring.

The medal came from a shoebox found in a garage by a son-in-law who was cleaning up after his wife's father died. The family, who lived in the Midwest, was vacationing in Las Vegas and decided to sell the medal.

"Names aren't etched on Olympic medals so we have no idea who it belonged it to," Harrison said.

Harrison said the ring owner identified himself as a former landlord of Bronco safety Tori Noel, a late addition to the team roster. The former University of Tennessee standout saw little action that year in Denver, the first of back-to-back Super Bowl titles, and suffered a career-ending injury the next year during training camp.

It's not the only Super Bowl ring pawned at Gold and Silver. Harrison said he purchased Brock Williams' ring from the 2002 Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots.

Williams, a former cornerback at Notre Dame, was paid about $2,000 for the ring. He never returned to buy it back, Harrison said.

THE SCENE AND HEARD

Reclusive Kirk Kerkorian, MGM Mirage majority shareholder, founder and board member, is reported to be in a relationship with Rodney Dangerfield's widow, the former Joan Child. A source tells me she has been staying in his Beverly Hills mansion. Kerkorian, who turns 93 in June, is considered the father of the Las Vegas megaresort. Kerkorian also has a home at the Las Vegas Country Club, where Dangerfield and his wife lived when he performed in Las Vegas. Dangerfield died in 2004 at the age of 82.

SIGHTINGS

ESPN talk-show host Colin Cowherd, dining Tuesday at the Pasta Shop on Tropicana and chatting with customers about the Olympics. ... Garth Brooks, his wife, Trisha Yearwood, and family at Pole Position Raceway over the weekend.

THE PUNCH LINE

"They showed a lot of the biathalon today, which is a combination of cross-country skiing and shooting, which to Sarah Palin is called commuting, but at the Olympics, it's a sport." - Jimmy Kimmel

Norm Clarke can be reached at (702) 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.