LAS VEGAS — In a city that is usually impossible to shock, the savaging of Roy Horn on Oct. 3, 2003, onstage and in front of a live audience at the Mirage, created one of those rare moments where all locals can say where they were when they heard the news.
Steve Wynn, who spent millions to have the theater at the Mirage customized for the "Siegfried & Roy" show, remembered his first reaction in an interview this week: "I could not believe one of Roy's cats attacked him."
Media from all over the world had surrounded the hospital by the time Wynn arrived and, inside, Horn had already had a stroke and died on the table. Wynn said: "I was standing there looking down at him with the breathing tube, stitches in his shaved head; his head was caved in from back to front because the doctors had removed part of his brain. They said that he would never be able to do anything below his head again. I just stared and could not believe."
The idea that Horn would even be able to stand up was more than anyone could possibly hope for in those days immediately after the attack as he fought for his life. Setting foot onstage again wasn't even a consideration. But, as a television audience will see on ABC's "20/20" today at 9 p.m., he -- along with Siegfried Fischbacher -- appeared as a duo Saturday for the first time in more than five years, and likely for the last time ever, during a benefit at the Bellagio. In addition to showing that event, the "20/20" episode will include co-host Elizabeth Vargas' interview with the partners at their home, discussing Horn's painful recovery and their lives since the tiger attack.
After that October night in 2003, Wynn said, the surgeon concluded that the beloved Vegas icon had no chance of walking again. Wynn, noting the willpower it takes to train lions, felt otherwise but remembers the doctor saying: " 'Steve, it is not a question of his determination. We took a third of his brain out and it's empty. He was going to die.' "
Mirage moves on
Roy Horn, of course, did not die. But the Siegfried & Roy show, after 13 wildly successful years at the Mirage, closed at once. The hotel and casino reinvented itself by getting a Cirque du Soleil show, the Beatles' "Love," as well as a hipster nightclub, Jet, and some new restaurants with celebrity chefs. It made its famous volcano bigger, flashier and louder. This was no longer the Mirage of Siegfried & Roy.
