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After the Judge's death in 1982, remarkably, the Celestial Suite lived on generating big-figure income into the 1990s, hosting parties, weddings, and shindigs, as varied as delegate stays during the Republic National Convention in 1992. By the mid-1990s, the price of a night's stay had risen to $5,500 as cited in a November 4, 1996, Houston Chronicle article. The following decade, the Minidome inside the Suite became a jazz club, when the hotel underwent new management. REMAINS OF THE DAY Today, the Celestial Suite, built 48 years ago, is remarkably intact, having been shuttered and cloistered from the rest of the hotel for at least a dozen years. Seventies-era telephones with Astrodome stickers sit next to bulbous '70s television sets and the final Southwestern Bell telephone books dated September 1996. The tufted red velvet bed coverings and pelmets in the Judge's rooms are tattered and dusty; the heavy brocade at the windows hangs dejectedly. But the massive carved master bed, said to have been fashioned after Scarlett O'Hara's bed in Gone with the Wind, is there, as are the heavy antiques purchased by the Judge and Goff on their buying sprees. Adjoining is the serpentine 17-foot Roman bath, with Coliseum-inspired columns, and swan faucets. Carved and painted doors with brass placards announce The Band Wagon Room, The P.T. Barnum Suite, and The Adventurer Suite, with separate Tarzan Room and Fu Man Chu Bedroom. In the Tarzan Room, a twisting tree rises two floors, with steps to a bamboo tree house; there are palm-frond wallcoverings, leopard prints, African carvings, and, hanging from the ceiling, swinging '70s rattan chairs and a drooping, yellow-striped canopy. The Fu Man Chu Bedroom, with ersatz capiz-shell chandeliers and pagoda light fixtures, is joined to the coral Mandarin Bath with gold-painted, carved cabinet fronts and coral steps leading to an oversized coral bath. The Lillian Russell Suite adjoins The Bouquet Bath; The Sadie Thompson Suite (Gloria Swanson as a young, beautiful prostitute on a Pacific Island "saved" by Lionel Barrymore) leads to The Sponge Bath. The Band Wagon Room has a massive carved peacock, red-and-yellow tufted bed with bright circus wheels, and red-striped circus top. The most hauntingly beautiful room is the Golden Bird Cage Dining Room, a darkly glittering octagon with foxed mirrors and bamboo trim. Books fill the Marble Library shelves — Widow's Web, Charmed Circle, Wild Wing, The Peacock Sheds His Tale. Could these tiles be coincidence? JUDGMENT DAY The fate of the Dome remains undecided — although, promisingly, an Astrodome Conservancy has been created led by preservationists Phoebe Tudor, Minnette Boesel, and Judy Nyquist, with Margaret Lawler as executive director. At the University of Houston, the Hofheinz Pavilion almost lost its name. Huckster House, as the Judge devised it, is long gone, and his extraordinary Astrodome offices and pad were disassembled in 1988. The judge's vast storehouses of cars, carousels, and collections went on the block at Hart Galleries in a seven- day auction in 1984. Chanel jumpsuit $6,050, and metal resin necklace $3,075, both at the Chanel boutique. The Big Top Parlor from the P.T. Barnum Suite reflects the Judge's one-time ownership of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. 58