What Stays In Vegas
Retro Vegas nights from the famed Las Vegas Strip
I’m a little bit late with my post this week, because I have some excellent news I am happy to share with you. I’m so excited! Next week, I'll have more details, so this is a short one to announce the launch of a my new a venture later this month. I'll host a radio program on KiYQ 107.1FM in Las Vegas called What Stays In Vegas — Retro Vegas Nights from the famed Las Vegas Strip. Three-minute spots rotate hourly with hosts Geno Munari’s Mob Moment, Doresa Banning's Gaming Tidbits, and Jack Miller, former Gaming Control Board Agent, throughout the day. Exclusive tales from Vegas, behind closed doors. Insider stories from the real casino world, unveiled by those who lived it. Stories never published. Throughout the day and evening, the music of Vegas legends like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin, and many others who played in Vegas during the golden age of the ’50s, 60s, 70s, and even into the ’80s. You are taken back in time to places like the Casbar Lounge at the Sahara Hotel, where while you sit back and sip on a cocktail, you can still listen to music by performers who have become the legends of tomorrow. After hours into the late night and early morning hours are stories of UFO conspiracy theories and mysteries of Vegas never told. So I hope you try it! Here is the link: https://www.kiyq.net/
I have a deep connection to this electric city of billions of lights going back to 1959, when, as a five-year-old, I said goodbye to my parents, waving to them as they drove off to some dream from our home in Templeton, California, to Las Vegas. This magical city continues to reinvent itself with each passing generation. One era blends seamlessly into the next era, and the demolitions of the previous ones are hardly noticed until they are gone and vanished into the archives of local libraries where history is saved for future generations to discover.
Las Vegas Strip in 1965 going from Tropicana to Sahara. Dean Martin recorded live for background music. You can see The Stardust as it’s being passed.
My journey to that desert oasis began in the late 70s when Jonathan, my ex-husband, was a stunt coordinator and magic coordinator for the then-popular TV show Circus of the Stars, filmed mainly at Ceasar’s Palace. This hotel would play a prominent role in my entertainment career. We drove and flew to Vegas during those days. When we went, much of the scenery reminded me of the limitless empty land spaces I knew growing up in Montana and California’s Central Coast and Valley. Vast, open land with rolling green hills rising rhythmically like waves on a sea, filling the space between the ocean and the San Joaquin Valley. Beautiful hills welcome you to a bit of heaven. When we flew, I loved the rustic experience. Looking down at the rugged brown and red high desert mountains gave me an eagle’s eye view of the entire Nevada landscape beneath me. Its beauty was its craggy mountain peaks flowing down to a smooth desert floor. Undisturbed earth from the beginning of humanity. I felt like I was staring at an otherworldly prehistoric world and traveling back in time. I could feel being in that timeframe, and it’s infinity. While lost in that fiction, a source of light suddenly interrupted the dark atmosphere. The brightness grew more robust against the dark star-filled night until you could see the city lights of Las Vegas over the mountaintops. You've entered another realm where, within seconds, you leave your prehistoric dream to join a fantasy playground. That's what's below you, and it didn't get there free. Risk is a very pricey endeavor. You take your chances, and your gambling habits stay in Vegas, enriching the lives of those feeding off your hopeful opportunities. But for us, two 20-something-year-olds below us lie many possibilities for success. McCarran Airport was a small domestic airport in those days. We disembarked the plane outside, where my face felt the hot desert wind for the first time.
I was reminded of a blast furnace. The ruggedness of the desert also extended to the air. What a land. It's hot as hell in the summer, and in the winter, the chill sometimes feels like the Arctic. We collected our baggage on the sidewalk outside, and off we went to Caesar’s Palace to join the crew of Circus of the Stars passing billboard after billboard advertising the headline entertainment in each of the casinos—Liberace, Frank Sinatra, The McGuire Sisters, Siegfried and Roy, Folies Bergere et al. The next night, I dressed in a red gown and high-heeled shoes, and Jonathan walked to The Stardust Hotel, which was “next door,” so why take a cab, right? The Las Vegas Strip is only 4.2 miles long, so next door didn't seem too far, but I realized our mistake as I walked. Arriving with blistered feet, I experienced my first real Las Vegas show. It didn't disappoint. I sat for dinner and cocktails at a booth near the stage and enjoyed my first Las Vegas entertainment experience. Around us, well-dressed guests dined and chain-smoked, filling the air with a light fog like we were in a film noir. Seeing the beautiful showgirls adorn the stage and watching Siegfried and Roy, who to this day are my favorite magicians, was magnificent, and I was immediately hooked. In the future, there will be thousands of shows in this city of lights and chance. We took a taxi back to Ceasar’s next door. It’s here at Caesar’s that in the future I’d headline a show myself. I didn’t know it then.
In my program, I’ll discuss those hot nights in Vegas where entertainment rules, and it was the reason for people to come and gamble. And it is still why they pour money into slot machines and take their chances at roulette. I’ll introduce myself in my first episode and discuss that first night at the Stardust. I can go anywhere with this. So, which entertainer do you want me to discuss on one of the following shows first? Liberace, Bobbie Darin, Wayne Newton, Lena Horne? Vote here in the poll. Until next week, I will leave you with a poem, which Randy may make into a song to commemorate those retro days in Vegas.
Beneath the neon lights of old Vegas town,
The Rat Pack sang, their voices renowned.
Showgirls sparkled in dazzling arrays,
A bygone era of glamour, those days.
Slot machines jingled, their reels did spin,
Sinatra's voice crooning, a classic din.
Magic and allure, the desert did bear,
Vintage entertainment, beyond compare.
Feathers, dice, and the roulette's spin,
In '50s Vegas, the fun did begin.
An era of gold where dreams took flight,
In old Las Vegas, under the bright lights.
♠️♥️♣️♦️
Very cool… I remember being in Vegas as the “Sands” was being leveled to make room for Disney (Pirate land whatever), as one of my letters had made an impression on Moon or one of the NBC’s made men, who somberly dismissed Letterman’s bid for Carson’s cherished cherry after his train wreck of an interview with the first lady of Las Vegas… While staying in Santra’s old room at the Riviera it was a memorial visit. Including their GoTo Vegas showgirls in “Splash” the Union Strike across the street at Circus Circus, and the offer to work with management of the Sorcery’s Apprentice opening… After those idiots burned those ppl alive in Waco TX. Old Las Vegas was in some kind of odd transition.
So there it was believed what happened would stay there, now that cat is to be let out of the bag. Should be fun.