The French music-hall revue: The Folies’ history is recounted in George Perry, Bluebell: The Authorized Biography of Margaret Kelly (Pavilion, 1986), 47–52; Paul Lewis, “For Folies-Bergère: 100 Naughty Years,” New York Times, July 8, 1987; and Encyclopaedia Britannica article, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Folies-Bergere.
the Folies had a popular: The Lido’s history, in both Paris and Las Vegas, is covered fully in Perry, Bluebell, 165–90.
“From the ceiling descend”: Weatherford, Cult Vegas, 222–23.
a new edition of Minsky’s Follies: Variety, January 23, 1957.
“Even with bare-breasted beauts”: Variety, July 9, 1958.
“the most spectacular I’ve ever seen”: Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1958.
“Bare chests are the coming thing”: Variety, August 6, 1958.
“It is time that the people”: Variety, August 13, 1958.
A split emerged: Variety, August 6, 1958.
“The spread of nude shows”: Las Vegas Review-Journal, September 7, 1957.
“Nudes are bad for this town”: Variety, August 6, 1958.
“Please accept my reassurance”: Variety, August 20, 1958.
“We certainly do not mean”: Variety, August 13, 1958.
“The Lou Walters show”: Los Angeles Times, December 30, 1959.
“Nothing kills laughs”: Variety, August 10, 1960.
Louis Prima was born: Details of Prima’s life and career come from Tom Clavin, That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas (Chicago Review Press, 2010).
“absolutely the hottest combo”: Clavin, Black Magic, 84.
“The sound, the feel”: Bobby Morris, interview with author.
“wild, relentless, driving beat”: Clavin, Black Magic, 85.
“It was havoc”: Morris, interview with author.
“He was born Wladziu”: The account of Liberace’s life and career is drawn largely from Darden Asbury Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy (University of Chicago Press, 2000).
“I longed to please”: Ibid., 81.
“Go ahead and laugh”: Variety, April 27, 1955.
“Finally it was impossible”: Richard Corliss, “That Old Feeling: The Show at the Casino,” Time.com, http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,546855,00.html.
“They relaxed and enjoyed”: Pyron, Liberace, 81.
“He admires you so much”: Ibid., 265.
he was wearing a new outfit: Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, 399.
“He never forgot”: Jerry Schilling, interview with author.
“When one twin died”: Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, 13.
It’s not clear whether: There’s some evidence that Elvis may have been aware of the connection, since his friend Lamar Fike mentions it in Alanna Nash, Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (HarperCollins, 1995), 541.
“When you grew up”: Schilling, interview with author.
“I didn’t date her”: George Klein, Elvis: My Best Man (Three Rivers Press, 2010), 100.
“This desert never-never land”: Variety, January 27, 1960.
THREE: THE COOL GUYS
“You’re the big man”: Corinne Entratter Sidney, interview with author.
“I used to call him crudely”: Ibid.
“He had a physical presence”: Kevin Thomas, interview with author.
He was born Nathan Entratter: Biographical material in Sands Collection, UNLV Libraries, and Entratter Sidney, interview with author.
“Jack Entratter was the Genghis Khan”: Jerry Lewis, interview with author.
“I cater to the overprivileged”: Entratter Sidney, interview with author.
95 million seconds: Statistics cited in a Sands press release, Sands Collection, UNLV Libraries.
Sinatra demurred: According to Nathan “Sonny” Golden, Sinatra’s business manager, in the liner notes for Sinatra: Vegas, CD box set (Reprise Records, 2014), 14.
“As he meanders”: Variety, October 21, 1953.
“Oooooh, Frankie”: Weatherford, Cult Vegas, 13.
“arrogant, ill-tempered”: Ibid.
“The new Sinatra was not”: John Lahr, Sinatra: The Artist and the Man (Phoenix Mass Market, 1999), 53.
“I’ve been trying for more than a year”: Kitty Kelley, His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (Bantam, 1986), 219.
“The thing that amazed me”: Hunt-Bono, interview with author.
“Frank was the king”: Damone, interview with author.
“He was the number one guy”: Paul Anka, interview with author.
“He’d always be there”: Weatherford, Cult Vegas, 15.
“Frank enjoyed a good time”: Angie Dickinson in liner notes, Sinatra: Vegas, 36.
“You look like a goddamn”: The quote, along with a full account of the Rat Pack’s origins, in Shawn Levy, Rat Pack Confidential (Broadway Books, 2001), 30.
“a comedy routine”: James Kaplan, Sinatra: The Chairman (Doubleday, 2015), 229.
“The dago’s lousy”: Nick Tosches, Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams (Delta, 1999), 269.
“Sinatra was enthralled by Dean”: Ibid., 260.
“Talent is not an excuse”: Kaplan, Sinatra, 241–42.
“That was it for Sammy”: Ibid., 242.
“a public and aggressive indifference”: Paul O’Neill, “The ‘Clan’ Is the Most,” Life, December 22, 1958.
It was Lawford: Levy, Rat Pack, 105–6.
“Producer Jack Entratter comes up”: Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 8, 1960.
“Which star shines”: Advertisements in Las Vegas Review-Journal, circa January 20, 1960.
“Mr. Entratter, sir”: Les Devor, Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 21, 1960.
“I flew to Las Vegas”: Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1960.
“an entertainment ball which”: John L. Scott, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1960.
had to turn away eighteen thousand: Levy, Rat Pack, 108.
The myth of the Rat Pack: Quotes and descriptions of the Rat Pack show are taken from film footage supplied by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and by Nora Garibotti (Joey Bishop’s friend), as well as from contemporaneous reviews and articles.
“Joey was a ballsy guy”: Michael Seth Starr, Mouse in the Rat Pack: The Joey Bishop Story (Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002), 59.
Bishop, who wrote the line: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Sinatra: Behind the Legend, excerpted in The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader, ed. Gerald Early (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001), 185.
“I hated the idea”: Greene, interview with author.
“They were doing our act”: Lewis, interview with author.
“For the first time on such”: Levy, Rat Pack, 321.
“There was an electricity”: Bob Newhart, interview with author.
“There is no Clan”: Levy, Rat Pack, 185.
“I am a member of the Clan”: Ibid., 186.
“If Frank went to a tailor”: Entratter Sidney, interview with author.
“I noticed that no matter who”: Mia Farrow, What Falls Away (Nan A. Talese, 1997), 104.
“With Frank it was like walking”: Entratter Sidney, interview with author.
“But when he was an asshole”: Lisa Medford, interview with author.
“Sinatra really had Jack”: Eydie Gormé interview, Mark Tan Collection.
his demands got so out of hand: The incident described by Entratter Sidney, interview with author.
“Dean Martin is worth his weight”: Variety, July 20, 1960.
“He was nice to everyone”: Deana Martin, Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin through His Daughter’s Eyes (Three Rivers Press, 2004), 79.
“The important thing to say”: Tosches, Dino, 256.
“Sammy always had to be”: Vera Goulet, interview with author.
“Is Sammy Ashamed?”: Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, Yes I Can, 249.
“Over the years I watched Sammy”:
Wil Haygood, In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. (Knopf, 2003), 181.
“Make yourself comfortable”: The quote, along with other details of Rickles’s relationship with Sinatra, is in Rickles’ Book: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster, 2008), 64.
“trying to figure out”: George Jacobs, Mr. S: The Last Word on Frank Sinatra (Pan Books, 2004), 125.
“If I want a nigger”: Ibid., 124.
“the most brutal, ugly, degenerate”: Kaplan, Sinatra, 175.
“I admire the man”: Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, 437.
“After all, the kid’s been away”: Peter Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Back Bay Books, 1999), 62.
the show drew a phenomenal: Ibid., 63.
“People call me the king”: Deana Martin, interview with author.
“It was a party like”: Guralnick, Careless Love, 116.
dubbed them the “Memphis mafia”: Ibid., 76–77.
“As kids we looked at them”: Anka, My Way, 64.
“They took over”: Kaplan, Sinatra, 396.
“a disgusting display of ego”: Levy, Rat Pack, 187.
“Frank and his henchmen”: Ibid.
Sinatra noticed the growing chill: The souring of relations with the Kennedys recounted in Kaplan, Sinatra, 435–39.
“Frank was livid”: James Spada, Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets (Bantam, 1991), 293–94.
“the most violent rampage”: Jacobs, Mr. S, 165.
Joey was cast in the third: Levy, Rat Pack, 257–58.
“I’m never coming to see you again”: Kaplan, Sinatra, 537.
“a rotten, horrible, mean”: Ibid., 542.
“Aren’t you people”: Ibid., 543.
“That little son of a bitch”: Ibid., 546.
“It just wasn’t possible to invite him”: Levy, Rat Pack, 260.
Sinatra’s annus horribilis: A full account of the kidnapping is in Kaplan, Sinatra, 552–67.
Bishop resented the joke: Starr, Mouse in the Rat Pack, 115.
“one of those miraculous moments”: Will Friedwald, Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer’s Art, rev. ed. (Chicago Review Press, 2018), 454.
“Mount Rushmore of men”: James Wolcott, “When They Were Kings,” Vanity Fair, reprinted in Sammy Davis Jr. Reader, 192–93.
“Their desert hijinks”: Bill Zehme, The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin’ (Harper, 1997), 60.
FOUR: THE ENTERTAINMENT CAPITAL
TWA inaugurated nonstop flights: Variety, June 22, 1960.
34 percent of US households: “Television Facts and Statistics,” http://www.tvhistory.tv/facts-stats.htm.
the Sands in 1955 became the first: Moehring, Resort City, 182.
“We left the showroom”: Ruth Gillis, interview with author.
That benighted era ended: Moehring, Resort City, 184–85.
“is now virtually unknown”: Variety, October 11, 1961.
The Sands’ Entratter even bragged: Sands publicity material, Sands Collection, UNLV Libraries.
“Everybody had two salaries”: Schlatter, interview with author.
“There was a pecking order”: Newhart, interview with author.
“You really found out who”: Anka, interview with author.
“There isn’t any deal”: Tony Bennett interview, Mark Tan Collection.
He grew up in Brooklyn: The account of Damone’s life and career is drawn from his memoir, Vic Damone: Singing Was the Easy Part (St. Martin’s Press, 2009), and Damone, interview with author.
“The cocktail lounges no longer”: Variety, August 4, 1965.
“He could sing ‘My Way’ ”: Klein, interview with author.
the model, reputedly, for Jerry: Anders, interview with author.
She walked out of an engagement: Gerald Clarke, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (Random House, 2000), 438–40.
she was so shaky that spotters: According to Nelson Sardelli, her opening act.
“There are times when her voice”: Variety, December 8, 1965.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I need help”: Clarke, Get Happy, 599.
“curiously unsettling experience”: Variety, December 6, 1967.
Debbie surprised him: The incident is told from both perspectives in Debbie Reynolds, Debbie: My Life (Pocket Books, 1988), 175, and Eddie Fisher, Been There, Done That: An Autobiography (St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 101–2.
When Eddie discovered he had no cash: Fisher, Been There, 158–59.
“They started that Cleopatra”: Variety, July 18, 1962.
“Instead of warming up”: Randall Riese, Her Name Is Barbra: An Intimate Portrait of the Real Barbra Streisand (Birch Lane Press, 1993), 141.
Milton Prell once offered: Phil Solomon, who said he personally witnessed the offer, column in Fabulous Las Vegas, August 2, 1969.
“He loved Las Vegas”: Guralnick, Careless Love, 118–19.
“so heavily that you couldn’t tell”: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Elvis and Me (Berkley Books, 1986), 88.
Sammy Davis Jr. was even signed: Entratter Sidney, interview with author.
“I knew what was going to happen”: Ann-Margret, Ann-Margret: My Story (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994), 109.
“She comes around here mostly”: Presley, Elvis and Me, 168.
Colonel Parker was not happy: Guralnick, Careless Love, 151–54.
“About as pleasant”: Howard Thompson, New York Times, May 21, 1964.
Stan Irwin . . . booked them: The Beatles’ visit recounted in Weatherford, Cult Vegas, 41–43, and Irwin interview, Mark Tan Collection.
The imported sets and costumes: Maynard Sloate, producer of the Folies Bergere, interview with author.
He was born Arlyle Arden Peterson: Arden’s life and career recounted in Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 7, 1999, and Donn Arden Papers, Special Collections, UNLV Libraries.
“It’s not entertainment”: Variety, March 14, 1962.
“Competition among big shows”: Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1965.
“From the rousing opening”: Hank Greenspun, Las Vegas Sun, September 30, 1967.
called Pzazz ’68 the best Vegas show: Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1968.
“There’s a certain way”: Jefferson Graham, Vegas: Live and in Person (Abbeville Press, 1989), 168.
“He would scream and holler”: Sonia Kara, interview with author.
“Ron was slim, sinewy”: Ron Walker, RecordCourier.com, May 18, 2012.
“When you were a Ron Lewis dancer”: Sal Angelica, interview with author.
“People from New York”: Jerry Jackson, interview with author.
“I came to Las Vegas”: Angelica, interview with author.
Carol Burnett . . . set an advance-sale record: Carol Burnett, interview with author.
Carson . . . broke the hotel’s attendance: Variety, July 22, 1964.
“The audiences in Vegas demanded”: Klein, interview with author.
found that he had to cut them down: Newhart, interview with author.
“possibly will zoom over”: Variety, October 9, 1963.
“temperamental without hope”: Sloate, interview with author.
“It was an achievement”: Woody Allen, interview with author.
“I felt guilty”: Ibid.
But he had to see Don Rickles: Irwin interview, Mark Tan Collection.
“He’s doing me!”: Klipf Nesteroff, The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy (Grove Press, 2015), 153.
“When he worked clean”: Sandy Hackett, interview with author.
“Hackett has a definite mission”: Variety, January 1, 1969.
“Buddy had the ability”: Greene, interview with author.
“I want to get the audience”: Nesteroff, Comedians, 144.
Hackett, unhappy to hear that Totie: Barbutti, interview with author.
“He was like the devil”: Nesteroff, Comedians, 145.
“His a
ct had no beginning”: Barbutti, interview with author.
“When you saw a Shecky Greene show”: Klein, interview with author.
“I don’t feel bad”: Line recounted by Greene, interview with author.
“Are you proud of Sammy Davis?”: Line recounted by Klein, interview with author.
Greene could be a terror: Greene’s misbehavior is described by many, including Weatherford, Cult Vegas, 98–99.
Milton Berle tried to calm: Milton Berle interview, Mark Tan Collection.
“I never worked like Rickles . . . I couldn’t be Shecky . . . Vegas was very, very good”: Greene, interview with author.
“A lot of entertainers”: Rich Little, interview with author.
“I make approximately the same”: Quoted in Variety, June 20, 1964.
“There was one rule”: Henry Bushkin, Johnny Carson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), 185.
“Nowhere was Johnny more pampered”: Ibid., 176.
“The women, who didn’t seem”: Farrow, What Falls Away, 102.
“The one thing you learned”: Newhart, interview with author.
“I loved being around”: Anka, My Way, 170.
“They would bring their girlfriends”: Lainie Kazan, interview with author.
“Because I sing”: Nelson Sardelli, interview with author.
Shecky Greene liked to tell: Greene, interview with author.
“one of the five most powerful”: Denton and Morris, Money and the Power, 287.
Vic Damone’s relationship: Described by Damone in Vic Damone, 23–41, and interview with author.
“I became very friendly”: Damone, interview with author.
“The work was steady”: Frank Leone, interview with author.
“All the top guys were here”: Barbutti, interview with author.
fourteen hundred working musicians: The membership of the Las Vegas Musicians Union in 1969, in McKay, Played Out, 79.
“It was musical heaven”: Mark Massagli, interview with author.
they arrived in Las Vegas: Marie Pogee, interview with author.
“For a dancer, Las Vegas”: Ibid.
“You had to learn how”: Kara, interview with author.
“Vegas was a great place”: Claire Fitzpatrick Plummer, interview with author.
“typical mob types”: Kathy McKee, interview with author.
“I don’t think I would have”: Ibid.
“You had no choice”: Medford, interview with author.
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