The best thing about being AP’S Las Vegas correspondent was all of the musical performances I saw. Most of the casino/hotels invited the press for opening night. I felt a little guilty, as if I was taking a bribe, but they invited the local radio stations. Why not me?
My bosses wanted me to write more about news native to Las Vegas, but how could I avoid seeing these stars?
So indulge this old man a little as he recalls watching some of the greatest names in show business from 1968 to 1970. Here is what I thought of them:
Dean Martin: His music was not to my taste, but I really don’t think he was the free-wheeling drinker that was his persona.
Liberace: He laughed along with the audience about his flamboyant costumes and kitschy act. A great entertainer.
Little Richard: He called himself the “Bronze Liberace,” but he lied to me about this age in an interview.
Hair, the Musical: A pastor reprimanded me in later years for seeing this innovative show four or five times. But the nudity only lasted five seconds, and I was sitting too far back to see much.
Frank Sinatra: There was nobody better. The city came alive when he was in town. He was obviously rested and well rehearsed.
Ella Fitzgerald: Why was the greatest jazz singer in history the opening act for Bobby Goldsboro, a flash in the pan?
Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington: These other African-American greats were relegated to second-rate lounge shows.
Wayne Newton: He was terrific, but he kept trying to show he was no longer the kid with the soprano voice who used to sing on Jackie Gleason’s show.
Tony Bennett: Though he was one of my favorites, maybe he had an off night (or I did.)
Jack Jones: I loved it when he sang to my date at the table during one show.
Peggy Lee and Marlene Dietrich: They were still sexy in old age.
Elvis Presley: I attended his debut as portrayed in the movie “Elvis.” He wasn’t the Fat Elvis yet in 1969, though he did get a little winded at the end. Great show!
Tom Jones: If women really threw room keys and underwear onto the stage during his show, I never saw it.
Nancy Sinatra: There was not much there, but her father staged a great party afterward that I attended with Elvis present. My date was so impressed!
The Supremes: Their final concert together brought tons of celebrities, including Bill Russell.
Jose Feliciano: Time magazine profiled him after I wrote up my interview. When he caused a stir with his national anthem at the World Series, he told an AP reporter, “Say hello to Mike Doan for me.”
If it was just the music, I could have stayed in Vegas forever, but the Nevada media demanded too many local stories I didn’t care about. Real news was happening elsewhere. As soon as I left for San Francisco, management decided my successors could not go to those shows for free anymore.
But as Sinatra would sing, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”
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