Brodsky helped mold image of early Strip

Tuesday, July 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Morrey Brodsky, a brash and energetic public relations man who helped promote the glitzy image of the Las Vegas Strip from its beginnings in the late 1940s through the '80s, has died. He was 77.

Brodsky, one of the first public relations directors for the original El Rancho Vegas hotel/casino on the Strip just south of Sahara Avenue, died Wednesday of cancer at his home. His death was disclosed Monday.

"We have lost one of the plank owners of the Strip -- one of a handful of those of us who promoted the image of the town from its earliest days," said Herb McDonald, another early public relations director at the El Rancho, which opened in 1941 and burned to the ground in 1960.

"Morrey was great with people, hard working and a pretty good writer. He also was a visionary," said McDonald, who today is director of special events at the Showboat hotel-casino.

48-year resident

At Brodsky's request, there will be no services. He was a 48-year Las Vegas resident.

Short and mustachioed, Brodsky was at times pushy in the tradition of stereotyped 'PR' men of bygone days.

"I was working as a copy writer at KENO radio (in the early 1950s), when Morrey stuck his head into the room and hollered: 'Where are the broads?'" said Ruthe Deskin, longtime SUN assistant to the publisher.

"When I told my boss that I did not consider myself a 'broad' and would have nothing more to do with Morrey Brodsky, Morrey came in the next day and apologized. We just became great friends after that.

"He was one of the premier public relations men on the Strip for many years."

Deskin and McDonald recalled the time Brodsky wound up in jail for one of his publicity stunts.

"Morrey dropped leaflets from a plane to promote the El Rancho, and the police arrested him," said Deskin, who, along with Brodsky, was one of the original members of the Las Vegas Press Club. "The leaflets blew all over the place."

McDonald said he did not think the act of throwing ad pamphlets from a plane was illegal at the time, "but Morrey failed to get a permit for it, so no one (including the authorities) knew the leaflets were coming.

"It caused quite a bit of confusion on Las Vegas Boulevard (then a two-lane highway with just two hotels)."

McDonald, who was working for the Last Frontier when Brodsky was at the El Rancho, recalled that as more resorts were built, the early public relations directors worked feverishly to come up with new promotions to outdo each other.

In the late 1970s, Brodsky left the hotel industry when he bought an entertainment guide from his best friend, Maury Stevens, and renamed it "Now Magazine." He published the monthly periodical throughout the early 1980s.

"I was visiting relatives in Philadelphia when my Maury met Morrey, and they became fast friends," said Muriel Stevens, the SUN's food editor. "They would often meet for dinner at Alan LeWinter's on the Strip (today the restaurant is called the Rosewood Grille).

He loved to cook

"Morrey would call me frequently to talk about recipes. He loved to cook, but he had some unusual ideas for dishes. He would ask things like 'Can I put lemonade in the borscht?' and I'd say, 'Why not?'"

Brodsky recently informed Stevens that his cancer, which had long been in remission, had returned and was quickly spreading. She said he faced his mortality with "bravery and acceptance."

"All those years I knew Morrey, I realized just how little I knew about him," Stevens said.

McDonald concurred: "Although he was energetic in his work, Morrey had an aloofness -- he would not allow people into his soul."

But when Brodsky made a close friend, not even death could break that bond. As a haunting example, just last month, Brodsky sent a donation to the SUN Camp Fund, which he wrote was "in memory of Maury Stevens," who died in 1982.

Born Aug. 8, 1918, in Detroit, Brodsky was a drummer with the Ted Lewis and Art Mooney bands during his young adulthood.

He moved to Las Vegas in 1948 and immediately entered the field of public relations. Over the years, he worked for several Strip properties and the Cal Neva Lodge in Reno.

Brodsky developed a reputation of being quite a character. In the 1980s he drove around town in a metallic blue Cadillac Seville with the middle-back section chopped out.

Asked why he had, in effect, turned a luxury automobile into a two-seat compact car, Brodsky said: "I just like it better this way."

Brodsky was a Mason and a member of SKAL, a travel organization. For many years, he volunteered to serve homeless people Thanksgiving Day meals at St. Vincent's shelter.

Brodsky is survived by a son, Brian Brodsky, and granddaughters Alaina and Elise, all of Lima, Peru; and a sister, Clara Silber of Farmington Hills, Mich.

DONATIONS: In Brodsky's memory to the American Cancer Society.