Columnist Joe Delaney: Retracing NFR’s trail from the Midwest

Joe Delaney

Friday, Dec. 4, 1998 | 11:37 a.m.

The National Finals Rodeo is now a vital continuing part of the Las Vegas economy. ... The late Benny Binion did the most to make the NFR possible here. ... Herb McDonald was another major factor in what was a fine team effort. ... Before the NFR moved here from Oklahoma City, Las Vegas would empty out following the Thanksgiving Day weekend and remain dead until after Christmas.

Las Vegas entertainment is like Nashville West through Dec. 13 this year. ... The relatively quiet period starts Dec. 14 and ends the day before Christmas, building to a New Year's Eve weekend that may set new attendance records. ... Old-timers will remember when the only action the first three weeks in December was a series of parties for airline personnel.

Bellagio is this year's hotel worldwide. ... Las Vegas can look forward to three new high-end hotels in 1999: Mandalay Bay, The Venetian and Paris, plus a New Year's Eve 1999 with a monster millennium observance.

A similar story

There is an NFR parallel. ... In the 1940s, the country music capital was Cincinnati, led by a disc jockey named Nelson King on 50 kilowatt radio station WCKY in the Gibson Hotel. ... Paul Cohen, a compatriot and rival at Decca, was the Cincinnati branch manager. ... It was Paul who convinced Decca to set up a separate country music department.

Cohen moved to New York City as the department head and signed Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, Webb Pierce and Patsy Cline. ... It was Paul who realized that WSM-AM radio in Nashville, with its Grand Ole Opry program, was an even more powerful outlet than WCKY and led the campaign to move the capital of country music from Cincinnati to Nashville.

Acuff-Rose -- Roy Acuff and father and son team Fred and Wesley Rose -- and Southern Music, based in Nashville, became major music publishers as a result. ... Guitarist Jerry Reed moving to Nashville was another factor.

More parallels

Paul Cohen left us much too soon. ... He is enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame for his contributions as a record producer and as the catalyst in the Cincinnati-to-Nashville move to become Music City, USA. ... Benny Binion, Herb McDonald, et al, who brought the National Finals Rodeo to Las Vegas 13 years ago deserve similar acknowledgements.

Willie Nelson performed a vital service for music when he left Nashville, returned to his native Texas, and made Austin and its "Austin City Limits" television show another major source for country music. ... Nelson also deserves special mention for energizing such great popular music standards as "Stardust," "Blue Skies" and "Deep Purple."

Add Ray Charles to the above list for his country music albums in the early 1960s, landmark releases that tore down the artificial barriers that separated music into pop, country and rhythm and blues.

And still one more

One person with a dream and total dedication can create tomorrow's reality. ... In each of the above examples, the innovator met with initial resistance and forecasts of failure. ... In a sense, with his own career, Paul Anka, currently at the Mirage, is another such visionary and innovator, a success who survived an initial failure.

Before taking New York City by storm in the late 1950s, Anka made a disastrous foray to the West Coast from his natal city, Ottawa, Canada. ... After "Diana" and the string of hits for ABC-Paramount label, Paul opted to buy back his recording masters and own then.

The late Frank Sinatra later did this, retaining ownership of his Reprise recording masters as an inheritance for his children. ... Anka leased out his masters but now owns them once more. ... The music business thought Paul was crazy paying $250,000 for his masters.

Was he crazy?

Some years later, Anka leased the masters to Columbia, now Sony, for resale as a package via television, earning him more than $5 million with ownership reverting to him after five years. ... Some crazy. ... When the Beatles invaded from England, Anka moved to Europe and became a major international star through the 1960s.

Anka returned in the late 1960s to write songs for others including the classic "My Way" for Sinatra. ... Then, in 1973, he wrote a series of monster hits for himself. ... Show and business are co-equal words with Paul. ... No singing performer has combined the two, show and business, better. ... Enjoy your weekend whatever your musical tastes. ... See you next Thursday.