Former magazine publisher Cortez dies

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:23 a.m.

Longtime Las Vegas entertainment editor Etta Cortez recalled that when she visited her good friend, singer Nat King Cole, as he neared death, he was quite grumpy.

Recently, she found herself apologizing to friend Melanie Grim for being so unexplanably grumpy. That's when it hit the one-time beauty queen and fashion model that she would soon be facing her mortality, Grim said.

"She was beautiful, sophisticated and elegant to the end," said Grim, one of the few people Cortez allowed to see her in the last month as cancer took its toll. "She was so concerned that she be allowed to maintain her dignity. And she did."

Etta Cortez, the longtime editor of Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine, the city's top tourist and entertainment publication from the late 1940s to the early '70s, died Nov. 20 at Nathan Adelson Hospice. She was 76.

Private services are pending for Cortez who lived in Las Vegas for 48 years.

Cortez, a former Miss Kentucky Fried Chicken and a top clothing and swimsuit model in her native New York City, jealously guarded her true age throughout her life. Her Nevada driver's license said she was born in 1924, but independent sources have confirmed that she actually was born two years earlier.

Etta was the widow of Jack Cortez, who founded Fabulous Las Vegas magazine in December of 1946 and published it until his death in 1967. She took over and ran the magazine until 1972.

From 1978 to 1993, Etta was editor for Ralph Petillo's tabloid entertainment publications, which included Las Vegas Panorama, Mirror, Fun Times and Casino News. She retired the year Petillo, Grim's father, died.

Her influence on the early Las Vegas entertainment scene was significant.

"She looked at her publication as a reflection of Las Vegas," said Jim Seagrave, spokesman for the Stardust hotel-casino and a longtime friend. "Her magazine was creative. It was printed on the most expensive stock available. And the information on Las Vegas entertainment and dining was the most complete you could find."

Seagrave said that Jack and Etta Cortez utilized the best local entertainment writers of the day and hired top correspondents from Hollywood and New York to make Fabulous Las Vegas one of the era's most comprehensive entertainment periodicals.

"It was so widely read that it was common practice for entertainers to take out thank you ads in Fabulous Las Vegas when their local engagements ended," Seagrave said. "By doing that they were sure their message would reach the most people."

And, Cortez could be fiery if she did not agree with other opinions.

"She got mad at me when I wrote that Mitzi Gaynor used a bad Hungarian accent in her show at the Riviera," longtime Sun entertainment columnist Joe Delaney said. "Etta told me she was (of) Hungarian (descent) and thought that Mitzi did a great Hungarian accent. 'What do you know about Hungarian accents?' she said."

Cortez was at one time one of Southern Nevada's top women bowlers, winning numerous titles. Though proud of her accomplishments at local lanes, Cortez kept her bowling trophies stored behind her piano in her home. She gave friends no explanation why she did not display them in a more prominent area.

While Cortez remained slim, statuesque and attractive until the day she died, she declined invitations to many hotel media events in recent years and kept to herself.

Born Etta Ann Barton on Oct. 20, 1922, Cortez was one of eight children. Her seven siblings preceded her in death. Etta graduated from high school and attended college in New York before devoting her full attention to modeling.

At 5-feet-7 and 120 pounds with a 36-25-35 figure and long legs, the hazel-eyed blonde was in high demand for clothing and swimsuit modeling in the 1940s.

When Jack Cortez was in New York on business, he met Etta and the two had a whirlwind romance that culminated with their marriage on June 25, 1950, in a chapel at 1600 S. Main St.

Her later years were filled with sorrow as Cortez perceived that her once great beauty had faded, Grim said. She ventured from her home only occasionally to play slots at the Palace Station, hoping that she would not be recognized by people from her past.

Etta's only child, Bruce Barton "Bart" Cortez, died in 1994.

On her last birthday, Cortez was informed that she had been diagnosed with cancer. Although friends called in recent weeks to ask if they could visit her, she declined to see anyone but Grim.

"She just wanted to stay home and do a lot of writing -- she had planned to write a book," Grim said. "She didn't want to see anyone. She was just being very private."