Columnist Joe Delaney: Long weekends becoming more frequent

Joe Delaney

Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999 | 12:09 p.m.

President's Day weekend this year includes the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Ike Quartey championship fight at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, and Valentine's Day on Sunday. ... In the past, the year's-end holiday was followed by the Consumer Electronics Show and very little else until the President's Day observance in mid-February. ... It was a quiet time.

Last year, New Year's Eve was on a Friday, making for a nice long weekend. ... The Consumer Electronics Show doesn't do much for the showrooms, lounges or casinos, but it does very well for the hotel end. ... Now we have Martin Luther King Day for a weekend in mid-January, helped this year by a Mike Tyson comeback fight against Frans Botha.

Super Bowl Sunday has grown to where it equals New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. ... The Oscar De La Hoya fight will give us five strong weekends where once there were only two.

Star-policy rundown

George Carlin, hot on HBO this month, takes over the 11 p.m. slot in Bally's Jubilee Room starting tonight, through March 3. ... "Jubilee" will continue having 7:30 p.m. performances during this period. ... David Copperfield continues appearing -- and disappearing -- at Caesars Palace through Wednesday. ... The Desert Inn Crystal Room is dark.

There's more: The Patsy Cline Tribute (Gold Coast); Johnny Mathis, Saturday and Sunday (LV Hilton); Joan Baez, tonight only (Hard Rock hotel); Steve Wyrick's Magic (Lady Luck); Bill Acosta (Luxor); Tom Jones, plus Tommy Tune in "EFX" (MGM Grand); Siegfried & Roy (Mirage); Lance Burton (Monte Carlo); Righteous Brothers (Orleans); and Danny Gans (Rio).

Air Supply will be the weekend attraction, 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday (Riviera). ... Marlene Ricci deserves to be a regular in the Flamingo Hilton's "Great Radio City Spectacular."

Anent the Treniers

Claude Trenier and the Treniers are multiple award winners, lauded wherever they have performed during these past five decades. ... The group is in the Showboat's Mardi Gras Room this week and next, doing shows at 8 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight. ... Despite their obvious longevity, the Treniers are as vital and as fresh as today, constantly adding new material, ever-evolving.

With the Treniers at the Showboat and Sam Butera & The Wildest in the Orleans lounge, plus Chuck Diamond's Dixie Band also there, noon-6 p.m., it's time to repeat that two-week engagements prove little.

Groups with proven track records such as the Treniers, Sam Butera and Freddie Bell (there are others) deserve to sit down in one location, building both audience and identification with the hotel and become part of the marketing plan. ... That is how the lounges became so vital in the 1950s through the 1970s and could become so again.

Jazz notes

Jazz seems to be gathering a little strength in Las Vegas. ... Brian O'Shea leads a sextet at the Green Shack on Wednesdays; Irv Kluger, et al, are at Pogo's on Fridays. ... The Mike Breene Trio, with Breene, piano; Bob Badgely, bass; and Santo Savino, drums, is at the Santa Fe, Wednesday through Saturdays, and The Jazz Organ-ization, starting at noon, Sundays.

The Ernie George Quarter with Joe Lano, guitar, Dr. Tom Ferguson, piano; Gus Mancuso, bass; and George on drums and vocals are now on Friday and Saturday evenings at Carollo's, which is also home base on Sundays for Marv Koral's All-Stars featuring world-class trombonist Carl Fontana. ... Don Menza's Big Band (Riviera) is Monday's best.

Concert-style jazz, with major stars such as Buddy Greco and Joe Williams, etc., belongs in a class lounge in a class hotel, but for more than two weeks at a time. ... We have a visitor turnover twice a week, check the stats.

More jazz notes

It's "Jazz With Love," featuring Angela Bofill, Jean Carne, Norman Connors, Miki Howard and Marion Meadows, 8 p.m. Friday, UNLV's Ham Hall. ... Trumpeter Buddy Childers and his orchestra play for a free dance 7 p.m. Friday in the Stardust Ballroom, a ticket lets you in. ... The late Lamont Paterson, jazz authority and columnist, loved Las Vegas and established a scholarship at UNLV and provided for these annual free dances.

Local theatre: "Lerner and Loewe: Brief Shining Moment" continues through Sunday, UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre, as does Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues," LV Little Theatre. ... Support your local community theater. ... See you Friday.