Columnist Joe Delaney: Recalling Noel Coward’s foray into Las Vegas

Joe Delaney

Friday, April 28, 2000 | 9:13 a.m.

Joe Delaney's column appears Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at joe@ lasvegassun.com or 259-4066.

A Desert Inn memory ... Noel Coward was the personification of British urbanity ... He was England's most prolific songwriter prior to Andrew Lloyd Webber ... A brilliant performer, playwright, author, composer and actor, Coward had agreed to perform in Las Vegas "for just one fortnight" ... The late Joe Glaser, founder of Associated Booking Corp. and Louis Armstrong's manager, put together the deal.

The time was in the late 1950s ... Glaser was checking various musicians' hangouts in midtown Manhattan and finally located me sitting with Jackie Gleason in Toots Shor's restaurant ... He wanted me to accompany him to London to meet with Coward.

My passport was in order, but I was committed to go to New Orleans that night and convince the CEO of the Illinois Central Railroad to let my client, the Audio Fidelity label, record the last steam engine in service.

So much for my advice

Glaser was from Chicago, a powerful figure in the entertainment business, one-time accountant for all the Chicago South Side nightclubs in the 1920s ... No two persons could have been less alike than Glaser and Coward ... It would have been worth it just to sit in ... Glaser asked for my opinion as to the best LV venue for Coward.

My suggestion was simple: There were two 1,000-seat showrooms, take the one that offered the best deal ... Glaser said he would teach me a lesson ... He felt Coward had limited appeal here, far different from the Vegas performer norm ... He doubted that Coward could draw more than 500 persons per performance ... He put Coward in the Desert Inn.

The D.I.'s Painted Desert Room sat less than 400 ... Glaser was right on the mark ... Five hundred people were there for the first show; 120 people were asked to return for the midnight show.

The denouement

People were turned away every show ... Coward was declared a big winner yet there were never more than 500 people trying to get into any one performance ... Time Magazine had Coward on its cover, in a tuxedo, standing in the desert, holding a teacup ... Columbia Records recorded an album, live in the D.I. showroom.

Had Glaser taken my suggestion, Coward in a 1,000-seat showroom would have had 500 empty seats every performance ... He would have been deemed a failure and there would have been no cover on Time and no Columbia record album.

Local happenings

Marv Koral's All-Stars, featuring Carl Fontana, will have trumpeter Carl Saunders as special guest and will introduce their new CD release, 6-10 p.m. Sunday (Pierce Street Annex) ... Also recommended: She-Bop, a hot all-female group that includes contemporary pop-rock-blues guitar virtuoso Cheryl Justice and lead singer Kim Kanitz, through Sunday (Santa Fe).

The Augustus Society, a nonprofit local group of American-Italian professionals, holds its 17th annual scholarship awards ceremony, 4 p.m. Sunday (Desert Inn) ... Awards to date have passed the $500,000 mark.

Please save something for the LV Sun Summer Camp Fund, your gift is tax-deductible ... See you next Thursday.