Lewis signs 20-year deal with Orleans

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2000 | 10:18 a.m.

Seventy-four-year-old comedian Jerry Lewis announced Tuesday he has signed a 20-year contract with the Orleans hotel-casino, and he wasn't joking.

"(There is a) provision that when I'm 94, I can work with a walker," Lewis quipped during a press conference held at the property.

The agreement calls for the longtime Las Vegas resident to appear at the Orleans Showroom five times a year, performing four nights during each of the engagements for a total of 20 shows.

"I plan to beat George Burns," Lewis said. "That screwball went to 100, and I'm going by that."

Burns died at the age of 100 in 1996, unable to fulfill his promise to play the Paladium in London on his 100th birthday.

Lewis, fresh from a six-week stay on his boat near San Diego, is about to embark on a strenuous period of activity that will include his annual Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon on Sept. 3.

The telethon begins at 6 p.m. Sunday and continues through 4 p.m. Monday, with Lewis involved in much of the activity during the telecast.

Lewis is scheduled to begin his first engagement at the Orleans under the new agreement three days later, Sept. 7-10.

"This plan is a marvelous one," Lewis said. "(The Orleans) is about the best hotel showroom I know of in this town -- it's the equivalent of the first Sands showroom, it's equivalent to the first Frontier showroom, even as far back as the El Rancho."

Lewis first played the Orleans in January and said he fell in love with the venue, which is a theater setting with a seating capacity of about 900.

He said the showroom's atmosphere was what prompted him to ask owner Michael Gaughan for a long-term deal.

"It was not the money," Lewis said. "I (told Gaughan) that this room was made for me. It's magic. The audience becomes altogether different here, and I become different. I come out with energy and do a show for two hours and 20 minutes and if the people want more, I give them more.

"I said to Mike, 'Where am I going to play after here?'

"I had talks with the Desert Inn, Sahara, Bally's -- I don't want to play those places, I guess because they are so transient. I can't connect with the audience as quickly as I can here, and I need that ... if I'm playing a room of 4,000 seats it's very tough connecting."

When he first suggested a long-term contract to Gaughan, Lewis said he was only joking, but the more he thought about it the better he liked the idea.

"I thought to myself, 'Why should I work for anyone else?' " he said.

Gaughan decided there was no good reason why he should and agreed to the deal.

"Jerry says, 'Can I stay here for 20 years?' and I said, 'You can stay here as long as I stay here,' " Gaughan said.

Gaughan said he asked Lewis why they should not make the deal for 26 years, with the contract ending when he reached 100?

"Jerry said 20 years is long enough," Gaughan said.

There was speculation that Lewis was going to announce that his telethon, held in Los Angeles since 1996, was going to return to Las Vegas, which had been its home since the early 1970s.

Lewis said he would like to bring it back to his hometown but the move is not economically feasible.

"I save two and a quarter million (dollars) by doing it in L.A.," he said, and added, looking at Gaughan, "If we could make some (economic) sense and get certain people to put up a little money, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to do the telethon from the Orleans hotel. It would be really good for the Orleans."