Celebrities bid a fond farewell to legendary showroom

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, Aug. 31, 2000 | 8:51 a.m.

What: Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme.

When: 8 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday, 9 p.m. Friday.

Where: Caesars Palace Circus Maximus.

Cost: $55.

Information: 731-7333.

With the closing of its velvet curtains Sunday night, a room where Las Vegas built and honed its reputation for amazing entertainment -- and entertainers -- will join the annals of Las Vegas' entertainment history.

The 34-year-old Circus Maximus showroom at Caesars Palace will close with a final show by regular performers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, to a packed audience of stars, including Phyllis McGuire, Tony Curtis and Robert Wagner.

Its walls have reverberated to the powerful voices of such greats as Tom Jones and Judy Garland; comedians Woody Allen, Jack Benny and Flip Wilson have prepared for their schtick behind the thick, red-velvet curtains; and the sizzling dance numbers of such performers as Ann-Margret, Liza Minnelli and Juliet Prowse have been marked on the wooden floorboards of the 60-foot stage.

The room where Frank Sinatra announced that his mother's plane was missing (he stayed to finish the show) and comedian George Burns celebrated his 99th birthday (but was unable to make his final, much-anticipated 100th birthday appearance) will slip into Las Vegas' past.

After the final show the array of colored curtains used for different shows, and deep, comfortable booths originally designed to resemble Roman chariots, will be auctioned off to private companies in the entertainment industry.

The wooden stage -- the original structure from its Aug. 5, 1966, opening -- will be pried up, piece by piece, to make way for the construction of additional high-roller suites, which the hotel has already begun constructing around the showroom. (Hotel officials say they are undecided about whether to build a new showroom on the property.)

Some celebrities recently reminisced about their experiences performing on the historical stage and what the showroom has meant to them, as well as their careers.

Lawrence and Gorme were in the audience opening night of the Circus Maximus, and will close the room with a four-day engagement beginning tonight.

"It's a great piece of history that is moving on," Lawrence said of the room.

That balmy summer evening in 1966 Lawrence said the five-minute ride from the airport to the Strip was clogged by vehicles carrying a who's who of the entertainment world who had flown in to get a glimpse of the new Las Vegas hotel-casino -- and the showroom.

"It was a different time in Las Vegas when celebrities ran to openings like that," Lawrence said. "There was nothing like it at the time."

Tony Bennett, Cary Grant and Phyllis McGuire, among others, rubbed elbows in the 900-seat showroom, watching singer Andy Williams christen the stage with singer Elaine Dunn.

"The room was just jam-packed with celebrities," Lawrence said. "It was a very exciting evening."

When he sings his last notes on the famed stage, Lawrence said he will feel nostalgic for all that has transpired in the room.

"You always feel the presence of those that came before you, especially in a room like that," he said. "It's really going to be a mixed bag of emotions. I'm happy to be there, and in a strange way it's an honor to close that room. But it's sad to see it closing."

The showroom also featured some of the first Broadway productions to come to Las Vegas in the late '60s and early '70s. Tony Randall performed in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" on the stage for the first time, prompting his role in the hit television series, according to Caesars' publicity department.

McGuire, a local celebrity and one-third of the famous singing McGuire Sisters, headlined and opened for such big names as Milton Berle since the early days of the showroom.

"It is one of the great rooms in this city," McGuire said. "Every time I ever worked there I had a ball."

She does remember one somber engagement at the Circus Maximus when she quickly stepped in, along with Johnny Carson, to fill in dates for Sinatra when the blue-eyed crooner's mother died in a plane crash in 1977.

McGuire, who was close to Sinatra, flew to California for the funeral and returned to Caesars the same night to perform.

"It was a very moving thing," McGuire said. "I associate that moment with that room."

Jazz singer Nancy Wilson was shocked when she learned Circus Maximus would shut its doors forever. She performed there with Harry Belafonte in the late '60s and, more recently and regularly, enjoyed Natalie Cole from the audience.

"It was one of the most beautiful rooms to open," Wilson said. "When Circus Maximus opened nothing touched it, it was elegant and classy and the sound system was wonderful."

Singer Lou Rawls opened for Garland in 1967 to capacity crowds. While the actress and singer -- who was notoriously late -- readied for the spotlight, Rawls held the audience captive with his deep voice, sometimes belting out tunes until long after Garland was to begin her show.

"I had to wait for her to appear at the top of the steps before I could leave," Rawls said. "They never knew if she was going to make it on time so I had to just stay out there and (perform) until she walked through the door. She never came on stage, she would always come in through the entrance and walk through the audience."

The large sign in front of Caesars has featured the names of many headliners over the years, but one synonymous with the room in recent years is Julio Iglesias. The Latin singer played there for a final time earlier this month and said goodbye to the stage and its rich entertainment history.

"It's a magical room," Iglesias said. "I would like to have the wood from the stage because there are so many memories in that. So many (entertainers) performed there and it's there, the memory, in that beautiful wood."

Some well-known performers got their start filling the room between headliner gigs.

Magician David Cooperfield built a name for himself in the early '80s, filling gaps in the schedule left by more established acts.

"It was an amazing thing. All the legends -- Diana Ross, George Burns and Sinatra -- I'd be interspersed between and I was a 20-year-old kid headlining there, so it was a very heady experience," Copperfield said. "Of course, they are great memories."