Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Joe Delaney: Free shows are still a boost to hotel business

Joe Delaney's column appears Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4066.

Producer Dick Feeney introduced a fresh concept in 1992 when he created "Viva Las Vegas," a revue-type format with three comedians, a woman singer and a line of female dancers for the Sands' Copa Room ... It was an afternoon show, at 2 and 4 p.m., and basically a slot promotion, with slot players given coupons good for the show with the purchase of one drink.

When the Sands closed its doors, Feeney moved "Viva Las Vegas" to the Stratosphere's Broadway showroom, again at 2 and 4 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays ... It is now not only available for the price of one drink but also for $13.55 plus tax, which includes the show, a Stratoblaster drink and choice of a free lunch buffet, or $6 toward the dinner buffet.

"Viva Las Vegas" averages between 5,500 and 6,000 in attendance per week, with at least half of those attending not staying at the Stratosphere in a return to the original philosophy, "fill those chairs with behinds."

There are others

Marty Allen and Karon Kate Blackwell are doing capacity, Fridays through Mondays, in the 438-seat Gold Coast showroom ... It's free, and one secures a ticket from the casino cage or the bell desk and buys one drink for approximately $5 ... Just as with the Stratosphere show, it draws a goodly number into the hotel for the show.

Producer-performer Robbie Howard has two shows at the Lady Luck in Casino Center: "Stars of the Strip," an impressionist revue with him and the Walkers, plus a live band in the afternoon; and comedy-magician Fielding West's "Hocus Pocus" at 8:30 p.m., Sundays through Thursdays, for a coupon from the casino cage and purchase of a $5.95 drink.

Both Howard and Allen and Blackwell have performed for similar slot machine promotions in the Westward Ho, which is currently doing this with Cornell Gunter's Coasters on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Even earlier

Back in the late 1940s this columnist attended a midnight show at the original El Rancho to see comedian Joe E. Lewis ... The waitress asked if I wanted a drink, a cup of coffee or a glass of water ... When I replied in the negative, she turned over my cocktail napkin to show she had called at my table and I saw the show for free; I went out into the casino and lost $500 and then ate my fill at the $1 Chuck Wagon.

More then and now

Las Vegas' growth, prior to the coming of the corporation in the mid-1960s, was predicated upon giving the customer the most and the best of everything for the lowest price; for free, if possible ... Showrooms were active seven nights a week, at 8 p.m. and midnight ... If the crowd had any casino potential present, the casino was willing to lose $5 per occupied seat per performance.

With Sinatra in his prime in the 1970s, Caesars Palace was prepared to lose $10 per occupied seat or $12,000 per performance -- that's $168,000 per week -- and still have a very profitable week overall.

It should be noted that the above methods and their results are what made Las Vegas so attractive to Howard Hughes in the 1960s and the investing institutions that followed ... Our hotels going to the corporate form at that time decreed each area must become a profit center.

What else is different

Today the hotel end controls, not the casino ... What worked so well back then couldn't possibly work today, but we could go back to seven days a week of entertainment ... If the people are willing to pay $75, $100 or more for an attraction, fine, but let's also have quality attractions for the price of a drink or two, in main showrooms and in lounges.

Giving the customer something for nothing didn't stunt the growth of the Bellagio, Mirage and Treasure Island with its lake and dancing waters, active volcano and battling pirate ships, respectively.

"Viva Las Vegas" at the Stratosphere, Allen and Blackwell (Gold Coast) and the shows at the Lady Luck are proof that this is a viable concept ... The chairs are there, put those behinds on them, and the results should make more hotels happy.

Star-policy rundown

It's Allen-Blackwell (Gold Coast); Clint Holmes (Harrah's); Tim Conway-Harvey Korman and Louise DuArt (LV Hilton); Bill Acosta (Luxor); Tim McGraw-Faith Hill (Mandalay Bay); Penn & Teller, plus Rita Rudner, and Tommy Tune starring in "EFX" (MGM Grand); Siegfried & Roy plus Danny Gans (Mirage); Lance Burton (Monte Carlo); Smothers Brothers (Orleans); David Cassidy-Sheena Easton (Rio); Wayne Newton plus Bob Anderson (Stardust); and Melinda, First Lady of Magic (Venetian).

See you Friday.

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