Columnist Joe Delaney: Recapping thoughts on entertainment scene

Joe Delaney

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 10:03 a.m.

Joe Delaney's columns appear on Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at 259-4066 or joe@lasvegassun.com

As I was saying Thursday, the answer for Las Vegas is more entertainment -- good entertainment -- not less ... Kirk Kerkorian has always been pro-entertainment through the years ... When he took over the Flamingo in the early 1960s, as a training base for building the International (now the Las Vegas Hilton), there was continual entertainment in a showroom and an active lounge.

The International, with Bill Miller doubling as entertainment director for the Flamingo as well, had a huge showroom with a balcony that sat more than 2,000 ... There was a lounge that opened with Peggy Lee as the headliner and for a time featured three top acts, such as Kenny Rogers, Tony Orlando & Dawn and Redd Foxx, playing three or four weeks at a time.

As the Hilton, it was Elvis Presley's LV venue through the 1970s until his death at age 42 in 1977 ... Miller, now in his mid-90s, is retired and living in Palm Springs, Calif. ... The Kerkorian-Miller entertainment legacy continued at the Las Vegas Hilton and the Flamingo well into the 1980s.

Kerkorian's next project, the MGM Grand (now Bally's), opened in the early 1970s with two main showrooms, one for the first of a series of Donn Arden productions, and the other, a 1,400-seat star-policy room, plus an active lounge that played top names, as did the Hilton lounge.

The current MGM Grand has the large EFX Theatre, the star-policy Hollywood Theatre, the Cabaret Theatre (soon to be home for a Paris import, the original "Crazy Horse" revue), and the huge all-purpose MGM Grand Garden Arena ... We're sure the success of the Cirque du Soleil productions at Bellagio and Treasure Island, and the success of Siegfried & Roy and Danny Gans in separate custom-built luxury theaters, were major factors in Kerkorian's acquisition of Mirage Resorts.

On Monday the Mirage announced that Siegfried & Roy would continue through December 2004 and further if the duo so desire ... It is really a lifetime commitment with Siegfried & Roy's announcement that they will never perform anywhere but the Mirage for the remainder of their career. It should be noted that the duo first gained notice 25 years ago as a featured act in Arden's "Hallelujah, Hollywood" at Kerkorian's first MGM Grand.

Thursday we pointed out Park Place Entertainment's apparent negative attitude toward entertainment, with the possible exception of its Flamingo Las Vegas ... The Flamingo Las Vegas does offer an excellent variety of shows with "The Best of Bottoms Up," a winner in the afternoons; "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus," still not a hit but trying; Bill Acosta's "Lasting Impressions," hanging in; plus a lounge that will soon house the Second City comedy troupe.

We would like to see entertainment directors at each hotel, persons with knowledge, experience and a love of show business who are allowed to find talent, develop it and create relationships that result in an identification of artist or production with the hotel ... They would have to live within a budget and produce results.

But it would no longer be entertainment by committee ... We would like to see Las Vegas hotels return to seven-day weeks with full showrooms every show, but first they must reclaim control and take responsibility for operating their entertainment areas, eliminating middle men now existing at the Plaza, Venetian and several other hotels.

Another evil that we would like to see curbed is the ticket broker who can now command prices in the $15 to $20 range for pushing certain tickets over others ... Performers, producers and certain hotels are equally guilty in this respect ... This is very much akin to cab drivers commanding a fee from certain nightclubs for delivering passengers to their door ... See you next Thursday.