Columnist Joe Delaney: Reno entertainment scene going strong

Joe Delaney

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 8:19 a.m.

Weekend in Reno: Caught a Southwest Airlines flight on Friday morning ... Was at McCarran International Airport two hours early and made it to the gate nicely ... Arrived in Reno at noon -- five minutes early -- proceeded to Harrah's, had an hour's wait until my room would be ready .... Spent it in the race and sports book -- two losing bets later I checked in.

My first awareness of Reno was in the late 1940s, driving around the United States first for Decca Records, now MCA, and a few years later setting up distributors for its wholly owned subsidiary, Coral Records.

Driving around the country, two ads stood out: The sometimes comic four-line poems for Burma Shave, and signs stating "Harolds Club or Bust," telling one how many miles to Reno it was from that spot on the road ... The city's slogan, adapted in the late 1920s, is "The Biggest Little City in the World," proudly proclaimed on Virginia Street's famed Reno Arch, rebuilt in 1987.

During the 1980s and 1990s, as a Catholic Community Services State Board member, I had occasion to visit Reno and Lake Tahoe, a nicely warm, laid-back respite from the unprecedented growth and the corporate coldness that came with it in Las Vegas ... Reno and Lake Tahoe have both become corporate, but with an absence of the insensitivity in the form of layoffs demonstrated at home these past two weeks.

The Mapes was Nevada's first casino resort, opened in 1947. Both Harolds Club and the Mapes are no more ... There is the Raymond I. Smith Truckee River Walk named for the founder of Harolds Club ... Sienna Hotel, a high-end approach that has had a lukewarm reception thus far ... Reno has never been in a hurry to respond to change.

Another memory: The late Bill Harrah's respect for and treatment of performers created a relationship that still endures ... In the the 1970s and 1980s, as new hotels were being built, Harrah's roster of artists that included Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Bill Cosby, among others, turned down offers for as as much as $25,000 a week more to stay with Harrah's.

Cosby and Don Rickles were both performing at Harrah's Tahoe this past weekend, celebrating the merger of Harrah's and Harvey's Lake Tahoe resorts ... UNLV's hotel college is the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

After checking in and another losing college football bet, we had a good session with Kristen Sanders, director of marketing and research for the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce ... Friday we had dinner with Aisling (pronounced Ash-ling) Bowyer, daughter of the Irish Show Band leader Brendan Bowyer, now enjoying a solo career renaissance overseas.

We were joined in the Harrah's Reno Steak House by Mark Scholl, conductor for impressionist/comedian Gordie Brown, and Scholl's wife, Robin ... It was nice to visit with Maitre'd Michael Kerivan, formerly of Las Vegas ... Scholl, a brilliant musician and arranger, toured with Barry Manilow for better than a decade.

Brown, inspired by the success of fellow Canadian Rich Little, had driven to Las Vegas from Ottawa looking for a job here ... The year was 1989, he auditioned and made a guest appearance with Melinda, First Lady of Magic, at the Landmark, now a parking lot across from the LV Convention Center.

Working with David Saxe, Melinda's brother and now her producer as well as the producer of "Showgirls of Magic" at San Remo, Brown developed an act and stayed with Melinda for two years ... Later he worked here as an opening act ... The current buzz was that he was hot in Reno, selling out Harrah's Sammy's Showroom, named for the late Davis Jr., every show.

We caught Brown's 7:30 p.m. performance, a Dick Foster presentation, and the Foster production of "Whisper" that followed at 10 p.m. ... Comparisons with Danny Gans come quickly, but serve little purpose ... Brown and Gans are two different multitalented performers ... Brown's comedy is stronger, a little edgier; his impressions and physical moves are also first-rate, but their approach differs.

Could Brown make it in Las Vegas? ... If Vegas can support Siegfried & Roy, Lance Burton, David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, Steve Wyrick, et al., why not? ... Gans is securely ensconced ... I'm sure there could be room for both ... With proper support, Bill Acosta should have survived ... We'll pick up at this point in Friday's column.

Star-policy rundown

It's David Brenner, 8 p.m., and Amazing Johnathan, 10 p.m. (Golden Nugget); Margaret Cho, Friday only (Hard Rock); Mac King, afternoons, Clint Holmes, evenings (Harrah's); Tom Conway-Harvey Korman, plus Society of Seven (LV Hilton); Blue Man Group (Luxor); George Carlin, Rick Springfield starring in "EFX Alive," and Janet Jackson, Friday and Saturday (MGM Grand).

Plus Burton (Monte Carlo); Neil Sedaka (Orleans); Rita Rudner (New York-New York); Ronn Lucas, afternoons, the Scintas, evenings (Rio); Wayne Newton (Stardust); Rick Thomas (Tropicana); and Melinda (Venetian) ... See you Friday.