Another link to old LV lost

Friday, April 12, 2002 | 2:25 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Last month longtime Las Vegas singer and voice teacher Jeanne Shelden Costa placed a red rose on the grave of her husband, Tony Costa, an orchestra conductor in Las Vegas, Broadway and Hollywood.

It would have been the 82nd birthday of Costa, who died four years ago this month. Although Jeanne Costa knows his spirit will forever be with her, she realized there would be fewer graveside moments like this in the coming years.

After nearly 40 years in Las Vegas performing on Strip and community theater stages and teaching more than 3,000 students the fundamentals of singing, Costa will move to San Luis Obispo, Calif., in early May to be closer to her family.

She will take with her wonderful memories of her local friends, students, late husband and her career. But Jeanne readily admits the Las Vegas she is leaving is not the same Las Vegas where she and Tony made an indelible mark.

"They blew up the Dunes, they blew up the Desert Inn, they blew up the original Aladdin -- nearly all of the places where Tony and I performed, except the Riviera and Tropicana, are gone," Costa said, sitting at the 1928 Steinway piano in her living room where she and Tony long practiced and wrote songs.

"I miss the old Las Vegas, where we were all one big family. There is no magic of dressing elegantly and going out anymore. And I don't see the same personal touch that once was the trademark of the town."

Still, Costa's eyes glisten when she talks about leaving a community where she and Tony co-founded the Symphonic Association of Las Vegas, where in 1977 Tony was the first conductor of the 72-piece Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Costas were just as comfortable in community theater, appearing in a Spring Mountain Summer Theatre production of "42nd Street," as they were rubbing elbows with the Rat Pack and many other stars on the Strip.

Costa also speaks of how difficult it is for her to leave her church, Guardian Angel Cathedral, where she and Tony were soloists.

"People would tell us they would stay for another Mass if we would be singing again, and I'd have to tell them it wasn't a dinner show," she said with a hearty laugh. For the past 10 years, Costa has been rosary teacher at St. Viator Catholic Church.

"There comes a time in most people's lives when they have to say goodbye to one phase and start another -- and for me that time is now. But I will continue teaching. I'm not retiring."

Costa jealously guards her age but admits she is a mother of four, grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother of three.

It has been a long road for the diminutive, bubbly blonde from Lakewood, Ohio, who initially quit school at age 16 to tour with an orchestra until her mother found her, dragged her home and made her finish high school.

After that, there was no stopping Jeanne. She formed the Jeanne Shelden Trio in her early 20s and met her future husband in 1963 in Covina, Calif., when they both played the Dinnerhorn restaurant and nightclub.

Tony Costa, who was the conductor on Broadway for "Gypsy" and "Carousel," had just completed three years as musical director on ABC's "Surfside Six." He had taken the lounge gig for fun. Costa and Shelden performed a duet, fell in love and, two weeks later, he asked her to marry him.

A year later the couple came to Las Vegas, where he eventually would lead the orchestra at the original MGM Grand and later when it became Bally's. He was the conductor for "Hallelujah Hollywood" and "Jubilee."

Together, they penned the song "I'll Find You a Rainbow," which appears on Vic Damone's "A Damone Type of Thing" album. Jeanne Costa opened for Damone and Shecky Greene at the Riviera.

She also opened the Aladdin lounge and later performed in "Pzazz" at the Desert Inn, replacing the three lead performers at various times.

"I didn't know how to dance professionally when I tried out for the part, so I told company manager Fluff LeCoque I had the flu and went home," Costa said. "I took dancing lessons and returned a week later and got the job."

LeCoque, a veteran Las Vegas dancer of the early 1960s who today is company manager for "Jubilee," said Costa had "a lot of natural ability and worked hard. I haven't worked with her in years, but I'll still miss her.

"I agree with her that the Las Vegas of yesterday has left us, but times change and you have to change with them. You'll always have your memories, but you can't return to or live in the past. And you can't stop progress."

Between the 1968 and 1970 editions of "Pzazz," Jeanne was a featured singer in the Tropicana's "Folies Bergere," produced by Maynard Sloate.

"She is a very talented lady and a well-schooled singer," Sloate said, saying he too misses the Las Vegas of old and understands why Jeanne and people such as her leave Las Vegas.

"With Jeanne and Tony you had a couple that worked so closely with one another and, when he died, she lost not only half of her team but half of herself," Sloate said. "That could have as much of an impact or more on any person's decision to move on as what is happening to the Strip."

In 1972 Costa ended her Las Vegas Strip stage career and became a voice teacher.

Her students have included female impersonator Frank Marino, 14-year-old Jenny Yellowbird, who is set to sign a recording deal, and Christy Tice, who starred opposite Robert Goulet in "South Pacific" at the Nevada Opera Theatre.

"I would say that, between Jeanne and Tony, their teaching was responsible for 70 percent of my success," said Tice, whose mother, Sunny Tice, was a California lounge singer trained by Jeanne Costa.

"Jeanne made me feel comfortable, and that allowed me to feel myself grow as a singer. And she has such great technique."

In California Costa intends to spend lots of time with her 3-year-old granddaughter Katie, and maybe mold a future Las Vegas performer.

"She already is singing and learning routines," Costa said. "Katie represents to me the 'new' -- the future. I need that now at a time when I often read the obituaries and see the names of longtime friends or when I watch the old Strip hotels disappear.

"But I really can't complain. My whole life has been a storybook. I just look forward to the next chapter."