Columnist Jerry Fink: Bootlegger is always in a swingin’ mood with Hunts

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

Jerry Fink's lounge column appears on Fridays. Reach him at jerry@lasvegassun.com at (702) 259-4058.

It's never dull in the lounge of the Bootlegger Bistro when some of the town's top entertainers meet late at night to cut up and wind down.

"That's Amore": Dean Martin impressionist Rick Michel, cast member of "The Rat Pack is Back" at the Sahara, snuggled with his girlfriend Gina Carlson last Friday.

Asked to step up to the mike and sing a few songs, Michel obliged and brought Gina with him for a duet of Frank Sinatra's "All the Way."

At the conclusion of the song, Michel did a perfect impression of a man in love.

"Gina, will you marry me?" he asked.

Her eyes grew big (like a big pizza pie) when he took out a ring to show he wasn't just fooling around.

Legendary entertainers Blackie Hunt and Sonny King, co-hosts of the zany improv show each Friday and Saturday, were caught up in the romance of the moment. Sonny took Blackie in his arms and proposed.

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, Blackie's wife of 34 years (and co-owner of the Bootlegger on Las Vegas Boulevard South), did not appear threatened.

"Danny Boy": A longtime supporter of republican Hunt pulled out a wad of bills large enough to choke a giraffe and said he would donate $1,000 to her upcoming re-election campaign if Grant Griffin would sing "Danny Boy."

Griffin, blessed with a lyric baritone voice (which can be heard in a concert for the Southern Nevada Opera Co. March 6 at The Orleans), did the politically correct thing and gave a heart-warming rendition of the song.

The political favor was more difficult than one might expect. "Danny Boy" was one of the favorite songs of Griffin's mother, Cecil Griffin, who died last year at age 94. He had not been able to sing it since her passing -- until Friday night at the Bootlegger.

Olios: A steady stream of entertainers sang and clowned into the early hours. Bobby Brooks, a vocalist who moved to Las Vegas a month ago, got his feet wet, a radio DJ from Chicago tried her hand at the mike, Tommy Dearing worked his magic on the piano (he's been the Bootlegger's house pianist for the past six months).

I felt like saluting one performer -- Irish singer Rose Marie had white skin, red hair and sang the blues.

Comedian Cork Proctor, former entertainment manager for Coast Resorts, brandished his sarcastic brand of humor and insulted a number of members of the audience, to the delight of everyone.

Proctor quit his job with Coast Resorts a couple of years ago to join the Peace Corps and work with poor people in Surinam in South America. In a few years I expect to see a new generation of sharp-tongued comics immigrating to the United States from the jungles of Surinam.

Vocalist Dennis Bono was in his usual fine form. Bono tapes an hour-long variety show at 3 p.m. Thursdays at Sunset Station's Club Madrid. The program airs at 7 p.m. Fridays on KJUL 104.3-FM.

If he teamed with Sonny King they would be known as Sonny and Bono.

Sonny and Blackie, who seem to have found the secret to eternal youth, kept the show rolling with their musicianship and off-the-wall antics.

The pair have been close friends since they arrived in Las Vegas in 1955, in the heyday of the lounge scene. Sonny worked with Jimmy Durante for years. Blackie was part of the popular act The Characters.

Blackie was a character when he met Lorraine more than 35 years ago. He still is, which is one of the things she loves about him. When they first fell in love he was performing at the International (now the Las Vegas Hilton) and she was performing across the street at the Landmark (now gone).

Politics, and a successful business career, have not dulled the lieutenant governor's musical talent. She performs at her restaurant most Friday and Saturday nights.

Bono summed up his feelings about Hunt: "There's no other lieutenant governor in the country that sings her (symbol of the Democratic party) off like Lorraine Hunt."

Since singers often take requests, I asked Hunt to tell me what accomplishment she is most proud of as the state's second in command.

She sang the praises of the Nevada Film Office, which has brought more than $300 million to the state since her election.

Hunt also noted that the agency's 14th annual screen writing competition recently ended. Scripts have to be stories that take place in Nevada. The winner was Mark Foster, a resident of Rosemount, Minn., who penned "Cape Nevada."

Too bad the competition is over. I wanted to submit a script about this pretty young lounge singer who became a successful businesswoman, entered politics, became a lieutenant governor but continued to sing on weekends with a man she still adored after 34 years of marriage.

But who would believe it?

Lounging around

Raj Rathor, one of Las Vegas' best jazz guitarists, performs solo beginning at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Jazzed Cafe on West Sahara Avenue. On Friday and Saturday nights he and bassist Justin Vogel can be heard at the OXO restaurant in the J.W. Marriott (formerly the Regent Las Vegas).