Columnist Joe Delaney: Recalling the Strip’s storied past from end to end

Joe Delaney

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 | 8:23 a.m.

Our continuing Thursday series of analyses and commentaries on various LV hotels resumes with the Sahara, which began its existence as Club Bingo ... In the 1950s the property took the lounge era, begun by the Mary Kaye Trio at the original Frontier, to its highest point with Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Sam Butera and the Witnesses ... The Sahara Casbar became as important as the main showroom, the Congo Room.

Prima and Co. moved on to main showrooms elsewhere and the Casbar became the lair of comedic predator Don Rickles, who shortly after his debut moved into the much larger Congo Room ... Rickles is in his 42nd year as a main-showroom headliner, a record for a comedian ... He continues hot, spelling Wayne Newton at the Stardust when Newton is away.

The Sahara's entertainment policy was always innovative ... It was the first Strip hotel to have family-style acts such as Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Dean, Tennessee Ernie Ford, George Gobel and Jim Nabors at 8 p.m., and comedians such as Buddy Hackett, George Carlin and Flip Wilson doing midnight shows ... Today the Sahara appeals to a younger, NASCAR-fan clientele.

Bill Bennett, owner of the Sahara, is one of the catalysts behind the growth of Circus Circus into the conglomerate that is Mandalay Resorts. He created a new showroom for magician Steve Wyrick, still striving to be a success, and revised another area in the hotel for "The Rat Pack Is Back," a success from the start ... This Sahara is completely different from its predecessor.

The Tropicana, once called the "Tiffany of the Strip," home of the "Folies Bergere," now in its fifth decade, was noted for its Blue Room, a smaller showroom, in the 1960s ... The Blue Room lineup included Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Erroll Garner, Benny Goodman and Ramsey Lewis, among others, the quintessential jazz nightclub under the aegis of Maynard Sloate.

Sloate doubled as the producer of several editions of the "Folies Bergere" before producing Broadway musicals for nearly a decade at Union Plaza ... The Tropicana was also famous for its restaurants ... As part of the Ramada chain, now Aztar, it lost a good deal of its luster while the Atlantic City Tropicana prospered with a different market and clientele.

Recently there was an announcement by Aztar that the Tropicana is once again in a profit mode and there are plans to raze the present structure and construct two hotels on the acreage, to better enable it to compete on an equal footing with its neighbors across the Strip and just to the south ... One would assume that the Tropicana name would be retained.

The Venetian is one of the more recent theme hotels, a success with plans to possibly double its present size with a second structure ... From an entertainment standpoint, there is a nightclub (C2K) that can be converted into a showroom of sorts afternoons and evenings ... There is a dead area in the showroom setup that cuts its capacity by one-third.

The nightclub is under separate management, which entitles the operators to charge show entrepreneurs a rental in addition to having to assume all of the expenses of the show itself, an onerous burden ... The recent Robert Goulet experience was an example of this type of operation at its worst.

Entertainment is intended as an attraction for hotel patrons as well as those staying at other hotels ... To make the entertainment pay an additional rental fee to put 600-900 people into your showroom seats is unconscionable ... The blame for this must also be shared by those entrepreneurs who are willing to pay excessive sum in hopes of landing a legitimate deal elsewhere.

The San Remo, next to the Tropicana, has "Showgirls of Magic," a strong draw for the hotel's Asian guests ... It also gets the overflow when the town is full ... Bourbon Street, at Flamingo and the Strip, has a tiny showroom with perimeter performers and occasional overflow.

Greek Isles, on Convention Center Drive, features comedy-hypnotist Dr. Naughty, who just moved over from Bourbon Street, plus two shows slated for March debuts ... Formerly the Debbie Reynolds Hotel, it is still a long-shot entry ... Next Thursday we will cover the Stratosphere and other Carl Icahn properties; Station Casinos; and other Casino Center properties.

Star-policy rundown

It's Gladys Knight (Flamingo Las Vegas); Tony Orlando, 8 p.m., Amazing Johnathan, 10 p.m. (Golden Nugget); Mac King afternoons, Clint Holmes evenings (Harrah's); Righteous Brothers, 8 p.m., Paul Rodriguez, 10:30, plus Sheena Easton in the NightClub (LV Hilton); Blue Man Group (Luxor); and Tom Jones, plus Rick Springfield starring in "EFX Alive" (MGM Grand).

Plus Siegfried & Roy and Danny Gans, in seperate theaters (Mirage); Rita Rudner (New York-New York); Dionne Warwick (Orleans); Ronn Lucas afternoons, Scintas evenings, plus Penn & Teller in another theater (Rio); Marlene Ricci (Riviera); Wyrick (Sahara); Newton (Stardust); Rick Thomas (Tropicana); and Melinda, First Lady of Magic, 7 p.m., and "Bravo," starring Charo, 9 p.m. (Venetian) ... See you Friday.