Columnist Joe Delaney: UNLV students get a look at area shows, venues

Joe Delaney

Thursday, March 21, 2002 | 8:33 a.m.

During the past four Thursdays, my University of Nevada, Las Vegas class in hotel entertainment and I have attended four shows: "Stars of the Strip" (Lady Luck); "Viva Las Vegas (Stratosphere); "The Best of Bottoms Up" (Flamingo Las Vegas); and "Splash" (Riviera) ... This evening we'll see Lance Burton's performance at Monte Carlo.

The first three are afternoon shows, reasonably priced less than $15, available for less than $6 with a coupon and purchase of one beverage ... The hotels are also in quite different locations -- Casino Center, not quite on the Strip, and one credited with creating the concept that became Las Vegas ... The Riviera, which opened in 1955, was Las Vegas' first high-rise hotel.

Monte Carlo is more recent, a theme hotel ... Magician Burton is midway through a long-term contract ... "Stars of the Strip" has been running for nearly a decade; "Viva Las Vegas" celebrates its 12th anniversary on April 15; "Bottoms Up" is nearing the 40-year mark since its Las Vegas debut; and "Splash" is in its second decade.

The class is required to report on the showroom, the show and all the other public areas in the hotel, tell whether each fits the theme of the hotel and if each (particularly the show and its showroom) does the marketing job for that hotel, plus make constructive suggestions ... Classes average 60 students, so it is split, with half of the students attending each performance that day.

This also means that this columnist has been seeing each of these shows twice a year for most of the past decade ... It should be noted that each, despite changes in personnel and the passage of time, has retained its high-quality standards, freshness, and continues to appeal to visitors and locals alike, and their ever-changing tastes.

UNLV and its William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration has always had outstanding support from Las Vegas hotels ... This is my 29th year teaching the three-credit course in hotel entertainment ... I hope to complete year 30 in the spring of 2003, but thought this would be a good time to thank all concerned on behalf of the students and myself.

Last Saturday UNLV formally dedicated the Arnold Shaw Popular Music Research Center, in the new Beam Music Center, adjacent to Judy Bayley Theatre ... Shaw was a published author, composer, teacher and musicologist who came here in the mid-1970s as an adjunct professor ... Our association began years before in New York City.

Shaw was a general professional manager for a major music publishing company and I was an executive with several record labels ... The Popular Music Research Center was his dream, to preserve the music, the musicians and the performers for students, researchers and the general public ... When Shaw died in the late 1980s, Bill Willard replaced him

Willard was a true Renaissance man; artist, activist, musician, sculptor and writer ... He was the dean and still the best of all of us who ever covered the entertainment scene in Las Vegas ... UNLV's Ken Hanlon has taken over since Willard's passing in 2000 ... Willard and I had a good time co-hosting interview sessions with performers in the Desert Inn lounge a few years back.

Those interviews were recorded and are part of the research center ... There are more than 500 interviews that will be available to be heard in the future, including conversations with Artie Shaw, Jerry Lewis, Debbie Reynolds, Ray Charles, B.B. King and Willie Nelson, to give you a brief cross-section ... Hanlon hopes to resume those public interviews in the future.

Hanlon produced and hosted the evening's entertainment, which included Stefan Karlson and the UNLV Jazz Ensemble performing and supporting Marlena Shaw, Johnny Pate and others ... One highlight was the UNLV Jazz Ensemble playing the original Bob Florence arrangement that earned the late Si Zentner and his orchestra a Grammy Award.

It was good to have both Ghita Shaw and Lucy Willard present for the dedication ... The Arnold Shaw Popular Music Research Center not only has the recorded interviews but thousands of albums, cassettes and CDs, original manuscripts, books and memorabilia ... In time, it will be a popular-music museum as well, a valuable continuing addition to UNLV.

Star-policy rundown

It's Gladys Knight (Flamingo Las Vegas); Tony Orlando, 8 p.m. and Amazing Johnathan, 10 p.m. (Golden Nugget); Mac King afternoons, Clint Holmes evenings (Harrah's); Huey Lewis & the News (LV Hilton); Blue Man Group (Luxor); David Copperfield, plus Rick Springfield starring in "EFX Alive" (MGM Grand); and Siegfried & Roy and Danny Gans in separate theaters (Mirage).

Plus Burton (Monte Carlo); Rita Rudner (New York-New York); Gordon Lighfoot (Orleans); Moody Blues (Paris Las Vegas); Ronn Lucas, afternoons, Scintas, evenings, plus Louie Anderson, Samba Theatre (Rio); Marlene Ricci (Riviera); Steve Wyrick (Sahara); Chicago (Stardust); Rick Thomas (Tropicana); and Melinda, First Lady of Magic, 7 p.m. and "Bravo" starring Charo, 9 p.m. (Venetian).

Highly recommended: Comedians Max Alexander and Jeff Wayne, headlining this week at Harrah's Improv and the Riviera Comedy Club, respectively ... See you Friday.