Style of Sacca

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 4:17 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Jan. 12, 2003

For the past 17 years Tony Sacca has hosted "Entertainment Las Vegas Style," a syndicated interview show seen in more than 180 markets by an estimated 36 million people.

Locally the show is on at various hours on KTNV Channel 13 (ABC), KVWB Channel 21 (WB, cable channel 12), KPVM Channel 41 (Pahrump) and KTUD cable channel 14.

Newcomers to Vegas may not know that Sacca was a singer before he turned to television -- he and his identical twin, Robert, began performing in a band in their native Philadelphia in 1962 at the age of 11 when they were paid $25 to play at a fraternity party.

Robert Sacca died of leukemia in 1999 and Tony put the performing side of his career on hold, until opening recently at Riviera's Le Bistro Theatre, where he entertains Mondays at 8:30 p.m.

During a recent interview, Sacca, crowned the Entertainment Ambassador of Las Vegas by Mayor Oscar Goodman, talked about his life.

Las Vegas Sun: What was it like being a twin?

Tony Sacca: When you're an identical twin, you're onstage from the word go. You're 1 year old and people are asking you to stand up, go back-to-back, smile. We were always in front of people, and we were always made a fuss over. My father was so proud. He was an Italian butcher ... I was happy slicing lunch meat in his shop, but he said he didn't want that for me. He wanted me to be something, so he encouraged me to pick up an instrument. I chose the guitar, my brother chose the drums.

Sun: How did your careers develop?

TS: When we were 12 years old in Philadelphia we were doing TV commercials and performing at benefits. We performed in the Philadelphia area until we turned 21 and then we had the opportunity to work in a group called "Bandstand '72" in Wildwood, N.J. In 1973 we became the Sacca Twins Revue and got booked at the 500 Club in Atlantic City, where Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis began. The first weekend we worked there, the place burned down. That big contract was up in smoke, so we went back to Wildwood and started touring the country, developing our roots as a show band.

We got a deal with the Sheraton, Hilton and Ramada hotel chain and then in '79 we got a monthlong contract at the El San Juan Hotel in Puerto Rico that turned into three years.

Sun: How did you end up in Las Vegas?

TS: Everywhere we went around the country people always told us we were a Las Vegas act. One day Siegfried, of Siegfried & Roy, came to the El San Juan and saw us and said, "You guys are fabulous. Why don't you come to Las Vegas?" We said OK. We arrived in Las Vegas in 1981.

Sun: What was it like?

TS: There were no show bands in lounges anymore, so my brother and I started doing sets. Show bands were out the window. We worked at the Desert Inn, the Hilton. In '83 we had an opportunity to work at the old MGM Grand for three weeks, and that turned into three years.

Sun: How did your television show develop?

TS: I couldn't work the lounges anymore. My brother and I had always been a show band. So we started a television show in 1986 called, "Live from Las Vegas." My brother and I each had a desk and the guests sat between us.

It was a rough start. I didn't know what I was doing. Everyone said we wouldn't last three months. I opened an advertising agency and started knocking on doors and selling ads for the show, and then I started creating TV commercials, writing jingles. My advertising agency and production company sprang from the necessity of keeping my TV show alive. September will be the 18th year we've been on the air.

Sun: When did your brother leave the show?

TS: He quit after about six months. He and his wife, Patty, began performing together.

Sun: Did being an identical twin ever bother you?

TS: Psychologically, I had to get some counseling. I was so distraught about not having an individual personality, a separate identity.

Sun: Was your brother's death a shock?

TS: Yeah. He wanted to get his nose fixed so he went to Philadelphia to have it done. They gave him a blood test and said they couldn't do the operation. His white blood cell count was 225,000. He had had leukemia for seven years. If they had caught it seven years earlier, things might have been different. They told him he had two-to-10 years to live.

My brother and I were arguing just before he was diagnosed with leukemia. The day before, he hung up on me. But when he found out he had leukemia and needed my bone marrow to live, he called me up and said, "Can you do this for me?" I said of course. But right after that they used my sister and not me. A year and a half later I did the bone marrow, but he died a week later.

Sun: How did his death affect you?

TS: It changed my outlook on life -- life is too short to be miserable. As far as my career, my brother is in the act with me now. I put Robert back in the act. My show is almost like a Clint Holmes show. Clint exposes his life as an interracial child, and I expose myself as someone who grew up as a twin in Philadelphia.

I show a tape of me and my twin brother at birth; I show our lives together in the Marine Crops and all the way through our career. Then, I sing some Sinatra songs and tell the audience that I lost my brother three years ago. People start crying.

My brother is living with me, and performing with me again.