Friday, March 14, 2003 | 5:06 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION: March 16, 2003
The Mary Ka'aihue Trio may not ring a bell.
But what about the Mary Kaye Trio? It was the group that practically invented the lounge act (pre-dating Louis Prima's 1954 debut by four years), and the one that recorded "Kookie Lend Me Your Comb " in the early '60s when teen idol Eddie "Kookie" Byrnes was on the TV series "77 Sunset Strip."
Mary Kaye and her trio (which included Frank Ross and her brother Norman Kaye) broke up in 1966, but they are forever attached to the early days of Las Vegas, when lounges were considered to be almost as prestigious as showrooms.
The 79-year-old vocalist, who traces her lineage back to the royal family of Hawaii, is planning to revive her career in the town that has been her home for more than 50 years.
She has appeared at the Bootlegger Bistro and other Las Vegas venues in the past month.
Kaye (who is recovering from hip replacement surgery) recently discussed her life with the Las Vegas Sun, including how her trio, in 1950, turned Vegas into a 24-hour gambling and entertainment mecca at a time when the city shut down at midnight.
Las Vegas Sun: How did you come to be a Las Vegas lounge act?
Mary Kaye: We were brought to Las Vegas in 1950 by our manager Billy Burton to perform in the Last Frontier's Ramon Room, but the hotel had booked the room for six months with other acts. A lot of people were performing in there -- Joan Blondell had an act, Ronald Reagan had an act.
There was no such thing as lounges in those days.
They were trying to figure out what to do with us and I said it was real simple. Put a stage at the bar and have us perform from 1 until 6 in the morning.
Sun: How did that go over?
MK: We went on kind of a two-week tryout type of thing in the bar to see if it would work. The first week Frank Sinatra came in with his high roller friends, and they brought so much money to the tables that the Frontier decided to offer gambling 24 hours. Until then, all of the casinos closed at midnight.
That was pretty much the start of lounges, and of Las Vegas being a 24-hour town. They had to stay open 24 hours so we could perform from 1 in the morning to 6.
After the Frontier did it, it took about two days for all the other casinos to realize they could make money staying open 24 hours. It was the beginning of our success. Everybody followed us. Every casino had to have a lounge act and everybody wanted to play the lounges.
There were lots of famous names in town -- Cab Calloway, Artie Shaw -- however, they weren't entertaining groups. They were musical groups, and they didn't seem to draw the crowds like we did.
Sun: What was the impact on your career?
MK: Everyone started bidding for the Mary Kaye Trio. We played at the Frontier for about three years. The Sahara booked us for three or four years, and in between those engagements we would go to Harrah's up at Tahoe -- we played Reno and Tahoe a lot. That's were I met Ella Fitzgerald. She used to come see us all the time.
When we were in Tahoe or Reno, Louis Prima would be in the Casbar at the Sahara.
Sun: Who influenced your decision to become an entertainer?
MK: My father, Johnny Ka'aihue. He was a royal Hawaiian. He could sing and play the ukulele, and he was a swimmer. He was brought to Detroit in the early '20s to swim for the Detroit Athletic Club against Johnny Weissmuller for a world title. The Ford family were sponsors of the club and they invited my father to an event, where he met my mother. It was love at first sight.
My brother, Norman, was born in 1922. I was born in 1924.
When I was a little girl we lived in St. Louis, where my father owned the World Hawaiian School of Music. He used to do a lot of club dates with his partner. One day his partner got ill and couldn't go on and my father invited me to join him. My first professional engagement was at the Jefferson Hotel in St. Louis. I was 13 1/2. We were to play for two weeks and stayed for two years.
We became the Mary Ka'aihue Trio -- me, my father and my brother.
Sun: When did you become the Mary Kaye Trio?
MK: It was in the '40s at the Mayflower Hotel's Holiday Room in Atlantic City. My brother wasn't involved with the group then -- it was myself, Frank Ross and my future husband, Jules Pursley. When my future husband went into the service, my brother was just coming out and so he joined us.
Sun: Where is your brother now?
MK: He lives in Vegas, but he is in failing health.
Sun: The Mary Kaye Trio was so successful. When did you break up, and why?
MK: I never thought the trio would ever be broken up. But sometimes when you have two people arguing -- not just arguing, but fist fighting -- it's time to bow out. Frank and Norman fought over who was going to handle the business.
We closed at the Tropicana's Blue Room in 1966. All the biggest entertainers in town came to see us. Milton Berle. Jerry Lewis. Betty Hutton. Charlton Heston came to my dressing room after the performance and cried with me. I didn't want to see the act break up.
Sun: What did you do after the breakup?
MK: I did a solo act, but I didn't play Las Vegas again until 1973, when I performed at the Tropicana. I really packed them in.
Sun: What have you done since then?
MK: In 1978 I began painting porcelain dolls full time.
Sun: How did you get involved in that business?
MK: I took some lessons with a friend of mine in California. Then Sid Luft wanted me to do a porcelain Judy Garland doll for him.
Sun: What else are you involved in?
MK: For the past year I've been doing some humanitarian work, trying to raise funds to get a children's hospital built. And I'm hoping to record again. And I hope to do some live performances, when my hip recovers.
Sun: You had a dramatic impact on Las Vegas and what it is today. Any parting thoughts?
MK: It seems like everybody was satisfied with 24-hour gaming.
archive
