Friday, April 9, 2004 | 8:32 a.m.
"Show business is like a rash," 80-something Sonny King said. "You can't ever get rid of it."
Sonny shines in the spotlight. It takes years off his life.
Last Friday night he may have been the youngest he has been in a long time as a full house of fans came to the Bootlegger to help the entertainer celebrate his birthday and to observe the third anniversary of the restaurant at its new location, 7700 Las Vegas Blvd. South.
The Bootlegger opened at the intersection of Eastern and Tropicana avenues in 1973.
"It was way out in the middle of nowhere," recalled Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, who bought the property when she was a 19-year-old lounge singer. "The restaurant was the beginning of me getting out of show business and into business business."
The first restaurant didn't have an entertainment venue. Hunt decided to correct that oversight at the new location, which opened in 2001.
"This one was built for entertaining," Hunt said. "At night, we turn it into a mini-nightclub.
"This town has been good to me, and I wanted to provide a showcase, a venue for some of the older acts who were the mainstays of Las Vegas entertainment. They were the real pioneers who started the Las Vegas entertainment scene."
The entertainment lounge has been successful beyond her dreams. Not only does it attract the older performers, but many younger ones as well. There is entertainment virtually every night of the week -- from celebrity karaoke with Kelly Clinton on Mondays to "Off the Cuff," featuring King and friends on Fridays and Saturdays.
"Performers of all ages have gravitated to here," Hunt said. "The young entertainers come in and showcase their talents and then move on to bigger things."
Although Hunt and King have been friends for years, it was Dana Strum, of the rock group Slaughter, who suggested that King host the show.
Strum and Ron Mancuso, Hunt's son, are partners in a recording company, Manstrum Productions.
"Sonny and I had been friends way back," Hunt said. "My dad, Al Perry, who just turned 90, tended bar at the Sahara when Don Rickles, Louis Prima and Sonny performed there. He knew Sonny, and I knew Sonny. I was in awe of him. He was always around the Rat Pack and all the other big guys."
She said when she saw King at an old-timers gathering at the Sahara three months before her new restaurant opened, she mentioned the meeting to Strum.
"Dana was enamored with Sonny and the old vintage Vegas stuff. So when I told Dana I had seen Sonny, he suggested him for 'Off the Cuff.' "
And Sonny has been shining ever since.
His birthday party was one for the entertainment books, wall-to-wall entertainers doing what they do best.
It was a night of singing, dancing, clowning and reminiscing.
Babe Pier and Rich Little, two of the world's greatest impressionists, under the same roof.
Peter Anthony, a genius comic and musician, keeping the audience in stitches.
Jimmy Hopper, one of the finest vocalists in the country, singing his heart out.
Entertainer Artie Shreck performing a brilliant Jimmy Durante impression and doing an impromptu duet with King, who opened for Durante for 25 years.
Frankie Scinta, Buddy Greco and his wife, Lezlie Anders, Freddie Bell, Clint Holmes and his music director, Bill Fayne, Frankie Randall, Steve Rossi, Dennis Bono and a dozen or more entertainers performed until the early hours of the morning -- feting King and the Bootlegger.
"It seems like only five minutes ago I was celebrating my last birthday," King quipped.
King deeply appreciated the party.
"I enjoyed it, seeing all my friends turn out for it as they did," he said. "But it was bittersweet. There were a lot of people who aren't around anymore who I would love to have attended."
But as long as Sonny is in the spotlight, the spirit of those performers who have passed on will continue to live through him.
Lounging around
Vegas expatriate Gary Anthony, a popular lounge entertainer here for 10 years, was in town last week for a brief visit from Myrtle Beach, S.C. Anthony is the producer and star of a Rat Pack tribute show that premiered at the Palace Hotel in Myrtle Beach on March 20. Before opening at the South Carolina resort, Anthony and his cast (Bill Whitton as Dean Martin and Allen Gregory as Sammy Davis Jr.) spent three weeks performing in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Sweet Louie and Sonny Charles and the Checkmates perform at Arizona Charlie's East 9 p.m. through April 14.
KIXX lounge at Boulder Station features Sarah Thiele from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays.
Vocalist and keyboardist Bobby Dickerson has been entertaining fans of all ages at the JW Marriott, 221 N. Rampart Blvd., for more than two years. He does a variety of music, from standards to jazz. Showtimes at the Round Bar are 8:30 p.m.. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
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