Friday, April 23, 2004 | 8:23 a.m.
Lawrence and Gorme had met and fallen in love three or four years earlier, when they were regulars on the original "Tonight Show," starring Steve Allen.
Today, nearly 50 years later, two of the entertainment world's most respected performers are still together, onstage and off, a class act that will never go out of style.
Although the legendary couple have lived in Las Vegas for decades, at the Las Vegas Country Club Estates, they have not had a concert here since September of 2000, when they were the last act to appear at Caesars Palace's Circus Maximus.
During a recent interview at the Country Club's clubhouse with the royal couple of show business, Lawrence joked that they barely missed the wrecking ball when their final show ended.
Lawrence and Gorme say that since their last engagement in Las Vegas, they have been unable to reach an agreement with any local venue to provide a location for their concert, which includes a full orchestra.
Until now. "One More for the Road" will be at the Stardust from Thursday to May 1. "The Stardust is about the only place we haven't performed," Lawrence said. It is the end of the road for their 2003-'04 concert tour.
Next week's engagement will be a rare opportunity to see, on a local stage, two consummate vocalists who have survived a siege upon musical tastes by rap, heavy metal and other upstarts in the music world.
"I don't think anybody knows why there is not as much appreciation for fine music today," Lawrence said. "Change is the only thing we can count on, and sometimes it's not for the better.
"The lowest common denominator is sinking even lower," Gorme said.
"And not only in music," Lawrence said. "The bar has been lowered in almost every area you look look at, such as motion pictures. I don't like them as well as I did when people had to write screenplays with dialogue, not with fancy tricks with computers."
After so many years together as man and wife and as Steve & Eydie, when the couple carry on a conversation, they are so in tune with each other that at times they complete each others' sentences or speak for each other.
"The writers of yesteryear, with literature, music and screenplays, they were a little more intellectual and gifted," Lawrence said. "It's a God-given talent they have ..."
"It's a different world we are living in today," Gorme said. "I don't totally understand it."
What she and Lawrence do understand is good music and showmanship.
"Cher is smart," Gorme said.
"Cher is one of the brightest women around," Lawrence said. "She's a great artist who is very theatrical."
"Very theatrical," Gorme agreed.
They also agreed on who is one of the world's greatest living vocalists -- Vic Damone, who retired four years ago after suffering a stroke, from which he has fully recovered.
"We talk to him fairly regularly," Lawrence said.
"Vic's voice is primo," Gorme said.
"His voice box is one of the top one or two in the world," Lawrence said.
Steve & Eydie aren't too shabby, either.
"We feel good about ourselves," Gorme said.
They were also big fans of Karen Carpenter, who died in 1983 of heart failure brought about by anorexia.
"Karen was one of the greatest singers in the world," Gorme said. "She sang low notes that resonated."
"She was splendid to listen to," Lawrence said. "She was also a musician who had a good knowledge of meter. And her voice box, it was gifted, like in Vic's case.
"Some singers out there, for whatever reason, have a God-given connection between the voice box, the lung output and the resonance."
Among those singers was Frank Sinatra, a close friend of the couple. Once in the early '60s Lawrence and Gorme had a two-week engagement at the Sands but Lawrence couldn't go on because of laryngitis.
Gorme recalled that, out of the blue, Old Blue Eyes appeared at her dressing room door and said, " 'I hear the kid's sick.' "
Sinatra filled in for Lawrence during the second show for two weeks.
Also, before Sinatra died he gave Lawrence some orchestrations of several pieces of his music.
Lawrence's most recent album, "Steve Lawrence Sings Sinatra," is available through the couple's Web site, steveandeydie.com.
The recording was produced by David Lawrence, Steve and Eydie's son.
Although Lawrence and Gorme are frustrated with some of the changes in the entertainment world, they continue to work a heavy schedule.
They have their individual careers, cutting records and doing live performances, as well as their career as one of the most recognizable duos in the music world.
"We're on the road doing concerts about six months out of the year," Lawrence said.
"We're a Jurassic rock act," Gorme joked. "One-nighters, one-nighters, one-nighters."
"Physically, traveling is a pain," Lawrence said.
"But we love the shows, we love the stage, we love the people," Gorme said.
It's the love of the people that motivates them to keep going.
"After this concert tour, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it anymore," Gorme said.
"But the demand was there," Lawrence said. "There is an audience for our kind of music. They come out to see you and you forget all about your troubles."
"It's just Steve, me, the music and the band -- that's it," Gorme said. "That's it."
And for lovers of great music, that's enough.
