Sands of time sweet for 101-year-old

Heather Rawlyk

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 8:28 a.m.

At 101 years old, Leroy Lewis can still remember the feeling of fresh dough squishing between his fingers and the procedure for making delicate sugar-flowers for his prize-winning cakes.

With friends by his side, he sits behind a 5-inch thick red scrapbook and delicately leafs through pages of black and white glossy photographs, recounting his years spent as a pastry chef at the Sands hotel.

His list of former clientele is impressive and his cakes were confectionary masterpieces. Each cake he baked holds a different story, and with the photographs as his guide, Lewis can almost remember them all.

A three-tiered wedding cake for Sammy Davis Jr. A birthday cake for Frank Sinatra. Lewis even concocted a cake for Dean Martin in the shape of a Jim Beam bottle.

"That was everybody's favorite," Lewis said. "That one was made special."

The cake was anything but ordinary, Lewis explained.

"I got a giant bottle of Jim Beam and baked the cake around it," he said. "I left an opening at the top and filled the bottle back up when it was done. I built a stand that tipped and put the cake right on it."

Lewis lined a row of glasses in front of the cake and took stage to give the crowd a big surprise, he said.

"Everyone thought it was just a cake shaped like a bottle," he said. "Then, in front of 800 people there, I tipped and poured alcohol right out of the cake into the glasses. No one could believe it.

"I got a standing ovation that night," he said.

Lewis also made anniversary cakes for the Sands, each with a different theme and display of the year in celebration.

On the Sands' eleventh anniversary, Lewis made a cake in the shape of two giant dice.

"The left dice had six spots and the right dice had five," he said. "I thought it was a creative way to show the number 11."

Lewis made 16 anniversary cakes for the Sands from 1952 to 1968, he said.

"Every year was different and every cake was, too," he said. "People knew my cakes and looked forward to seeing what I baked that year. They took some time to bake, but I had a nice kitchen to do it in and it was always a pleasure to do."

Lewis' kitchen was built especially for him when he arrived at the Sands in 1952, he said.

"They built it just the way I wanted it," he said. "It cost $600,000. That was a lot of money for a kitchen in 1952, and it was for me. I was just a pastry chef. I never expected to have anything like that."

Lewis also never expected to befriend multimillionaires and A-list celebrities, he said.

"I would make a nice cake for them, and if they wanted to be my friend, I said OK," he said. "All of the movie stars were very nice to me. They would come up and shake my hand and tell me they liked my cakes.

"It was very exciting," he added. "When I saw them on the screen years ago, I didn't think I'd ever meet them or be on stage with them. I never thought I'd know movie stars and multimillionaires."

One of those millionaires was Kmart Corp.'s S.S. Kresge, whom Lewis met in 1955 and befriended, he said. Another well-known to take a liking to Lewis, was Dean Martin.

Lewis said he'll never forget the time Martin invited him to his Hollywood home to watch the first television show ever to be aired.

"I thought it was quite an honor," Lewis said. "He treated me as a friend and his guest."

Lewis continued to flip through the scrapbook, identifying elaborate cakes from his younger years spent on the East Coast.

At just 26-years-old, Lewis was the youngest American pastry chef to ever win first prize for a showcase held in New York City. By that time, Lewis' reputation had grown and he was making cakes for the White House, he said.

Lewis jumps to the back of the scrapbook to reveal pages of birthday cards from President Ronald Reagan. Lewis even has a personal invitation from the Reagans to visit the White House.

"What an amazing life he (Lewis) has lived," said his friend, Lexie Keigwin. "He has seen the Sands go up and the Sands go down. He has seen Las Vegas grow. He has really seen it all."

Lewis said he can't believe how much Las Vegas has grown since he arrived here more than 50 years ago.

"When I got here, the tallest building was only three stories tall," he said.

Lewis, who now resides in a Las Vegas retirement home, still catches a glimpse of the Strip from time to time, as friends take him for rides down Interstate 15 to see the lights.

"He still gets out and he loves those nickel slots," Keigwin said. "He's very alert and very spry. I can only hope I'm half that spry at age 70 one day, let alone at 101."

Lewis said his secret to life is exercising twice a day and singing songs from memory.

"I have lived a good life and met many nice people," Lewis said. "The most important thing to me is that nice people think well of me, and I think they do.

"I never thought I would get to do so many things and make so many friends, just being a pastry chef, but somehow I did," he said.