Small Steps: Pahrump is growing faster than its entertainment scene

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 8:26 a.m.

PAHRUMP Men and women wearing blue jeans, colorful western shirts and cowboy hats line danced and two-stepped to the music of Chuck Jeffries and the High Desert Country Band.

It was 9 on a Friday night at the Stagestop, a dark, low-slung building on the northern edge of town that started out a dozen years ago as a steak house, then added a bar and dance floor and a few slot machines and called itself a casino.

Gordon Shreve, owner of Gordon's Grill, served up a thick steak and giant Idaho potato and then stepped behind the bar to help pour drinks for the growing crowd of boot scooters eager to get out on the concrete floor.

It was like a scene out of the 1980 movie "Urban Cowboy," except there wasn't a John Travolta or Debra Winger look-alike in sight.

The Stagestop, easy to miss on a dark night if you don't know where you're going, is the hot spot in Pahrump on weekends.

There are other bars and saloons in town, some with karaoke and jukeboxes (such as the rock-'n'-roll-oriented Cotton Pickin' Saloon), but if you want to mix it up on the dance floor, this is where most folks go.

Claude Caraway comes to the Stagestop on weekends, even though he owns a club, Our Bar.

"I'm here because of the country music," said Caraway, who is retired from the Department of the Interior.

Saddle West is the other major source of entertainment in this Nye County community 65 miles north of Las Vegas. Its former owners came to Pahrump in '69 with the intention of starting a frog farm in hopes of selling frog legs to Vegas restaurants.

Surprisingly, this town of more than 30,000 (and growing by leaps and bounds) doesn't have more entertainment venues, or a wider selection. You seldom, if ever, see big-name entertainers performing in Pahrump, although Hank Thompson and The Brazos Valley Boys will be at the Stagestop on April 4.

"Entertainment is a tough sell out here," said Ryley Young, director of operations for Saddle West Hotel Casino & RV Resort. "We try to put it in, but a lot of people don't have a lot of expendable income."

The only other local casinos are Terrible's Town Casino and the Pahrump Nugget.

Saddle West is the only one with a showroom -- which seats around 220, cabaret style.

"We have sporadic events," Young said. "We've had the Drifters and the Coasters. We have an anniversary show coming up. From time to time we put on benefits."

He said most shows are free, a goodwill gesture for locals who support the casino.

Headliners

There are two regular performers in the Saddle West showroom -- singer/impressionist Jack Reeves on Sunday evenings and comedian Jac Haydn on Thursday nights.

Reeves, a native of Arkansas, wears an enormous belt buckle and speaks in a heavy southern drawl.

"I first came to Pahrump in 1992 to perform and stayed 15 months," said the 1957 National Golden Gloves Welterweight Champion. "I liked the town."

Reeves sings country and rock 'n' roll and does impressions of such legends as Marty Robbins, Hank Snow, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Tom Jones.

His entertainment career began in North Little Rock, Ark., where he had a band in high school. He performed in clubs in and around Norco, Calif., in the '60s, where he became friends with surfer/rocker Dick Dale, of Dick Dale and the Del-Tones (who recorded 1961's "Let's go Trippin' ").

"This one place paid me $15 and a dime a beer on Fridays," recalled Reeves, who also was a close friend of the late heavyweight boxer Jerry Quarry. "I found out later the owner didn't start counting the beer till 11 o'clock."

He quit, went into partnership on a bar, sold it after six months and began playing at clubs around Southern California, Nevada, Alaska and Hawaii.

Reeves has performed off and on in Pahrump for more than 15 years. Even though his gig for the past couple of years has been at Saddle West, his name is still on the hand-painted marquee at Stagestop.

The affable and talkative Arkansan has had open-heart surgery and is semi-retired. He does a weekly gig because he enjoys being with people.

"I love going around and hugging people during the show," he said.

Reeves says there could be more entertainment in town than there is now.

"We would have good entertainment if they would pay for good entertainers," he said.

Haydn, a comedian who is also a licensed mortician, hosts a free comedy night on Thursdays at Saddle West's showroom, acting as emcee and introducing other comic acts.

"We have two new guest comics every week," Haydn said. "The entire town comes to see the show, except for two shut-ins.

"They'll drift in, sit at the same seats at the same tables. It's a wonderful audience. You think 'Pahrump' and sell it short on many levels. I expected, when I first came here, to find a parking lot full of pickup trucks."

But appearances can be deceiving. There are lots of folks in town with degrees and advanced degrees.

"There's retired people from NASA here," Haydn said. "Space scientists, chemical engineers. I was amazed at the intelligence level. There are university professors living here."

Haydn has been performing at Saddle West weekly for three years.

"The showroom is kind of a community center," he said. "They have bingo, gun shows, dance recitals and weddings there."

Fridays and Saturdays he takes his comedy to Primm. He's also performing in a Vegas dinner theater comedy production, "A Wacky Wake," at the Las Vegas Italian American Club March 17-18.

Haydn has been in show business for 40 years.

"This is the only time I've had to change my material every single week, because I keep getting the same fans," he said. "I'm amazed at how much I have been able to stretch myself, coming up with new material."

Haydn says eventually there will be more entertainment in Pahrump.

"This town is becoming another Henderson," he said. "Every other business in town is a real estate office. Nevada has a state bird, well, Nye County has a county bird -- the construction crane.

"At night the town is as glittering as Henderson. There will be more entertainment. They just got a super Wal-Mart store three or four months ago. They petitioned for one for years. Now they're working on getting a hospital."

Haydn has lived in Vegas for 24 years. He said the first time he came to Pahrump in the '70s there was a golf course and a couple of brothels.

"Now, half the valley is full," he said.

Pulling out all stops

The dancers at the Stagestop were from all backgrounds and shapes, sizes and ages -- though mostly 40 and older.

Among the weekend fans there to dance was Maria Anderson. She hosts karaoke on Thursday and Sunday nights at the casino, and jam sessions on Tuesdays.

Most of the karaoke music is country, such as Hank Williams, Bob Wills and Johnny Cash.

"We've tried rock 'n' roll and blues and other stuff, but it doesn't work out," Anderson said. "People here like country."

Anderson grew up in Las Vegas, where she sang blues at different clubs around town.

"I moved to Pahrump 12 years ago because it's so peaceful," she said. "You rarely hear any sirens."

As she talked, dancers moved smoothly around the floor.

Some women danced together. One man was on the dance floor without a partner.

"A lot of older people come out here to dance," said Jeffries, the bandleader. "Especially line dancing."

Jeffries, who moved to Pahrump from Denver nearly two years ago, has been performing professionally since age 13.

"It's about all I've ever done, except for an odd job from time to time," Jeffries, who is in his 60s, said.

Besides fronting his band, Jeffries is music director for "High Desert 60," a local morning talk show on Pahrump's KPVM-TV channel 41.

He also performs at private parties and the local Elks Club.

Jeffries says musicians can't make a living in Pahrump playing music.

"They have to do other things," he said. "Venues don't pay enough money, but I've worked in the business for so many years that it's beyond the money. It's just the love of performing."

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