Bidding Adieu

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 | 5:17 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

January 22 - 23, 2005

From the kitchen window of Buddy Greco and Lezlie Anders' home in south Las Vegas you can see the Southcoast Casino rising out of the desert floor west of their property.

Next door to the casino is Grand View, a cluster of three high-rise time shares with more under construction.

You can watch the road crews expanding the width of Las Vegas Boulevard to make room for the future increase in traffic, which already is beginning to choke the two-lane thoroughfare.

The couple's Spanish mission-like home, built in the early '70s, sits on 2 1/2 acres fast becoming surrounded by intrusive two-story homes.

Greco and Anders, who have been together 12 years -- married for nine -- bought their property eight years ago when it was still in the desert and the only neighbors were two other ranchettes.

The traffic and the construction is becoming stressful for the two entertainers and their ark of animals -- including three dogs, one cat named Guido, three goats, two sheep, two donkeys, one horse, three peacocks, one goose, seven Vietnamese pigs and two chickens named the Dixie Chicks.

In November and December, Greco, one of the world's finest jazz musicians and composers, and vocalist Anders headlined the "Palm Springs Follies," a popular revue that has been going for 14 years -- seven months out of the year.

They enjoyed themselves so much, they decided to move to Palm Springs. When the word hit the press, they were concerned that they were giving the wrong impression.

Earlier this week Greco and Anders talked to the Sun about their decision.

Las Vegas Sun: So, you haven't left yet?

Buddy Greco: Hardly. We haven't even shown the house yet. We may be here another month or two. The Realtor is supposed to start showing the place Sunday (today) or Monday.

Lezlie Anders: We are not leaving in the middle of the night. And we are not leaving because we are bitter.

Sun: Buddy, how long have you been in Vegas?

BG: I've been working in Vegas off and on for more than 50 years. Las Vegas has been very, very good to me. My career took off here. I have made a lot of money here. I have made a lot of friends. We're going to miss all our friends.

Sun: When did you first arrive?

BG: I came here with Benny Goodman in 1950. I was touring with the band, I was his piano player. We were traveling by train -- one railroad car had the Duke Ellington band and the other the Benny Goodman band. It took us three days to go across the country. It was a three-day party. Everyone would go back and forth from one car to the other.

That was my first time in Vegas.

LA: Keely Smith tells this story on Buddy in the '60s. Keely, Betty Grable and Buddy were driving down the Strip in a convertible with the radio turned on to a local station. The song ends and the announcer says, "Buddy Greco, if you can hear this go home -- your wife is looking for you." That's how small the town was back then. Your wife could call the local radio station and find you.

LA: Lezlie, when did you come to town?

LA: I came to work at the Desert Inn in 1992. Buddy had just gotten a divorce. He was living in Los Angeles at the time, and working at the DI. I started working with him and Don Cherry (a professional golfer and lounge singer). Don Cherry was responsible for me getting a job at the DI. He sang in the lounge there five nights a week. On Monday nights he would let anyone get up and sing -- he didn't want to be there. He was so angry that there was an audience there. He would let anyone get up and sing.

I became an opener for Buddy.

Sun: When did you buy the house?

LA: We bought it in 1997 for $295,000. The house was a mess. Old people had lived here 20 years. We did a lot of work on it.

Jerry Orbach (a friend and actor who died last month) and his wife bought the 2 1/2 acres behind us about four years ago for $150,000. Our real estate agent said if we had sold our property in August she could have sold it six times for $1.6 million.

Sun: Why move?

BG: The move is for obvious reasons. We're being choked in. We have no privacy anymore.

And the work. The thing that got to me was when four-walling came in. I said, "Excuse me, I have to pay you to work here? No, you have to pay me to work in your casino." I've been around too long. They should show some respect.

Sun: Why Palm Springs?

BG: I have wanted to move there for five or six years -- there's a golf course on every corner. I loved it here for the same reason, but now I come home from a trip and I'm constantly seeing building, building, building and traffic, traffic. I'm not in my 20s, I'm in my 70s. I want to enjoy work, not fight traffic.

LA: When the "Follies" booked us last spring (for November and December) I had been dreading that job -- leaving this place for eight weeks to housesitters, animal feeders. I would tease Buddy about "How are we going to live with each other in a one-bedroom condo for eight weeks, without my animals, without all the stuff we have that keeps us busy here?"

After the second week we were sitting down by the pool. I said to myself, "What haven't I done? We returned all our phone calls. We talked to our agent. I sent out packages." I thought, "Why is it, in the eight years we have lived in this house, have I never sat by my pool once?" And we realized we got along real well with each other in a one bedroom condo ...

BG: We didn't fight at all ...

LA: Then we started talking about ... It would be different if we were working here. When the DI was done we were hoping maybe the Suncoast or the Orleans would do something, but there are not any venues for our demographics left in the city.

Sun: Tell us about the "Palm Springs Follies."

BG: Every season they have two or three stars headlining -- they switch off. Mr. (Rif) Markowitz started the "Follies" 14 years ago. The first four years the show was in the red, but now 1,600 people a day see the show.

Sun: Was this your first time in the show?

BG: Yes. He has asked us quite a few times, but he didn't want to put a piano onstage, so we didn't do it. This time he said he was going to put the piano onstage, and he paid us a pretty good salary to work five days a week -- two shows a night, one in the evening, one late. Our condo was only a block away.

LA: Each show is three hours long, with lots of singers and dancers and gorgeous costumes. In between shows we would go for a walk, go back to the condo and relax.

Sun: What other plans do you have for Palm Springs?

LA: We have some tours lined up for (the Brenda Lee tribute show) "Fever," but the real important thing about Palm Springs is that we are downsizing. We will be able to live more comfortably, and we have a lot of friends there -- while we were there, one night we had dinner with Jerry Vale and his wife Rita, Julius La Rosa, Frankie Randall, Kaye Ballard.

BG: I have a couple of friends who are big Buddy Greco fans -- a husband and wife; a young couple, very wealthy. They want to open a supper club called "Buddy Greco's" in Palm Springs -- it's going to happen. They definitely want to do it, and it would be perfect for us. We can work there whenever we're not on the road.

I can get Frankie Randall and Jack Jones to come in -- they live there; everybody lives there. Keely Smith lives there.

LA: The truth is, our motivation had nothing to do with whether we were going to work anymore or not, though I think we probably will work because Jack Jones and Frankie Randall work all the time -- the reason there are no nightclubs in Palm Springs is that there are so many country clubs. Everyone belongs to their own country club, who bring in different performers.

Sun: How have your friends reacted to the move?

BG: Not one person has said to us, "Why are you doing this?" They wish they could do it. There's nothing here. We have the opportunity, and we're going to take it. We have loved it here, but it's time to move on."

archive