Rawls flirted with hotel ownership

Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006 | 7:36 a.m.

There is no question singer Lou Rawls made a good living on stages in Las Vegas and throughout the world.

He had chart-topping songs, appeared in movies, was a humanitarian who hosted telethons for the United Negro College Fund -- he raised $200 million -- and was a longtime pitchman for several products, including Budweiser.

But the way he made offstage headlines in Las Vegas in the late 1980s and early 1990s, one would have thought the velvety baritone was really rich -- buying hotels rich.

Rawls, who died Friday in Los Angeles, was long thought to be in the market to either build a resort in Las Vegas or buy one. The most interesting of such properties was the Southern Plantation-themed Rhett Butler Hotel on Rancho Drive near Bonanza Road, where Cox Communications offices now stand.

Despite Rawls' desire to build a resort modeled after one of the worst symbols of 19th century slavery -- and do so near predominantly black West Las Vegas -- the idea caught the interest of community leaders desperate to redevelop one of the most blighted areas of town.

Rawls never did buy or build a resort, but he is fondly remembered locally for his deep, soulful voice that boomed from downtown Las Vegas and Strip stages over five decades.

Rawls was 70 or 72 depending on the source. (His birthday has been published as both Dec. 1, 1933, and Dec. 1,1935.) He had been a resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., for the last two years.

The Rhett Butler initially was touted as a $16.5 million project with a 50,000-square-foot casino and a 200-room hotel. With the disclosure of plans in the late 1980s, it was the first announcement of a major hotel project in the area since the Carver House, later renamed the Cove, at D Street and Jackson Avenue, was announced in February 1960.

Rawls, however, did not enter the picture as a potential investor until November 1989, seven months after the Las Vegas City Council granted the original development group a permit to build a hotel on the site.

Rawls gave the sagging Rhett Butler plan a huge boost by announcing that not only was he interested in buying the resort but that he had been talking with noted comedians Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy to help him raise $100 million for a much bigger project for upper-income black patrons.

But in the end, all those ideas faded away.

Several years later, Rawls' name popped up again, this time as a potential investor in another casino project on or near the Strip.

That plan was the brainchild of Robert Johnson, the founder of the Black Entertainment Television network, who had the backing of Hilton Hotels Corp.

Johnson said the proposed 1,000-room hotel would cost as much as $225 million and would open in mid-1999. It didn't.

Rawls first came to Las Vegas in the 1960s and performed at local teen dances. A few years later, he headlined at the Thunderbird. In 1967 he opened for Judy Garland at Caesars Palace.

In a Sun story about the closing of the Circus Maximus Showroom at Caesars in 2000, Rawls recalled being forced to stretch his opening act because Garland was notorious for being late -- or not showing up.

"They never knew if she was going to make it on time so I had to just stay out there and (perform) until she walked through the door."

Rawls headlined at several resorts over his career, including the Golden Nugget in the early 1990s, the Las Vegas Hilton in the mid-1990s, the Orleans in the late 1990s and the Blue Note Jazz Club at Aladdin's Desert Passage in 2000. He also appeared at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in the 1970s.

He played Harrah's, Bally's, the Desert Inn, the Fremont, the old MGM Grand (now Bally's) and the Flamingo.

"When I had a chance to meet Duke Ellington, Mr. Ellington said to me, 'There's no limit to music. Why limit yourself to what you can do?' " Rawls said in a 1996 Sun interview. "The one thing I've found is, music is the one universal language that crosses all barriers."

During his career, Rawls made more than 60 albums that sold 40 million copies, received three Grammys and 10 other Grammy nominations, had one platinum album, five gold albums and a gold single.

In late 2004, Rawls, who quit smoking 35 years ago, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Last year he disclosed he also had brain cancer.

His survivors include his wife, Nina, and four children, Louanna Rawls, Lou

Rawls Jr., Kendra Smith and Aiden Rawls.

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.

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