MUSIC:

Frank Sinatra Jr. will play to a Vegas unlike his father’s

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009 | 2 a.m.

PUBLICITY PHOTO

Frank Sinatra Jr.

Who: Frank Sinatra Jr.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: Suncoast Showroom

Tickets: $29.95; 636-7075 or suncoastcasino.com

Conductor cheers as Sinatra sings Sinatra (10-4-2002)
To be Frank: Frank Sinatra Jr. carries on father's legacy in his own way (5-7-2002)

Frank Sinatra Jr. sounds a lot like his old man over the telephone — same intonations and vocal rhythms, sans the Hoboken, N.J., accent.

“I won’t lie to you, when the economy fell down so did we,” Sinatra says. “I worked in December ’08 and then I didn’t work again till the last week of May ’09.”

At 65, some may think he’s old.

“They call my show Jurassic Park,” he says from his Los Angeles home.

Sinatra will perform two shows at the Suncoast over Labor Day weekend.

He performed three “Sinatra Sings Sinatra” concerts at the MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theater in 2002. He had a 36-piece orchestra backing him then. This time it will be an eight-piece band.

“Nobody wants to hire the big orchestras anymore,” he says. “We were four-walling those concerts and the man who paid for the four walls stopped the whole thing after three appearances because he said they weren’t generating enough income. He was so down that the concerts were not carrying their weights that the last appearance, he made me roll the dice with him. When I put my foot on that stage to work, I spent $3,000.

“But that’s what Las Vegas has become. Entertainment is not a primary concern there any longer. It’s whatever can make the most money for the smallest investment. But if I was on the other side of that desk, I probably would feel the same way.”

He came to Vegas for the first time in 1954 at age 10. He began performing here in 1963.

“When I started working there I was next door to the Sands at the Flamingo,” he says. “On occasion my father would come to see me when he was in town and when he was finished watching my show he would go into the pit and gamble for a while. This was casino etiquette.

“The stars were the big draws, as well as the gaming. All of the show places, they wanted to hire the biggest stars. When I think back to that period of time, offers had been made to Doris Day and Bing Crosby, but they never took them. They did not want to play in gaming establishments. When I first went to Las Vegas I saw Sophie Tucker, Joey Lewis, Jimmy Durante. Nowadays entertainment is not even secondary, not even ‘third-dary,’ if there is such a word. You know what the big draw is in Las Vegas today? The shopping centers in the hotels.”

He remembers the Strip before it was the Strip.

“The first time I came to Las Vegas, the street in front of the hotels was U.S. Highway 91, a two-lane highway that crossed the desert and all of a sudden there were these big hotels. In those days there used to be a kind of motto the city had in order to get people to come — ‘Play the games, lie in the sun and mingle with the stars.’

“There were very few hotels there, but they were very prestigious. The Flamingo was there, the Hacienda, the Sands, Desert Inn. The Riviera was under construction. The Sahara was under construction. Of course we had the El Rancho Vegas.”

Sinatra says the Vegas visitors have changed, which has changed the city.

“It’s not that Old Vegas is not here, it’s that the older generation is no longer there. This generation that goes to Vegas, and the generation before them, this is all they’re used to, all they’ve known,” he says. “Their grandparents knew the great days of Vegas, the ’50s and ’60s.”

Sinatra, once musical director for his father, recalls the happiest time of his life in Vegas when he was at the Four Queens from ’85 to ’92.

“I was working for Jeanne Hood,” the former hotel president who died in July, Sinatra says. “She was such a grand lady. In those days I came to town three weeks at a time, three or four times a year. It was magnificent. I had the finest orchestra, a 20-piece band with all the great players of Las Vegas. Then in ’92 I went to the Desert Inn till ’94, then in ’94 I went to the brand-new Boulder Station. I worked there two or three weeks at a crack. It was a wonderful time.”

Most of his fans were locals, he says.

“They were fed up with the Elvis impersonators and the Carol Channing impersonators. They were happy to see someone do something original.”

He has performed infrequently in Vegas since.

“I checked out some of the newer hotels, went into the lounges to see what was happening,” he says. “There were a bunch of garage bands, absolute amateurs.”

Although his last public performance in Vegas was at the MGM Grand, he performed in 2005 at the Aladdin, before it became Planet Hollywood.

“I did a slot machine tournament,” he said. “I sang and told them to stop staring at me and press those buttons.”

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By fosimmons

9/2/09 at 6:31 a.m.

Suggest removal

The stars have life spans like the rest of us and also preformance spans. When they get to a certain age things break down. Frank Sinatra was the greatest of them all, but his last few years on stange were rough. His voice and memory were two struggles, but the man was still an icon and sold out the arenas. I had the honor to shake his hand in Manhattan in the mid 70's at a joint called Jilly's when he came in with a lady Charlotte Ford and sat at a back table - they closed the place to keep it from being mobbed - they sat a bottle of Jack Black in front of them and he puffed away ... awsome for me to see him and we limited our stareing to the two of them. No he did not get up and sing with the piano player who at the time was a woman - can't recall her name. Those were the days. Still, there are few singers this day and age as they are mostly yellers and screamers and all the concert goers stand up and flash their arms up in the air as if they know something about rythime (sp) and timing which they know zero and you can't even see the stage. Today the youth don't know who he was and if you were to ask them about Duke Ellington or Count Basie they'd look at you as if you were from Mars. I feel stuck with Bon Jovie and U-2. To me they are horror stories to listen to. Hey, its a new day out there on that dangerous strip and we older guys have to stay in real good shape to hold our ground and protect ourselves. I also love to attend his son's performances especially with the big bands. He conveys that Sinatra aura and style and always puts on a nice show. I think he's a bit nicer that Frank was in general and he's taller. Sinatra's kids I feel are all quite high quality folks which lends itself to the idea that 'ole blue eyes' was a pretty good Dad. I can see him now in that round building in the middle of Hollywood - Columbia Records? - singing Cottage For Sale, and my girlfriend crying and unbuttoning her blouse. Those were really great days.
By coloradorob

9/2/09 at 6:36 a.m.

Suggest removal

Isn't he a Frank Sinatra impersonator?
By Det__Munch

9/2/09 at 9:06 a.m.

Suggest removal

I feel stuck with Bon Jovie and U-2.

NOTHING wrong with these bands! sorry fosimmons, you must be way older then most on this board!

ps I liked Frank too. saw him in person couple of times. A true legend.
By Caroll

9/2/09 at 9:58 p.m.

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Where's Robin Leach? Did the Sun get smart and dump his column?
By 9ballguy

9/3/09 at 4:15 p.m.

Suggest removal

True, nothing wrong with U2 and Bon Jovie though their music is not to my taste. It's nice to have "way older" people contribute to these forums and give their perspective on the way things used to be. It keeps the forums interesting having opinions from all age groups.