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HOUSTON, TEX. CHRONICLE m Circ. D. 183,856 - S. 202,l72oJH OfcA* 4 ??**^4s mm Night and Day ^Fasten Your M2$|& Belts' BY CLLARLIE E>VANS sa- ENT^TAINHffe-lN LAS VEGAS this weekl were J\a|rassed by prie of the biggest enemies of singers?╟÷laryngitis. *??^^^~ra^*?Σ≤?Σ≤^?Σ≤*^ ;:||Fferst it was Danny Thomas. headliner on the floor show at th^flands Hotel, and it came on his thirtH'rig*Hfl?l!5nd there. The same night Maxine Andrews of the singing Andrews Sisters had to walk off the floor gat ,4?&e Sahara Hotel for the same reason. ^?√ßeas ?╜*?╟≤ A host of celebrities, who w- knew of Danny's ailment in time Ivans " to help out, moved in on the Sands to help put on his show. Some of 'em included Jimmy Durante, Spike Jones, Denice Darcel, Jane Powell, Frankie Laine and others. Maxine's attack came, so suddenly that the other sisters were unab^'-to get help from the host of entertainers who/were in town for the Sands opening. AROUND AND ABOUT: Newsman Rick Ballard and actress wife Alta McKay dining- with a party of friends at Frank Azzarelli's Spaghetti House on Post Oak Road . . . County Judge Bob Casey, Don Young and Tax Assessor-Collector Cari Smith back from ^ an Anahuac hunt with their limit of duck and geese. Dr. M.'M. Henderson in new Methodist Hospital for a checkup. 3S&*slf THIS AND THAT: Passerby getting a bang out of the billboard annoucing the picture "Mutiny" at the Alabama Theatre last week. The name of the picture j was spelled "MUTN1Y" S?║|vA wag on.the airline carrying us to Las Vegas suggested that the plane sign, reading "Fasten Your Seat Belt" should read "Fasten Your Money Belts!" . . : Ted Nabors, who conducts the daily "lop o' the Morning" program on Radio Station KTHT, sends a Christmas card letter?╟÷a take off on "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in English and Spanish . . . Tommy Reed, who played the Balinese Room at Galveston last summer, has his orchestra on the bandstand at the Claridge Hotel in Memphis through Christmas day. Moves to the Jung Hotel in New Orleans 10" a NewjYejp^ Eve opening .?√ß . . AlabMna Catering Service will make its Orchid Room available for New Year Eve parties of 10 to 12 people. Music, favors, breakfast will be furnished ., 4g The Weingarten store on Bissonnet holds its ^irist- mas party at Abe Jamail's Congo JunglegJ&oom today r3&;'. When "South Pacific" dbcksphere ^December 29 fo^ six days, there wili?^fefour movie stars in the cast. Headliner is epanet Blair, others are Comedian Benny Bafc$|f Alan Baxter and Robert Emmett Keane . 9B .. The Hadjes andsMenutis brotnl|rs, who already own six cocktail lounges in Jrauston, are niulling a plan to extend their operation over the state with the most likely new^pots to be opened in Galveston or Beaumont..^trds on tables at the loungees. operated by theXbrothers here have changed table card readfilg from "Lounges of Houston" to "Hadjes-Menutis Lounges of- Texas.'\ W^^t^S' BACK FROM A FWlNGMlP to the fabulous city ??f Las V^gas where there are more "headliner" entertainers' currently playing" than any other spot we can think of?╟÷including New York and Los Angeles. There's Danny Thomas at* -Jakie Freedman's new luxurious Sands Hotel; the Andrews Sisters are at the Sahara; singing sensation Joanne Gilbert is at El Rancho Vegas; JEM! Spitalny and his all-girl or- chsetra at the Flamingo; Negro singing star Pearl I Bailey at the Besejpfoln; Bert Lahr is at the Tunder- feird and then just looking: around were Frankie Laine, Jane PoweBg Jimmy Durante, Denise Darcel, Spike Jones andf^jgtjliost of others. Thousands of dollars worth of entertainment. &***?· ^S^\ HERE AND THERE: Ready^for anything: When most of the lights wejnt-L^mLin Las Vegas Tuesday night because ofraTpowe^^ailure, hundreds of persons were jammedgpp^e casino of the Sands Hotel. But the ga^bi'e^went on as though nothing had happened1??╟÷Special lights, powered by emergency equipment, kept the tables lighted through the city power failure. Band Leader Don Reidand his pert singing wife Gwen Parke still drawing near capacity crowds at the Rice Hotel's Empire Room. Comedian Don Tannen is a knockout on the ESTABLISHED 1888 ! BArclay 7:5WisgSJ PRESS CUPPING BUREAU I 165 Church Street - New York ; LITTLE ROCK, ARK. GAZETTE Circ. D. 96,346 - | I 10.299 DEC 25 W52 IWy Gardner ^Sands^Opening in Las Vegas" Marks Another Strip Palace ?╟≤ Las Vegas, Nev. Bud Granoff set the mood the moment our pilot pinpointed I the multi-colored lights that make Las Vegas from a height of J 5,000 feet look like Tiffany's window through a telescope. "It's | Vegas," he shouted. "Fasten your money belts!" No hotel opening in history, in> " " eluding Glenn ?║ McCarthy's me- I morable Shamrock shindig in Hous- I ton could match the curtain-raising ceremonies that attended that of the Jack Freedman-Jack Entratter | combine's $5,500,000 monument to j man's weakness for gambling?╟÷the I Sands Hotel. There were more cele- j BTlCles,' "radio, television and wire service men and Broadway and i Hollywood correspondents around than one-armed bandits ?╟÷ and in : this Wild Western showtown that's news. I Situated on the Strip (named I after the way you look after spend- ! ing a few hours here), the Sands I is really a cluster of many sun- 1 tanned buildings. Each of the'hbtgjl | room edifices bears a distinguislifw I name of a famous American racetrack. We're parked in Belmont j Park and our neighbors are housed j in Santa Anita, Hialeah Park, Rockingham and Arlington. The I only difference is that the f^Jlies | boarded here are much prettier I and seldom if ever run out of the I money. STORMS PLAY HAVOC with the I lighting system in Vegas. A few . moments before Danny Thomas broke in the new Copa Room a \ ifcwnfunj duused ^cix j iiteo--Hghhc. Though the entire area was in and Miami Beach combined. To give you an idea of just how spirited the competition is, the Saraha bought "a full page newspaper advertisement just to announce the personal appearance of the Andrew Sisters and the Thunderbird tempted Bert Lahr to risk accepting his first night-club engagement by waving a $10,000-a-week contract in the clown's face. Harry Ritz and his brothers are so sold on Las Vegas that they've revived talk about going into partnership with Martin and Lewis, Tony Martin, Jimmy Durante and Danny Thomas in erecting their own hotel-casino-club. "We could rotate our acts, bring in other ns^ies between times, have a ?╟≤ lot ofejftm and make a lot of loot on suchja project," Ritz reasoned. If the "b9ys go through with the plan I'd like to offer one suggestion: Book Joe E. Lewis immediately. If he plays your place long enough you'll be able to retire! . . . Like Lewis, many performers can't re- sip the temptation to flirt with Lady Luck if she's handy. Consequently, it isn't unusual to lose ijfeeir week's pay even before theyl ep&llect it. To strengthen theirj Characters" fully 50 per cent of the! \Mo- money larno" who play ??h& Nevada cabarets arrange with theirj darkness, an emergency power personal managers or agents to col plant automatically flooded the ca- l^&*iheir salaries so that the per sino with light, not interrupting fqj^^y^rry^O^f pocket money! the spinning of the roulette wheels whi^^^^ff fj#^r*langer zone ' or the action at the crap tables ?·& for as much as a split second. An qI unexpected cessation in the midst sip vof a roll could cost the house tens go?╜Skij?· of thousands of dollars; in this ,| racket it is permissible for natureff to blow a fuse but heaven help the; I help if the proprietor does. 1 THE COPA ROOM is one of the coziest theater restaurants in the nation. Seating 385 persons with no ijgs^loped a easel ir the opening e show-mustH the theater] jre at the open-i his stead. Thd J Jane Powell; imy Durante, the jankie Layne and nation, oeaxuug dou j^,^-?Σ≤, . obstruction but an occasional over zealous waiter, every modern de vice with which to stage a flaw less show has been bought and in stalled, including the highest priqe talent. This is typical of all the cabaret rooms adjoining the gaming casinos in Las Vegas, including the Falmingo, El Rancho, the Desert Inn, the Saraha, the Thunderbird and the Last Frontier. The management of all these institutions learned long ago that how big a play they got in their gaming rooms depends on how big are the names they figure in their floor shows. As a consequence, this little frontier town of 42,000 doles out more cash for top-name per I TERRY MORE, S||hose dimen-; |sions make Mar^3iWp:1^onroe look like a Boy o^aiifc ew^Mrapressea with Danny Thomases routine. Hav-^ I ing missed his introduction because | she was engrossed in a convejsa^ tion with a columnist, she turner! to the latter and said, "That fellow is great?╟÷don't you think it's aboutj time somebody discovered him." Asl a matter of fact that Moore girl wasn't too far off the beam. Danny I Thomas will be discovered again?╟÷ (not as a story weaver, but as a singer with a timber and a resonance to his voice reminiscent oil Harry Richman and Benny Field! in their heyday and of the late All Jolson, whose original role he playJI Warner's highly touted new verfl out more casn ior Lop-utmic pci-im wwem .'formers than New York, Chicago sion of "The Jazz Singer. ESTABLISHED | fjQ) BArclay 7-537/ Country^ Top Act Spot Now Las Vegas Gala Opening of New Sands Hotel Points Up Importance of Nevada Fun Resort By BILL SMITH J / LAS VEGAS. Dec. 20. ?╟÷ The I ndtt^Sf showbiz' town in the world I?╟÷a town that has seen about JI everything?╟÷never saw anything j like the Sands Hotel opening this I] week. ftflT'fnstahcet on Wednesday night, when Danny Thomas' | laryngitis prevented him from ; working, here's the cast that jumped in to pinch hit: Jimmy i Durante, Frankie Laine, the Ritz i Brothers, Jane Powell, Denise 1 Darcel and Ray Anthony. It was a t show that happens only _ rarely, i with everybody punching for top c results. I For an off-season periods-Vegas still boasts of the biggest and e most expensive shows in the Nvsrerld, and all to be seen for the I c price of a cup of coffee or a single r! drink. The Sands, latest addition a to the glittering Strip, now gets E the biggest play, but orilpy: "i enough the other hotels on the J Strip profited almost as much from I the influx of tourists that high- | balled it into town for the Sands I preem. . The Desert Inn flashed a bill of I Pearl Bailey and Billy Vine. The j Flamingo has Georgie Price. The Thunderbird has Bert Lahr, in his first cafe date, plus Francine White. El Rancho Vegas has a package including Joanne Gilbert. The Sahara has the Andrews Sis- . ters. The Last Frontier has Phil Spitalny. Every spot runs with j productions and supporting acts. In fact, there are more performers working here than in any part of I the country. Showbiz competition here is i very keen. All the Strip hotels have a mutual understanding not to play names that have worked other rooms. There's a tacit understanding, never formalized, that a spot has a perpetual option on a name for as often as it wants it, and that other spots won't compete. Jack Entratter, unaware of the "understanding," signed attractions starting off with Thomas who theoretically "belonged" to the Flamingo. With other hotels set to build here, all competing for name talent, the problem of who to play and what to play, and for what money, will be more acute as time goes on. No one has any pat answer. Hal Braudis of the Thunderbird keeps coming up with esO' teric type shows. Good example, a while back: he played the Balinese Dangers' and sold out the room. He has other plans that do not include the standard showbiz acts or headliners. m_m___mmm_mm_mmm__m_m In the meantime, however, the Sands is. the Vegas place to be. Besides its big shows topped by whatever headliners it can snag (it has Lena Horne, Billy Eckstine and Edith Piaf set to follow current bill), its lush opulence has few comparisons either in town, where superlatives are common, or any place in the country for that matter?╟÷and at a price that seems ridiculously low. The Copa Room of the Sands is I a lavish 385-seater, opulently dec- L orated in a Brazilian carnival motif. Danny Thomas just about knocked himself out the opening night show, Tuesday (16). Every one of his bits, parodies and yarns rocked the room, jammed with showbiz names and newspaper people flown in for the preem. The rest of the show was equally solid and moved as if it had lots of performances under its belt instead of one lone rehearsat'^'""^ Connie Russell, working with (ContipMed on page 12) feep the scribblers from feeling do. lonesome, each got a bag of p silver dollars and they were t loose on the crap, roulette and lack-jack games. A few of the ids managed to increase their riginal stakes and others made it ist a little, but the majority blew je stake the first day. ESTABLISHED BArclay 7-5371 PRESS CLIPPING BUREAU 165 Church Street - New York BEAUMONT, TEX ENTERPRISE Circ. D. 47,996 - S. 64,186 Hi231952 gfeLIKE-THISv BY ROBERT W. AKERS Editor, The Enterprise T INTERVIEWED' the pastor of the First Methodist dfiffiP^of .^as. VeSas to find j what he thin^ahOtf|;Jegai%d gambling. Rev. Donjpa O'G^ribr,: lltho has held the j [Las Vegas ^atorate only since December 3, 'take's a temperate, reasoned approach to the ^" toiaii^Tx&e td haver a good" Tiffid''''^.^fe^P!^ "Another thing?╟÷the state's taxes on gambl-i ing keep all the other taxes down.. Take me?╟÷ | I own two small houses here in Vegas, jffjgl gether they're worth about $15,000; .1 pay $90.25 f p"a year taxes and that's everything?╟÷city, coun-f ,.ty, state. In San Diego, where I used to live,! p^' the tax on that same property would be around | $400 a year." "DENNY Binion is a headline name in Texas in an .unpleasant sort of way. To the hurried headline-reader it means vaguely a man that the state or the federal (government wants to get back here from out 'west somewhere to try him for something that has to do directly or indirectly with gambling. Benny Binion of (Las Vegas is a popular and well liked member of the community. They're one and the same person. Benny Binion, sought for trial in Texas, 'operates the Horseshoe gambling house inl [downtown Las Vegas. The folks out there, where his business establishment is just as legal las the bakery or the meat market, think he's la swell fellow. Always doing things for the community, but in a quiet way, they say. There was the time the Las Vegas high Ishool girls' drill team wanted to compete in the regional contests at Los Angeles, but they I couldn't raise the money. "Benny put up the cash, the girls drilled in LA and it was a thrilled and pleased Las Vegas that heard they had walked off "with first place. Or the time the town baseball club needed a bus to; make its out-of-town games. Benay bought them one. Las Vegans nearly always ask Texans, in an {accusing tone, "What've you folks got against |Benny?" * #M , &p||k Said a taxi driver, "He's a solid citizen. Does civic things all the time. More than most peo- ; !ple know about hecause he never asks for publicity." j DON'T think the hundreds .crowded around the tables- in th?║jgands hotel casino about 11 o'clock one morningnoTOelJTfr""'?√ß*?√ß?√ß?√ß* ' \mJJ| They were&cnore intent on the fall of the roulette balll^he turn of the blackjack cards, j the rolling cw).wie dice* the lineup of symbols I in the slot machine windows. But the loudspeakers that provide a soft, dis-; creet background of music for the elegant gam- 'ing room were at that moB^t conveying a Christmas program. Sang a<%tni$ie voice thatj [could barely be heard abo^^the clinking ofi !the silver dollars; "0*',comef^C|,^y)e faithful?╟÷".j <T*HEY say that when an laMiher circles for the landing at Las Vegas $if hostess alwaysl announces: "We're coming into Las Vegas. Tighten your money belts 1"