J. Carey Burke was born December 13, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio. His family moved to Henderson, Nevada in 1945, then to Las Vegas, Nevada four years later. Burke held jobs as a janitor, a fry cook at Nellis Air Force Base, and a lifeguard at the Twin Lakes Lodge as a teenager. He worked for McCarren Airport as a passenger service agent for many airlines, including Hughes Airwest and Bonanza Airlines.

Morton "Mort" Saiger was born July 22, 1903, in Opatov, Poland. He fled Poland in 1920 three days before he was to be inducted into the army. Settling in Denver, Colorado with his father, he showed an early interest in show business, winning awards as a ballroom dancer, appearing in several silent films, and performing as a baritone in a 1939 Los Angeles, California production of Mozart's opera, "Bastien and Bastienne."