THE BEATLES INVADE LAS VEGAS STRIP IN 1964!

Beatles arrive in Las Vegas 1964 Photo by Las Vegas Sun

My pals at Vegas.Com are guest posting tonight for my readers....They did such a great story I am using it as it....I did edit a bit of stats out of the story so if you'd like more click.. THE FULL STORY

This video is live footage of the Beatles in Vegas...check it out..... 

The Beatles head toward their room on the 47th floor of the Sahara Hotel and Casino in 1964. In the 1960s, Vegas was no stranger to performers with devoted fans. At the Sands Hotel and Casino, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop were selling out the Copa Room as early as 1958. Rat Pack fans were willing to sleep in their cars and hotel lobbies on busy weekends, just for a chance to see the crooners.

But nothing had prepared LAS VEGAS for Beatlemania.

By Jennifer Whitehair and Nicole Lucht

Above: The Beatles enjoy a slot machine brought to their room at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in 1964. Crowds of fans prevent the group from enjoying the casino as a normal guest. Photo by Las Vegas News Bureau

When booking agents first approached Las Vegas hotels on behalf of The Beatles, they were turned down. Stan Irwin, Director of Entertainment at the Sahara, had the foresight to realize what a Beatles' concert would mean to both the Sahara and Las Vegas.

In a 1989 interview with newspaper columnist Mike Weatherford, Irwin said "I'm the only one who seemed to have known about the Beatles, so I bought them."

Weatherford, in his book "Cult Vegas: The Weirdest! The Wildest! The Swingin'est Town on Earth," reasons that it was more likely that the hotels considered The Beatles an act appealing only to teenagers. Casino owners had seen the indifference Las Vegas audiences had toward an earlier teen idol. In 1956 Elvis Presley failed to capture the interest of audiences and critics when he performed at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino.

Whether it was foresight or luck, Irwin and the Sahara managed to secure the hottest ticket in Las Vegas when they booked The Beatles.

"I'd been thinking of putting them in our main showroom, the Congo Room, but it held just 600 and there was no way to get any more seats in the place" Irwin told John Romero in his book "Las Vegas, the Untold Stories." "I said, hold it, these guys belong in the Convention Center and I rushed over there to check the seating. They told me they could put 7,000 a show in the rotunda. I said that was still too small, and asked for the balcony too. They agreed and that pushed the total seating for each show to 8,408."

Crowd estimates range from 11,000 to 16,800 total for the two shows -- a record in Las Vegas at the time. Today, Celine Dion performs to an audience of 4,100 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace and only high capacity venues like the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mandalay Bay Events Center and Thomas & Mack Center can boast capacity of 14,000 or more.

"When I walked on stage at the Convention Center to introduce the first show, only four words left my mouth: 'Ladies and gentlemen, the --" and all hell broke loose," Irwin told Romero. "Like the rest of us from the Sahara who were there, I never heard a note. The screaming drowned out everything."

The Las Vegas Sun reported that the stage was surrounded by police officers and guards, some from as far away as Phoenix. The show was almost inaudible. A poor sound system and screaming fans drowned out the group as they performed their hits and songs of fellow artists including "She Loves You," "Do You Want To Know a Secret, " I Want to Hold Your Hand," "All My Loving," "Twist and Shout" and more.

Thirty minutes after taking the stage, the Fab Four were done, leaving the screaming fans in their wake. "I'll never forget a girl who came running down the aisle toward the stage," Irwin related to Romero in "Las Vegas, the Untold Stories." "One of our muscle guys picked her up and carried her out of the rotunda. Close behind her came a second girl who got the same treatment. As they carried this one out she kept screaming, 'Put me down you idiot. I'm her mother.' "

A few hours later, The Beatles left Las Vegas, never to perform as a group in the city again.

Book Online or Call 1-866-9 VEGAS 9 (983-4279)

THE KIDNAPPING OF FRANK SINATRA JR

Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped, at the age of 19, on December 8, 1963 at Harrah's Lake Tahoe (room 417). Sinatra was released two days later after his father paid the $240,000 (about $1,832,000 in 2013 dollars) ransom demanded by the kidnappers.

Left to right: John W. Irwin, 42, of Hollywood; Barry W. Keenan, 23, of Los Angeles, and Joseph Clyde Amsler, 23, of Playa Del Rey, Calif.

Barry Keenan, Johnny Irwin, and Joe Amsler were soon captured, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms for kidnapping, of which they served only small portions (mastermind Keenan was later adjudged to have been legally insane at the time of the crime and hence not legally responsible for his actions).

A rumor at the time was that Frank Sr. arranged this in an attempt to gain publicity for his son's fledgling singing career— FALSE
 

The kidnappers demanded communication via payphone. During one conversation, Frank Sr. ran out of money and was disconnected. Fearing never seeing his son again, Frank Sr. decided to carry a roll of dimes with him at all times (payphones at this time cost 10 cents). This tradition lasted the rest of his life. Frank Sr was buried with a flask of  Jack Daniels, his cigarettes, zippo lighter, and a roll of dimes..

News broke quickly in the aftermath of the kidnapping on a Sunday night, December 8, 1963. Frank Jr. had been snatched at gunpoint from a motel room at Harrah's Club at Lake Tahoe — a flashy casino strip in Stateline that straddles the border between California and Nevada, on the lake's south shore.
 

The suspects were dubbed "rank amateurs" by the prosecuting attorney. The country was still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November. Jack Ruby had shot and killed Kennedy's assassin on live television two days later, and the Sinatra kidnapping headlines followed less than a month after.

Jan & Dean

One of Barry Keenan's oldest friends was Dean Torrence of the Surf rock duo Jan & Dean. Keenan grew up as a rich kid in Los Angeles. He had met Frank Sr when he visited Nancy Sinatra (jr) when he was young.

Barry Keenan

"I knew Frank Jr. had been in boarding school and wasn't close to his father," says Keenan, who had never met this younger Sinatra. His drug-addled rationalization: "A kidnapping would draw them closer." Needing cash to fund the scheme, Keenan went to Dean Torrence, then flush from the hit single "Surf City." " 'I'll give you $500, because that's one of the most creative stories I've ever heard,' " Torrence recalls telling him. "I shrugged it off as a fantasy."

Really it was more like a circus....

THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF DOROTHY KILGALLEN

A TORTURED CREATURE

During her 35-year career as a gossip columnist, crime reporter and panelist on the weekly TV game show, "What's My Line?," Dorothy Kilgallen ("Dolly Mae" to her friends), was a fearless journalist who broke major stories, and was the only reporter to interview Lee Harvey Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby.

Her biggest case yet -- investigating President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and finding fault with the official story -- became the last one she ever pursued. She died mysteriously in November 1965, after being threatened, but the cops never probed further.

  
Thanks to reruns on the Game Show Network, fans are still talking about Dorothy, including Larry King of CNN, and Dominick Dunne, who wrote about her in Vanity Fair. Now, shocking new information has emerged.
 

"Dorothy Kilgallen was a dear friend of mine. I'm writing a book now and I have a whole chapter on her. She was madly in love with Johnny Ray and Johnny Ray was crazy about her. The only woman he ever slept with in his life was her. To this day, the files are open in the New York police department on how she died. They never solved the case. 

MIDWEST TODAY WHO KILLED DOROTHY KILGALLEN?

They alleged that she died from an overdose of barbituates, but I know for a fact that she wasn't taking anything at the time. She felt like she was being poisoned. And I think that's what happened. Once she started writing the book on the Kennedy assassination, I think somebody came in there and poisoned her." Steve Rossi

Kilgallen appeared suspiciously "drunk" on What's My Line...

November 8, 1965, this talented but fragile star was found dead in her bedroom. She was only fifty-two years old. The medical examiner issued a report two days later that said Dorothy Kilgallen died of “acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication – circumstances undetermined.”

THE KILGALLEN FBI FILES

Ms. Kilgallen had been the last to interview Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. She told friends his revelations were shocking proof of a conspiracy that killed John F. Kennedy.

She died on November 8, 1965. Her autopsy report took eight days. She was 52 years old. Two days later Mrs. Earl T. Smith, a close friend of Miss Kilgallen's died of undetermined causes.

READ MORE ON RK

JACK RUBY CONSPIRACY 50 YEARS LATER
THE JFK ASSASSINATION: 48 YEARS AGO TODAY
ANOTHER JFK CONSPIRACY... SECRET JACKIE TAPES REVEALED 
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH: PETER LAWFORD 


"To anyone that actually believes Lee Harvey Oswald had anything to do with the execution of JFK.... "I am convinced Oswald did not fire a shot nor was he in control of anything...I don't believe he even knew JFK was to be executed that day...and you know, even if I play "devil's advocate" and say he was involved....the REALITY is ... Osawald could NOT have ordered the stand down of the Dallas PD, The Secret Service, the National Guard, nor altered the parade route... 

Oswald could have controlled the entire amerikkkan media to go along with the official and fairytale story of the Warren commission for the past 50 years, nor keep the Zapruder film hidden from public view for so many years, Oswald could NOT have caused ALL the deaths of the witnesses and accomplices in the murder of JFK, Ferry, Ruby, George Senator, Tom Howard. Gary Underhill Guy Bannister, , Dr. Mary Sherman, Roger D. Craig , Lee Bowers, Dorothy Kilgallen, Mary Pinchot, Malcolm Wallace, Lucien Sarti, Charles Willoughby, Thomas Davis, Richard Cain, Dave Yarras, Sam Giancana, Jimmy Hoffa, Roland Masferrer, Johnny Roselli , George De Mohrenschildt, Charlie Nicoletti, Carlos Prio and the list goes on and on. 

Could Oswald have appointed the members of the Warren Commission, could he have come up with the ‘single magic bullet theory”, could he have arranged for his own killing by Ruby… Could he have gone to Russia and then welcomed back into the US with a wife , without a debriefing, could he have unknowingly worked out of the same office as Guy Bannister, could he have hired men to impersonate him, could he have killed Tippit, could he be questioned relentlessly for hours by the Dallas PD and FBI and remain cool calm and collected , could he have been on the 2nd floor just seconds after allegedly shooting JFK on the 6th floor...too many impossibilities and too many coincidences...." - Guido Colacci

LAS VEGAS SUN: THE RAT PACK AND MORE

By Mary Manning

After the losing dice were tossed, a high roller sitting ringside and sipping a drink on the house could empathize with Frank Sinatra's song floating through the darkness of the Copa Room.

The Man, the Chairman of the Board, and his music made magic, helping people forget their troubles.

Those pangs of loss (lost cash or lost love) evaporated in an era when Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter and Joey came to the Sands, "A Place in the Sun,” on the Las Vegas Strip.

Casino Map 

As improbable as this elegant quintet’s launch in the desert seems, the Rat Pack attracted an avalanche of followers around the world in the early 1960s.

Although Las Vegas appeared on showbiz maps all over the country, the year 1960 vaulted the Rat Pack and Las Vegas into the spotlight as the Entertainment Capital of the World.

Between booze and broads, the Rat Pack became a legend as the best entertainment American audiences had seen or heard in the post-World War II era. The women who hung out with the Rat Pack were legend: Lauren Bacall, Juliet Prowse, Angie Dickinson, Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe.

Boomtown: The Story Behind Sin City

SMASH HIS CAMERA! RON GALELLA PAPARAZZO SUPERSTAR!

Just watched the documentary on celebrity photographer Ron Galella.  "Smash His Camera" Directed by Leon Gast. It was very interesting to me. Paparazzi photography is an "ambush" style of taking photos of famous people.

The word "paparazzi" is an eponym originating in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita directed by Federico Fellini. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso). In his book Word and Phrase, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian dialect word that describes a particularly annoying noise, that of a buzzing mosquito.

Stalking celebrities while they are going about their daily routines is the object of the photos.  Catching them with no makeup, smoking, arguing with a friend, is the ultimate goal.  That means they'll sell those photos for more money than posed photos. Kind of like the "ungettable get".

Ron's favorite photo

Ron was aggressive but friendly. A ot of celebs liked him. Jackie O hated him and was in court fighting Galella twice.  Marlon Brando hit him so hard he knocked out his bottom front teeth. Galella sued Brando and got enough money to fix his teeth. Note Ron's helmet while shooting Brando again!

The packs of photographers chasing celebrities has evolved into an Orwellian 1984 scenario.  Everyone has a video camera/still camera built into their phones. Celebrities are not the icons of yesterday like Frank Sinatra or Elizabeth Taylor.. They are plastic stars like the Kardashians. Manufactured for public consumption. 

The demand for photos has increased as the internet news has made the normal press slow and basically obsolete. The need for Ron's style of work has increased enormously and made much easier due to capturing clear images via digital cameras. As Ron used to have to develop his film manually...now photos are directly uploaded to the internet from cell phones.  So privacy for celebrities is rare...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY SINATRA!

Happy birthday to one of the 1960's hottest stars....Nancy Sinatra.. She took a ton of heat for not being very talented and riding on her Daddy Frank Sinatra's large coat tail. But take a look at these videos...she had something quite unique...

Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940) is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra.

In early 1966 she had a transatlantic number-one hit with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", which showed her provocative but good-natured style, and which popularized and made her synonymous with go-go boots. The promo clip featured a big-haired Sinatra and six young women in tight tops, go-go boots and mini-skirts.

Other defining recordings include "Sugar Town", the 1967 number one "Somethin' Stupid" (a duet with her father), the title song from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, several collaborations with Lee Hazlewood such as "Jackson", and her cover of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", which features during the opening sequence of Quentin Tarantino's (2003) hit movie Kill Bill.

Nancy Sinatra began her career as a singer and actress in the early 1960s, but initially achieved success only in Europe and Japan.

Sinatra also had a brief acting career in the mid-60s including a co-starring role with Elvis Presley in the movie Speedway, and with Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels.


In the late 1950s, Sinatra began to study music, dancing, and voice at the University of California in Los Angeles. She dropped out after a year, and made her professional debut in 1960 on her father's television special, The Frank Sinatra Timex Show:

Welcome Home Elvis, welcoming the return of Elvis Presley home from Europe following his discharge from service in the US Army. Nancy was sent to the airport on behalf of her father to welcome Elvis when his plane landed.

On the special, Nancy and her father danced and sang a duet, "You Make Me Feel So Young/Old". That same year she began a five-year marriage to Tommy Sands


Sinatra was signed to her father's label, Reprise Records, in 1961. Her first single, "Cuff Links and a Tie Clip", went unnoticed. However, subsequent singles charted in Europe and Japan. Without a hit in the US by 1965, she was on the verge of being dropped.

Her singing career received a boost with the help of songwriter/producer/arranger Lee Hazlewood, who had been making records for ten years, notably with Duane Eddy. Hazlewood became Sinatra's inspiration. He had her sing in a lower key and crafted pop songs for her.

Nancy's Website  Facebook

**NEW** SINATRA BOOK FOR CHRISTMAS!

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardiner

A new memoir by Frank Sinatra’s former valet recalls how the ratpack crooner would use him to break off relations with women on his behalf — often in most unpleasant fashion. Tony Consiglio writes in his posthumous memoir Sinatra And Me: The Very Good Years of several incidents involving Sinatra’s romantic interests which reveal a mile-wide vindictive streak in his former employer.

 In one such instance, Consiglio — an old high-school friend of Sinatra’s — recounts an evening where Frank was entertaining a young actress in Claridge, Atlantic City, who incurred his displeasure when talk turned to politics. When the lady in question returned to her room to slip into something more comfortable, Sinatra ordered Consiglio to go knock at her door with a plate of spare ribs and a special ‘message’ from his boss.

“I went to her room and knocked on the door,” he writes. “She opened the door wearing a beautiful light chiffon dressing gown over a transparent white negligee. She looked beautiful and ready for a long night. I told her that I was sorry to bother her, and that Frank had insisted that I deliver the spare ribs.

“When she reached out for the plate I hit her in the face with the ribs, sauce and all. I apologized again and went back to the suite. “Frank asked, ‘Did you do what I told you?’ I nodded yes.”

Not many people were allowed inside Frank Sinatra's inner circle. But Tony Consiglio was a boyhood friend of Sinatra's who remained his friend and confidant for over sixty years. One reason Sinatra valued Tony’s friendship is that he could be trusted: Sinatra nicknamed him "the Clam" because Tony never spoke to reporters or biographers about the singer.

From the early days when Sinatra was trying to establish himself as a singer to the mid-1960s, Tony worked with Sinatra and was there to share in the highs and lows of Sinatra's life and career. Tony was with Sinatra during his "bobby-soxer" megastar days in the 1940s, and he remained loyal to Sinatra during the lean years of the early 1950s, when "the Voice" was struggling with a crumbling singing and acting career—as well as his tumultuous marriage to Ava Gardner.

 Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak

Tony also had a front row seat to Sinatra's comeback in the 1950s, starting with his Academy Award–winning role in From Here to Eternity and a string of now-classic hit recordings. Tony's friendship with Sinatra allowed him to rub elbows with the Hollywood elite, including Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Kim Novak, Ava Gardner, and many others. It also brought him close to the political world of the early 1960s, when Sinatra campaigned for John F. Kennedy and then helped plan the Kennedy inauguration.

Tony was even at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts, when the election results came in. Sinatra and Me will shed new light on the real Frank Sinatra—from the man who knew him better than anyone.

ELVIS, FRANK, DEAN, CASINO AND OLD LAS VEGAS....

July 31, 1969 Elvis played Las Vegas and I like this gig the most as he hadn't started wearing those crazy white jumpsuits. Sorry folks but I have never liked those suits on E... Liked him best in Black Leather or in this black mohair suit in the photo above...

The coolest signs ever made were hanging on the Las Vegas strip in 1950's-1960's..sadly they are gone now..

The film Casino is one of my very favorite Martin Scorsese films.  I did a story awhile back on the real people/players of that film.  Here is a link to it.. Casino the True Players

Then I found a very cool old time Las Vegas photographs and 2 cool slide shows... The one below is colorful and quite historic...

This slide show is incredibly cool check the entire story.... Las Vegas Slide Show

The Rat Pack is my favorite of all Las Vegas entertainers...I did a story I love on Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.. ck that one out too if you are a huge fan like I am..

JFK, JUDITH EXNER, AND SAM GIANCANA

Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy

The rumored affair between President John F. Kennedy and Judith Campbell-Exner was revealed to the press around 1975.

JFK, Judith Campbell & Sam Giancana story // Daily Mail, September, 20, 1976

It was possible that the Republicans released Judith's name and information to discredit the assassinated president.

According to legend Frank Sinatra introduced Judith to JFK and also to Chicago Mob Boss Sam Giancana.

Supposedly Judith carried messages back and forth between the President and the mob. The reputed connection between JFK's father Joseph Kennedy and Giancana left the President in a really tight spot.

Judith Campbell-Exner

J. Edgar Hoover had Judith tailed to obtain information with which to black mail the Kennedys. In 1977 Judith wrote her autobiography as her name was revealed to the press anyway. It was amazing how the American public had no idea about this affair for over a decade. Now days there is no keeping things under wraps... Everything is public...

Exner has been treated unfairly by history. She never sought to capitalize off the fact that she was JFK's mistress. She kept this hidden for years. Jackie knew about her, of course. Once, when Jackie found a woman's pink panties in her pillow case, she turned to JFK in bed and said, "Would you find out who these belong to, because they are not my size?"

Although JFK was assassinated in 1963, it was not until 1975 that the identity of Exner was revealed. This happened when the Church Committee investigated the link which Exner formed between JFK and Sinatra's friends, including Mafia don Sam Giancana. Author Sam Sloane