By Mitch Rice
The stories of Sinatra and Vegas are undoubtedly intertwined. The success of one is seemingly reliant on the brilliance of the other. Rising up together to become their own lasting legacies and with fame that continues to send their ripples around the world.
Sinatra’s career debut was in a 1941 film entitled Las Vegas Nights. He appeared as a skinny uncredited crooner, performing at the El Rancho hotel in Vegas. At the time, the stretch of Highway 91 that went on to become the Las Vegas Strip only had that one venue. A casino and showgirl theater had grown up in the 1930s to keep the workers constructing the nearby Hoover Dam entertained. Realizing that gambling could be a profitable business, the state legislature legalized gambling in 1931, and Vegas started its ascent to become the world’s gambling capital. Sinatra was fifteen at the time.
By 1951, when he first headlined at The Desert Hotel, his hay days appeared to be already thought to be behind him. He was thirty-seven and no longer regarded as a heartthrob. Moreover, his record sales appeared to be in terminal decline, and he was under attack from the press about his divorce from Nancy and remarriage to Ava Gardner.
However, in the new environment of the Copa Room, he honed his superstar talent, and his voice became the soundtrack to everything happening in Las Vegas. He crooned his way through Gershwin and Cole Porter’s songbooks, including ‘They Can’t Take That Away from Me’, and ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin.’ Frank Loesser’s ‘Luck Be a Lady,’ which Sinatra had performed as Sky Masterson in the Hollywood version of the musical Guys and Dolls, became every hopeful punter’s mantra.
Sinatra did not just perform in Las Vegas; he was at the core of the Strip’s ascendency and became a co-owner of the Sands, where the Copa Room was based. His style and showmanship helped to define the city as the go-to adult playground. No longer a wild west town for entertaining laborers, Las Vegas was firmly on the map as the home of world-class entertainment and luxury. The tawdry days of showgirls and cheap casinos were a distant memory.
His acting career took off as well as singing to sell-out crowds. In 1953 he won an Academy Award for his role in From Here to Eternity. He played Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls and starred alongside Grace Kelly in High Society. His collaborations with arrangers, songwriters, and lyricists created the swinging sound he brought to the Vegas venues and ensured that the city was the place for America’s high society to want to be seen.
Sinatra became part of a group of drinking mates known as the Rat Pack, centered around Humphrey Bogart and his wife, Lauren Bacall. Meanwhile, at the Sands, along with Dean Martin and Sammy Davies Jnr, Sinatra drew in bigger and bigger audiences. Their off-stage activities became almost as famous as their onstage shows. They enjoyed all-night parties and were well known for the pranks they pulled on each other. They made Vegas cool.
Sinatra’s career, which had appeared to be wobbly in the fifties, went from strength to strength. He performed successful album after successful album, and the hits got bigger and bigger. He recorded My Way in 1969, encapsulating exactly how he had done things. He refused to be weighed down by convention. When he had first started his friendship with Sammy Davies, Las Vegas was still a segregated town, but they were having nothing to do with that.
His relationship with the Sands ended in 1967 when it was purchased by the billionaire Howard Hughes. He cut off Sinatra’s credit, who retaliated by driving his golf cart through the hotel’s front window. Nevertheless, the newly opened Caesars Palace welcomed the star with open arms, and he became what could only be called an institution. Even when he released New York, New York in 1979 or sang that Chicago was ‘my type of town,’ no one was under any illusion that his heart was anywhere but Sin City.
The world of gambling might have changed. Some of the glamor may have receded, and people wander around Las Vegas in shorts and t-shirts. The black tie and formal attire are no longer statutory wear. Top online casinos may now be available for residents of several US states, and gambling regulation loosened in many others. However, Vegas remains an attractive and thriving resort and destination.
Visitors can enjoy all sorts of acts in the entertainment hubs and clubs. Many of Sinatra’s haunts are no longer there, but Caesars Palace still hosts some of the biggest names in pop music like Rod Stewart and Adele. There is a tourist tour and city map featuring his favorite places. He was, after all, associated with Las Vegas for over four decades. Sites to take in include the Theater Ballroom at The Golden Nugget Casino and The Golden Gate Casino. At the Golden Steer Steakhouse, there was a booth named after him because he was such a regular visitor. You can still book his table to this day. The Sands Hotel is no longer there, but visitors to The Venetian Palazzo are standing where it once did. How appropriate that this feature from the City of Love, is where the love affair began.
