Carme Pitrello Inducted Into the Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame

Sixty Years of Hits: Straight From the Horse's Mouth

The Plugger has been tooting horns for others for sixty years.  Its about time she tooted one for herself.  Yes.  The Plugger is a lady.  Well, a few ladies actually.  Jean Bennett began writing the Plugger in February 1954.  Gayle Schreiber took over for a few issues in 1986 and then permanently in 2004.  A couple of other ladies contributed over the years, but there has never been a fellow.  I guess in horse language it would be "a stud."

"Sixty Years of Hits: Straight From the Horse's Mouth" has been available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online since 2014. It includes press releases (Pluggers) on everyone from Liberace and The Platters to The Colts, Freddie Bell and a host of other stars.  

It is not a How To book or a story about a group.  It is a "How It Was Done" book.  Everything collected here was written in the moment it happened.  It's a back office look at how rock and roll and the promotion of many entertainers took place with, not only Pluggers, but office notes, correspondence and photos.  If you want to be a star, this is a book you'll want to read.  The only thing that has changed in promotion  over the years is you no longer have to duplicate, fold, stamp and mail.  All you have to do is hit the enter key.

Jazzin' Jeannie Brei and the Speakeasy Swingers

Perhaps it's giving the Plugger's age away by saying this was the most enjoyable evening of entertainment we've experienced in a long, long time, but this was a night filled with talented performers that are hard to find today.

Jeannie Brei is a fabulous singer who reminds us of what talent truly is and takes us back to an era when there was no such thing as auto-tune.  The girl can sing!  Charlie Shaffer on keyboard is an old friend of the Plugger, but that didn't influence the overall experience.  The guest performers Jeannie brought onstage also harkened back to the day when talent was king. . . . and a necessity to stand center stage.  If you're in Las Vegas on the first Thursday of the Month, make sure to stop by the Italian American Club.  It is well worth the $10 cover.

 

Coming up at the Italian American Club on February 28, 2015, Las Vegas Entertainment Hall of Fame inductee, Dondino.

Awards Show - January 28, 2015

Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame Awards Show

Bruce Commander Garrett, Dondino, Don Hill, Marty Allen, Karon Kate Blackwell, Gary Campbell and the Showgirls from Showgirls Across America

Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame Award Show 2015

First Inductees of 2015

The Mad Greek Café Welcomes the Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame

Mark your calendars and stop by the Mad Greek Café on Wednesday, January 28, at 2:00 p.m. when the Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame and Museum will induct six of Las Vegas’ most talented entertainers including two broadcast media personalities who have been spreading the story about Las Vegas entertainment for decades.  A donation of $10 at the door supports the Hall of Fame.  The menu offers fabulous Greek food and drinks at reasonable prices.

Being inducted into the Hall of Fame at this event are Brillo haired comedian Marty Allen who has been making people laugh for more than seventy years.  With over 400 television appearance under his belt, including following the Beatles on their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, Marty has been a headliner in Las Vegas “forever,” including a four year stint at Vegas World (Stratosphere).  Keeping audiences laughing in Las Vegas has rightfully earned this talented man his place among those who have made Las Vegas the Entertainment Capital of the World.

Karon Kate Blackwell has been headlining in Las Vegas for more than twenty years . . . but she never gets top billing because she plays straight woman to Marty Allen’s quick wit.  Karon, a consummate performer who sings, plays piano and captivates audiences at every performance, opened for Wayne Newton and played the lounges throughout town before joining her husband onstage.  This multi-talented artist has brought enjoyment to thousands and is best defined as a 5 Star Performer.

The Treniers were playing Las Vegas lounges in the 1940’s, and saxophonist Don Hill was playing with them.   Mr. Hill, who still delights audiences in Las Vegas after seventy years onstage, embodies the music, entertainment and soul that built the town.  His talent and longevity and those who took the stage with him are the reason the Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame was created.

Dondino, that’s just one name, has been delighting audiences in Las Vegas since the 1970’s.  There are few venues he did not play before they were imploded and before he settled in at the Four Queens for a thirteen year stint.  He deserted Las Vegas for a couple of years to headline at his own theater in Branson, but there’s no place like Las Vegas.  He’s home, and we’re delighted to have him back where he belongs keeping Las Vegas entertainment alive.

Without media attention Las Vegas would be nothing but a sandy spot on the road in the middle of the desert; therefore, The hall of Fame recognizes those who made it happen.

For forty years Gary Campbell has been spreading the word about Las Vegas entertainment.  Although you may not recognize his name, you recognize his voice as it is heard from one end of the state to the other.  For ten years he hosted Backstage Live with Gary Campbell and Connie Ross from Duisenberg Room at the Imperial Palace.  The show was broadcast on both radio and television as Gary and co-host Connie Ross interviewed a list of talent too long to name.

Bruce Commander Garrett dropped into Las Vegas a decade ago and immediately became an on air personality at Las Vegas’ oldest local radio station, KLAV.  For the first few years, the Commander hosted “Nights Over Las Vegas,” six nights a week.  Having stepped into a management roll at the station, he is now heard on Saturday nights as he plays great music and interviews local Las Vegas talent to let America and the world know what’s happening in Las Vegas entertainment.

Hall of Fame Inductees

The Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame does not have a physical home yet, but in February 2014, we realized how many of Las Vegas' fabulous entertainers were getting a little age on them.  We decided now was the time to honor them.  In February the first group of "old timers" gathered for a very small event at Skinny Dugans.  Those inducted were Jean Bennett for Lifetime Achievement in Media and Management; Robbie Robinison for Lifetime Achievement in Performance; Huck Daniels for Lifetime Achievement in Lounge Performance; Earl "Good Rockin'" Brown, for Lifetime Achievement in bringing jazz to Las Vegas.  All of the artists have performed on Las Vegas stages more fifty years of more.

Jean Bennett, as a manager and publicist, brought The Platters to the Moulin Rouge and Flamingo in 1956.  She moved the offices of Personality Productions to Las Vegas in 1966.  The Platters is the entertainment name on a marquee longer than any other - 58 years.  Jean booked them at the Four Queens for sixteen weeks a year for ten years.  They opened the Maxim and she put them on the stage at every major property in Las Vegas.

She also booked and promoted a many other opening and lounge performers including Bach Yen, The Kim Brothers, Scott Randolph, Anita McKune, and Two Cats and  Mouse.

Robbie Robinson began his career as a teenager working with The Platters.  But he has done it all.  In addition to being the original music director for The Platters, he also performed as a singer with various line-ups of the group over fifty years, and he has played his saxophone on just about every stage and club in Las Vegas with a host of other talented artists and is still working at it.  Robbie is what Las Vegas entertainment is  about. 

Like Robbie Robinson and Jean Bennett, Earl "Good Rockin'" Brown has kept people coming to Las Vegas for great entertainment for many decades.  It was Earl who first brought jazz to the lounges.  And it was Earl who brought  Huck Daniels to Las Vegas.

Huck Daniels has been a staple of Las Vegas entertainment for decades.  There is hardly a lounge he has not played with his exciting "Huck Daniels Review."  His was a show that left audiences wanting more.

If all of these inductees seem to be tied together somehow, they are.  This is Las Vegas.  This is where they have each made enormous contributions in creating the Entertainment Capital of the World, and at one time or another their paths have crossed.  They have worked together and filled our lives with music.

Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame - Tribute Artist Induction

POST TO THE PLUGGER FACEBOOK PAGE:

Many of you old timers have known the Plugger for years.  We've spread the word for dozens (more like hundreds) of acts in the last 60 years.  With the internet and things so much easier than typing, duplicating, folding, stuffing, addressing and stamping we would like to invite you to post your upcoming gigs to the Personality Plugger facebook page.  Anything you post will be picked up and posted to the blog.  So, please, feel free to let us help you get the word out.

THE LAS VEGAS ENTERTAINERS HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM:  

Paige Poole

The Hall of Fame has added a new category for induction.  In the last ten years a very important new group of entertainers has come to the fore in Las Vegas.  Tribute Artists.  From Elvis to Buddy Holly to Judy Garland, Roy Orbison, Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack - They're all here in Tribute keeping the great entertainers who made Las Vegas the Entertainment Capital of the World alive in tribute.

Jim Mann

The first induction into the Hall of Fame Tribute Artists Gallery will be held on Wednesday, June 25, 2014. at Skinny Dugans.  Inductess are:  Paige Poole (Elvis and Roy Orbison); Jim Mann (Buddy Holly); Denise Rose (Judy Garland); GP Entertainers (Rick James and many more) and George Burns.

Denise Rose

G P Entertainer

Dan Ward

Poetry

From Behind the Potted Plant, a Collection of Rhyme, Prose Poems and Teenage Philosophy, by Mimi Carr, is now available in paperback on amazon and Barnes & Nobel online.  It is also available on Kindle, Nook and Kobo e-readers.

Everyone Lies by Margaret Merdeith is available in paperback from online sellers.  This is a Romance/Suspense novel set in an upscale Las Vegas boutique.

"Susan Bliss has struggle for two years to get her life on an even keel after being held hostage by a crazed murderer in the stockroom of the upsacle Las Vegas boutique where she is the Promotions Manger.

She is beginning to feel she has as renewed grip on life when he fiance, store manager Scott Monroe, betrays her by running off with the boss's daughter.

When Scott is brutally slain on his return from his honeymoon, Susan becomes the prime "person of interest."  She must race to prove her innocence amid fear that her own life is in jeopardy.

Books and More Books

It's been a few months since we've heard anything on the Truth in Music front where it pertains to The Platters.  That doesn't mean that those who were/are legitimately involved with the group through Personality aren't still in court putting up the good fight. It simply means that there is a lull in the activity by the attorneys for those with nothing (except wannabes) to do with The Platters have slowed down on their Friday at five court filings - those wonderful people who get a kick out of trying to screw up the "good-guys" weekends.    

For the truth in all of this see "Sixty Years of Hits."  It's the truth because it was written as it was happening over the last 60 years.  For the back-story with some poetic license see "The Magic Touch," a screenplay about what went into creating the #1 group of the 50's - the group that outsold Elvis worldwide in the day - plus other groups represented by Personality Productions.

Taxed to Death

Las Vegas is the Entertainment Capital of the World.  Huh?!  It used to be, but the Nevada Gaming/Entertainment tax has killed live music in the casinos.  In the glory days of Las Vegas there was entertainment everywhere.  Seven days a week -twenty-four hours a day there was something going on somewhere.  I remember (centuries ago) seeing Kenny Rogers and the First Edition at the lounge at the Sands. There was no one in the lounge, but they played their heart out, and everyone in the casino listened and knew they were there.  Ten years ago there were bands that played the lounge circuit.  Monday nights at the Maxim talent night filled the entire casino.  The "showroom" at the Four Queens was actually a lounge.  The Platters played there sixteen weeks a year for ten years to a full room with people standing outside four and five deep to watch.  I was a "railbird" going from casino to casino hanging over the railing (most casinos had brass railings around the lounges) to watch amazing live performers. 

About ten years ago all of that came to an end.  I missed the music, but I didn't think much about why it had happened.  I simply assumed that the casinos had become too cheap to pay the entertainers.   Then a few months ago we called a downtown casino about doing an event in their meeting room.  The answer - not if you have live entertainment.  Why?  Because of the Live Entertainment Tax.  Live Entertainment Tax? What's that.  We found another venue.  They said . . . we'd love to have you, but NO live entertainment. We won't pay the taxes.  So we started looking into it.  It turns out the "new" gaming-entertainment tax isn't new. It was put in place ten years ago - when live entertainment disappeared in the lounges.  But it didn't just disappear, it was murdered by the State of Nevada.  For Las Vegas, a city where the economy has gone to hell in a handbasket in the last decade, this may be the dumbest tax ever.  In the good old days of Las Vegas when it was the Entertainment Capital of the World, people went to a show, and an 18%  tax was added to your bill.  That was fine.  But now . . . .

The Stratosphere charges a ticket fee to take the elevator to the top of the tower.  If they have live entertainment at the top, the elevator ticket has a live entertainment tax added.  Then there is live entertainment tax added to the food and drinks and any merchandise sold.  So how do you avoid the tax? Kill the entertainment . . . and the careers of all the entertainers in town who were here when Las Vegas was the Entertainment Capital of the World.

It's not simply that the State of Nevada shot themselves in the foot when it comes to one of the major draws for its cities that sit in the middle of nowhere, they have shot entertainers in the heart!  

Why should tourists come to Las Vegas if it's nothing more than a collection of two and a half miles of tall buildings with slot machines?  You can see tall buildings in any big city in the world - most with more architectural integrity than anything in Las Vegas!  If you want to drop your money in a slot machine, there's an Indian Reservation or River Boat within driving distance of anyplace in the country.  

People who live in Las Vegas talk about the good old days when the Mob ran the town - and ran it right. The corporate mentality of "it's about the bottom line" has killed a city where you used to be able to smell the money!   The dealers all knew your name at your favorite casino.  It was exciting.  Now it's ticket in-ticket out.  Nobody knows your name - or cares to.  Change people don't exist.  Cocktail waitresses can't make a living because no one has cash.  And the president of the country has told conventions not to come to Las Vegas driving a stake through the pocketbooks of cab drivers, hairdressers and bellmen who can no long make a decent living.

Nothing can be done about ticket in-ticket out or no one carrying cash, but there is one thing that can bring back some of the excitement and glory of Las Vegas . . . LIVE entertainment.  Get rid of the idiotic tax! Bring back the music.  Do something to make Las Vegas special, because not only is it no longer the Entertianment Capital of the World, it is no longer the Gaming Capital of the World.  That title goes to Macao - a half a world away.

Happy New Year - 2014

We're looking at a new year and new, exciting things happening around the old stable. Since we started the blog and dropped the web site, we haven't said much because we're working on "the book." "Sixty Years of Hits" has been available on e-readers for several months, but the goal to finish out 2013 has been to get it reformatted for paperback so more people have access. The book is a collection of writings, primarily by Jean Bennett, since the first Personality Plugger went out in February 1954. It includes office notes, correspondence and press releases and tells the story over sixty years of The Platters and other groups Personality Productions represented. We don't know if anyone outside the entertainment industry will find it interesting, but for those with an interest in how the #1 group of the 50s was built this is the first in a series of three.

Up and Coming events so far for 2014: Oneda Polk's Porshay Productions is sponsoring a seminar for both old and new entertainers: The entertainers guide to the Entertainment Business. The title as been changed from an "Entertainers Guide to a Cutthroat Business" because of Miss Polk's gentle soul. Jean Bennett and Robbie Robinson will be special guests, and I will be presenting the portion of the program on agents, managers, producers and public relations. This isn't a glossary of who they are and what they do but rather an insight into how they treat entertainers and what to can expect. Even if you've been in the business for years, there will be something to be learned at this event.

There will be many more exciting things in the future.  It looks like an exciting years.  Jean turns ninety-one  The Plugger turns sixty, and I turn . . . well, that's a deep dark secret.

Gayle

P.S. The most interesting and probably difficult thing to learn in the coming year is how to make corrections on this blog. We do apologize for the typos, lack of page breaks, etc. But every new step forward is a challenge, and the Plugger was a new was of communicating in 1954. Now it has to keep up, and that it will.

Howdy Pardner!

This is exciting.  I was "born" on February 15, 1954, with my high silk hat, record and baton.   Things sure have changed.  I started out being typed on mimeograph paper on a shiny new manual typewriter.  I had to be duplicated, folded, stuffed, addressed, stamped and mailed.  It took about a week to get sent out with a lot of help from my family.  My purpose was to promote music acts.  No one else was doing it at the time . . . at least not the way I did.  My my first issue was about Liberace, Lawrence Welk and Freddie Martin, and I was the first to get the word out on The Platters.

Over the years I've told you about some great entertainers including The Flares with "Foot Stomping," the Blockbusters in "Rock All Night," The Penguins with "Earth Angel," and Las Vegas entertainment icon, Freddie Bell.  It has been a long and interesting ride to say the least.  From that first mimeographed copy that went out in what is now called snail mail, I have been sent out on a teletype machine,  a fax machine, my own webpage, and now a blog.  I think the blog is the one I like best!  Type me, hit a button, and I'm all over the world - not just 500 copies to DJs and the juke box boys of 60 years ago.  How exciting is that!!

Jean Bennett was my "mother."  She dreamed me up and with her business partner, Buck Ram.  They designed my logo and developed the acts I would promote.  People who promoted music back then were called "pluggers," and Jean loved beautiful horses, but her father would tease her when she saw one she liked and say "That's nothing but an old plug."  That's how I got my name.  The Personality Plugger.

My look was pretty modern for the time - a high silk top hat, a record and a baton.  The kids today don't even know what a record is with iTunes, blue tooth and music downloads so I thought I'd better modernize my look.  I've still got my record, but how do you like my tat?

That's it for today.  I just wanted to introduce myself in this new format. I'll be back soon with the latest on what's going on in entertainment in Las Vegas - which is now primarily tribute shows and one night concerts.  See you later!