Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame - Tribute Artist Induction

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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!