THE VOICE BEGINS TO SOUND IN LAS VEGAS
By Mahnuel Muñoz
In September 1951, Frank Sinatra took the stage at the Desert Inn Hotel-Casino, in his first performance in the city of Las Vegas, a relationship marked by music and passions that lasted until 1994. It has been said that , along with the legalization of gambling, nothing has generated more benefits for Las Vegas than the presence of Frank Sinatra.
Las Vegas came to Frank’s path at a very difficult personal and professional moment for him; His records were selling less and less, and his film contract with MGM had been abruptly broken. The man who had caused the great teenage sigh and a heart attack in Times Square just five years ago was living such a dark time that he tried to commit suicide in a Lake Tahoe hotel with an overdose of sleeping pills.
Las Vegas as a show-city was in its infancy: the Strip, in those years, comprised only five resorts; The Ranch, the Last Frontier, the Flamingo, the Thunderbird and the Desert Inn. But the city and the blue gaze poet were destined for great things together.
“In 1951 I was working with a trio at the Desert Inn when Frank performed there for the first time.” – says Bill Miller, Sinatra’s inseparable pianist – “Jimmy Van Heusen (composer) and Frank sat and listened to us for a while. Frank was having problems with his pianist at the time, so before his show ended, Hank Sanicola, his manager, asked me if I would like to work on Frank’s television show with CBS in New York. I said yes and I ended up working with him for over forty years!”
If the American public had grown cold regarding Sinatra, the Las Vegas audience welcomed him with warm enthusiasm, and it can be said that those shows were the prolegomena to his spectacular resurrection. A local Las Vegas publication wrote the following during their July 1952 shows:
“Frank Sinatra has filled the Painted Desert room (at the Desert Inn) every night, every concert, for his entire three-week engagement. Frank has a natural knack for comedy and is developing a great sense of timing for it. With these things , his undeniable talent in the art of phrasing, and an air of modesty, will remain at the top for many, many years to come.“
