Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
No. 58 to be absent from NFR this year
NO. 58 is to stay in the stables at this year’s National Finals Rodeo. Not the contestant but the number assigned to any competitor in the annual rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center. Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Commissioner Karl Stressman said No. 58 is not being issued this year to honor those who died in the Oct. 1 mass shooting.
“We certainly felt for you in Las Vegas a few weeks ago when this happened,” Stressman said. “We were there two weeks after the tragedy, and it was so strange and powerful to be near that. So we decided we’re not giving away the 58 back number to show our respect for city we really do love.”
The No. 58 is to return to the NFR next year. Stressman, however, will not, at least not as commissioner. He is set to retire at the end of this year’s event, which runs Thursday through Dec. 16.
Run, Santa, run
With Wayne Newton as honorary chairman and Holly Madison as grand marshal, the 13th annual Great Santa Run flooded Fremont Street on Saturday morning. A little more than 8,000 participants, all in Santa costumes, participated in this year’s event, which again served as a benefit for Opportunity Village.
The number of participants was a bit lower than last year’s 8,803 mark but about on par with the 2015 turnout. Several groups that had planned to join in dropped out after Oct. 1.
“We are only 61 days out from Oct. 1, so we are calling it a huge success,” Opportunity Village President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Brown said.
Joining the morning holiday frivolity were Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and her hubby, ex-Mayor Oscar Goodman; members of the Chippendales at the Rio; “Fantasy” vocalist Lorena Peril; “Sexxy” vocalist Gabriella Versace; downtown Las Vegas Elvis tribute artist Jesse Garon; and the OV Elvi dance troupe under the direction of Vegas musician and singer Daryll Borges of Bee Gees Gold.
Service for Scinta
The public celebration of life service for Joey Scinta is set for 11 a.m. Dec. 22 at Shadow Hills Church at 7811 Vegas Drive. The comic force of “The Scintas” show, which still performs Fridays and Saturdays, died Nov. 17 of complications from a series of strokes.
A private ceremony for Scinta, who was 69, was held Monday at Palm Northwest Mortuary. During that service, Frankie Scinta turned to his brother’s casket and said, “I am sorry. I am not doing too well today. It’s easy to get up and entertain, but it’s hard to be up here and see that.” The Scintas continue their holiday touring schedule and are set to host a New Year’s Eve show at the Plaza.
Remembering Nabors
Las Vegas resident and famed actress Maggie Mancuso and Jim Nabors, who died Thursday at age 87, knew each other for more than 60 years. They performed together even before they were both cast on “The Andy Griffith Show” in 1960.
Memorably, they both sang at the Horn, a groundbreaking nightclub in Santa Monica, California.
“We had the same manager, Dick Linke, and we did shows together and premieres, things where we needed to be seen,” said Mancuso, who played Charlene Darling in “The Andy Griffith Show,” where Nabors became a star as hillbilly mechanic Gomer Pyle. “We didn’t get paid in money; we got paid in spaghetti sauce. But it was an important club that featured singers, real singers, Broadway-type singers.”
Nabors was certainly in that class.
“Jim was not only the nicest guy you’d ever meet, but he was a super-talented man,” Mancuso said. “He performed a great balance between his comic character and a singer with this incredible, operatic voice. There really was nobody else like him.”
As Charlene Darling, Mancuso portrayed the female singer in the bluegrass band that rolled into Mayberry about once per season as the show became a hit in the early 1960s. Aside from Ron Howard, famous as Andy’s son, Opie Taylor, the lone remaining cast member from “Andy Griffith” is Betty Lynn, who played Barney Fife’s girlfriend Thelma Lou.
“You know, I was only in five episodes,” said the 76-year-old Mancuso, who used her maiden name, Maggie Peterson, when she debuted on the series. “But after all these years, I still get fan mail. I get three or four letters a week, in the real mail, from Sweden, New Zealand, Germany. It just cracks me up.”