Vintage Vegas
Explore Sin City’s music heritage of Elvis, Sinatra and Liberace.
Unless you’re Elvis, Las Vegas probably isn’t where you would look for the secret to a happy life. He didn’t just find it here, he wrote it down. On the back of a hotel postcard. Inside a glass case at the Hard Rock Hotel, below one of Elvis Presley’s handguns and the ubiquitous photo of the singer with Richard Nixon, is a postcard from the Las Vegas Hilton that was never mailed. He wrote his 12-word “Philosophy for a happy life” in block letters and signed it “E.P.” Eight months later, he was dead.
It’s nearly impossible to turn around in this town without spotting an image of the King — photographs, impersonators, murals, advertisements and neon signs (with shimmying legs) over wedding chapels. What’s rare, though, are actual artifacts and locations from Elvis’ history in Las Vegas, a town he helped define. He’s not alone.
It’s a city with more music heritage than most (there’s a reason it’s been called the Entertainment Capital of the World), but it doesn’t preserve its own memorabilia or the sites, venues and clubs where names such Dean Martin, Lena Horne and Bobby Darin made that history. There’s no money in it, apparently.
I was in town on a quest to answer the question: Is it possible to find and experience Vegas’ extraordinary music history here? Is there anything left? And what ever happened to the Beatles’ suite?
Nearly every singer or musician of note of the 20th century played a showroom or lounge in Las Vegas at some point, from Sophie Tucker to Louis Prima and Keely Smith to the Rat Pack to Barbra Streisand to Cher, Celine, Elton and Britney, and of course, the King. Performers brought in potential gamblers, and bigger names brought in bigger numbers.
But there’s little evidence left. The Sands is gone, as are the Last Frontier and the Dunes, and even the museum dedicated to Liberace, who helped define Vegas with largerthan-life showmanship, shut down in 2010. Last year, crews imploded the Riviera two weeks after its 60th birthday.
To be fair, there’s no shortage of general nostalgia. Drive north on Dean Martin Drive and eventually you’ll hit Frank Sinatra Drive behind the Mirage — where both merge into Sammy Davis Jr. Drive. It’s a Rat Pack intersection, although the spot itself bears no historical significance and the famed Copa Room disappeared when the Sands was imploded in 1996.
Standing in the actual footprints of Vegas’ musical giants, apparently, requires some creativity.
The best job at the Hard Rock Hotel belongs to Beau Dobney. As the exhibits coordinator, Dobney procures, keeps and displays the thousands of pieces of music memorabilia at the hotel and casino, from Johnny Cash’s guitars to Mariah Carey’s lingerie to the outfit Tupac Shakur was wearing when he was gunned down less than a mile away.
“I always say every piece that you’re seeing has a story, and I want to tell that,” he said. “It’s honestly my dream job.”
He admits, however, that there isn’t a lot on the walls that has historical significance specific to Las Vegas.
Dobney says he’s tried to address that, giving premium spaces near the front door to local heroes Imagine Dragons and the Killers — oddly, it’s only been in recent times that Vegas performers appealed to a younger audience.
It’s a collection related to local music history that probably ought to come with welder’s goggles. The Liberace Garage is an out-of-the-way gallery of the outrageous cars the famed pianist drove onstage during more than 40 years of shows here.
The vehicles were once part of the Liberace Museum that closed and are now on display thanks to space donated by the Hollywood Cars Museum, a trove of film and TV cars