Louis Prima

Louis Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the 1950s, and a pop-rock band in the 1960s.

I have seen him in Vegas over the years when on occasional visits to the city. A visit to Vegas always included seeing Prima doing his lounge ace. Sam Butera was also a bit part of his act, as was Keely Smith.

In the late 50's, maybe even the early 60's, the story we got was that he and Keely split up, he had a new singer, and he asked Bill Harrah if they could do the lounge at Harrah's in Reno, and work on their new act. He did, and for a while, almost every morning we would stop by Harrah's and see Prima, Sam and the new girl doing their thing on the small stage there. There were great shows, pretty much "impromptu", a lot of ad libbing, and a whole lot of laughter. They were as "entertaining" as any shows I saw while out there.

Prima was Las Vegas. To me, in those days, Vegas was the DI, the Desert Inn, we are talking in the 50's, remember. As I recall there was an :intimate" lounge, and we spent a lot of time there. I forget the entertainers, but they were little known "up and comers," and were giving 100% to entertain and get ahead. Really entertaining acts. I think we saw Prima here a time or two.

Everyone played the DI, then, it was Vegas. None any better though than seeing them in Rano.

Billy Ward

Anyone remember Billy Ward and the Dominoes? Clyde McFatter, Jackie Wilson?

Deep Purple, St. Theresa of the Roses, Stardust, Sixty Minute Man, were some of their hits, they had a number of them and I think Billy wrote a lot of them.

I got to know them when they played the Golden Hotel in Reno. In those days, blacks could entertain, but they were not allowed to "mingle" with the customers in the room. The Golden was a hotel, and let them have rooms in the hotel. Not many did that in those days. I remember Sammy Davis and his uncle did their show at the Mapes and had to stay in a motel way out on Sough Virginia.

On a number of occasions we had Billy and his group out for dinner, not too many restaurants that we could go to together. They always enjoyed the home cooking, they loved my fried chicken, mashed potatoes, pan gravy, peas and biscuits.

A friend of a friend saw Billy's picture in the Reno Entertainment Section and was interested in meeting him. I arranged to go up to their room at the Golden after their last show of the evening, so that she could meet him. Mixed relationships were frowned on in those days, blacks were not even allowed in the casinos yet, so a mixed relationship was frowned on and difficult to work out, and she had a young daughter from a previous marriage. I think they eventually got married and moved to California, last I heard of them.

I corresponded with a couple of the Dominoes after I left an came back to Ohio, but eventually lost contact with them. They were a good lounge act, played well to the audience, good material and acknowledged their friends from the stage. Always thought that was smart.

The Gaylords, The Vagabonds, Louis Prima, Sam Butera, there were a lot of great lounge acts in those days, I wonder what they have today?