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Saturday, February 19, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Member of the DeCastro Sisters dies
By David Mirhadi
Review-Journal
Graveside services are noon today in Palm Valley View Cemetery, 7600 S. Eastern Ave., for Olgita DeCastro Marino, who, as one-third of the Latin-infused DeCastro Sisters, sang with Noel Coward and performed with George Burns during Las Vegas' halcyon days. She died Monday at age 65.
Marino, who was actually a cousin of Cherie and Peggy DeCastro, the other two members of the trio, joined the group in 1958 after another member, Babette DeCastro, retired.
The trio originally formed in Miami in 1945 as protegees of Carmen Miranda when the DeCastro family first arrived in the United States from Cuba.
Their sound featured three-part harmony in the style of the McGuire and Andrews Sisters, but with a Latin flavor. The trio traded lighthearted barbs on stage, with Marino acting as the feisty, sharp-tongued wit to Peggy DeCastro's funny, irreverent personality, explained the group's manager, Hollywood-based Alan Eichler.
The trio appeared throughout Las Vegas, performing at the Sahara and the Desert Inn during the hotels' earliest days. They headlined at the International (now the Las Vegas Hilton), the now-defunct Dunes and the Stardust, where Marino made her last public appearance with the group last October at an invitation-only concert for longtime Las Vegans.
"They were known as the Cuban Andrews sisters," Eichler said. "In the act, Olgita was always the tough one. They were like three Carmen Mirandas. If anyone knows Las Vegas history, that's what they are."
Marino performed despite suffering from asthma in her later years. With the pendulum swinging back to Latin acts and retro grooves, Eichler said the group was preparing to take on a new tack with their recordings.
"I was getting them out of the nostalgia acts and into the hip ultra-lounge scene," Eichler said.
Marino played with a young Bobby Darin in 1959, the same night her "sisters" shared a bill with George Burns at the Sahara. She performed with Noel Coward in his only Las Vegas appearance at the Desert Inn in 1955. Later, as a member of the DeCastro Sisters, she performed at the Sands with Louis Prima. Also among the hotels where the group entertained: the Flamingo, Caesars Palace, The Orleans and the MGM Grand.
The group scored its biggest hit with "Teach Me Tonight" in the 1950s.
"They were a tremendous hit, and people who know Las Vegas knew the DeCastro sisters," said fan and Stardust spokesman Jim Seagrave. "They were Las Vegas in the Golden Age. They kept the Latin trend way before it came back to popularity. It's very sad for those of us who followed Las Vegas in the '50s and '60s; a big void for those of us who were familiar with that kind of entertainment."
Peggy DeCastro said she hopes to continue recording and touring despite her cousin's death. "It will be so hard to replace her personality," said Peggy DeCastro. "She will be missed tremendously."
Marino is survived by a brother, Robert Perez, of Goshen, Conn.
Davis Paradise Valley Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
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Olgita DeCastro Marino
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