Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

COLUMN: Norm!

Friends of Buddy Hackett recall his comic genius

Buddy Hackett, shown in a publicity shot for an appearance at Ceasars Palace in 1986, died Monday in Southern California. SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL

Show business pals of Buddy Hackett mourned "a true giant" in the pantheon of Las Vegas icons.

"To me he was one of the top three monologists, they call them standup comedians today, he and Jackie Mason and Bill Cosby," said Jan Murray.

"And Buddy might have been number one," he added. "He was a true giant."

Hackett, the father of Las Vegas comedian Sandy Hackett, was found dead Monday at his Malibu, Calif., beach house. He was 78.

"He came with the bricks in that town," said Dick Martin, referring to Las Vegas. Martin teamed up with Dan Rowan to form "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In."

"He was a marvelous storyteller," said Martin, one of Hackett's closest friends.

"He'd call every day, and he would never say hello. He'd just start out `Two guys and a duck walk in a bar ...'

"I retired five years and I kind of lost my edge," said Murray, who often hung out with Hackett after their Las Vegas shows. "I felt I was losing it. The only thing that saved me was Buddy. I'd be dull as dishwater. But the minute I talked to him, he'd say something that would bring something out in me.

"We wound up screaming laughing. He brought it out of me every day.

"We were maybe beyond friends," said Murray, who lived so close to the Hackett beach home he saw the coroner's vehicle leave Monday. "This is a real brutal one for me."

He added, "One thing I'm sure of, if there is a place we were all go after this life, I'd like to think all those funny guys get together once a week: Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, the Ritz brothers, Danny Thomas. And Buddy will be right in the middle of them, making 'em laugh."

Steve Lawrence, a sidekick of Hackett during their early years in New York City and the Catskills, described him as "a wonderfully funny free spirit. He broke a lot of barriers and opened a lot of comedy windows for a lot of these guys to float through."

"Johnny Carson couldn't wait for him to come on the show," said Lawrence, from his home in Las Vegas.

Shocking people with his nakedness was a regular Hackett riff.

Lawrence recalled a celebrity golf tournament at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills. "We were golfing with Jimmy Demaret, the great pro. Buddy hit one in the woods and we kept waiting for him to come out.

"Finally he comes running out naked, screaming, `Locust! Locust! Get off the course!' "

Vintage Vegas

Longtime Las Vegan Fred Soskin read the mention in Monday's column of Frank Sinatra's altercation at Caesars Palace in 1970 and called to offer some finer details.

"I was a baccarat dealer at Caesars at the time," said Soskin, a local real estate agent. "I was five feet away.

"When Sinatra came into the baccarat pit, he had to declare whether he was playing his own money or whether he was shilling, sitting down and playing with the house money to draw other players. Whenever he sat down, within five minutes all four tables would be filled with players.

"This was between shows. He got lucky and won $50,000. When he got up to leave, he put the $50,000 in his pocket and was walking away. Larry Snow, who was the boss of the baccarat at the time, said, `Hold on a minute, Mr. Sinatra. When you came in you said you were shilling.'

"In these days, you had to be very careful because he was a walking time bomb.

"He claimed he was using his own money. He used some profanities. In the meantime they called Sandy Waterman, who was the main mob front guy who was running Caesars. He walked in the pit and pulled a gun out of his shoulder holster and put a gun to Sinatra's head and used some profanity in asking for the money back.

"Sinatra turned as white as you can imagine. He reached in his pockets and pulled out the fifty thousand, all wrapped up in rubber bands, handed it over and walked out of the pit area."

The Scene and Heard

The Sahara and magician Steve Wyrick's camp are nearing an announcement that his show will close Aug. 31. Wyrick is said to headed for another property. ...

Stephanie Piimauna knew her boyfriend, Spence, a morning deejay at KLUC-FM 98.5, was planning to pop the question. She just didn't know when and where, and more importantly how. It happened during the Scintas show at the Rio on Monday night. Frankie Scinta invited Spence on stage under the premise that he was known to sing on occasion. With that, Spence sang an original song titled "Will You Marry Me." Stephanie, who is the front desk manager at Bellagio, joyously accepted. ...

Correction: In Monday's article about "Dance Fever," it was erroneously stated that dancer Janet Johnson went on to marry hockey star Wayne Gretzky. Janet Jones was the "Dance Fever" member who married Gretzky.

Sightings

Carmen Electra, doing a photo shoot for People magazine at Tabu (MGM Grand) on Monday. ... Latin pop star Luis Miguel at Spago (Forum Shops at Caesars). ... Singer Nelly and girlfriend Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child at the Palms pool on Monday. ...

The Punch Line

"My mother's menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it." -- Buddy Hackett

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.