Monday, August 15, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: King anything but calm at comeback

Elvis Presley died 28 years ago Tuesday at age 42. Mikalah Gordon has meet-and-greet Saturday. Tobey Maguire bought a luxury residence.

Elvis Presley was all shook up before his 1969 comeback in Las Vegas.

"He was pacing and sweating before the show," said Joe Esposito, Elvis' right-hand man for 17 years. "He hadn't performed live in eight years, and he remembered what had happened the last time he played Las Vegas.

"He was nervous as a cat, walking back and forth in a cage. He was beating his pencil on the table. His foot was shaking. When he walked out on stage, the crowd stood up for 10 minutes. When it was over, he was walking 3 feet higher. He was almost in tears."

Feeding off the energy of a celebrity-heavy crowd, Elvis took Las Vegas by storm after relaunching his career July 31, 1969, at The International, now the Las Vegas Hilton.

"He was so relieved that he was accepted again," said Esposito, now a casino host at Wynn Las Vegas. Elvis, who would have turned 70 in January, died 28 years ago on Tuesday.

At the time of his return to Las Vegas, scene of his worst flop, he had been concentrating on movies, doing 27 of his 31 films in the 1960s.

He opened at the New Frontier on April 23, 1956, and it was obvious early that the Las Vegas audiences of that era weren't embracing that parental nightmare called rock 'n' roll.

"The first time I saw him," Joe Kludjian, longtime owner of The Golden Steer, told me a few years ago, "there were six people in the whole goddamn barn. I didn't understand what the big deal was, this business about `You ain't nothin' but a hound dog.' "

Kludjian added, "The place was empty. All the white tablecloths made it look like a blizzard."

The Scene and Heard

"Spider-man" Tobey Maguire has purchased a 3,000-square-foot luxury residence at Panorama Towers, where pal Leonardo DiCaprio has a condo in one of the other two 400-foot towers under construction. ...

Local "American Idol" contestant Mikalah Gordon has an 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. meet-and-greet Saturday at Cavaricci's Salon, 1725 S. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 14, corner of Oakey Boulevard and Rainbow. ...

Waifish British model Kate Moss, the "Face of Calvin Klein" in the 1990s, is reportedly getting hitched in Las Vegas later this year. Her on-again, off-again relationship with her beau, headline-making rocker Pete Doherty of Baby shambles, is apparently on-again. ...

Treasure Island's Tangerine nightclub will be the site of a record release party Aug. 31 for Click 5, whose hot single, "Just the Girl," is No. 21 on Billboard's Hot 100. ...

Scores Las Vegas, a sister club to New York's Scores strip club, is planning a Sept. 21 opening in the former Jaguars building on Desert Inn Road. The announcement is being made Wednesday at New York's Scores, popularized by Howard Stern's radio show.

Sightings

Members of Boyz II Men, dining at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville on Friday night and later signing autographs while hanging out with the house band, Senergy. ... At Body English (Hard Rock Hotel) on Saturday: Mekhi Phifer, Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon, Shannon Elizabeth, JC Chasez, Taye Diggs, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Terry Kirby, Dash Mihok, Chris Masterson, Eric Balfour, Anthony Anderson, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Bow Wow. ... At the Bone Thugs and Harmony concert at Skin Pool Lounge (Palms) on Saturday: Robert Horry, Chris Kattan, Tommy Davidson, Brent Bolthouse, Jason Lewis, Bijou Phillips, Chasez, Balfour, Elizabeth, Prepon, the Masterson brothers and Phifer. ... Jamming with Kelly Clinton at the Stirling Club on Saturday night: Former Golden Nugget headliner Martin Nievera, Clint Holmes, Bill Fayne and his Three Tenors, Gordie Brown and The Scintas.

The Punch Line

"It all came down to who came from the smallest trailer. I didn't fit in." -- Las Vegas Irish troupe dancer Yvette Brown, on the two finalists, Jaret and Jackaay, on last week's NBC finale of "I Want To Be a Hilton"

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