Rome Swings" was the title of the show originally meant to be wrapped around star performances at Caesars Palace. Redundant it was, in both name and purpose. When you have the ultimate swinger and "Noblest Roman of Them All," as Frank Sinatra was once billed there, who needs the rest?
Veteran show producer Bill Moore remembers he and his late partner, George Arnold, got a huge break when an invitation to stage a production show at Caesars lifted them from the ranks of the Thunderbird and El Cortez.
They received "an unlimited budget and a very spectacular wardrobe" for the opening festivities headlined by Andy Williams on Aug. 5, 1966. But the show's only lasting contribution was the Roman-toga look that casino greeters sport to this day.
The Circus Maximus showroom instead became synonymous with the biggest names of Old Vegas, including Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Ann-Margret, Harry Belafonte, Woody Allen (yes, really), Cher, Wayne Newton, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Benny, Bette Midler, George Burns and Joan Rivers.
It was, Paul Anka noted when the showroom closed in August 2000, "one of the franchised names you look for in life and in business." Check out the album cover of Tom Jones' "Live at Caesars Palace" if you don't believe that whole decadent Roman thing went beyond the interior design.
So prestigious was a Caesars gig that comedian George Wallace wondered if he should retire after opening a Diana Ross show in 1981. "My ultimate goal in show business was to work Las Vegas. I got there the first year I started and almost quit, because I'd reached my goal," he explained years later.
He took a walk out by the fountains and decided, "I'm going to go back to advertising. Then I walked back through the door and said, 'Not.' " Now he sees the fountains from across the street at the Flamingo Las Vegas, where he is a resident headliner.
By the time Las Vegas had collectively lost its cool in the 1980s, Caesars flipped its strategy to think outside the showroom box and make the likes of Willie Nelson, Jay Leno and the Pointer Sisters into casino stars.
The casino also was among the first in the business to realize that the live music industry was changing, and that if you wanted arena-sized concert acts, you had to find a way to let them do arena-sized concerts. An Earth, Wind & Fire show in an outdoor stadium also used for boxing drew 10,500 people in August 1988.
The Broadway thing? Caesars did that, too. Tony Randall first performed "The Odd Couple" on the Caesars stage in 1967, the same year Theodore Bikel starred in "Fiddler on the Roof."
"It was an amazing experience to walk through the casino to see 'Fiddler,' '' veteran producer Hal Prince recalled recently. "I think you could eat. They weren't just show houses."
The casino continues to think big in the new century. The big deal of big deals -- a multiyear commitment from Celine Dion -- survived a series of regime changes and the launch of the Iraq war to open in the 4,000-seat Colosseum in March 2003.
It was followed by an equally impressive "Red Piano" exclusive with Elton John, setting the course for the possible futures of Rod Stewart, Cher and Bette Midler.
