Kerkorian was beloved throughout Las Vegas
Longtime Las Vegas lawman Ralph Lamb had just whipped a local brawler in front of the El Rancho Hotel when two prominent businessmen walked up.
As Lamb checked his knuckles, he recognized the two men. One was Beldon Ketelman, the owner of the El Rancho. The other was Kirk Kerkorian, who had big plans for Las Vegas after selling his major airline company for more than $100 million.
“Who’s the blonde kid?” Kerkorian asked.
On that day in the late 1950s, Kerkorian had found a kindred spirit in that tough kid.
Kerkorian loved a scrapper. In his early years, he was one of the top amateur boxers on the West Coast long before becoming one of the most influential figures in Las Vegas history.
Lamb, 88, was having a rough day when I reached him Tuesday at his home. His longtime friend, who turned 98 on June 6, died in Los Angeles on Monday night after a brief illness.
“I’d see guys try to pick a fight with him and he’d just smile and walk away,” said Lamb, who had a legendary run as sheriff from 1961 to 1979.
“He was a dear friend, a lovely guy,” Lamb said. “We rode horses together way back up into the Red Rocks.
“He’d always call me buckaroo,” Lamb said.
“He loved fights. We had a bet. He said, ‘You’re going to die before I do.’ I said, hell, they’ve already tried to kill me about 30 times.”
As Kerkorian’s reputation grew, Lamb had his friend’s back.
When Lamb got word that someone was “trying to sabotage” Kerkorian, the then-sheriff jumped in.
“They were stealing his mail so we rented a garbage truck and picked up (Kerkorian’s) mail to find out who was trying to hurt him. It was a pretty good piece of detective work,” Lamb said. “Kind of a Mickey Spillane thing.”
Kerkorian, a visionary who became known as “the father of megaresorts,” was a beloved figure throughout Las Vegas.
Ruth Coker, a longtime day manager at Ruth’s-Chris Steakhouse on Paradise Road, recalled a conversation with Kerkorian and his wife Jean in the late 1960s.
“I was a cocktail waitress at the Flamingo around the time he bought it.
“They came into the lounge one day late in the afternoon. I knew immediately who it was. They were very nice.”
When Coker returned to their table, Kerkorian said, ‘We were just talking that if we died and went to heaven what would we want to be when we came back. They said they’d like to come back as a cocktail waitress that looked like just me.”
Coker didn’t miss a beat.
“You know what I’d like to come back as? Kirk Kerkorian.’
“From then on they called me by my first name,” she said.
“He was always extremely gracious to everyone.”
Alda Lanzone, a longtime bartender at the Ruth’s-Chris location on Paradise Road, said she saw Kerkorian come in one night and take a table at the back of the main room.
“I mentioned to someone that we should put him in the V.I.P. room. He wouldn’t move. He didn’t want any fuss,” Lanzone added.
On rare occasion, Kerkorian had a special request.
He asked if he could borrow a cellphone from one of the managers, Jay Solamina.
“And he’d ask Jay to dial the number for him,” Lanzone said.
Las Vegas author Jack Sheehan got a sit-down interview with the media-shy Kerkorian.
“I was writing and editing a book called ‘The Players: The Men Who Made Las Vegas,’ ” Sheehan said in an email.
The book project was in 1993-94.
Bill Boyd of Boyd Gaming, a longtime friend of Kerkorian’s, arranged the meeting that took place in the office of Bob Maxey, then president of the MGM Grand.
“I took a (former Review-Journal) reporter named Dave Palermo with me.”
Sheehan also took a recorder and a notepad.
Kerkorian, dressed in jeans and a bomber jacket, warmly welcomed the journalists.
But after answering a couple questions, Kerkorian said he was “happy to talk about anything, but I couldn’t use the recorder or take notes.”
The wide-ranging interview went on for 90 minutes, with Kerkorian talking about his love for flying, his relationship with Elvis Presley and friendship with Howard Hughes.
When the interview ended, Sheehan and Palermo rushed to a coffee shop at the Tropicana and wrote everything they could recall.
“When the book came out about a year later, Kerkorian’s assistant called and said he really liked the chapter we wrote about him. What a relief!”
SIGHTINGS
Tommy DeVito, a founding member and lead guitarist of the Hall of Fame rock band The Four Seasons, celebrating his 87th birthday Sunday at the Italian American Club on Sunday with a group of 50 friends. Popping in to wish him a happy birthday was a trio of entertainers: Steve Lawrence, Frank Sinatra impressionist Bob Anderson and Dennis Bono, the star of “The Dennis Bono Show” at the South Point.
THE PUNCH LINE
“It was a beautiful weekend in New York. This is how nice the weather was: I went outside without sunscreen for about an hour, and I was elected to run the Spokane NAACP.” — Seth Meyers.
Norm Clarke’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 702-383-0244 or email him at norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. Follow Norm on Twitter: @Norm_Clarke
