Suzanne Somers looking for a room for another Vegas residency

It’s 1980 once more for Suzanne Somers.

“I’m just an entertainer, looking for a room,” she says. “Got any takers?”

Maybe. Let’s start with a quick trip to the Strip for the annual Review-Journal Best of Las Vegas awards show.

Somers is the host and special guest for Saturday’s event, a rollout of the top 10 honorees from the R-J’s annual Best of Las Vegas awards edition.

Featured performers will include singer Clint Holmes, the casts of “Rock of Ages” and “Chippendales,” the vocal quartet Human Nature and “Sexxy” topless revue creator and star Jennifer Romas. Also set to appear are comics Carrot Top, Vinnie Favorito and Eddie Griffin, songstress Pia Zadora, comic magician Nathan Burton, R-J celebrity columnist Robin Leach and Vegas bon vivant Monti Rock III.

Somers hopes to use the show as something of a springboard to another Las Vegas residency. She has been actively seeking venues for her musical, autobiographical presentation.

Somers is an apt pilot for the Best of Vegas event, given her rich history as a Las Vegas performer. Her career was rejuvenated in 1980, at the old MGM Grand (now Bally’s), when her run as the daffy Chrissy Snow on the hit sitcom “Three’s Company” ended acrimoniously.

Somers was fired from the ABC series, the No. 1 show at the time, amid a contract dispute with the show’s producers.

“I was portrayed as greedy and ‘Who does she think she is?’ and was persona non grata in television,” Somers recalls. “It was quite a fall.”

Somers, among the best-known TV stars of that era, turned to the Strip to take advantage of her fame and recalibrate her career.

She and manager/husband Alan Hamel shopped a cabaret-style show to several Vegas hotels, none of which would commit to any engagement longer than two weeks. The couple finally turned to Bernie Rothkopf, the late casino legend who was founding partner of the Desert Inn and later a top executive at the MGM Grand who booked the Celebrity Room.

“I want a two-year deal for Suzanne Somers, and I don’t care what the money is,” Hamel famously offered Rothkopf.

“Nobody’s got a two-year deal. Why would you want that?” Rothkopf answered.

The strategy was for Somers to learn on the fly at the MGM, build momentum and chart a new career path.

It worked. Somers wound up performing at the hotel’s legendary Celebrity Room until the MGM fire of November 1980 shut down the theater.

“We did incredible business and my stage career was started,” she says. That residency led to another successful stretch in Las Vegas, a swift-selling, 2½-year run at the 1,800-seat Las Vegas Hilton Theater, and Somers lived in the city throughout the 1980s.

“I’ve been around, and it’s more than just being my age,” says Somers, who turned 70 on Oct. 16. “I’ve gained wisdom, and I’ve gained a lot of perspective.”

Somers is also still famous for her snapshot appearance as the mysterious blonde in the Thunderbird in “American Graffiti,” as the star of the late-’80s syndicated comedy “She’s the Sheriff” and, of course, as spokeswoman for the Thighmaster workout device. She even delivered Thighmasters to VIP guests at her most recent production in Las Vegas, her “Suzanne Sizzles” show at the Westgate Las Vegas.

That show ran from May through June of 2015, a bittersweet experience for Somers, whose performances were polished and fun and filled with classic numbers — “Pennies From Heaven,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” “World on a String” and “I Was a Fool (To Let You Go)” among them.

She joked about her ditzy roles, especially as Chrissy, narrating a series of clips of the braless housemate character jumping: “Chrissy jumps! Chrissy jumps again … and again … . This is when boobs were real, folks.”

She recalled her cameo in “American Graffiti,” where she mouthed, “I love you,” to Richard Dreyfuss’ character. “It took me one night to make that scene, and I made $136.72,” Somers said. “But when the movie aired on ABC, years later, it’s “American Graffiti,” starring Suzanne Somers!’ ”

Somers clearly had a great time on stage in her “Sizzles” production. “I got a really good feel of how to work a crowd, how to understand if people were there after a long flight or were dragged there by their wives,” she says, laughing. “What is the energy of the room? I got good at reading it. That was the art form for me.”

But away from the theater, she clashed with hotel officials over marketing strategy soon after the show opened. She spent two months on stage, then departed for a scheduled summer hiatus. Somers never did return to the Cabaret. The show’s closing was instead announced soon after she left for vacation.

“You’ve got to team with someone who understands marketing and advertising, and they had slashed it to zero,” says Somers, whose ticket counts sagged soon after the show opened. “You can’t compete with Caesars Entertainment’s marketing with that strategy.”

Somers is now seeking venues from Caesars hotels or Wynn/Encore — Steve Wynn has long been a fan and encouraged her to return to the Strip two years ago.

“I’m looking for someone who will be willing to put on a show that can be a romantic evening,” Somers says. “I’m a romantic. I like to go on a date, you know. That’s the main thing — and an empty room. I would love that.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in the A section and Friday in Neon. He also hosts “Kats! On The Radio” at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on KUNV-FM, 91.5, and appears at 11 a.m. Wednesday with Dayna Roselli on KTNV-TV, Channel 13. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter and @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.