Marino marking milestone as Strip performer
Having often vacationed in Las Vegas as a kid, Frank Marino couldn't imagine anything more exciting.
But there he was, on opening night in the Riviera showroom, recognizing legendary faces in the crowd.
"It was overwhelming. Liberace, Sammy Davis Jr., Rip Taylor and Red Foxx," he said.
He is celebrating his 30 years on the Strip this weekend. It starts with a private VIP party tonight in a Caesars Palace suite. The anniversary show is Saturday at The Linq.
Talk about a show with legs.
He spent the first 25 years at the Riviera as the star of "An Evening at La Cage" and the past five at The Linq, formerly Imperial Palace, with his "Divas" show.
"I'm the longest-running headliner," said Marino, who makes a point of emphasizing "running." Others have performed on the Strip as long or longer but with breaks here and there.
"I'm very proud that it was a drag queen that had the staying power on the Las Vegas Strip," he said.
When he arrived here from Florida in 1986, recruited by singer Pia Zadora and her husband, Riviera owner Meshulam Riklas, Marino stayed at Blair House along what is now the Desert Inn Road arterial.
"The Riviera said I could live there, but I had two dogs and Blair House was the only place I could find that would allow pets at that time."
He turns 52 in November and has no plans to retire.
"I'll keep going until the audiences stop asking me back," he said.
Our interview was temporarily put on hold a few times when Marino broke away to order eyelashes through an assistant.
He is overjoyed that Diana Ross' daughter, Rhonda, is in town for his anniversary show.
Since his teens, Marino has been one of the biggest fans of the former Supremes superstar.
"I've seen hundreds of Diana's shows. I've stalked around the world," he said.
When KTNV-TV, Channel 13, invited him to be on the "Valley View" show Thursday for a one-hour version of "This is Your Life," Marino couldn't help himself.
"I brought in my own furniture for the set," he said. "It was very Barbra Streisand."
The scene and heard
Tao Las Vegas celebrates its 10th anniversary Saturday with a special performance by Sean "Diddy" Combs and his family. With the I-Heart Radio Festival in town this weekend at the MGM Grand Garden, it should be one of the biggest weekends of the year for spotting celebrities. ...
Zadora is back at Piero's Italian Cuisine on Fridays and Saturdays after a summer break. Showtime: 9 p.m.
This week in Vegas history
Sept. 18, 2011: Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars is arrested and accused of cocaine possession in a men's room at the Hard Rock Hotel, where he was performing. Charges are later dismissed after he completes court-ordered drug education classes and community service.
Sept. 19, 1957: The U.S. government stages the first underground nuclear test in a tunnel 100 miles north of Las Vegas. There is no mushroom cloud for tourists to gawk at, as in previous tests, but the seismic waves from the 1.7 kiloton explosion are felt in Las Vegas and up to 2,000 miles away.
Sightings
Millicent Rosen, daughter of mobster Benjamin Siegel, at the ribbon cutting for the grand opening of Siegel's 1941 restaurant at the El Cortez hotel-casino on Tuesday.
Mayor Carolyn Goodman performed the ribbon cutting.
The restaurant's menu celebrates the city's mob years with burgers named after Seigel's girlfriend Virginia Hill and mafia chieftains Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano.
The punch line
"Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is working on adding a 'dislike' button to its website. And I, for one, am very excited that finally people will have the ability to be negative on the Internet." — James Corden
Norm Clarke's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. On Twitter: @Norm_Clarke
