Monday, 29 July 2024

Jack Entratter, Mr. Entertainment

The people who made Las Vegas special were not just the casino owners, the mayors the city has had or the entertainers who brought fame to the place, but those who understood and promoted Nevada’s capital as a center of entertainment and helped the city become the “entertainment capital of the world.” This article is about one of those people, Jack Entratter – Mr. Entertainment.

Jack Entratter

Early years

He was born in 1913 in New York into a Jewish family. Entratter began working as a teenager at the French Casino in Miami as a reservation clerk. Later, he worked as a bouncer at the Stork Club in New York (he had an imposing posture at 6’6″) in the 1930s. In 1940, he was an assistant to Jules Podell at the Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan, and later served as the club’s general manager. By 1949, he owned a controlling interest in the nightclub.

Arrival in Las Vegas

His background as an entertainment specialist and artistic talent scout caught the attention of Las Vegas casino owners. So Jack Entratter came to Las Vegas as a vice president of Sands in 1952 in charge as entertainment director and producer. His personal relationships with entertainers allowed him to book such stars as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Lena Horne, Jerry Lewis, Red Skeleton, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

The shows he produced were grandiose, with lots of props, sets and people involved in making them happen – from singers to dancers, orchestras and ancillary personnel. These imposing shows made Las Vegas famous as the “entertainment capital of the world”.

He became president 10 years later and held the position until Howard Hughes bought the hotel in 1967. He was credited with the first bookings of top entertainers in Las Vegas Strip casinos. He signed Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. among others for their first engagements.

High entertainment

Back then, the Sands was the most luxurious resort-casino on the Strip. He built the Copa Room within the resort, a nightclub created especially for Sinatra, with whom he was good friends. To understand the magnitude of the entertainment investments made in the Entratter era, the “Copa Girls” – the troupe of dancers who accompanied the various artists performing at the Sands at the time – were handpicked by him and wore $12,000 worth of costumes on opening night (equivalent to $138,000 today).

The investment in the big shows at the Sands prompted others to try to do the same. The city had become a stage in itself, artists were performing 3-4 weeks at salaries of $15,000-$25,000 or even $50,000. Many artists were also motivated to perform at the Sands by the percentages Jack was offering from the resort property.

The investment in turning Vegas into the “entertainment capital of the world” brought 14 million people annually to the metropolis. So Entratter was maximizing the value of tourists’ stay in the city; in Vegas you no longer came just to gamble, you came for the show.

Tomorrow’s stars, like Paul Anka, Frankie Randall and Diahann Carroll, were all present at Jack Entratter’s shows back then. A highlight during his tenure was the recording of “Sinatra at the Sands” – a live album by Frank Sinatra accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, arranged by Quincy Jones, and recorded live in the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1966.

Community Involvement

Outside of the entertainment industry, Entratter has been involved in the local Las Vegas community. He served as president of Temple Beth Sholom for several years and was also chairman of the United Fund, the Allied Jewish Appeal and the Better Business Bureau, as well as a director of the Foundation of Las Vegas Charities.

Personal life

He was married twice, first to Dorothy Entratter, who died in 1961, and with whom he had two daughters, and to Corinne Entratter Sidney, whom he married in 1967 and divorced twice before his death in 1971. One amazing thing was that he did not smoke, gamble at the casino or drink alcohol.

He was vice president (1952-1960,1967-1971) and president (1960-1967) of Sands and in the spring of 1971 he died of a cranial hemorrhage.

This in a nutshell is the story of Jack Entratter, the man who gave Las Vegas its undeniable glamour, for which his friends and those who knew him gave him the nickname Mr. Entertainment.

Sources: special.library.unlv.edu, Wikipedia, nytimes.com.





Author: Editor

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