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Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra helped make the Las Vegas showroom a destination in its own right. His appearances at the Desert Inn, Sands, Caesars Palace and Golden Nugget connected several eras of the city’s entertainment history. The singer’s appeal rested on both carefully prepared music and the impression that an audience had been invited into his circle of friends.

Born in 1915, Francis Albert Sinatra reached a national radio audience with the Hoboken Four on Major Bowes’ amateur programme in 1935. He recorded with trumpeter Harry James in 1939 and became a major popular singer before establishing his Las Vegas career. His screen work gave that career another dimension: the Academy awarded him its supporting-actor Oscar for From Here to Eternity in March 1954. The film’s release in August 1953 had already helped restore his standing after a difficult period. By the time he opened at the Sands that October, a booking made during his downturn had become an appearance by a resurgent star.

Sinatra’s first Las Vegas engagement had been at the Desert Inn in September 1951. At the Sands, entertainment director Jack Entratter brought experience and connections from New York’s Copacabana to the Copa Room. Sinatra knew Entratter from that earlier nightclub world. The Sands became particularly associated with Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. UNLV’s collections preserve photographs and film of their performances, including the shows billed as Summit Meetings. Their mixture of singing, jokes and apparent spontaneity helped establish the popular image of the Rat Pack. The 1966 album Sinatra at the Sands also preserves the musical substance behind that image: Count Basie’s orchestra accompanied Sinatra, with Quincy Jones conducting and arranging.

After a dispute with Sands management in 1967, Sinatra moved to Caesars Palace. Later, his friendship with Steve Wynn brought him to the Golden Nugget, where he performed in a more intimate downtown setting. He continued appearing in Las Vegas into the 1990s; his final Las Vegas performance was at the MGM Grand on May 29, 1994. Sinatra died on May 14, 1998, and the Strip dimmed its lights in tribute the following night. His Las Vegas history therefore reaches well beyond one demolished hotel: it follows a performer through changing resorts, audiences and generations of musicians, while recordings and archival photographs preserve something of the rooms in which he worked.

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