What had happened is the first session that I did with Bobby, he gave me a song called “Heart.” I think he wrote the song. Do you mind if I ask who it is?” And he said, “It’s Gleason.”Ī: Oh sure. What happened is Jackie Gleason had been on hiatus and he was coming through Phoenix because he was going back on the air again, and Mr Chauncey called me at the Fremont Hotel and said, "Wayne, I’ve got this star coming through Phoenix tomorrow, and I have no idea who to get to entertain him would you come down and sing at a luncheon?"Īnd of course, I would’ve done anything for Mr. Q: Now how important was "The Jackie Gleason Show" in establishing your act beyond Las Vegas?Ī: That was my first break on national television. In fact, we had a couple of times that Marty Robbins came through Phoenix and saw our television show and stayed over a week so he could be on our television show and help us with ratings. Q: Wikipedia says the booking agent that got you to Vegas saw you on the Lew King Rangers show, but it sounds like he saw you on your own show.Ī: Yes he did. In retrospect, it was incredible training. When it was time to be onstage, you pushed a button and it revolved - and bingo, you’re on. A duo of two kids had to do six shows a night against groups that were six and eight in number, and it was a revolving stage, so there was no setup time or breakdown time. The group consisted of myself and my brother. Q: And that was the name of your group with your brother as well?Ī: Right.
Q: You said you were on a Phoenix TV show for five or six years. We were constantly working even though we were going to school. We did prom nights at West High School and Scottsdale and that type of thing. So I played pretty much every county in Arizona in that period that we were there, from the time I was 8 to 15. Lew King had a traveling show throughout the state and I did that also. We did a lot of shows at the different high schools.
That meant I would have to go out and stand on the street for the 20 minutes I was offstage.īut in Phoenix, we did all kinds of things. He’s just not allowed to be in the place he’s working" (laughs). So they got me a work permit, finally, that said, "Wayne Newton can work at the Fremont Hotel. Now, to work in a casino, you had to be 21 in those days. He called my parents and he said, "I want that kid to try out in Las Vegas." So my brother and I jumped aboard a Greyhound and went up to Vegas to audition. It was that television show that an agent from Los Angeles going through Phoenix saw and his name, believe it or not, was Bookie Levin.
Q: What kind of performing experience did you have here in Phoenix? So the priorities, I think, have been kept in a place that is pretty much uncommon for most performers. My show today, even, is based on what the people want to hear, not necessarily what I want to do. So I learned pretty quickly that if you do what they want to hear, they stay. Q: What do you think it was about the show you did that you were able to become the hottest ticket in Vegas?Ī: People, when they came into the lounges in those years, had to buy a 50-cent drink and they could sit there all night with that one drink. And thank God, there has always been a place for me. I go in the back door, do the show, and leave.īut I was driving down the Strip maybe a couple months ago, and there were things I hadn’t seen and names on the marquee that I had no idea what they do - and I thought Vegas has really changed, you know? (laughs). I pretty much have never been in the front door of any hotel. I think the population of Vegas in those years was about 70,000 people - which, of course now, it’s a totally different city with two and a half million people. I can drive down the Strip, which I rarely do because I always take the back roads to work. Las Vegas, when I got there, had seven hotels on the Strip. MORE 20TH CENTURY ARIZONA: Where is Mary Jo West now? Then, when we knew we were gonna be there longer, of course, we took one of the two cars that we had, which was a ’49 Studebaker, and drove up to Las Vegas and just really did the shows, went back to the motel, slept, got up, and went to work again. So they stayed in Phoenix and my brother and I had taken a Greyhound and come up to Las Vegas. He was an auto mechanic and then he worked at AiResearch, I think it was called. My dad worked actually two jobs in Phoenix. Q: What did your parents think of you kids living in Las Vegas at that age?Ī: Well, I really don’t think they thought it was gonna last. So we spent the rest of it on the motel where we stayed, and stuff to eat and what was left of it we sent home to Mom and Dad in Phoenix. And then when we got hit with the six shows a night, six nights a week for a year, that’s pretty much all you get a chance to do – eat, sleep, and work, you know? I think my brother and I made $500 a week, and $180 of that went to the musicians' union because we were from out of town.