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Interview With Laura Deni

Aired October 09, 2003 - 14:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now Siegfried & Roy's future notwithstanding, the trend in their adopted hometown is swinging away from wholesome entertainment. And we do mean swinging. Las Vegas' attempt to reinvent itself as a sort of theme park with gambling ended faster than a hot streak at a table. Coming back into vogue is the Sin City mystique that intoxicated that nation back in the Rat pack days of the '50s and '60s.
Watching it all Laura Deni, a 40-year Vegas resident and online writer, of course, of showbiz ups and downs. She was there in that era, she wrote about it, she met them. Take us back, Laura, and just tell us, first of all, about that sexy, sophisticated era of Sinatra and Elvis and the Rat Pack.

LAURA DENI, VEGAS WATCHER: Well hi, Kyra. Nice to talk to you.

And, yes, we are putting the sex back into Sin City. And during that Sinatra era you had a mystique that was sophisticate sophisticated and elegant. It was sort of -- elegance as I put it with a pallet chaser, that if you when the into Caesar's Palace, the Gourmet Room, you would have the goddesses rubbing the back of men's necks while you sipped a sorbet to cleanse your pallet.

And you can Cary Grant in at the Dune's Hotel with a suite that was named after him. You had entertainment that was geared for women, be it the man's wife of the girl du jour. And really the entertainment was foreplay.

And so that was a very sexy, great, sophisticated time in Vegas. And that changed then with the advent of the economy changing, with people coming into with RVs, with families staying together. And the town's going to go with whatever makes money.

PHILLIPS: That's what we saw, Laura. We saw the shift with the families all of a sudden coming. And then you saw Siegfried & Roy. You saw the animal shows. You saw Circus Circus. You saw the magic shows. Things were taking a big shift here, right?

DENI: Absolutely. That became the latest big theme very popular and very profitable. And Siegfried & Roy came from a very obscure specialty act in another show to develop this huge mega-glomerate show that has just been so fantastic for so many years.

PHILLIPS: This attack that has taken place on Roy Horn. Has it brought this shift to the surface once again and sort of shown -- what does it tell us? DENI: Well, it's not what is causing sex to become popular again in Las Vegas, if there's a time when sex isn't popular. But it's telling us this particular era is waning. There's nobody that will come along and replace Siegfried & Roy. It won't cause the cancellation of other shows, such as Lance Burtner or Dirk Arthur (ph). They're wonderful. Danny Gasner (ph), fabulous shows.

But we'll be taking a different direction. They're not going to be booking another Siegfried & Roy act in that room. I really hope people don't try to take advantage of any vulnerability that Siegfried, Roy or their extended family might be experiencing through this horrific event to try to manipulate them to do things that aren't in the best interest of Roy.

PHILLIPS: Laura, can the show go on? i guess we should say can Vegas continue? How will it be affected if Siegfried & Roy does not go on?

DENI: Not to sound cruel, but no star has ever owned this town. This town is built on gambling and massive entertainment. Sinatra, when he was alive, there were times that, believe it or not, old Frank had a temper and he would threaten never to come back to Las Vegas. You'd see front page headlines of can Las Vegas ever survive? Of course we could.

The same thing happened with Elvis Presley. If Elvis stopped coming here, the town would fall apart. Nonsense. Not to take anything away from Siegfried & Roy, they've been a vital economic force here. Wonderful entertainers. But there's no one entertainer that absolutely controls this town. They'll just be an entertainment direction shift as there is periodically.

PHILLIPS: Well you want the scoop or the trend on Vegas, Laura Deni has it. BroadwayToVegas.com is her Web site. Laura, thanks for checking in with us.

DENI: Oh, my pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 9, 2003 - 14:54   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now Siegfried & Roy's future notwithstanding, the trend in their adopted hometown is swinging away from wholesome entertainment. And we do mean swinging. Las Vegas' attempt to reinvent itself as a sort of theme park with gambling ended faster than a hot streak at a table. Coming back into vogue is the Sin City mystique that intoxicated that nation back in the Rat pack days of the '50s and '60s.
Watching it all Laura Deni, a 40-year Vegas resident and online writer, of course, of showbiz ups and downs. She was there in that era, she wrote about it, she met them. Take us back, Laura, and just tell us, first of all, about that sexy, sophisticated era of Sinatra and Elvis and the Rat Pack.

LAURA DENI, VEGAS WATCHER: Well hi, Kyra. Nice to talk to you.

And, yes, we are putting the sex back into Sin City. And during that Sinatra era you had a mystique that was sophisticate sophisticated and elegant. It was sort of -- elegance as I put it with a pallet chaser, that if you when the into Caesar's Palace, the Gourmet Room, you would have the goddesses rubbing the back of men's necks while you sipped a sorbet to cleanse your pallet.

And you can Cary Grant in at the Dune's Hotel with a suite that was named after him. You had entertainment that was geared for women, be it the man's wife of the girl du jour. And really the entertainment was foreplay.

And so that was a very sexy, great, sophisticated time in Vegas. And that changed then with the advent of the economy changing, with people coming into with RVs, with families staying together. And the town's going to go with whatever makes money.

PHILLIPS: That's what we saw, Laura. We saw the shift with the families all of a sudden coming. And then you saw Siegfried & Roy. You saw the animal shows. You saw Circus Circus. You saw the magic shows. Things were taking a big shift here, right?

DENI: Absolutely. That became the latest big theme very popular and very profitable. And Siegfried & Roy came from a very obscure specialty act in another show to develop this huge mega-glomerate show that has just been so fantastic for so many years.

PHILLIPS: This attack that has taken place on Roy Horn. Has it brought this shift to the surface once again and sort of shown -- what does it tell us? DENI: Well, it's not what is causing sex to become popular again in Las Vegas, if there's a time when sex isn't popular. But it's telling us this particular era is waning. There's nobody that will come along and replace Siegfried & Roy. It won't cause the cancellation of other shows, such as Lance Burtner or Dirk Arthur (ph). They're wonderful. Danny Gasner (ph), fabulous shows.

But we'll be taking a different direction. They're not going to be booking another Siegfried & Roy act in that room. I really hope people don't try to take advantage of any vulnerability that Siegfried, Roy or their extended family might be experiencing through this horrific event to try to manipulate them to do things that aren't in the best interest of Roy.

PHILLIPS: Laura, can the show go on? i guess we should say can Vegas continue? How will it be affected if Siegfried & Roy does not go on?

DENI: Not to sound cruel, but no star has ever owned this town. This town is built on gambling and massive entertainment. Sinatra, when he was alive, there were times that, believe it or not, old Frank had a temper and he would threaten never to come back to Las Vegas. You'd see front page headlines of can Las Vegas ever survive? Of course we could.

The same thing happened with Elvis Presley. If Elvis stopped coming here, the town would fall apart. Nonsense. Not to take anything away from Siegfried & Roy, they've been a vital economic force here. Wonderful entertainers. But there's no one entertainer that absolutely controls this town. They'll just be an entertainment direction shift as there is periodically.

PHILLIPS: Well you want the scoop or the trend on Vegas, Laura Deni has it. BroadwayToVegas.com is her Web site. Laura, thanks for checking in with us.

DENI: Oh, my pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com