WEEKEND EDITION
March 19 - 20, 2005
There are legends, and then there are legends.
Keely Smith is a legend.
The 73-year-old vocalist will forever be linked to her late ex-husband, Louis Prima, a dynamic performer, trumpeter and singer known for such classics as "Just a Gigolo (I Ain't Got Nobody)" and "Jump, Jive and Wail."
Together they became icons of Las Vegas, beginning at the Sahara's Casbar Lounge in 1954 and ending with their marital and professional split in 1961 at the Desert Inn.
They weren't together long -- about 12 years from the time they first got together onstage. But what a decade that was; even though they didn't start the lounge scene in Vegas, they popularized it. Included in their legion of fans were such notables as John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Howard Hughes, Elvis Presley, Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart.
"That Old Black Magic" won them a Grammy, and Dinah Shore introduced them on her television show as "The greatest nightclub act in the country."
But their relationship was stormy. He was gregarious and outgoing. She was quiet and shy.
Prima died at age 67 after lingering in a coma for three years following an operation for a brain tumor in 1975. Smith, a native of Norfolk, Va., now lives in Palm Springs, Calif.
On April 12 her CD "Vegas '58: Today" will be released. The album will include some of the classics that made Prima and Smith legends -- among them "Just A Gigolo," "Buona Serra" and "I Wish You Love."
During a recent telephone interview from her home, Smith talked about her latest venture, her life with Prima and other topics.
Las Vegas Sun: Las Vegas will be celebrating its 100th birthday on May 15. You and Louis Prima were very much a part of the city's history. Is there any connection between the centennial celebration and the release of "Vegas '58: Today"?
Keely Smith: It has nothing to do with the centennial. I didn't even know about it. This CD was recorded live last year at Feinstein's (at the Regency) in New York City. I work there every year and they asked me to bring in the show "Vegas '58."
Sun: What's on the album?
KS: I just sing his songs. I tried it and it worked. There was such a great audience reaction that we recorded this CD live in June.
Sun: What does the title refer to?
KS: That was the biggest year Louis and I ever had. We started at the Sahara in November '54 and we worked there until 1960, when we got the big room at the Desert Inn.
Stardom changed Louis. I believe if we had stayed in the lounge we would have had a better chance of making it.
Sun: When did the marriage begin to fall apart?
KS: The last six months at the Sahara.
After we really became big he began to change, but I was too dumb to know how big we were. Either fame changed him or he was going through male menopause -- maybe if I had known about the changes men go through I could have weathered the storm, but I wound up sick over the whole thing.
Sun: Are you working on an autobiography?
KS: I started it about five years ago, but there were some things I didn't want revealed so I decided I had to wait for a couple of people to die before I finish it.
Sun: Before then what did you do? Were you a professional singer before you met Louis Prima?
KS: When I was 11, I became a regular on a Saturday morning children's radio program in Norfolk, "Joe Brown's Radio Gang." When I was 15 or 16, I began singing professionally, entertaining servicemen at local bases.
Sun: How did you meet Prima?
KS: The first time I ever saw him perform was in the summer of '47, when my stepfather drove the family to Atlantic City.
My brother, Piggy, and I were jitterbug nuts and we saw a sign that said, "Now Appearing, Louis Prima and his Orchestra." We went into the ballroom to see what was going on. We had never heard of Louis Prima before.
There were probably 150 people around the stage watching what was going on. I maneuvered myself up to the stage and there was this guy doing all these crazy things -- he was wonderful, hypnotizing. I couldn't take my eyes off him.
Sun: When did you finally meet him?
KS: Back home at Virginia Beach, near Norfolk, there was a club called the Surf Club and the gentleman who owned it would bring in a different big band each week during the summer to play on their outside dance floor. My brother and I told the owner that he had to invite Louis Prima to perform the next summer, and he listened to us, even though he had never heard of Louis Prima, either.
Sun: What happened when Prima came to town?
KS: Friday night the room was packed. Tangerine, the female singer with him, was very nervous and couldn't sing (that night). So he told the audience he was looking for a girl singer.
About 10 of us girls from the "Joe Brown Radio Gang" sang there on Friday and Saturday nights. On Sunday afternoon Louis had a tea dance. He invited me to sing a couple of songs and I sang "Embraceable You" and "Sleepy-Time Gal" and he hired me on the spot.
We left on Aug. 6, 1948. He didn't know it but I knew all of his arrangements. After I heard him in Atlantic City I bought all of his records and memorized them. He didn't have to teach me anything.
Sun: Where did you and Louis perform in the early years?
KS: We were based out of New York. Mostly we played on the East Coast and Canada. Louis wouldn't fly, so we never went to Europe. We performed at a lot of colleges and on military bases, and all of the black theaters up and down the East Coast. We went wherever there was work.
Sun: How did you end up in Vegas?
KS: There came a time when the big bands folded. At one time Louis and I worked alone, using whatever bands were available in the towns where we played. Then he put together a small group.
At one point there was no work and I was pregnant, and Louis called his friend, Bill Miller, entertainment director at the Sahara, and told him we really needed help.
Bill said the only thing he had was two weeks in the lounge and Louis said we would take it. Me, Louis and his band hopped in five cars and drove across the country to Las Vegas.
Sun: You and Louis had headlined. Were you bothered by working in a lounge?
KS: We were happy to have a job -- but something happened that almost made Louis walk away: Cab Calloway was appearing at the Sahara and he came over to where we were sitting to say hi. Louis asked Cab to join us, but Cab said he couldn't because blacks weren't allowed to stay around after they finished their show.
Louis tried to get out of the gig. He would have blown the whole job, but when he tried to call Bill Miller, Miller was out of town.
We were the first to have blacks in our audience.
Sun: What were the lounges like when you arrived?
KS: The people in the lounges were there killing time. They weren't there to see who was on the stage -- but we changed it. The lounge at the Sahara became like a showroom; they hired a maitre d' and changed the name of the lounge to the Casbar Theater.
They realized after we were there a week that we were a show act, not just background music.
Sun: Were you an instant success?
KS: It took about a year, then when Capitol Records came along and we started recording, that started it all -- there were seven great years.
Sun: How did the fame affect you?
KS: I have always been very shy. During intermissions I would go into the lady's room and read a book. When Frank Sinatra came to see us, after the show I would say "Hello, Mr, Sinatra," and then go to the lady's room and read.
I didn't try to overcome the shyness. I just wasn't good at talking to people. I was comfortable within myself.
Sun: How could you be so open onstage, and so shy off?
KS: It was really weird -- even today. Something happens to me when I walk onstage. All the shyness is gone; all of it disappears.
Sun: When did the divorce happen?
KS: In 1961. When I put in for the divorce we had six weeks left at the Desert Inn in the big room. Louis wouldn't dress backstage, he wouldn't be onstage with me, except when we were doing the act. It was horrible.
We walked out of there and closed one night, and we were in divorce court the next day.
Sun: What did you do?
KS: I didn't do anything for over a year. I don't know where Louis went.
I stayed in Las Vegas until I remarried -- Jimmy Bowen, a record producer. We were married in '65 and then I moved to Los Angeles with him. I really didn't do anything for a few years -- just raised my two daughters.
Then Dinah Shore called me and convinced me to perform on her Chevy (sponsored) show. Then Joey Bishop had me on as his guest a few times and finally I decided in the early '70s to go back to work.
Sun: When did you last perform in Vegas?
KS: It's been 10 years or more. One of the hotels offered me a four-wall deal, but I'm not interested in that.
Sun: Would you like to perform here?
KS: I would love to come back to Vegas, but I haven't pursued it aggressively.
I put everyting in God's hands. If it's meant to be, it's going to be.
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