Las Vegas Weekly

March 16, 2010 · 10 PM

‘CBS Sunday Morning’ profile catches Newton amid ever-changing hardships in his life, career

By John Katsilometes

WHICH WAYNE? Wayne Newton says there's only one Mr. Las Vegas.

Photo: Leila Navidi

A few months ago a production crew for CBS Sunday Morning was in town to report a profile segment on Wayne Newton. That was in early December.

To put it mildly, Newton's life has shifted immensely since early December.

Mr. Las Vegas has suffered family loss, family crisis, and fended off moving vans at Casa de Shenandoah seeking to claim his belongings to execute a court order won by his former pilot. The sight of moving vans in front of "The Ranch," even as they were legally permitted to be there, was jarring. I imagine at times Newton must feel like the Jackie Chan of Strip entertainers, karate-kicking back at individuals and episodes that have encircled his life.

The latest development, which overrides any other issue for the family, is that Newton's 33-year-old daughter Erin continues to make what those around her describe as a miraculous recovery from her HELLP syndrome-type condition she suffered during pregnancy a month ago. She has been alert and tending to her baby boy since awaking from a coma Feb. 22.

And all of this drama unfolded after the CBS crew left Vegas in the first week of December.

Nonetheless, the Sunday Morning piece well captured Newton's personality and disposition. (I was interviewed, too, and catch the profile piece linked here). The segment related an accurate canvassing of Newton's rise to stardom in Las Vegas, including an interview with him on Fremont Street in front of the Fremont Hotel, and an estimation by Newton that he's probably recited "Danke Schoen" 100,000 times onstage. It's a song he didn't particularly like in the first place. He was a country-western singer as a kid, but is still receiving royalty checks from Capitol Records for the song Bobby Darin handed him that changed his career.

Also telling was when correspondent Richard Schlesinger asked Newton how he came out of bankruptcy in the early 1990s. "I worked out of it," Newton flatly said. Newton's decades-long estrangement from his brother, Jerry, is mentioned, as is the infamous yarn about how Newton trekked to Burbank, California, to tell Johnny Carson that if he didn't stop with the Newton jokes in his monologue, Newton would knock Carson on his arse.

Newton hinting at retirement, too, made the final cut. He's not changed that tune since the show opened at the Trop in October. The crew also managed to capture rare footage of Newton driving his Rolls Royce on the Strip. This does not happen every day.

Newton's Once Before I Go production at Tropicana ends at the end of April. The hotel is undergoing a very obvious facelift, as construction crews have blocked off acreage on the casino floor to enact upgrades. Very loud upgrades, in some instances. Tiffany Theatre itself is due for an overhaul, in May, after Newton leaves. The other murmurs around the hotel are that Rick Thomas and his big-cat illusion show might well return to the Tropicana (he's at Sahara now) as Dirk Arthur departs. Maybe. It's all about change these days at the Trop.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

Share This