Caesars’ showrooms owned title of ‘where it’s at’

The United States was just days into the invasion of Iraq on March 25, 2003, putting a damper on coverage of the new Colosseum at Caesars Palace and its resident headliner, Celine Dion.

The red carpet lineup had dwindled to the point where comedian Kathy Griffin spent a lot of time chatting up reporters. I’m convinced this opening night helped fuel her “D-List” branding that began the next year.

Williams, then 75, was not the star people were hoping to spot, and he made his way up the Colosseum steps with a minimum of fanfare. But if you thought back 36 years, to the reason why he had been symbolically invited back?

On the carpet (and in later conversations), Williams recalled the opening night of Caesars and being the first star in its original showroom, on Aug. 5, 1966.

“They started serving drinks to the guests in the lobby,” because the rooms weren’t quite ready to be occupied, he recalled. “The show kept getting pushed back and back and back. I went on around 11 o’clock and people were smashed. It was just a wild party. I came out and everyone was just yelling and talking.”

The only way to get the crowd’s attention, Williams recalled, was to begin an a cappella rendition of “Danny Boy.” “The audience shushed themselves and then I had them. It was the only way I could get them quiet.”

I seem to remember post-Celine cocktails in the Colosseum lobby. But I tell you man, that Saddam was a buzz kill. Still, the two entertainment venues at Caesars Palace are amazingly specific symbols for the new and old Vegas.

With Caesars celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend — including a planned private concert headlined by Tony Bennett, the rare star to have performed in both the Circus Maximus and Colosseum — it’s time to give both their due.

The Colosseum has wonderful sight lines, sound and comfort levels. Its rotation of concert stars created the quickly overused word “residency” and pushed the city’s entertainment thrust away from Cirque du Soleil and production shows. MGM Resorts is building its own version at Monte Carlo, and Las Vegas Sands is putting a large concert hall near the Sands Expo & Convention Center.

But you want to talk atmosphere? The Circus Maximus was to the Colosseum what driving up to the old Caesars — the fountains leading to that beautifully curved, glowing aqua hotel — was compared to playing bumper cars as you turn into the generically posh monolith the hotel has become.

The Circus Maximus offered two seating choices, based on how much you gambled or tipped the maitre ’d: A VIP booth where you made quick friends of the strangers you were about to play footsies with. Or rows of straight-back stackable chairs at long tables, requiring a coordinated chair tilt at the same time and angle for everyone to see the stage.

And just to do that one more time? I’d trade all the arm rests and cupholders in the world.

By the end of its run in 2000, I had seen some fun stuff in the old showroom Paul Anka once called “the heart and soul of the city,” one keeping up with its times: The classic rock of Chicago and the Moody Blues, comedians such as Howie Mandel and Jay Leno, even a few up-and-comers, including Tim McGraw and, yes, Celine Dion (in 1997).

Ah, but if you could turn on the time machine and go back? Here would be my Top 5 choices, in chronological order:

■ Woody Allen with the Xavier Cugat band, October 1967. Allen doing stand-up? In a place he surely hated? Count me in. And Cugie’s young featured singer (and bride) jiggled on to her own place in Vegas history. That’s right, Woody Allen and Charo were on the same bill.

■ Aretha Franklin, Redd Foxx, June 1969. Seeing the Queen of Soul on the heels of the “Soul ’69” album would be enough. But the extra enticement would be “blue” comic Redd Foxx just three years before “Sanford & Son,” when he was still known for his “party records.”

■ Tom Jones, April 1971. This is the stint captured on “Live at Caesars Palace.” A snapshot of Jones at his sweaty, lascivious peak, the banter with hysterical fans — “When are they gonna finish that dress?” he asks one — is as priceless as the churning versions of “She’s A Lady” and “Resurrection Shuffle.”

Frank Sinatra, June 1974. You could pick almost any night from Sinatra’s many years at “Caesar’s place,” and it was hard not to go with the 1968 debut of “The Noblest Roman of Them All.” But this one, soon after he ended his “retirement,” had him sharing the stage with my other favorite singer, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Count Basie band to boot.

■ Sammy Davis Jr., October 1977. You have to include the quintessential Vegas showman, but which show in his 10 years from 1975 to ’85? While I was lucky enough to see Sam Butera and Keely Smith at the Desert Inn in the ’90s, the fact that Davis and Butera had recorded the album “When the Feeling Hits You!” 12 years before makes me think this stint with them might have been extra special. Plus, one can only imagine Sammy’s outfits at the height of the disco era.

If you saw any of these shows, or ones you have even better memories of, drop me a line. I promise not to fire back stories about seeing Elton way back in ’03. In the meantime, raise a belated toast to Caesars at 50 and pray they never tear out Cleopatra’s Barge.

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjorunal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.