The Day Sammy Met Helen:
Destiny On Route 66
By The Desert Way with Jaylyn and John Earl thedesertway.com
I
T’S A COOL DESERT EVENING ON NOVEMBER 18, 1954, The young entertainer, along with his valet, Charles Head, and the day’s show is over at the New Frontier Hotel and are getting ready for an all-night drive to Studio City, near Los Casino on the emerging Las Vegas Strip. Still, the show must Angeles. The other members of the Will Mastin Trio approve of always go on. the trip and will wait for their youngest member to come back in a few days. The up and coming star of stage, film and television is up to the task. A Vaudeville performer since he was three years old, he is the consummate professional. So when friend and fellow entertainer, Tony Curtis, asks you for a favor, well, you don’t say no. The Will Mastin Trio is the headliner on the new Frontier Casino’s stage, with a contract going into 1955, but the show can’t go on without the youngest member. So, with due influence by a close friend, the Frontier will have other acts fill in until his return. Show business is like that. A few months earlier, when the young man wanted to stay at the hotel, he was turned away. The New Frontier allowed the trio to play, of course, but they drew the line The New Frontier Hotel and Casino, 1954-55 at having “Negro guests.” The movie was released in Naturally, Las Vegas is all about 1955, minus the song. 8
July 2023
PULSE PUBLICATIONS