Come and see Elvis and we’ll give you $50

So there we all were, ten days in Vegas, February 1974, West Yorkshires finest strolling up and down The Strip in our flannel suits and flat caps, attracting attention from the local police who kept stopping to ask why we were walking.

Flannel suits and flat caps were cast aside one day though when our dad and Uncle Ralph spotted an item of haute couture in a shop window and they both dashed inside to purchase of themselves a “jean jacket”, not an ultra cool demin jacket of the Levis type as modelled often by the likes of Steve McQueen, but a safari-style jacket made of cheap light blue denim of the type worn by Stewart Grainger in his 1950′s African safari type films, they thought they looked cool and so did many others for our flight home resembled a gathering of extras from “King Solomans Mines”.

Being just 17 years of age left me at a disadvantage on an evening though as the casino’s enforced a strict “Over 21″ policy, so evenings were spent in our motel rooms watching one of the seven TV channels, four more than we’d ever seen on a TV set anyway.

But our parents were not so restricted in their choice of evenings entertainment and they gallavanted all over town every night, the choice of free entertainment in the myriad of casino’s being something resembling an entertainment nirvana for our dad.

Of course the way it worked in Vegas was that the top acts in the world would play at a casino in order to draw in the crowds, who all had to walk through several rooms full of gaming machines, and the actual casino, in order to take a seat to watch said worlds top act, the hope being that in doing so these gullible members of the public would spend lots of dollar even before they reached their seat.

But the canny casino owners of Las Vegas had never hosted Yorkshire people before.
Yorkshire people, Scots with the generosity removed is how some describe us.

Our dad, Ralph and the two Joyces enjoyed the best of what Las Vegas had to offer in terms of entertainment in 1974, without feeling the need to place even ten cents in a gaming machine or roulette table, as far as our dad was concerned the entertainment was laid on for free as an act of extreme generosity, and so he received it gratefully.

When I say “the worlds top entertainers” we have to refine that description somewhat.

Vegas in 1974 was, how shall we say this, slightly tacky, sleazy even, advertising cards for prostitutes adorned every surface when you wandered off The Strip and the acts who appeared at the hotels and casino’s HAD been big names in the world entertainment arena, but were not necessarily big names anymore in 1974.

For instance right next door to our motel, Cass Elliot was appearing at The Flamingo, it had been seven years since her last hit with The Mamas and The Papas and she hadn’t been heard of since until she popped up in Vegas, just a few months before choking to death on a sandwich in a London hotel.

Right opposite The Flamingo was Diana Ross at Ceasers Palace, six years since her last hit with The Supremes and two years before her re-appearance in the popular music charts with her best selling “Diana” album in 1976, our Dad, Ralph and the two Joyces wandered in one evening to find Diana Ross singing vainly to a crowd of around one hundred in an auditorium that would comfortably hold two thousand.

And of course there was Elvis, all three hundred pounds of him, Elvis, six years since his nationally televised comeback concert, a comeback that had lasted a matter of months before a career as a nightclub singer beckoned, while we were in Vegas in February of 74 Elvis was playing for a month or so at the newly opened International Hotel and in common with all the ex-stars in Vegas was playing to anyone who wandered in to the auditorium from the gambling zones during his performances.

Going to see Elvis at The International was easy, you didn’t need a ticket, you simply wandered in and found a seat, stayed for as long as you liked then wandered out again, yes you were supposed to put some money in the gaming machines or on the roulette table but hey, these are Yorkshiremen you’re speaking of, if Elvis was appearing for free then free it was.

So our dad and Uncle Ralph wandered in one night to watch Elvis on stage at The International, the two Joyces having not bothered in favour of strolling around some shops. The two men sat for  a short while watching and a-listening to what had been one of the world top entertainers, then our dad leaned over and whispered to Ralph “He’s bloody rubbish isn’t he, lets go”.

They were both in agreement that they had seen better Elvis’s at their Meanwood Working Mens Club back in Leeds and so, clad in matching Stewart Grainger jean jackets, they left the hotel only for Ralph to bend down next to the taxi rank and find a $50 bill on the tarmac which, being of true Yorkshire stock, he quickly pocketed.

The night they went to see Elvis for free and earned $50 for doing so.