Question of the Day - 03 July 2024

If you attribute the reason for the disappearance of the late late shows to the corporatization of Las Vegas, you’re not far from wrong. The evolution of entertainment into a profit center for the casinos is also responsible. We asked two experts for their takes on the subject and this is what they said.

“That's an interesting one,” muses Cult Vegas author Mike Weatherford, “and I’m not sure there's any one answer. On the 'supply side,' the the entertainers always grumbled about how 'the bean-counters took over' and realized they could make as much money from the square footage with slot machines.

“While there is some truth to that, I'm sure the 'demand side' changed too, as tastes changed from acts' with comedy and shtick to Top 40 cover bands with dance floors,” Weatherford continues. “Perhaps it's no coincidence that the last venues and acts to hang on into the '90s were more of that nature, like Cook E. Jarr, Kristine & The Sting, or any of the bands that played the Mandalay Bay lounge that was near the bygone Aureole restaurant.”

“I don't have an official answer,” adds Michael Green, history professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, “but unofficially, I would say it's because they just didn't make money. Remember that when Don Rickles and Louis Prima were on all night in the Sahara lounge, they were entertaining gamblers and those were the cash cows. Today, with gambling less important to the bottom line than it used to be, the hotel-casinos are less likely to have those free or even very cheap shows.”

Sic transit gloria Vegas.