David Cassidy in the News
Las Vegas
January 16, 2001
By Mike Weatherford
The Las Vegas Review-Journal
The apparent collapse of the Las Vegas Hilton's sale sparks a musical chairs game in Las Vegas showrooms. A number of "who goes where" questions may start to fall into place as soon as Wednesday.
The deadline for prospective buyer Ed Roski to come up with a payment to Park Place Entertainment is 5 p.m. today, a deadline nobody at Park Place believes the Silverton owner will make.
That creates a bit of corporate surrealism at the Hilton, where a parent company that's been trying to pull away and nudge people over to its Bally's, Paris, Flamingo and Caesars Palace properties now may be trying to nudge them back.
Richard Langlois, the hotel's head of marketing and entertainment, has spent six months with his hands tied in booking the 1,600-seat Las Vegas Hilton Theater and the smaller NightClub, headlined by lounge impressionists the Scintas.
With the Hilton out of the picture, Park Place's bigger plan was starting to become apparent: Move headliners from both the Hilton and the demolished Caesars' Circus Maximus to the theater at Paris, while a new showroom -- with Celine Dion as the prospective anchor tenant -- goes up at Caesars on the site of the old Omnimax movie theater.
If the Hilton comes back into the formula, Langlois says he has "new ideas about expanding the entertainment programs here. ... If we hadn't been in transition, of course we'd have been more aggressive."
And the Scintas may still be in consideration for one or both venues.
This is a plot twist, since their name keeps coming up to replace David Cassidy's "At the Copa" in the Rio's Copacabana room after the final show Sunday.
But the Hilton may not let them go without a fight -- or at least a counteroffer.
"Our position is that we have them under contract until the beginning of April," says Langlois, who doesn't sound at all broken up if that timing "may not be good for the Rio."
The Scintas were never able to meet with Roski, and Langlois was unable to talk to them about a contract extension "until we know who owns the hotel."
The group's agent, John Milkie, will only volunteer that "things are brewing," and that a decision may come in the next two weeks.
The Scintas going to the 720-seat Copacabana isn't a huge stretch; they worked large supper clubs in Detroit and Akron, Ohio.
The Hilton's big theater would be another story -- after all, there's more competition on the Strip than in Akron.
But thanks to group sales and good word-of-mouth, the Scintas sold enough tickets to move from the NightClub to the big room a few times during the summer. The hotel may be thinking of putting them in the theater on weeknights and closing the balcony; concerts are usually booked only on weekends anyway.
Langlois calls the multitalented siblings "one of the most successful first-year acts ever to hit Las Vegas." It sounds like the Scintas have a fan in the right place. ...
If the Scintas stay put, the Rio can always talk to Cassidy about his other show, "The Rat Pack Is Back." The Sahara recently extended the show again, but only until April 1. The extension also involves a 6:30 p.m. start -- happy hour? -- for the first show on Monday and Wednesday. ...
