Elmwood Casino | |
---|---|
Location | Windsor, Ontario |
Address | 2335 Dougall Avenue |
Opening date | May 8, 1946 |
Closing date | December 21, 1974 |
Owner | Al Siegel |
The Elmwood Casino, once known as the "Showspot of Canada," [1] was a nightclub situated on Dougall Avenue in Windsor, Ontario. [2] [3] [4] It was located not far from Detroit, just across the Detroit River. [5]
The Elmwood Casino opened in the mid-1940s and was open for almost 30 years. [6] Due to financial problems, owner Al Siegel voluntarily filed for bankruptcy and closed the nightclub in December 1974. [7]
Elmwood was major venue during its heyday. [8] [9]
Trumpeter Harry Gozzard was a member of the Elmwood Casino orchestra during the latter part of his musical career. [10]
Celebrities like Frankie Avalon, Sammy Davis Jr. and Sonny and Cher played golf at the nearby Woodall Golf Centre when they wanted to relax during their time away from performing on stage at the Elmwood Casino. [11]
During Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Tour of Canada in 1959, her entourage visited the Elmwood. [12]
The Brentwood Recovery Home subsequently opened (in 1984) in same building. [13]
Sammy Davis Jr. performed at the Elmwood several times during his career. Whenever he did, he would rent out the entire sixth floor at the historic Gotham Hotel, as was mentioned in Earnest H. Borden's book Detroit’s Paradise Valley. BlackPast mentioned in an article that Davis was on Gotham's guest list of prominent African Americans. [14] The Gotham was known as a safe and upscale hotel for African Americans. [15] The last hit Sammy Davis Jr. ever had was the song Hello Detroit. [16]
Young comedian Bob Newhart's act didn't go over very well during a one-week engagement at the Elmwood. He stated in a Mister Kelly's interview in 2017 that he "never got a laugh." Even though his comedic performances didn't bring the house down, Newhart still managed to speak well of the Elmwood audiences, stating, "They were very polite...Canadians...very nice." [17]
On April 15, 2019, Cher made a surprise appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. [18] Her primary reason for doing so was to promote The Cher Show. [19] Cher credits a three week engagement at Elmwood for turning around her career with Sonny; "the people hated us...I finally got so pissed off I turned around – like sometimes you do – and started to make the band laugh. And the band will laugh at anything." Soon after their Elmwood engagement, they took the new comedic concept to Vegas. [20]
Minsky's Burlesque performed at the Elmwood. A prom in particular that was related to a Minsky’s Burlesque performance at the Elmwood Casino was one that was intended to attend a Sammy Davis Jr. performance. But he had canceled and Minsky’s Burlesque revue performed instead, which was a dramatically different performance than a Sammy Davis Jr. one.. [21]
The Lindsey-Sapphire Dancers were the in-house dancers at the Elmwood. [22] They, along with comic magician Don Allen, were substitute performers for Diahann Carroll when she was unable to fulfill her July 1967 engagement obligation because of the chaotic conditions that existed in the city of Detroit during the Detroit riot. Carroll was rescheduled to perform at a later date. [23] [24]
As an example of what performers were paid at the Elmwood, Olsen and Johnson received $10,000 per week during their engagement in 1952. That’s equivalent to approximately $115,000 in 2024. [25] Tom Jones, one of the final entertainers to perform in the Ambassador Room at the Elmwood, was paid $10,000 per show during his engagement in 1972. There was a $10 cover charge for that show. [26]
Entertainers who performed at the Elmwood. [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63]
Music for dancing and accompaniment for some of the performers at the Elmwood was supplied by The Ambassadors, the in-house orchestra that was led by the orchestra leader Jack Madden. [64] [65] [66] [67] During his four years of service in the Canadian army (World War II), Madden wrote, produced and directed Fun Fatigues. The show was presented to 200,000 Canadian troops stationed in France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. In addition to entertaining troops overseas during the war, Madden’s band also played at army bases across Canada. When the war ended he created his own orchestra. [68] Madden, originally from Toronto, married his wife Phyllis and moved to Windsor also after the war was over. He arrived in the Windsor area in 1935 with Rex Battle’s All Canadian Dance Band which was booked on Bob-Lo Island.
In 1938 Madden replaced Glenn Miller in the Ray Noble band when Miller left to start his own. Madden has also performed with Andre Kostelanetz, Paul Whiteman, Luigi Romanelli and Percy Faith. [69] During the summer of 1947, Madden performed at Chateau Lake Louise. Madden passed away in September 1990, at 77 years of age. [70]
Ed Nuccilli was the Elmwood’s orchestra leader from 1972 to 1974. [71]
Al Siegel, owner of the Elmwood and cofounder of the now-defunct Windsor Raceway, was a pianist for Bee Palmer during the 1920s. They were married on March 3, 1921, in Davenport, Iowa, while Palmer was on a Vaudeville tour in the Midwest. The secret ceremony took place "at a judge’s office in the local Masonic Temple." Palmer was a singer and dancer who was sometimes credited as the creator of the shimmy dance. [72]
In October 1921, Siegel filed a $250,000 lawsuit against Jack Dempsey, the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1919 to 1926. Siegel claimed that Dempsey lured Palmer away while she was with Dempsey on the Orpheum Circuit. [73] Dempsey denied the accusation. Palmer and Siegel separated for a time over this controversy. They later made up in February 1922. The lawsuit was eventually dropped after their short separation. Palmer later divorced Siegel in 1928. [74] He soon afterward got involved with Ethel Merman. Siegel was "her coach and accompanist." [75]
Siegel was in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 as a performer. He was in the ensemble in Here’s Howe. [76] He was also in the ensemble in Happy Go Lucky. [77] Siegel was a part of at least three recordings in 1924. He played the piano during the making of those records. [78]
Samuel George Davis Jr. was an American singer, actor, comedian and dancer.
The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic American hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent 56-foot (17 m) high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. During its heyday, it hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack and Jerry Lewis.
The Hollywood Palace is an hourlong American television variety show broadcast Saturday nights on ABC from January 4, 1964, to February 7, 1970. Titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace for its first few weeks, it began as a midseason replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show, which lasted only three months.
"The Candy Man" is a song that originally appeared in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the film. Although the original 1964 book by Roald Dahl contains lyrics adapted for other songs in the film, the lyrics to "The Candy Man" do not appear in the book. The soundtrack version of the song was sung by Aubrey Woods, who played Bill the candy store owner in the film. Anthony Newley sings the song on his 1971 album Pure Imagination.
The Business is a 2005 crime film written and directed by Nick Love. The film stars Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan and Roland Manookian, all of whom were in Love's previous film The Football Factory. Geoff Bell and Georgina Chapman also appear. The plot of The Business follows the Greek tragedy-like rise and fall of a young cockney's career within a drug importing business run by a group of British expatriate fugitive criminals living on the Costa del Sol in Spain.
Harrah's Reno is a closed casino hotel in downtown Reno, Nevada. It is owned by CAI Investments, which plans to renovate the building as a mixed-use development named Reno City Center.
The Circle Star Theatre was a performing arts venue in San Carlos, San Mateo County, California. Its name is based on it being a theater in the round, featuring a rotating circular stage with none of its 3,743 seats further than 50 feet from the stage. Unlike similar venues across the United States, the Circle Star Theatre stage had the ability to rotate in either direction without limit, thanks to the slip ring and brush system that supplied electrical/audio to and from the stage. The theatre's address was 2 Circle Star Way, San Carlos, CA 94070.
The Supremes at the Copa is a live album by Motown singing group the Supremes, recorded during their debut engagement at the prestigious Copacabana nightclub in New York City. Released in the late fall of 1965, At the Copa was the first live album issued by the Supremes, and the only live album issued by the group's best-known lineup of Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson.
Christmas with the Rat Pack is a 2002 musical album compiling Christmas songs by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.
Tourism in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan is a significant factor for the region's culture and for its economy, comprising nine percent of the area's two million jobs. About 19 million people visit Metro Detroit spending an estimated 6 billion in 2019. In 2009, this number was about 15.9 million people, spending an estimated $4.8 billion. Detroit is one of the largest American cities and metropolitan regions to offer casino resort hotels. Leading multi-day events throughout Metro Detroit draw crowds of hundreds of thousands to over three million people. More than fifteen million people cross the highly traveled nexus of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel annually. Detroit is at the center of an emerging Great Lakes Megalopolis. An estimated 46 million people live within a 300-mile (480 km) radius of Metro Detroit.
George Schlatter is an American television producer and director, best known for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, founder of the American Comedy Awards, and author of Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy.
American entertainer Cher has released 80 official singles, 24 promotional singles and appeared in 22 other songs. On the Billboard Hot 100, she has achieved: 4 number 1 singles, 12 Top 10 singles, 22 Top 40 singles and a total of 34 charted singles as a solo artist. Combined with the entries she had as part of Sonny & Cher: 5 number 1 singles, 17 Top 10 singles, 32 Top 40 hits and a total of 52 singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Copa Room was an entertainment nightclub showroom at the now-defunct Sands Hotel on The Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was demolished in 1996 when the Sands Hotel was imploded.
The Jackson 5, later the Jacksons, is an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and originally consisted of brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael. They were managed by their father Joe Jackson. The group were among the first African American performers to attain a crossover following.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge, known during development as the Detroit River International Crossing and the New International Trade Crossing, is a cable-stayed international bridge across the Detroit River, currently under construction. The crossing will connect Detroit, Michigan, United States of America and Windsor, Ontario, Canada by linking Interstate 75 in Michigan with Highway 401 in Ontario. The bridge will provide uninterrupted freeway traffic flow, as opposed to the current configuration with the nearby Ambassador Bridge that connects to city streets on the Ontario side. The bridge is named after Canadian ice hockey player Gordie Howe, whose celebrated career included 25 years with the Detroit Red Wings, and who died two years before construction began.
David J. Brazil is a Canadian politician from Newfoundland and Labrador. He represented the district of Conception Bay East - Bell Island in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly from 2010 until 2023. He served as interim Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador and interim Leader of the Opposition from 2021 to 2023.
Caesars Windsor is a casino hotel located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is one of four casino resort hotels in the Detroit–Windsor area and was opened in May 1994 as a temporary casino on the waterfront of the Detroit River. The current, permanent resort opened on July 29, 1998. Owned by the Government of Ontario, it is operated by Caesars Entertainment. Both the 1998 Casino Windsor and 2008 expansion were designed by WZMH Architects.
Bob Anderson is an American singer and impersonator of legendary celebrities.
Harry Roy Gozzard was an American jazz trumpeter. He first performed with Sam Donahue. Other members of Donahue's band included the former The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson bandleader Doc Severinsen, 1946 Esquire Award winner for Best New Female Vocalist Frances Wayne, Grammy Award-winning vocalist and actress Jo Stafford and popular music arranger Leo Reisman.
Al Siegel was a Canadian musician and businessman. He owned the Elmwood Casino, Windsor Raceway and the Blue Room in Toronto. Siegel was also the owner of a Canadian jukebox business.