Casino Has Some Ace-High Draws : Normandie’s Intimate Showroom Attracts Big-Name Talent--and Fans

It’s nighttime at the 24-hour-a-day, “we never close” Normandie Casino in Gardena, and the action is beginning to build. Dozens of oval-shaped card tables are filling with players as the room buzzes with the slowly rising sound and energy of gambling enthusiasm.

Toward the rear of the large, open gambling area, a long line of people stands waiting patiently, oblivious to the sudden shouts of excitement that occasionally erupt from the gaming tables.

Their destination? The casino’s compact 275-seat showroom, to hear a concert by singer Nancy Wilson--an international star of jazz, pop and rhythm and blues for more than three decades and one who is rarely heard beyond such big venues as the Greek Theatre and the Universal Amphitheatre.

On a recent Saturday night, however, she has brought her songs and her musicians to perform two shows in the unlikely neighborhood setting of Gardena. Backstage, Wilson laughs when she is asked if she has ever even been to Gardena before.

“Can’t say I have,” Wilson says with a characteristically throaty chuckle. “But no problem. And this room is ideal for me. I love it. I’m a saloon singer at heart, and this puts me right in contact with my audience.”

She’s got that right. The showroom is a surprisingly snug venue for the appearance of such a major name act as Wilson. Its dual levels are arranged with dining tables on the slightly raised second level and long, narrow cocktail tables placed perpendicular to the stage on the main level. But no table is more than 70 feet from the musicians, making for the kind of intimate connection between performer and audience that artists of Wilson’s prominence rarely experience in large theater bookings.

“I really like the intimacy you get here,” she says. “It makes everything more mellow, with a warmth that you don’t always get in a larger room.”

Out in the casino, the waiting line finally begins to move slowly toward the entrance to the showroom. At the card tables, the players, intent upon their games, give little notice to the lingering Wilson fans. But it is their play--in a bewildering array of different games--that has made it possible for the Normandie to present such acts as Vikki Carr, Crystal Gayle, Helen Reddy, Dave Mason and Blood, Sweat & Tears over the last four years at ticket prices averaging $15.

“We used to have Vegas-style production shows,” says Mariana Tilton, the Normandie’s entertainment director and a former singer. “You know, a row of girls wearing G-strings doing high kicks, then a magician, then more girls, then a comedian. But four years ago we enlarged the room and gave it a first-class lighting and sound system and decided to try booking name acts.”

Booking name acts--for such low ticket prices--would be impossible without the revenues from the casino.

“Sure, we hope the guests will stop at the tables on the way out,” Tilton says. “But the bottom line is that we’re really underwriting the appearance of these wonderful talents because the showroom doesn’t have to pay for itself.”

As the doors to the showroom close for Wilson’s performance to begin, the action in the casino continues, as it does for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Two-thirds of the large gaming room is dedicated to poker in a myriad of different forms.

“We probably have at least a dozen different kinds of poker games,” says Steve Miller, one of four brothers who run the family-owned casino. “Texas hold ‘em, seven card stud, Omaha, high and low ball, and a bunch of others.”

But the majority of the high-stakes gambling--”the part that generates two-thirds of our income,” Miller says--is done in the remaining segment of the gaming room via what are called “Asian games”: Super 9 (similar to baccarat), pai-gow poker and two games invented by the Normandie, EO Eleven and Blackjack Joker (a kind of variation on blackjack).

The room’s ethnic and racial mix is incredibly egalitarian: Asians from every part of the Pacific Rim (noticeably present in the Asian games), African Americans, Latinos, whites, blue-collar types wearing work clothes, men in jackets and ties, women in dresses and in jeans. And the casino’s employees are similarly diverse, with a wide array of races and nationalities represented throughout the establishment.

“Believe it or not,” Tilton says, “we once had more than a dozen Eritreans working here.”

At the far side of the casino, in a raised area called the Red Dragon, bigger-stakes play moves into high gear. Despite the fact that wagers can swiftly soar to high levels, a few of the tables are so busy that almost every seated participant has a player standing behind, placing side bets on the same hand of cards.

“The betting in the Red Dragon can range up to as much as $40,000 or $50,000 in one hand,” Miller says. “And in a really large game, there can be as much as half a million dollars on the table at one time.”

As the Red Dragon games continue, comic Monica Piper finishes up her chatty, whimsical opening act in the showroom, and the curtains part for Wilson’s first show of the evening.

Working with her longtime trio of Llew Matthews (piano), John Lee Williams (bass) and Roy McCurdy (drums), she quickly confirms her feelings about the room’s potential for establishing an intimate connection with her audience. She sings a few tunes to warm things up, then pauses for a moment before announcing her next number.

“I started singing this song just before Sarah Vaughan died,” she says. “Then Carmen McRae passed away. And now this is my first show since Ella died. So this is for Ella--’Lady With a Song.’ ”

The audience listens in hushed silence, engrossed in Wilson’s deeply felt interpretation as the song arches to a poignant ending. As the echo of the last note reverberates to silence, they burst into applause.

Wilson follows with her trademark rendering of “Guess Who I Saw Today,” adding a touch of sardonic wit that contemporizes the somewhat outdated lyrics. Completely relaxed now, fully connected with her audience, she sits down on a stool and announces her next number--a brand-new song titled “Loving You, Loving Me.” “And I want my husband,” she says with a slight smile, “to listen to it closely.”

The set climaxes with a rousing, up-tempo romp through Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing,” in which Wilson playfully urges her musicians through their solo choruses. Before she leaves the stage, she moves to the apron, reaching out to shake hands and exchange greetings with her enthusiastic listeners. The intimacy, the warmth and the mellowness she sought are palpably present in the room.

In the casino, the gaming night is just beginning. The crowd that Tilton had described before the show as “moderate” in size has now nearly doubled to about 1,100 patrons. But they still pay no attention to the listeners departing from the showroom. And action in the Red Dragon area in particular is beginning to heat up, with chips representing enormous sums of money piling up on the tables.

Tilton’s hope that the showroom guests might stop at the gaming tables on the way out is largely unfulfilled as most listeners stream away to form another line at the valet parking stand.

“I didn’t really expect it,” she says with a shrug. Then, slipping into casino jargon, she adds, “The room doesn’t have to pencil out”--in other words, make a profit.

Miller puts it even more succinctly. “The Normandie showroom,” he says, “is a business expense. But it’s a business expense that we think is worth every penny.”

* The Normandie Casino and Showroom is at 1045 Rosecrans Ave., Gardena. Coming shows include the rock group America, July 13, and the Oak Ridge Boys, Aug. 2. Information: (310) 352-3428.