Tapes of Vegas Shows by Sinatra, Others Emerge

In Las Vegas’ heyday, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams and Judy Garland ruled the famed showroom at Caesars Palace. As they belted out the hits, one man quietly recorded every song, every word spoken to the audience for almost three decades.

Now the recordings that few knew existed could be released on CD, taking listeners back to the famed Circus Maximus.

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Gilbert Cebollero moves the dirty dishes aside, sets up a tape recorder on a cafe table inside Caesars Palace and inches up the volume. Amid the clatter of dishes and conversation, you can hear Sinatra’s unmistakable voice.

For a moment, the Circus Maximus--the showroom that closed last year to make way for high-roller suites--comes to life.

The crowd whistles when Sinatra is introduced and breaks into “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Cebollero taps his hand on the recorder in time with the beat.

“I love it. I grew up with this,” he says, singing along.

Then Sinatra’s voice: “I haven’t been this hot since I went to the grand jury in Jersey.” The audience laughs and claps as the Chairman of the Board performs.

Another performance has Sinatra getting ready to sing “My Way,” written by Paul Anka.

“After seven years, it’s a pain in the ass singing it, but I’m grateful for the song,” Sinatra tells the audience.

Cebollero beams, knowing he has something special. The lunch crowd glances toward the music, unaware that he is playing history.

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“There are really no showcase rooms like this anymore,” said Ethan Crimmins, chief operating officer of Neon Tonic Records, the label for the taped recordings. “You can really feel these artists connecting with the audience in Caesars.”

Cebollero remembers hanging around backstage when the performers who shaped the city’s past played the 1,000-seat Caesars Palace showroom. His stepfather, Dave Rogers, often would bring tapes of the shows home and they would listen to them in the workshop behind the house.

“We’d sit back and crack up,” said Cebollero, now 43.

Rogers, who died in 1998 at age 66, was the sound engineer for the showroom, but few knew he was recording every performance, from 1966 until he retired in 1994. The casino didn’t know and, most likely, neither did the performers.

A pack rat with seven storage units to hold his sound equipment, Rogers figured the tapes would give him something to remember the showroom by when he left his job, his stepson said.

Eleven years ago, Rogers gave the tapes to Cebollero, a former craps dealer who figured they would be worth money and be his ticket to fame. He sent out samples to recording companies, but no one responded.

Finally, in 1999, the recordings stirred some interest from Hal Gaba, who has worked with the Sinatra family for years. Gaba is chief executive of Act III Communications, a media holding company; TV producer Norman Lear is the company’s chairman.

Gaba and Lear had been considering launching an Internet jazz radio site and figured the tapes would be perfect for it. They formed Neon Tonic Records to launch the Web site and, they hoped, compact discs featuring the voices from the showroom.

Then came the daunting task of labeling the tapes, something Rogers hadn’t done.

Armed with a list of every Caesars show, a Neon Tonic sound engineer listened to hundreds of hours of performances. Often the only way to date a performance was some reference to a political event, such as Watergate.

The tapes, some fragile, some with near-perfect sound quality, are being digitized as the company contacts performers or their estates seeking permission to release the recordings.

Neon Tonic said it has tentative agreements with several entertainers, including the estate of Sammy Davis Jr.

“Any time that we can bring Sammy to a new audience . . . it’s always good for the families,” said Jeff Lotman, chief executive officer of Global Icons, a Los Angeles entertainment company that represents Davis’ estate.

Lotman said his company and Davis’ family had no idea the tapes existed.

Robert Finkelstein, an attorney for the Sinatra family, said they are negotiating with Neon Tonic.

Park Place Entertainment Corp., the parent company of Caesars, has agreed to co-brand the CDs with the Caesars Palace name. Terms of the agreements with Cebollero, Caesars and the entertainers were not disclosed.

Gaba and Lear also purchased a label, Concord Records, to release, market and distribute the first CD this fall. The Internet jazz site is on hold while several CDs are planned.

“It’s an era of Las Vegas that really has been lost in many ways,” Crimmins of Neon Tonic said. “If you look at many of the people we hope to put on these compilations, many of them have no viable outlet for their music in the 21st century.

“This is a really great way to bring them back to the public.”

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Singer Andy Williams opened the showroom on Aug. 5, 1966, and figures he played it 20 times. Never did he think his songs were being recorded.

He agreed to let the performances be released so long as he could veto the ones he didn’t like. He also became an investor in Neon Tonic.

“I was surprised,” Williams said from his theater in Branson, Mo. “Who knew they were doing it?

“It’s kind of a funny feeling to think all the stuff you’ve done there, things have been recorded, things that I said.”