A Rock Fight At Caesars Palace: Things We Lost in the Night, #0

By Larry J. Dunlap

The amazing experiences of a young rock band who finds themselves chosen to open a lounge showroom at Caesars Palace.  In 1966, a few months after Caesars opened its doors, rock and roll did not exist for the hotels in Las Vegas. It was unheard of for this most spectacular hotel in Las Vegas and the US to choose a band with the unlikely name of Stark Naked and the Car Thieves, new to Las Vegas themselves, who only weeks before were existing on salads trying to survive waiting for their big break in Las Vegas. A vivid description of Las Vegas in the mid-sixties and of stars like Sammy Davis, Debbie Reynolds, and many, many more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Claremont Village Press
• Release date: Sep 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393660804

Larry J. Dunlap

Larry J. Dunlap is the author of NIGHT PEOPLE, Book 1, and ENCHANTED, Book 2, of Things We Lost in the Night, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves. His short stories have appeared in: WRITINGS FROM INLANDIA (2012) and BEACH READS: HERE COMES THE SUN (2017). In the years following his memoir, Larry spent most of the 1970s in Hollywood as a personal manager, publisher, and Sunset Boulevard recording studio owner/operator. He also reviewed live-music performances in his column NIGHTWORK for AFFAIR Magazine and wrote and drew a music-based comic strip called FRETS for "Inside" Magazine. In the 1980s Larry co-founded the first all-digital broadcasting network, followed by a number years in video and film production, and post-production. Larry's professional writing career began as a pencil-for-hire, technical and training writer for Fortune 50 companies in the 90s. Larry's favorite project has been imagining a galactic empire with a detailed history and backstory. He designed the gameplay and delivery system and worked with his team to develop a breakthrough graphical multiplayer online strategy game, IMPERIAL WARS. Don't be surprised to see stories soon from this long-imagined universe in the near future. Currently, Larry writes from his home near the ocean in Southern California where he counts his blessings and shares his life with his wife Laurie and their Chilidog. Find out more about Larry and his writing at http://larryjdunlap.com Contact him at [e-mail]

Book preview

THE MOVIE STAR AND THE PATENT LEATHER BOOT

DECEMBER 1966

I COULDN’T MAKE out the figure moving below us through the blinding lights until...wait—holy crap! That’s Debbie Reynolds down there pulling on Dave’s leg!

Sing it, baby, sing it! she yelled. A broad, encouraging grin spread across her face as he stood braced, high above her, to hit the high full voice note near the end of our version of the Four Seasons’ I've Got You Under My Skin.

As Dave's ringing tenor swept high, and then higher into a dramatic falsetto run, she stretched on tiptoe to grasp the only part of him she could reach, his left pants leg just above a white patent leather boot. Laughing with joyful spontaneity, she shook it like a dog with a sock puppet.

Peeking through the audience before the show started, I’d seen her in the audience along with half the Rat Pack—Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and  Sammy Davis, Jr.—Bill Cosby, the Bobby Hatfield half of the Righteous Brothers, Sergio Franchi, Johnny Mathis, and twenty or more other Strip headliners and major film and television luminaries. I’d been shaking in my boots when the curtain went up and I wasn’t the only one. Debbie had been seated with her husband at an aisle table a few rows from the stage then, not bouncing around like a teenage girl at a rock concert.

Dave had to be as astonished as the rest of us when he saw who was tugging on his pants, but he just pushed his mic farther up and leaned back to let his golden pipes rip. Nero's Nook, Caesars Palace’s new mini-showroom, was filled with luxurious tiers of tables and two balconies designed to seat 250 people. Tonight, was standing room only, jammed far beyond capacity. We were one of six acts on the hottest ticket in Las Vegas in Caesars Palace’s first holiday season. Blazing light silhouetted everything beyond the stage except twinkling smoke-haloed cigarette lighters sparking like fireflies in an Indiana autumn evening. We basked in the exquisite connection we were sharing with an electrified audience. It hadn’t been all that long ago that we’d been battling just to survive in Las Vegas . . .

Leonard watched me stare in dismay at the little triangle of raised floor that someone in Honest John’s Casino