Wayne Newton

Wayne Newton came close more than once to joining George Hamilton among those celebrated chiefly for their public persona rather than ongoing creative output. He cut sides for the 1960s marketplace and landed multiple chart entries during that decade, yet his deepest renown stems from his long association with Las Vegas, where he once earned as much as one million dollars monthly and poured substantial resources into local property holdings.

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1942, Newton turned professional at six. After the family relocated to Phoenix in the mid-1950s he and his brother Jerry formed a rockabilly duo. While still preteens the pair appeared on a local television program; by the early 1960s they had shifted to Las Vegas for a five-year residency and had begun recording for both Capitol and George Records. Jerry left the act by 1963, prompting Wayne’s return to Capitol as a solo artist guided by Bobby Darin. His opening three singles performed strongly, the standout being the 1963 Top 20 smash “Danke Schoen,” which remained a fixture of his repertoire for decades. Only one additional single from the decade, “Red Roses for a Blue Lady,” reached comparable heights, and its parent album stood as his lone Top 20 LP.

Early in the 1970s Newton moved to Chelsea Records. Although the label supplied his career peak, the number-four single “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast,” he gradually redirected his energies toward his Las Vegas production once his voice deepened. Shedding the youthful image tied to “Danke Schoen,” he cultivated a polished persona as Mr. Entertainment and by the 1980s ruled the Strip. He collected more Entertainer of the Year trophies than any other performer, set the record for the highest-paid nightclub act in history, acquired the Aladdin casino, and still found time to earn an international prize for his foremost pastime, breeding Arabian stallions.

Even with vast wealth and celebrity—capped by a successful libel action against a 1991 NBC documentary that suggested mob financing had aided the Aladdin purchase—Newton filed for bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Lucrative engagements abroad quickly restored his finances, returning him to prominence. He has also made cameo appearances in several films, among them The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and Vegas Vacation.