Hitting it big: Local singer’s Las Vegas gamble yields long career in spotlight

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Tommy Ronca enjoyed a 35-year musical career in Las Vegas and beyond, riding the wave of the once-popular doo-wop music craze. [Bryan Mordt]

During the latter stages of a three-year musical stint at The Fabulous Flamingo hotel and casino in Las Vegas in the mid-’60s, Tommy Ronca received a telegram just before his show was to begin.

The message, he says, contained words to this effect: “All entertainment on the Strip will cease until further notice.” It was signed simply, “Frank.”

“I’m scared,” Ronca recalled of the directive. “We were next up and didn’t know what to do. The Mills Brothers were also there. Everyone (at venues along the Strip) got the telegram.”
A second message a short time later brought relief. Also signed by “Frank,” it said: “All is well. Continue with your shows.”

The reason for the message, it was learned later, was the Sands Hotel said it would not let Sammy Davis Jr. stay there because he was Black. The person who threatened to shut down all entertainment on the Las Vegas Strip and then gave the all-clear after the hotel backed down was, of course, Frank Sinatra.

That is just one of numerous stories Province resident Ronca enthusiastically shared from a 35-year career in Las Vegas and beyond.

Today, he talks about the memories and changes as Sin City became one of the gambling and entertainment capitals of the world.

“Man, I was there, right in the middle of it all,” he reflected.

Maricopa’s Tommy Ronca spins colorful tales from his music career, from doo-wop on the East Coast to the early days of Las Vegas’ emergence as an entertainment capital. [Bryan Mordt]
Musical keys
The story begins, however, in Farmingdale, New York. Ronca, as second tenor, and four Long Island friends came together to form a doo-wop group known as the Sharptones and later the Fairlanes. One member was a C.W. Post College classmate of Steve Blaine, son of the head of Josie Records, a spin-off label of Jubilee Records. An audition led the record company to rename the group The Chaperones, with an initial recording of “Cruise to the Moon,” released in 1960.

The success of what Ronca calls a regional hit led The Chaperones to perform in various New York/New Jersey venues – and as backup singers for other Josie artists.

But the world of music was changing rapidly, and Ronca knew it.

“In 1963, I told the guys in my group that people are coming and playing instruments and singing at the same time,” like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and others, Ronca recalled. “Nobody is standing there with five guys just singing. I loved my doo-wop days, but even as a boy I knew doo-wop was going to end.”

Ronca learned to play bass guitar and became part of a dance band that played at the Peppermint Lounge on 45th Street in Manhattan, the go-to spot for the stars. It featured the Joey Dee and the Starliters’ version of “The Twist.”

Looking to advance his career, Ronca was advised by his agent to go to Las Vegas.

“We said we would do a show similar to the Peppermint Lounge,” Ronca said. “We built a group and went and got four dancers. It was a high-energy show, and we were young and wild.”

They auditioned in New York for a representative of The Fabulous Flamingo.

“I remember it to this day when he came up to me and said, ‘Tommy, I’ll see you at the Flamingo on Dec. 27, 1966,’” Ronca recounted.

“We opened up, and they just absolutely loved it. We not only had the girls, but we had the sound. We had something different, and we knew it. Las Vegas had nothing but dry microphones at the time. We had the Echolette machine. It broadened our harmony and gave us that echo sound, that big sound. Every other group came to see it.”

Hitting the right notes
The three years at the Flamingo were only the beginning for Ronca. He and partner Donny Lee Moore later produced and starred in a show titled “American Superstars at the Stratosphere.” The idea, he said, was singing impressions (in full costume) of a series of artists. The lineup went this way: Ronca as Wolfman Jack, Tom Jones and Little Richard; Moore as Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly and closing as Elvis Presley.

“We had eight dancers. It was the first topless show in Vegas,” Ronca said. “It was 1976 and Elvis was playing at The International Hotel. He came in to see the show. He came up on stage, looked at us and said, ‘Great show!’ The lights were all on and we were a nervous wreck. He asked how we ended the show and we said, ‘With your song.’ So, he sang (‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’) with us.”

Tommy Ronca’s Maricopa home is filled with memorabilia from his years as an entertainer as Las Vegas was morphing into one of the gambling and entertainment capitals of the world. [Bryan Mordt]
Elvis would die the next year.

Despite the stories of the singer’s struggles in his later years, Ronca remembered a vibrant entertainer. “Elvis was a really nice guy. He looked great that night. I met a lot of stars, but he was the biggest star along the way, at least of Vegas entertainers.”

Ronca related the well-known story of the hotel valet in Las Vegas who once complimented the singer on his beautiful red Cadillac. “Elvis gave him the keys and said, ‘It’s yours.’”

The list of singers and groups that Ronca met or performed for is seemingly endless.
“All the stars came around. They didn’t sit around if they were in town. The bar at the Sahara is where we all hung out together,” Ronca said. “Redd Foxx would do shows at 4 a.m. just for the entertainers.”

Steve Wynn was part of those Sahara get-togethers and became a good friend of Ronca, who shared another “only in Vegas” moment.

“We were at the Golden Nugget when Steve bought it (in 1973). We were playing the late show when Steve came behind the curtain and said, ‘Tommy, I just bought the place. No matter what happens, keep playing.’”

Wynn’s purchase was a hostile takeover. The musical performance was a distraction as he shut the place down and fired all the people, Ronca explained, before hiring staff back and reopening.

Wynn had obtained financing for the hotel from a bank, according to Ronca. Previously wary of the risks in the gambling business, the banks’ interest changed everything. “Bankers got involved and they were making money. Vegas went from one level to the next level when that happened.”

A growing Sin City
Wynn, of course, was only beginning a long run. He built The Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio before making a later comeback and constructing the Wynn and Encore properties.

[Bryan Mordt]
“Wynn is the one who made the Fremont Street Experience happen (downtown),” Ronca said. “At the Sahara bar, he would say I’m going to build the biggest hotel in this town, and everyone would say, ‘Aw, come on.’ You’ve got to give him credit. I was happy for him because he wanted it so bad.”

There was no shortage of other Vegas developments witnessed by Ronca. Among them:
He watched the luxurious Caesar’s Palace be built in the 1960s and saw Evel Knievel unsuccessfully attempt to jump the fountains outside the resort on New Year’s Eve 1967.

“Elvira’s Movie Macabre” was an early 1980s TV show in which actress Cassandra Peterson hosted horror movies and interjected comments and jokes. Ronca and Moore were ahead of the curve, doing a similar program in Las Vegas in the mid-1970s. They added to the movies with appearances from special guests such as Merle Haggard, Barbara Mandrell and Wayne Newton.

After tiring of travel with their musical performances in Reno, Lake Tahoe and Elko, Nevada, Ronca and Moore branched out, forming The Brothers comedy group.

Ronca saw many big-picture changes, too.

“When I first got to Las Vegas, the format was it didn’t cost very much to bring your wife or to go see the show. They wanted you to lose your money at the table. The ideology was that the casino pays for it all,” he said.

When the big banks became involved, however, “Everything had to make its own money. The sportsbook had to make its own money. The steakhouse had to make its own money. As the years went on, it became more corporate and less personal.”

For the people
On the musical side, Ronca is partial to the earlier days.

“Years ago, you had the real acts (in Las Vegas). Now, it’s impersonators,” he said. “I guess they don’t want to spend the money.”

Later in his career, Ronca produced several shows and served as entertainment director at the Tropicana in Atlantic City. He moved to Maricopa in 2005, left for a year in Florida, but returned in 2021.

A previous member of the Maricopa Parks, Recreation & Libraries Commission, he currently is part of the Volunteer in Police Services program.

“There are about 50 of us. We patrol the parks, Copper Sky. We’re there for the people,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Still one who enjoys various types of music, Ronca said his career was all about providing that musical enjoyment to others.

“In my mind, everybody’s talented. Enjoy it for what it is. I was never one who cared about pats on the back. If I helped you enjoy yourself, that’s enough for me.”

 

This content was first published in the December edition of InMaricopa magazine.