Fifteen years later, ‘Spirit of America’ show remains a Vegas benchmark

On this Veteran’s Day, we remember a benefit show held 15 years ago, where the unlikely lineup featuring Wayne Newton, Carrot Top and Rick Springfield joined to raise money, share the love and take a stand.

Fifteen years ago today, Nov. 11, 2001, 33 stars with at least a tangential connection to our city (Springfield was starring in “EFX” at MGM Grand, for instance) joined for “Las Vegas Salutes The Spirit of America.” The show was a benefit for the USO and swiftly arranged on Sept. 12, 2001, as the country was reeling from the 9/11 terror attacks.

Remarkable in its scope, variety and the velocity in which it was organized, the show lured the top stars mentioned above along with Lance Burton; Siegfried & Roy; Clint Holmes; The Amazing Johnathan; Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.; David Brenner; Gordie Brown; the Scintas; Rich Little; Fred Travalena; Earl Turner; Bob Anderson; Buddy Greco; Jessica Simpson; Neal McCoy; Bill Acosta, and members of “Storm,” (then at Mandalay Bay), “Jubilee” and Cirque du Soleil.

The production at Mandalay Bay Events Center was co-produced by today’s president of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Myron Martin, and Venetian/Palazzo Director of Entertainment Neil Miller. The show sold out the then-new Mandalay Bay Events Center at 7,500, tickets at $25 a pop, and remains the benchmark for grand-scale charity productions in Las Vegas. The closest comparison is likely the “Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert” at the Smith Center in September 2014.

But the “Salutes” show still stands alone.

“Not only have we not seen anything like it since, but I don’t think we had seen anything like it before then, either,” said Martin, who also produced the sesquicentennial show at Reynolds Hall. “I mean, we had two months to put together a show that everybody wanted to be in, and it came together incredibly well.”

The idea was hatched with a volley of calls around the Vegas entertainment scene, starting with Newton, saying simply, “We have to do something.” Newton was in immediately – just a month earlier he had just been named the USO’s Celebrity Chairman, supplanting Bob Hope and charged with organizing oversea troops stationed overseas. Simpson and McCoy, set to join Newton on a USO tour of Kuwait and Afghanistan, were booked through that connection.

The bulk of the lineup and format was hammered out during a dinner on Sept. 12 at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, an old-Vegas collection of news makers with Newton, Martin, Miller, Burton, Scinta, Anderson and Siegfried & Roy’s manager, Bernie Yuman.

“Wayne had suggested making the night a benefit for the USO, which was poetic because the show would be on Veteran’s Day,” Martin recalled. “And, there was already talk that Las Vegas had to show that we would not be intimidated, that we would conduct business as usual and keep our spirit alive.”

The show began with Holmes, Newton, Scinta and Turner singing Neil Diamond’s “America” and included a freewheeling array of acts: Years before he was a headliner at Luxor, Carrot Top wowed the crowd with his roll-out of props (including his the “Neighborhood Watch” sign that he had actually stolen from a neighborhood), a pyrotechnic performance by Cirque artists, Siegfried & Roy working with their famed white tigers during the peak of their run at the Mirage, and Goulet belting out “Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha.”

More impressive, everyone onstage and backstage donated their time and energy to the event. The venue was made possible by then-Mandalay Bay executive Glen Meades, who now works with Martin in booking performances at the Smith Center.

In recalling that event, something Newton said during the day of the show still holds true: “”People think Las Vegas is heartless, but here we are with a packed house and all the performers, I think that says volumes about our town.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in the A section, and Fridays in Neon. He also hosts “Kats! On The Radio” Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and appears Wednesdays at 11 a.m. with Dayna Roselli on KTNV Channel 13. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.