That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas (15 page)

Prima hit the big time in New York at the Famous Door nightclub in New York City in 1935 with the New Orleans Gang, which featured a brilliant sideman, Pee Wee Russell (top right), on clarinet.

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Prima’s trumpet playing complemented the singing of Alice Faye in the 1939 musical
Rose of Washington Square.

One of the more alluring portraits of Louis Prima, taken in 1940, when he continued to be especially popular among women.

A portrait of Keely Smith taken early in her career as Louis Prima’s featured singer.

(left and below)
While the Mary Kaye Trio and other acts had made hotel lounges in Las Vegas more appealing, when “The Wildest” first hit the Casbar Lounge in the Sahara Hotel in 1954, the act was original and immediately popular.

Louis and Keely celebrate Louis’s birthday at the Sahara Hotel. It didn’t take them long to become the most popular husband-and-wife act in Las Vegas.

A portrait of Louis and Keely that certainly does not indicate that there was an almost eighteen-year age difference between them.

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Part of the appeal of the Prima-Smith-Butera band was its humor, which spilled over to the design of their album covers. There were times when Prima’s voice was compared to that of a moose.

When “The Wildest” went on the road, the act was just as popular as it was in Las Vegas. Here, with Sam Butera on sax, in his usual spot to Prima’s left, they play a concert in Los Angeles in January 1958.

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A still from the 1958 film
Thunder Road,
in which Keely played Robert Mitchum’s love interest.

Louis was known as tight with a dollar, but from time to time he splurged on Keely, such as with a mink coat.

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A tender moment between the two leads in the 1959 movie
Hey Boy! Hey Girl!