Page 76 - Been There… Done That!

Gary Graham
Lamb, was probably the most powerful man in Las Vegas, if not the entire state of Nevada. My next question was answered, if Ralph thinks you’re OK, then you’re OK and don’t worry about anything. We all received our Sheriff’s cards and we opened at the Pussycat where all went well. Garwood Van said everything was great and he wanted to keep us as long as possible.
The second night after our opening show I went to the Sands for breakfast and the reality of being in Vegas set in. Two booths down were Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Don Rickles. Back then those guys intimidated me and probably would have anyone, but we were working Vegas, any entertainer’s dream and by God, I was gonna live it. I remember television host Ed Sullivan staying for two hours watching our show and Don Rickles later making a joke about it. During his routine the next night he said, “I don’t know if Ed enjoyed The Poor Boys or he was just asleep.”
The other group in the showroom was a group called the Checkmates. We rotated with them so there was continuous music. The Checkmates were a favorite show group comprised of three black members and two white. Our crowd was changing blacks than to having more blacks than there had been. In today’s world that wouldn’t matter, but in the 60s it certainly did. The crowds suddenly became more demanding and we could sometimes feel the tension in the air. A mixed black and white group didn’t bother me, but it did some of the people in Vegas. I guess one of the reasons it didn’t bother me was that I had been in the Navy.
Sheriff Lamb came around more often and one night we struck up a conversation about horses and roping. I told him about the
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