A fellow named Jeff Altman — no relation to the fine comedian of the same name — has been transferring his grandfather's old 16mm Kodachrome home movies to Internet videos. They're quite wonderful…like this 1962 trip to Las Vegas.
I love the marquees that show who's playing there. You'll see one that billboards a comedian named Hank Henry. He was an old burlesque comic who spent the last decade or two of his life in Vegas playing in burlesque-type revues and he was a big fave of Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra, who stuck him in most of his movies. Back when Johnny Carson played Vegas, he was known to run from his own show to go see Hank Henry or another burley-Q veteran, Tommy Moe Raft. Those guys are all gone and so are most of the hotels they played.
You'll also see that Judy Garland and Ray Bolger were both playing the Sahara but not in the same shows. See what else you can spot in there…
