After reading some Vegas tips I posted, Robert Forman sent me the following…
I've been to Las Vegas a couple of times but never saw a show there. I have seen a couple of shows in Tahoe at Harrah's which I assume is kind of the same thing. This was in the mid-eighties. I saw separately Sammy Davis Jr. and Boz Scaggs. Both shows had ticket prices that were very high for the time. Both shows required a 3 drink minimum like your Golden Goose story, and like that story, the drinks came at the same time.
Both times, I ordered Bloody Marys and both times, I received pink water. They had to serve the drinks at the same time because the "shows" lasted 30-35 minutes. So my question here is is that what a person going to an expensive show in Las Vegas should expect? Was I just unlucky?
Well, if you only got a 30-35 minute show for your money, I'd say yes. Even Dean Martin, who was infamous for doing the shortest shows of any major headliner in Vegas, used to do 40 minutes. By contrast, Red Skelton stopped performing in places that restricted how long he could be on stage and it was not uncommon for him to go over two hours. I suspect the shows you saw were really longer than you recall.
Serving drinks at shows is much rarer now. I can't remember the last show I went to where drinks were included or mandatory. A lot of showrooms in Vegas — and I'm sure elsewhere — don't even have servers. Some have a bar where you can purchase a beverage and carry it to your seat. But if they do build two or three drinks into the admission, they serve them all at once. The most popular headliners insist on no cocktail or food service during a performance.
Quick story. One time back at the old MGM Grand in Vegas — not to be confused with the current MGM Grand in Vegas — some friends and I were seeing Jubilee!, a show that included two drinks. Mine were ginger ales. Seated next to our party were two elderly ladies who seemed upset. They had to order their two drinks apiece and while each wanted one alcoholic beverage, neither of them wanted two. They asked me if the two drinks both had to be the same thing.
I told them that they probably did…but pointed out that one of them could order two alcoholic drinks and the other could get two 7-Ups or ginger ale or something and then they could do a swap. Somehow, this had not occurred to them but they did it and they were very happy with whatever cocktails they chose. In fact, they were so happy that they offered me their ginger ales.
