Steve Wynn Tells How Diana Declined Golden Nugget Commercial That Went To Sinatra

[milven]

By John Katsilometes
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015 | 2:24 p.m.

• In researching a story about Steve Wynn’s relationship with Frank Sinatra for the Dec. 6 “Sinatra 100: An All-Star Grammy Concert,” to air on CBS, I came across the Golden Nugget commercials from the early 1980s. These starred Wynn and Sinatra, as Wynn had booked the superstar headliner to perform at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Wynn paid $10 million to Sinatra for a three-year run at those hotel-casinos. It was a great investment still paying off, as Wynn established his reputation as a resort owner who books only top entertainment.

The commercial titled “Towels,” in which Sinatra tells the then-Golden Nugget owner, “Make sure I have enough towels,” was completed in a single take in the hotel’s Chairman’s Apartment. But that classic spot was written for Diana Ross, headlining at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City at the time [[and who opens this week at Venetian Theater).

“She wanted to do the spot,” Wynn says in a video clip recalling these commercials. “I wrote the spot. You know how all the divas have a lot of baggage? She walks into the Chairman’s Apartment with all of the bags. I’m standing there, ‘Hello, Miss Ross. I’m Steve Wynn and I own this place.’ And she says, ‘You make sure they take care of my bags.’ She gives me a tip and I say, ‘Baggage?’” But Ross declined to film the spot, saying it was funny but also disrespectful, as Wynn recalled.

But the idea of Wynn being tipped to perform a service task remained, and Sinatra loved it.

“We’ll do it at the joint downtown,” he told Wynn. And the tip Sinatra gave Wynn? A five-spot. We need to know what Wynn did with that $5 bill …

Below is video of Steve Wynn saying that Diana Ross wanted to do the commercial but then declined it.

[jobeterob]

It is kind of disrespectful even if funny.