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THE WILDEST SHOW IN LAS VEGAS: FRANK SINATRA & THE BEGINNING OF THE END

(From the moment they blasted off in the Casbar Lounge in Las Vegas in December 1954, there was no stopping Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera and the Witnesses from becoming the most popular act in show business. No one but themselves. In a pair of exclusive Legsville stories based on long-lost interviews with sax legend Butera and jazz and pop goddess Smith, Burt Kearns unearthed the beginnings of the legendary act, Now, a year later, he traces the beginning of the end — the personal dramas and betrayals that would end the rocket ride, not in a glorious splashdown, but in flames. We return to the Casbar Lounge. Four years after lift-off, it’s now the “Casbar Theatre” — and everybody wants in. Including Frank Sinatra…)

By alexrosas|2023-06-15T16:21:16+00:00May 16th, 2023|Music, Uncategorized|Comments Off

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT FROM THE NEW LAWRENCE TIERNEY BIOGRAPHY: THE TOUGH GUY RETURNS TO HOLLYWOOD

The first biography of the legendary and notorious actor Lawrence Tierney was published on Tuesday, December 6, by the University Press of Kentucky. Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real-Life Tough Guy, by Legsville contributor Burt Kearns, traces Tierney’s career from his overnight success in the 1945 film Dillinger, through the drunken scenes, brawls, and arrests that derailed his career, to his “rediscovery” by Quentin Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs.

By alexrosas|2022-12-19T00:45:45+00:00December 9th, 2022|Books We Love, Literature, True Crime, TV & Film|Comments Off

APRIL 29-30, 1992: LET THE L.A. RIOTS BEGIN

On April 29, 1992, jurors in Simi Valley, California acquitted five Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Los Angeles citizens responded to the news with a display of widespread civil disobedience and destruction that became known as the Los Angeles Riots. The evening the violence began, Burt Kearns, a producer of the syndicated nightly tabloid magazine series, Hard Copy, was sharing a pizza with correspondent Rafael Abramovitz at Santopietro’s restaurant. Thirty years later, the following is adapted from his memoir, Tabloid Baby.

By alexrosas|2022-04-30T15:55:21+00:00April 29th, 2022|Essays|Comments Off

MAKING THE WILDEST SHOW IN LAS VEGAS PART I: SAM

Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera revolutionized Las Vegas, the lounge scene and 20th century popular music when they launched their spectacular act in December 1954 at the Sahara hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The story of their success has never been told in full, and never accurately – until now. Based on long-hidden interviews with the principals and extensive research, Burt Kearns reveals how all the parts fell into place, long before that historic debut. In Part One, we meet the man who answered the call of The Wildest, the key player without whom this success story would never have happened.

By alexrosas|2022-04-29T13:34:15+00:00April 27th, 2022|Music|Comments Off

TONE, PAYTON & NEAL: HOLLYWOOD’S MOST TOXIC TRIANGLE

By Burt Kearns | Tone was a movie star. Neal was a B-movie dolt who looked good in trunks. The woman was Barbara Payton, a badtime, badass blonde who’d gone more rounds (in the sack, of course) than both men put together.

By alexrosas|2022-01-29T20:55:09+00:00January 29th, 2022|Essays, True Crime|Comments Off

TRUE CRIME: THE DEAD KID IN KEITH RICHARDS’ BED: ANITA PALLENBERG, THE DEVIL… AND ME.

By Burt Kearns | On July 20, 1979, a bullet blasted from the barrel of a stolen .38 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol...

By alexrosas|2022-04-29T17:07:48+00:00December 25th, 2021|True Crime|Comments Off

REBEL IN SEARCH OF A CAUSE

By alexrosas|2024-02-20T04:29:28+00:00February 18th, 2024|Essays, Featured, TV & Film|Comments Off

VIDEO: THE FRIENDS OF LAWRENCE TIERNEY, HOLLYWOOD’S REAL-LIFE TOUGH GUY

More than sixty films. More than thirty television roles. More than seventy arrests. Lawrence Tierney was the toughest, meanest, coldest actor in Hollywood, onscreen and off. An overnight sensation in 1945 as Public Enemy #1 in the movie Dillinger, he proceeded to drink and brawl his way out of a career by the early 1950s – or so it seemed. Lawrence Tierney is the great untold story of the dark side of Hollywood – a story of alcoholism, madness and violence, but also survival, loyalty, and genius.

By alexrosas|2023-01-23T16:36:31+00:00November 26th, 2022|True Crime, TV & Film, Video Of The Month|Comments Off