page_title: Wayne Newton
section_title: Career as an entertainer
hierarchical_section_title: Wayne Newton / Career as an entertainer
context_page_description: Carson Wayne Newton is an American singer and entertainer. One of the best-known entertainers in Las Vegas, Nevada, he is known by the nicknames The Midnight Idol, Mr. Las Vegas and Mr. Entertainment. His well known songs include 1972's "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast", "Years", and his vocal version of "Red Roses for a Blue Lady". His signature song "Danke Schoen" was notably used in the score for Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
context_section_description: Many prominent entertainment icons such as Lucille Ball, Bobby Darin, Danny Thomas, George Burns, and Jack Benny lent Newton their support. In particular, Benny hired Newton as an opening act for his show. After his job with Benny ended, Newton was offered a job to open for another comic at the Flamingo Hotel, but Newton asked for, and was given, a headline act.  In 1972 his recording of "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast" sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in July 1972.
  Influential music director Rosalie Trombley of Canadian station CKLW "The Big 8" radio in the Detroit-Windsor area decided to add the record to her radio station to embarrass her ex-husband, who wasn't faithful about seeing his children, as Trombley explained in the documentary Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8.  The record topped the Canadian charts. From Detroit, "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" took off and broke nationwide.
  Newton's "distinctive high-pitched voice stayed with him as he progressed from teen singer to Las Vegas legend," although his voice did lower somewhat in the 1970s and 1980s.
  From 1980 through 1982, The Beach Boys and The Grass Roots performed Independence Day concerts on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., attracting large crowds. However, in April 1983, James G. Watt, President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, banned Independence Day concerts on the Mall by such groups. Watt said that "rock bands" that had performed on the Mall on Independence Day in 1981 and 1982 had encouraged drug use and alcoholism and had attracted "the wrong element", who would mug individuals and families attending any similar events in the future.  Watt then announced that Newton, a friend and supporter of President Reagan and a contributor to Republican Party political campaigns, would perform at the Mall's 1983 Independence Day celebration.  Newton entered the Independence Day stage on the Mall on July 4, 1983, to mostly cheering members of the audience, but some members booed.
  On May 23, 1989, Newton's live stage show was broadcast as a pay-per-view event called Wayne Newton Live in Concert. Newton did not perform his trademark songs "Danke Schoen" or "Red Roses for a Blue Lady". However, he closed the show with a special finale of "MacArthur Park", which culminated with an onstage rainfall.
  On December 12, 1992, Newton hit #1 on the Cashbox Pop and Country charts with an Elvis Presley-inspired song, "The Letter". Controversy swirled around this chart feat, as "The Letter" did not chart at all on Billboard Magazine's authoritative Hot 100 chart, Adult Contemporary chart or "Bubbling Under" chart. It did not make the Radio and Records magazine chart either. This marked the first and only time in history that a record hit #1 on the Cashbox Top 100 chart, yet failed even to chart on Billboard's Hot 100.
  In 1994, he performed his 25,000th solo show in Las Vegas.
  In 1999, Newton signed a 10-year deal with the Stardust, calling for him to perform there 40 weeks out of the year for six shows a week in a showroom named after him. Orchestrated by his business partner, Jack Wishna, this "headliner-in-residence" deal was the first of its kind. In 2005, in preparation for the eventual demolition of the casino, the deal was, from all reports, amicably terminated; Newton began a 30-show stint that summer at the Hilton. His last show at the Stardust was on April 20, 2005. During a break in his on stage performance, he announced to the crowd that night he wanted to spend more time with his wife and new daughter as the main reasonings for canceling the contract. Newton said the Boyd family made him a very nice offer to stay on past the demolition of the hotel and casino and to play in other Boyd venues, but Newton declined citing "another deal in the works for Vegas", but he did not mention the Hilton specifically. News crews were expecting this performance to end on time, to make their 10 pm and 11 pm shows, but the show finally ended around 11:30 pm, thus eliminating the possibility. Mr. Las Vegas went on a
caption: Gen. Tommy Franks, Commander, U.S. Forces Central Command (CENTCOM) sings a duet with Wayne Newton aboard the USS Nimitz during a USO show. At the time, the USS Nimitz was deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. June, 2003.
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