Shecky Greene, Legendary Las Vegas Comedian, Dead at 97

Shecky Greene, the legendary slapstick comedian who spent a long time as one of many largest acts in Las Vegas, has died at the age of 97.(*97*)

Greene’s widow Marie Musso Greene, his spouse of 41 years, confirmed the comedian’s loss of life Sunday to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, noting that he died at pure causes early December 31 at his dwelling in Las Vegas.(*97*)

Born Fred Greenfield in Chicago in 1926, Greene was already a longtime comic from the Borscht Belt and past when he was recruited to develop into one of many first comics to have a residency within the burgeoning leisure and playing cities in Nevada, first in Reno earlier than transferring on to Las Vegas in 1953. At the height of his success, throughout a Vegas run that lasted a long time, Greene claimed he was making $150,000 per week ($800,000 in right now’s foreign money) performing in Sin City. (The majority of that cash, he claimed, was frittered away on playing and horse racing.)(*97*)

One of Greene’s traditional bits centered round his love-hate relationship with Frank Sinatra, who he as soon as opened for in Miami Beach. “Frank Sinatra saved my life,” Greene would say, including that Sinatra had his henchmen tough him up following a joke that offended the singer. “Five guys were beating me up and Frank said, ‘Okay, he’s had enough.’”

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The story grew to become a part of Hollywood lore:

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Greene, whose profession stumbled later in life as he battled psychological sickness, would typically joke about his struggles. “I’m bipolar,” he instructed a Las Vegas tv interviewer in 2010 (by way of the New York Times). “I’m more than bipolar. I’m South Polar, North Polar. I’m every kind of polar there is. I even lived with a polar bear for about a year.”(*97*)

Another notorious incident that wound up in his act occurred after he allegedly drove his automotive into the Caesars resort fountains. “I had a bad habit when I got drunk, and I think it must have been a death wish: To get in my car and just drive,” Greene instructed Los Angeles journal in 2005. 

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“One night I drove 90 miles an hour down the Strip — which you couldn’t do now, crowded as the Strip is — and I hit this breakaway lamp at the entrance to Caesars. It went shearing across Las Vegas Boulevard, and I went right over the curb and into the water. The cops came, and I went. I told Buddy Hackett about it. He gave me the line about the spray wax, and I put it in my act.”(*97*)

While in Vegas in 1956, Greene discovered himself on a invoice with a younger singer named Elvis Presley, with the longer term King serving as his opening act. “I didn’t even know who Elvis Presley was. The kid should never have been in there,” Greene would later recall.

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Outside of Las Vegas, Greene was identified nationwide because of his many look on The Ed Sullivan Show, Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show and The Merv Griffin Show, the place he would often function visitor host; throughout Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first American discuss present look in 1974 on The Merv Griffin Show, Greene, who was visitor internet hosting, quipped to the longer term field workplace star, “I can’t believe it! You can talk!”(*97*)

Greene additionally often starred on the large display screen with roles in Tony Rome, History of the World, Part I, and Splash, plus TV appearances on Laverne & Shirley, Mad About You, Roseanne, and The Love Boat.(*97*)