Wayne Newton, ‘Mr. Las Vegas,’ performs at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Thursday.
Walk off a plane at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport, and you will be greeted by a slot machine. In fact, there are around 1,400, just at the airport, generating $39 million annually. In total, the gambling mecca offers more than 122,000 machines attracting eager jackpot-seeking players. But for legendary entertainer Wayne Newton, hailed as Mr. Las Vegas, the lure of slots holds no appeal.
“I have never played a slot machine,” Newton revealed. “I have owned two casinos, and I have never been to one of the tables. I have had no desire. I went there so early in my life and I saw people losing practically everything they had. The hotels in those days would give people a bus ticket home. It’s just not something that ever intrigued me.”
The highest-grossing entertainer in Las Vegas history for a time, at his peak Newton was more prominent in Vegas than icons like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. He will return to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Thursday and perform in Honolulu at the Blue Note at the end of the week.
Newton loves coming to Hawaii. “It’s absolutely my favorite place in the world,” he said. “If I didn’t work as much as I do in Vegas and the Mainland, that is where I’d live.” He owns about 150 acres on the Big Island and loves hiking around the property, “right at the bottom of the rain forest and there are seven waterfalls on it. It is just absolutely heaven.”
Still busy performing at the age of 81, this consummate showman can count on the love of fans around the world. “It’s interesting because I never think about age,” he said. “I never have in my entire life, even when I started in Vegas when I was 15 years old and according to the law, then you had to be 21 to even work those places. They got me a special permit, and the permit said, ‘Wayne Newton can work at the Fremont Hotel, he’s just not allowed to be in the place he’s working.'”
Initially hired with his brother in 1959, Las Vegas back then “had only seven hotels on the strip and I think maybe four hotels downtown. They started us with a two-week contract which turned into a five-year contract of six shows a night, six nights a week.”
Simply billed these days on Vegas marquees as “Wayne,” he can walk out of the airport and drive down Wayne Newton Boulevard in a car with the license plate “MR LV,” which was presented to him by Nevada’s governor.
“When people say, ‘I’ll see you on Wayne Newton Boulevard,’ it’s still a kick, and to be called Mr. Las Vegas. But you must behave yourself when you carry that kind of mark. You can’t be getting in trouble because too much depends on it.”
Best known for hits like “Danke Schoen,” “Daddy, Don’t You Walk So Fast,” “Red Roses for a Blue Lady,” and “The Letter,” Newton has released around 165 albums throughout his career. Most recently he was featured on the soundtrack of the TV show “Aquarius,” starring David Duchovny, which also included songs by The Who and Charles Manson. “I was very surprised,” he said about his inclusion.
If there is any secret to his longevity and continuing reign, it involves his gift for touching people in a genuine way. “I have loved it so much my entire life and to be able to walk out and maybe put a smile on somebody’s face that’s having a bad day or week has been my reason for continuing what I do,” he explained. “There’s nothing that makes me feel any better than hopefully bringing a little happiness into people’s lives.”
A longtime USO entertainer for American troops abroad, Newton made it a mission to call the parents of service men and women who he had met on his travels. “We have made probably over 40,000 calls over the years,” he said.
One particular encounter stands out. He met a nurse in Vietnam and promised to call her mother. “This one lady wanted me to call her mother, and when I finished saying that I had just come back from Vietnam and met her daughter and how happy she was and so on and so forth, she said, ‘Mr. Newton, you do know she was killed in a helicopter crash.’
“So I said, I am so sorry to bother you at this time. And she said, no, you don’t understand. She said the happiest I had ever heard her is when she wrote to me that you were going to call me when you got home. She said, ‘had you not made that call, it would have been devastating to me.’ That has stuck with me through my career.”
Newton performs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater. Tickets are $45, $55, $65, $85 plus a limited number of premiere $125 seats, plus applicable fees. Tickets are available at mauiarts.org. The MACC will collect donations for the Maui Food Bank at the show for distribution to those impacted by the wildfires. Those who bring a donation on the night will be entered into a drawing to win an instant seat upgrade of a pair of tickets in the front row.
Wayne Newton, ‘Mr. Las Vegas,’ performs at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Thursday.Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
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