Natural-Seven Muzak

Las Vegas, where casino doors never close and show business acts are the loss leaders for the gaming tables, once had a problem with its graveyard shift. Predictably, there would be a lone high roller whose eyelids seemed to be held open by pieces of red pimiento; but the little money was creeping off to bed, and the problem was how to keep it awake.

Then the late Billy Burton, manager of the Mary Kaye Trio, talked the Last Frontier Hotel into doing something unheard of--booking the little-known Mary Kaye Trio into the casino lounge for nightly shows lasting until breakfast. Mary Kaye, her brother Norman, and Frankie Ross caught on instantly, singing, strumming, and turning out a kind of natural-seven Muzak that held the crowds in the casino and skyrocketed the late late take. Hooked two ways, fans now stay around as much to hear the trio as to shoot craps, and the group is no longer just background music: it has become one of the top draws in Vegas. Currently at the Sahara, Mary Kaye & Co. will earn about a quarter of a million dollars in a 22-week stand this season. Also, they perform at San Francisco's Fairmont and Los Angeles' Crescendo, and have cut 14 LP albums.

Imitation Surf. With close harmony and wordless rhythm, Norman Kaye and Frankie Ross cushion Mary Kaye's wailing obbligato, producing a pleasant blend of sound that may sometimes suggest the Andrews sisters doing a Pepsodent commercial; but it is just the sort of thinkproof entertainment that gamblers crave. The trio specializes in old standards (Heartaches, And the Angels Sing), and as an extra fail-safe against boredom, Frankie Ross often makes joking commentaries on the lyrics. His gags may not be immortal but usually get a laugh from someone who has just put his 459th consecutive nickel into a slot and is ready for anything. Ross also does a take-off on Baby, It's Cold Outside, turning himself into a jivey simulacrum of a Chicago mobster. In a rococo version of Ebbtide, the whole group does everything from bird calls to an imitation of the surf.

Neon Islands. Mary and Norman Kaye came by their style naturally enough, as the children of a durable vaudevillian named Johnny Ukulele, a Hawaiian, whose real name is Johnny Kaaihue. Their mother died when they were young; they were raised in orphanages and foster homes and on the carnival circuit, doing ten-a-day acts with their father. When they formed their own singing group, it was called the Kaiihue Trio, became the Mary Kaye Trio when they decided to give up their original concentration on Hawaiian songs.

In the late '40s and early '50s, the group drifted in obscurity among the neon islands of the Middle West, before finding their natural home in Las Vegas eight years ago. All three are now residents there, are married and have seven children among them. By now they are more than singers; they are entrepreneurs. Norman, most notably, is an insurance agent and securities salesman, also owns a carpet and drapery shop, and with five offices and a sales force of 40 on his payroll, is far and away the biggest real estate operator in the state of Nevada.

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