Legendary Las Vegas comedian Sheekey Greene has died at the age of 97

Published on: December 31, 2023 at 02:00 pm.

Last updated on: 31 December 2023 at 02:15 h.

Legendary Las Vegas comedian Cheeky Greene died at his Las Vegas home on New Year’s Eve at the age of 97. His wife of 41 years, Marie Musso Green, told… Las Vegas Journal Review He died of natural causes.

An undated 1970s Shikey Green flyer. (Photo: Shiki Green)

Greene, along with Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett, was the undisputed comedy royalty of the Las Vegas Strip from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Greene told stories, sang, did impressions, and sometimes participated in physical acts. One time, he performed his act while hanging from the stage curtains.

Green, who came out in 1968, admitted in numerous interviews that he suffered from alcohol and gambling addiction, bipolar disorder and depression. (picture: *Chicago Sun-Times*)

Death wish

One of Green’s regretted physical feats was drunkenly driving his Oldsmobile into the Tsar’s Palace fountains in 1968. This was the second most famous crash after Evel Knievel’s failed attempt to jump them on his motorcycle a year earlier.

“I had a bad habit when I was drunk, and I think it was a death wish — to just get in my car and drive,” Green told The Guardian. Los Angeles Times In 2005. “One night I was driving 90 mph through the Strip…and I hit this split light at the entrance to Caesars. It cut across Las Vegas Boulevard, went straight over the sidewalk and fell into the water.

When Green told Hackett about the incident, his friend gave him the line that made it so funny on stage. In Green’s telling of the story in his act, he made a request to the first policeman to arrive at the scene: “No spraying wax.”

Humble beginnings

Fred Sheldon Greenfield — who only legally changed his name in 2004 — grew up on Chicago’s North Side, served in the Navy during World War II, and attended a junior college to become a gym teacher. As a side activity, he played in small clubs throughout the Midwest.

His Las Vegas break came in 1953, when he was asked to open “Park Avenue Hillbilly” at Dorothy Shay’s Last Frontier. Greene so blatantly stole the show that the resort held him, as an opening act, for 18 weeks without tea. Greene ended up opening for Xavier Cugat and then the Freddy Martin Orchestra.

On April 23, 1956, The Last Frontier flipped places and Freddie Martin and Green ended up in the lead. more Elvis Presley, who was only reserved as a featured attraction at the end.

Shikey Green performs at Last Frontier on April 30, 1956. (Photo: Las Vegas News Bureau)

Hall legend

Greene will play a unique role in shaping Vegas history by making the Strip lounges great.

When Greene signed with Riviera, he didn’t have a space in his showroom. So he volunteered to work in the lounge near the bar. Until then, the halls had been the area of failed shows that couldn’t attract crowds, and crowds that couldn’t afford a showroom ticket. The idea of a bankable star willingly playing in an open corner of the casino floor is not unheard of.

Greene’s move attracted large crowds to the Riviera Lounge, and single-handedly made the Las Vegas lounge behave as it does today.

When Greene moved his showroom to the Tropicana, he convinced the bar manager to build him a temporary wooden stage. It has been his home for performance for five years.

By the time Green arrived at the MGM Grand in 1975, he was earning $150,000 a week.

Green appears in 2013, 10 years before his death. (Image: imdb.com)

Frank Tuck

Green opened several times for Frank Sinatra. But, unlike Rickles, he maintained social distance, and for that reason, he was never considered a neighbor of the Rat Pack. One night at the Fontainebeau Hotel in Miami in 1967, their tense relationship came to a head.

Green was chosen to play a serial killer in Sinatra’s film, tony roma, The two got stuck in Miami Beach one night. Sinatra was in a bad mood and started a fight at the Stream Bar. When Greene, drunk, followed Sinatra back to the Fontainebleau Hotel, five of Frank’s goons attacked him for throwing a punch at the wrong man.

This story has made its way to the stage, too, after Greene made it funny with a witty premise.

“Frank Sinatra saved my life,” Green told the crowd. “Five guys were beating me up, and Frank said, ‘Okay, that’s enough!'”

“This is a wonderful thing, after 60 years in the business, I’m famous for two things, the Sinatra joke and driving into the fountain,” Green said. Los Angeles Times.