Donn Arden

This article is about the Vegas choreographer. For the English entertainment manager, see Don Arden.

Donn Arden (1916 or 1917 – November 2, 1994) was an American choreographer and producer.

Biography

Donn Arden was born as Arden Carlyle Peterson[1] on July 17, 1915, in Annawan, Illinois, and grew up in St. Louis.

By the age of nine he was already making money with dancing; he was considered a good tap dancer.

Arden never married, although he had been engaged in his younger years.

Career

Arden studied dancing with Robert Alton, who later became a Broadway director.[2]

In the early '30s, Arden won a local Charleston contest, along with a St. Louis girl named Ginger Rogers.[2][3]

Arden decided he was better suited to organize and direct dance shows rather than perform in them. Arden got his first break in Cleveland, where he staged floor shows in clubs operated by racketeer Moe Dalitz. "My success was due to...I hate to use the word 'mafia'," Arden once said. "Moe was a great guy to work for. He believed in spending money."

Donn Arden and the Artists Models (two sets of female twins) added ten women and became a house line, staying three for four years at a time at the same vaudeville house, putting together house lines, at peak, for twelve theaters.[2]

During World War II, Arden produced shows for American armed forces.[2]

In 1948, Le Lido in Paris brought Arden to France to work with producers Pierre-Louis Guerin and Rene Fraday.[2]

Donn Arden's Las Vegas showgirl image — a statuesque dancer in sequins, feathers and wearing a tall headpiece, derives from Margaret Kelly's Bluebell Girls of the Parisian Folies Bergère and Le Lido.

In the 1950s and 1960s Arden had shows concurrently in Paris, New York (Latin Quarter nightclub), New Jersey, Miami (Latin Quarter nightclub), Los Angeles (Moulin Rouge), and Las Vegas.

In 1950, "the boys" who ran the clubs in Cleveland (the "Cleveland Four," also known as the Cleveland Syndicate, Moe Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, Louis Rothkopf, and Samuel A. Tucker) told Arden about the new property they had invested in: the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, where owner Wilbur Clark brought in former racketeers Moe Dalitz, Morris Kleinman and Sam Tucker when his construction funds ran low.[4]

On April 24, 1950, at the opening[4] of Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn, Arden's dance troupe performed with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy and Vivian Blaine, and headlined.[2]

In 1958, Arden developed the Lido de Paris show, based on the Parisian revue at Le Lido), which ran eleven editions at the Stardust until 1991.

Arden's other Las Vegas spectaculars included Hello America, Pzazz! 68at the Desert Inn, developed with Frank Sennes and Pzazz! 70.

In 1974, Arden was hired to first do "Hallelujah Hollywood" which featured Siegfried & Roy, then in 1980,[5] Jubilee! at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino,[2] now Horseshoe Las Vegas.[6][7] Jubilee! ran for 34 years in the Jubilee! Theatre at Bally's in Las Vegas. The show closed on February 11, 2016, drawing legions of former cast members, designers, and fans.[8]

From June 2, 1978, to April 1989, "Hello Hollywood, Hello!" was a revue, created by Donn Arden and performed on the Ziegfeld Stage at MGM Grand Reno in Reno, Nevada.

Noteworthy

  • Actress and model Valerie Perrine started her career with Arden. He remembered her as "a secretary from Scottsdale with a lisp".
  • Actress Goldie Hawn is reputed to have been part of his troupe at the Desert Inn but was fired by Arden after only a few weeks. He remembered her as "a skinny fruitcake".
  • Bob Mackie was one time costume designer for Donn Arden[9]
  • Screenwriter Joseph Stefano, who wrote the Psycho screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock, wrote music and lyrics for Arden's stage shows.
  • Ray Vasquez Lead Singer for Donn Arden productions.

Awards

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce[10] presented Arden with its first Personality of the Year award in the 1970s.

Further reading

Hopkins, A.D. & K.J. Evans, The First 100: Portraits of the Men and Women Who Shaped Las Vegas, Huntington Press, 1999, 368p., ISBN 0-929712-67-6

References

  1. ^ "Birth certificate (Arden Carlyle Peterson)". special.library.unlv.edu | UNLV Special Collections Portal. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Bell, Joseph N. (July 15, 1988). "Donn Arden's Art: Beauty, Disasters Wrapped in Extravagance". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 10, 2024. Donn Arden...was there, sleeping in a suite on the 10th floor when the fire broke out early in the morning of Nov. 20, 1980...Margaret Kelly...
  3. ^ Folkart, Burt a (November 5, 1994). "Donn Arden, 78; Created the Vegas Showgirl Extravaganza". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 6, 2025.
  4. ^ a b "Donn Arden". Las Vegas Review-Journal. February 7, 1999. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  5. ^ Frank Music Corp. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
  6. ^ University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries. "Donn Arden and the Nightclub". Showgirls. UNLV Digital Libraries. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  7. ^ University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries. "Jubilee!". Showgirls. UNLV Digital Libraries. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  8. ^ "An emotional night for 'Jubilee' farewell". February 14, 2016.
  9. ^ Bob Mackie interview in Lights. Vegas. Action.
  10. ^ "The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce website". Archived from the original on April 27, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.