You know what they say: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But then, what is the American Heritage Center of Wyoming doing with personally autographed photos from the likes of Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin? Where did it get all these fantastic postcards from the Sands Hotel in its heyday? Well, my curious friend, it is my great honor to introduce you to Antonio Morelli and his music.

A New Dawn in Las Vegas

But before we can meet him, let’s set the stage: In the post-war era of the late 1940s and 1950s, Las Vegas, Nevada, found itself in serious need of a rebrand. American sensibilities were changing and the “sin city” image of a mob-run gambling capital and swinger’s paradise just did not fit the bill anymore. While the allure of gambling would remain the crown jewel of Vegas, the casino owners and businessmen of the city were determined to paint a new image of the neon oasis – One of high-class entertainment nestled in resort casinos, designed to attract both wealthy tourists and families looking for a vacation. But just how were they to bring this kind of refined sheen to the Mojave Desert?

For Jack Entratter, then president of the Sands Hotel and Casino, the key to revitalizing the Vegas image was to bring the pomp and shine of classical music behind his headliners. Thus, enter Antonio Morelli. Instantly recognizable by his finely waxed, pencil-tipped mustache, Morelli had previously been met by Entratter in New York City’s famous Copacabana Club, and in 1954, was recruited by him as the musical director of the Sands

“The Toscanini of the Desert”

Morelli’s time at the Copacabana was only one of many qualifications that made him fit the bill of a new Las Vegas. The son of a fine arts professor and symphony flutist, Morelli studied classical music for eleven years in Italy, first at Milan’s San Celso Military Academy, and then the Royal Conservatories of Music of both Milan and Parma.

In 1925, he returned to the United States to a dizzying number of roles across the country. He once served as the musical director of the St. Louis Musical Opera. In New York, he took on both choral composer and orchestrator for Radio City Music Hall and was the orchestra leader for Albany’s RKO Palace Theater. He toured the United States, conducting both civic orchestras in cities like Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, and Chicago, as well as to conduct the pit orchestras of various theater chains such as Warner, Paramount, Pantages, and Shubert.

Clearly, the Sand’s orchestra, purportedly the biggest the Strip had at the time, was in experienced hands. As Entratter brought in the stars, Morelli transformed the Sands’s Copa Room (named, funnily enough, for the Copacabana Club) time and time again to create performances worth paying for.

While many performers tended to bring their own musical directors to Vegas, Morelli insisted on constant collaboration, upping the Copa Room’s small brass band to a full stringed orchestra. The Sands saw performances and residencies from stars known far and wide, from figures like Nat King Cole, to, most famously, the Rat Pack. As the Sands championed headliners like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr., just below those big names on the marquee, and just behind them in the show, was Antonio Morelli and his orchestra.

Beyond the Copa Room

Entertaining the new brand of wealthy, educated tourists on the Strip was far from Morelli’s only impact on the city of Las Vegas. Not only did he bring classical culture to the Sands, but he brought it to the vast population living in the valley. Not long after his arrival in 1954, Morelli established his Las Vegas Pops Concert Orchestra. These pops concerts, often referred to as “Shirt Sleeve Symphonies,” were free to attend, and offered a wide range of musical exposure to the Vegas community. Performed first at the Sands’s own convention center and then ballooning into the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Shirt Sleeve Symphonies offered anything from popular music to concertized versions of operas such as Aida.

Additionally, Morelli organized countless holiday concerts, often in collaboration with the Las Vegas Community Choir. These programs, again free to the public, drew thousands of community members – At one point, both the Christmas and Easter programs drew up to 5,000 audience members, with a Good Friday concert boasting more than 10,000.

Morelli cared about the musical and cultural health of the city he came to call home – a far cry from his childhood home of Erie, Pennsylvania. Outside of his accessible concerts, he also put forward a music performance trust fund to subsidize the salaries of his musicians, and he would often showcase young musicians in his pops performances as “Musicians of the Future.” To this day, a scholarship he arranged way back in 1969 continues to provide opportunities for students looking to pursue music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas – the Antonio Morelli Friends of Music Endowment Fund.

After the Curtain Call

Today, despite his impact on one of the most notable eras of Las Vegas and midcentury America, this once so-called “Toscanini of the Desert” seems to have faded into the background of the great performers he supported. His legacy lives well beyond his passing in 1974 and the demolition of the Sands in 1996 – if you know where to look for it.

Now that you know his name and his face, maybe you can imagine him and his orchestra elevating the sounds of the Rat Pack when you listen to their live recordings at the Sands. Maybe you can keep an eye out for him in the background of those fellas making fools of themselves in the Copa Room, grinning at their antics behind that signature mustache. And maybe, if you’re a real Vegas nerd like yours truly, you’ll come scour the boxes of his collection at the American Heritage Center and see just how much of Las Vegas he touched.

Post contributed by AHC Audiovisual Archivist Aide Marty Murray.