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Not Elvis Presley, not Wayne Newton, not Cirque du Soleil, not Frank Sinatra, not Liberace. The most popular entertainers in the history of Las Vegas were Siegfried & Roy, ABC's Elizabeth Vargas reported, until that fateful night in October 2003 when Montecore, the white tiger, mauled Roy Horn on stage. After five years of grueling rehab, Roy--with Siegfried and Montecore--returned to the stage for a single night's comeback. Vargas marked their encore with a 20/20 documentary The Magic Returns.
CBS countered with an altogether more conceptual artistic achievement, yet in its way no less flamboyant. The Astounding Problem of Andrew Novick is an installation in Denver that features a display of 8,000 items of the 39-year-old electrical engineer's stuff. "He collects everything you could imagine," Steve Hartman assured us on Assignment America. Everything? What about dust from the bottom of cereal boxes? Yup. What about dental retainers? Yup. Bellybutton lint? Only joking. "Smithsonian, eat your heart out."
Seigfried and Roy were NOT as popular as Elvis Presley as he holds the Las Vegas all-time attendance record for his appearances there. More shows are not indicative of popularity. When Elvis was in town, whatever the time of year he sold out and vegas hotel occupancy always increased because of him. This cannot be said of Seigfried and Roy.
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