TVparty - Classic TVLas Vegas Legends

LAS VEGAS LEGEND
PAT COOPER

 


“Where's the greatness? Where's the greatness?”
- Pat Cooper

Frank Sinatra

Dean Martin

Sammy Davis Jr Story

Dean Martin Live in Las Vegas

Frank Sinatra
with Dean Martin

Playing with The Rat Pack 1960s & 70s
with Dean Martin

Las Vegas in 1977

John Oliver: Las Vegas Is the Worst Place on Earth!

Jerry Vale

More Jerry Vale

George Burns

Don Rickles' Last Carson Appearance

Joan Rivers vs Johnny Carson

Angie Dickinson

Remembering Bobby Darin

Who Killed Elvis?

Viva Las Vegas!

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Las Vegas1967

Elvis

Las Vegas in the 1950s

MORE Las Vegas in the 1950s

Lola Falana

Don Rickles

Don Rickles' Last Show

Don Rickles vs Merv Griffin

Sonny & Cher

The Supremes

Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows

Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy

Louis Prima

Pat Cooper

Johnny Carson

Mort Lindsey

Liberace

TV's The Las Vegas Show

Red Buttons

Ernest Borgnine on Frank & Dean

Harlan Ellison vs Frank Sinatra

Demond Wilson on The Dean Martin Roasts, Las Vegas, and Walking Out on Sanford & Son

Liberace, Frank Sinatra, and Jackie Gleason Attempted an Intervention on Elvis in Las Vegas

What Las Vegas Looked Like Under Lockdown

Sammy Davis Jr.'s Home Was Looted!

Very Revealing Interview with Sammy Davis Jr.

Las Vegas in the 1940s

Frank Sinatra's Last Major Interview

Portrait of Frank Sinatra in 1959
Frank Sinatra in
Monte Carlo 1959

Drummer Hal Blaine on Recording with The Rat Pack

Marty Allen Almost Cost Me My Foot!

Home Movies of Las Vegas During The Strip’s Golden Age

Donny & Marie Are Calling It Quits

Totie Fields

Sinatra's First Palm Springs Home

Phyllis Diller: An Appreciation

Steve Allen

Rich Little

Betty White on Don Rickles

Elvis' Background Singers

Wayne Newton

George Carlin

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme

Redd Foxx

Las Vegas & The Mob

Henny Youngman

Rodney Dangerfield

How Las Vegas Has Changed Since the 1970s

How Las Vegas Has Changed Since the 1960s

More on How Las Vegas Has Changed Over the Years

Vegas Fashion

Joan Rivers

Las Vegas Postcards

TV's The Magician and Las Vegas

BONUS: Garry Shandling in Las Vegas

 

Pat Cooper / comedian / Las Vegas Legend

"I am a genius of myself" - Pat Cooper

Here's a legendary talent that you can still catch on the Las Vegas Strip and in comedy clubs around the nation - Pat Cooper. This Italian hothead is a veteran of the Rat Pack days, he even opened for Frank Sinatra on occasion and appeared on Dean Martin's TV variety show.

Pat Cooper was a popular guest on television, his first big exposure came from The Jackie Gleason Show in 1953. After that he became a hot opening act, then headliner, in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, playing elegant showrooms where weary gamblers could find belly laughs, away from the slot machines, Crap tables and card games.

Pat Cooper recorded a number of very funny comedy albums in the 1960s for United Artists Records with titles like "Our Hero", "Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights", "You Don't Have to be Italian To Like Pat Cooper", "An Italian Wedding" and "More Saucy Stories From...".

Watch this appearance on Tom Snyder's late night program, it's a revealing interview:

 

Pat Cooper told me in 2010: I opened for Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, the list goes on and on and on. I played everything in Vegas. Everything. I played the Riviera, I played the Caesars, I played the Flamingo, I played the Sahara, I played them all. At that time Caesars was the best. The Sands started to collapse when that guy hit Frank Sinatra. Frank quit the Sands and went to Caesars and he brought all his people over to Caesars and it hurt the Sands. When I went downtown after working with Sinatra they would make fun of me. “How can you leave Sinatra and go downtown with Joe Williams?” I go, “Because when I work with Sinatra I get a thousand dollars. I work with Joe Williams I get five thousand dollars.” They all made fun of me. A few years later Frank goes downtown, if Frank went to a sh*t barrel youse’d all follow him. All of them went downtown because Frank was there.

Pat Cooper was in fine form in 2007 on the Howard Stern Show where he has been a recurring guest for more than a decade. On this program Pat talks about being rejected by The Sopranos and was subjected to a surprise 'roast'.

 

The comedian has a great love of Italian culture and Italian food, when he was a guest on The Bill Boggs Show he demonstrated his Veal Parmagine recipe.

 

Here's a recording of a phone call I had with Pat Cooper, what a hilarious guy he is. And keep in mind when you listen that Jerry Lewis wrote the introduction to Pat's autobiography in 2010, the same year this was recorded.

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Pat Cooper can be seen in motion pictures as well, including The Godfather, The Aristocrats, Analyze This and Analyze That.


Pat Cooper / Las Vegas Italian comedian
LEGENDARY ITALIAN
COMEDIAN PAT COOPER

YOUR GO-GO HOST: Billy Ingram

"Money won is twice as
sweet as money earned."

- From The Color of Money

 

Punk Book
Punk - a look at the gay and Punk / post-Punk landscape in Los Angeles in 1980.

 

"Man, I really like Vegas." - Elvis

 

 


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