At 8 P.M. on July 8th at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center (WHBPAC) American music icon and national treasure, Wayne Newton, will make his very first professional appearance in the Hamptons. The program is titled Up Close and Personal. In a long interview with hamptons.com he was very enthusiastic and forthcoming. He said, “In the show I actually play six different instruments and the show is certainly more music than talk. It also covers the evolution of Las Vegas and the evolution of my career.” He explained there were so many folks that helped him out in his career. He stressed, “It covers all those things, but it definitely isn’t all talk and we do take some questions from the audience.”
Although he has performed in front of Presidents and literally everyone who has been in show business over the years while starring in Las Vegas, this will be Mr. Newton’s first Hamptons visit ever. About this he said, “I am very much looking forward to performing in the Hamptons. I have never actually been out there. I look forward to spending a few days there.”
Confessing what he enjoys about his show business career he said, “Luckily for me I started at such a young age. My folks took me to see a ‘Grand Ole Opry’ road show and we were seated way back, so far back that I couldn’t even see the performers.” So, he looked around at the people seated around him and said he saw and felt their “happiness.” Wayne Newton then said to his mother that very night, “This is what I want to do.” He stressed, “It has always been that (making people happy) for me no matter what changes came along musically.”
Wayne Newton was born in Virginia on April 3, 1942. He actually started in the entertainment industry before he was six. As he said, “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t an entertainer. I was on the radio with my brother at a very early age.” He started out in country music, and explained that when he was eight years old he and his brother did a local television show in Phoenix until he was 15 years old . At 15, he and his brother went up to Las Vegas and started playing for an over-21 years old crowd in lounges. He said that changed the type of music they performed. He noted that “The one thing that always stands out is I want to see the smiles on the people’s faces, so that means I have to be doing what it is that they want to hear.”
Newton started out playing the “steel guitar,” which he said was a lot like playing the violin. He said, “It’s not the instrument most people associate with a lead singer,” but he did it. However, when Elvis Presley arrived on the music scene, Wayne Newton said, “There was no demand for steel guitar players so I picked up the lead guitar and started playing his (Elvis) kind of music. That’s how the evolution happened.”
Most folks think of Wayne Newton as “Mr. Las Vegas,” but he has been more than that, being a regular guest on a long list of diverse iconic American TV shows. Well known programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jack Benny Show, American Bandstand, The Lucy Show, The Danny Kaye Show, even Bonanza, Ally McBeal and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He has also appeared in well over 20 motion pictures, including hits like Rocky II.
Mr. Newton, a stalwart of supporting the USO for over sixty years, is well known and loved by U.S. military personnel. He has entertained in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Sometimes Newton put his own safety on the line in order to entertain our armed forces near dangerous combat areas. Explaining his sentiments he said, “Perhaps the biggest joy of my life was being there for the troops who were there for us all.” He told stories of relaying messages to folks back home, by actually calling numbers with messages the soldiers gave him. He even passed along a “will you marry me message.”
The July 8th show at the WHBPAC will give everyone out east and up-island an opportunity to see Wayne Newton perform his epic hits. He will perform, Danke Schoen, which besides selling millions of copies in 1963, was made even more famous in the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, film. He will entertain folks with everything he’s got just like he did when he started at Las Vegas, opening for Jack Benny. That one evening turned into an almost forever Las Vegas booking.
See Wayne Newton, July 8th, at the WHBPAC, 75 Main Street, Westhampton Beach 11978 visit https://whbpac.org for ticket information.
