05/17/2026
Here’s a fun memory from early 1966!
We had our very first King Family performance in Las Vegas that year, during a three-week engagement from January 25 to February 14 at the fabulous Sahara Hotel.
It was thrilling to be playing Las Vegas. Our Moms, The King Sisters, of course, had played there many times before. In fact, some of our fondest childhood memories are tied to the times we spent there with them. Now we’d have our own chance to experience that stage and magic for ourselves.
It was a very busy time for us. In December, we taped the final episodes of Season 2 of The King Family Show. Then the whole family played an amazing holiday engagement at Harrah’s Tahoe through Dec 29th. Then we were off to NYC, where we rang in the new year and taped our first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. We returned to California for a week of concerts with the whole family at the Carousel Theatre near Los Angeles from Jan 18-23. Then we were immediately off to Las Vegas to open at the Sahara on Jan 25! I’m out of breath just thinking about it!
At the Sahara, we had a smaller configuration of our usual 36 family members on stage. We’d be performing two shows a night at 8:15 pm and midnight, so the King Kids weren’t part of these shows.
The Sahara engagement featured The King Sisters, Alvino Rey, and five of us King Cousins: Tina, Candy, Jamie, me (Cathy), and Ric, who had the distinct honor of representing all of the boy cousins! Marilyn’s husband, Kent Larsen, was our conductor, and comedian Jack Durant opened the show.
I remember very few things about that first Las Vegas appearance, though it was so exciting to be doing something like that. I do vividly remember one night—our Moms wanted us to see one of the famous lounge acts playing Vegas at the time. Tina and Candy were old enough to get in, but Jamie and I were not. So, our moms dressed us up in their furs, and did up our hair and makeup so that we would look 21 and they could sneak us in.
It worked!
I think we saw the singer Buddy Greco, and I remember that, for whatever reason, he seemed to sing the entire show to me—and trust me, everyone noticed.
We are so grateful for the many memories we were able to share together. It was a great gift to our whole family from my Mom, Yvonne, who originally had the clever idea to put the whole family into the act. What an amazing adventure it became for all of us.
Love,Cathy
