Female impersonator and Joan Rivers look-alike Frank Marino holds the record for being the longest-running Las Vegas headliner, clocking in just over 25,000 shows and entertaining over three million people. Frank holds that record by having starred both in an Evening at La Cage and Divas Las Vegas, and he has extended his record by starring in Legends Live in Concert and also currently appears Divas, Drag and Drinks at Virgin Hotel and Casino at 4pm on Sundays.
He is the only person who currently has stars in two shows on the Las Vegas Strip Walk of Fame. In addition, he has both the key to the city and a key to the Strip. The city has also named February 1st Frank Marino Day. If that weren’t enough, he even has a street named after him: Frank Marino Drive. “It also goes both ways,” Frank jokes.
I first met Frank nearly 30 glamourous years ago, when I was hired to co-star with him in La Cage at the Hotel Riviera. I value our long friendship. I learned a lot about show business from working with him. He is truly the queen of Las Vegas.
Frank met me after one of his Legends shows in his swanky star’s dressing room at the Hotel Tropicana, here is what the queen of Las Vegas had to say.
Boy Mike: How did you get discovered?
Frank Marino: Well, I started doing Joan Rivers. I went to Atlantic City, and Joan Rivers was performing, and I knocked on her dressing room door. She led me back and I met the producers Lou and Anthony Pasciaco, they owned a club in Beverly Hills on La Cienega Boulevardand they said, “We’re putting on a show in Florida.” I quit my schooling and went with them to Florida and quit my job — so my parents needed a doctor at that point.
But everything worked out, because I performed in Florida for a season, then we went home for the summer, and we opened LaCage in September in Vegas. Pia Zadora and her billionaire husband Meshulam Riklis gave us a three-month run — and we stayed 25 years there. Then I started my own show, Divas, at the old ImperialPalace, which turned into the Linq. Then I became the star of Legends in Concert at the Tropicana.
Boy Mike: Tell me about the show you’re currently in, Legends in Concert.
FM: So I’m loving the show I’m in, because everybody sings live. It’s got a live band. Every single aspect of it is live. Nobody even uses a track along with their singing.
I come out to host as Joan Rivers and I’m like the silver thread that weaves the show together… This particular [show] is called “Divas.” We have Cher, Lady Gaga, Adele, and Celine Dion. But it’s the first time I’m working with all real girls and all real singers. The Divas are back at Virgin Hotel and Casino at 4pm on Sundays with co-stars Lizzo, Donna Summer, Rhianna, Beyonce, Liza, Mariah, Gaga, Pink, Britney, Cher, and Celene.
Boy Mike: How does this show differ from the Vegas La Cage and then Divas. What are you enjoying more?
FM: I enjoy the drag queens a lot, because the audience just screams, hoots, and hollers, But in Legends…, we’re doing mini concerts… you can change things when it’s live, because you’ve got a band, so you could re-work it around what the singers want to do.
La Cage and Divas would use the music and lip-sync to prerecorded music… a lot of people put that down, but it’s also an art… I love the energy of [a] drag show, but I love the talent in the Legends show.
Boy Mike: Which style would you say is your favorite?
FM: Well, the Divas show would always be my baby, because that’s what I am, a female impersonator. But I do totally enjoy doing Legends.
Boy Mike: Let’s talk about some plastic surgeries, shall we? Are you willing to talk about what you’ve had done?
FM: A nose job. (laughs) Listen, Mrs Potato Head has linked parts, but I’ll try to remember. I had my eyes, my nose, I had my chin I had my cheeks, I had my jaw, and I had a neck lift.
Boy Mike: Talk to me about your relationship with Joan Rivers?
FM: So I first met Joan Rivers when I went backstage to see her in Atlantic City in 1984, and I was just a kid, like, “Ms. Rivers, I impersonate you.” Which I’m sure happens a lot. And I [met] the producers of La Cage, that’s how it all started.
But I think I was meant to do her because our paths inadvertently crossed by mistake. One day while walking in Manhattan, she was [on her way] to do Fox Five News and I ran into her there. I was on an airplane — TWA, when that was around — I was sitting in one first-class seat, and she sat exactly right next to me, arm in arm. What are the chances?
Then I go to Disneyland. I’m getting on “Pirates of the Caribbean.” I hear, “Joan! Joan! Ms. Rivers!” And I think they’re talking to me — because of my ego. And I turn around and there she was with Melissa. And my boyfriend, Alex, tried to get her on Splash Mountain.
So that was my relationship with her. Right before she passed we went to do Fashion Police. I’m glad I got to see her…and work with her one more time. And when she died my feeling was, you really feel a loss, because this woman’s name came up a couple times a day in my household, you know what I’m saying? Not a day went by that I didn’t hear the announcer say, “Ms. Joan Rivers.” You know? So it was very weird, surreal. I got invited to the shiva at Melissa Rivers’ house in Pacific Palisades. I can’t believe she’s gone. But she’s such a big personality that she’s on
TV still a lot now and on social media.
Boy Mike: So after she died did you consider not doing Joan anymore? I understand you have a deal with Melissa.
FM: I did, and I was like, you know what, I’ll take it out for now. She’s said, “No, my mother wouldn’t want that.” So instead of an impersonation, now I make it a tribute.
Boy Mike: What brand of makeup do you like?
FM: I wear makeshift things, but the main thing I wear is MAC makeup.
Boy Mike: How many gowns would you say you own?
FM: I’m going to say over a thousand.
Boy Mike: Where do you keep them all?
FM: They’re all stacked away. I have maybe 20 here, in the dressing room. And at and another 20 at the house. I have a closet [from which] I’ll bring stuff back and forth. I never had drag in my house before. This is the first time I had it in my house, but I don’t want to go the warehouse every day, so I go into my closet here, and if I don’t want it, I switch it with something from home. We rotate. And every outfit — this is an interesting tidbit — every outfit has its own pair of shoes and jewelry. So everything is very matchy-matchy. And my biggest excitement is if I have a gown and I find a
shoe that’s an exact match!
Boy Mike: Have you been hurt a lot?
FM: I’ve been hurt a lot. I’ve been hurt by so many people that I helped. People will say, “Oh,
Frank might be a diva, or a bitch,” …and I’m sure I’m all of those things at some time. But I know deep down I have a heart, and somebody’s in need, I’m going to step down and be there, or I’ll be the one to make a phone call if somebody’s in the hospital, or if somebody in the family died, or lost a pet. I always try do the right thing. I’ll send something or I’ll call.
I feel that I have very few people in my inner circle that would do that for me. I believe a lot of times it stems from jealousy, which is really arrogant for me to say, because I am me, but I think people, instead of pulling themselves up to where they think I am, they’d rather pull me down to where they know they are.
Boy Mike: So What’s next for you?
FM: After a 5 year hiatus from performing a live show on the Las Vegas Strip, we are back with Divas, the next generation show with impersonators featuring Lizzo to Miley at TBD Casino. The only thing on my bucket list is the have a wax figure of me at the Madam Tussauds Las Vegas.
The Divas are back at Virgin Hotel and Casino at 4pm on Sundays with co-stars Lizzo, Donna Summer, Rhianna, Beyonce, Liza, Mariah, Gaga, Pink, Britney, Cher, and Celene.
Boy Mike: What do you want on your tombstone?
FM: Vegas Needed Me.
For more information go to FrankMarino.com.
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King of Las Vegas : Jesse Garron
I first met Jesse Garron over two decades ago, when I was performing on the Las Vegas Strip in “A evening at La Cage” show at the Riviera. I had never met a young, good-looking, and very gay Elvis Presley impersonator before. We quickly became good friends.
Jesse started his career as Elvis around 30 years ago. His success has brought him fame around the world. He has graced the cover of many magazines, including Time, and even posed as Elvis for a nude spread in Playgirl. His television appearances include The View, The Today Show, and MTV, plus dozens of films and television and even his own reality show.
He is the only Elvis look-alike to have a key to the city of Las Vegas presented to him by the mayor. Just this past spring, he was chosen to be the Citizen of the Month by the Las Vegas city council.
He is also not shy. When I interviewed him, he was sitting on his 24-karat gold toilet. In fact an alternative title for this interview was “The King Is on The Throne.”
Boy Mike: How did you start impersonating Elvis? How did you realize you looked like him and could make a living doing it?
Jesse Garron: Well, I entered a contest when I was in high school. Won a trip to Vegas and metDolly’s impersonator, who had been doing it for years. I forgot the words to the damn song “Hound Dog.” There’s only two verses. So I forgot the words … but still won the contest. …I had a choice: either Elvis or college. Thank God I chose Elvis, because a lot of our college friends aren’t doing so well. So [I] got $1,800, [and] a pink Cadillac, moved to Vegas, and the rest is history.
Boy Mike: So that’s how you got your first pink Cadillac?
JG: Yeah, hardtop. Had it for many years. Then I got the convertible, the [1955] pink Cadillac.
Boy Mike: When did you realize you were gay?
JG: God, about five or six. At church there was this really, really cute guy that I was attracted to. And I wasn’t really attracted to the girls… In Texas you can’t be gay. You can’t play that shit. So I became such a great actor. I had to play it straight, so [I] wouldn’t get beat up in Texas.
Boy Mike: What do you like most about Elvis?
JG: How he was loyal to his friends, took care of his mom. He was a pioneer… in the ’70’s, going around on drugs, …: airplanes, big shows, 36-piece orchestra. Just being the King, man. That’s what I always loved about him.
Boy Mike: What’s the difference between you and Elvis?
JG: The budget.
Boy Mike: And what are the similarities?
JG: Well, the looks I get, what people say a lot of the time. And we both are very loyal and love our mamma to death, and our dad, but …yeah, we’re both womanizers, or used to be.
Boy Mike: You used to be a womanizer?
JG: Well, woman, man, man, woman, yeah.
Boy Mike: Are you bisexual?
JG: No, ma’am. just like a womanizer but men.
Boy Mike: What’s the most insane thing that’s happened to you while on tour singing as Elvis?
JG: Besides getting to travel the world and meet Priscilla and all these people who are tied in with Elvis and play in stadiums full of people? I mean all this amazing great stuff that happened in my life Elvis and this whole career.
Boy Mike: Tell me what Legends is.
JG: Well, that’s the reason I came to Vegas when I got out of high school, because I had heard that they were paying $1,800 a week for their Elvis’s, which back in 1991 or so was a lot of damn money. So that was our whole goal — the whole reason for coming to Vegas was to get that job. And I didn’t get it right at first, but eventually persistence paid off, and I ended up getting it, and they put me on the road. I don’t know who I pissed off to get put on the road, but …I did that for quite a while.
Boy Mike: Tell me about meeting Priscilla [Elvis’s ex-wife]. I understand she doesn’t really like getting her pictures with Elvis impersonators. Why were you the exception?
JG: Yeah, I was very lucky getting a picture with her. Getting a picture with her is like the Holy Grail of all pictures to Elvis impersonators. …I think they were celebrating Lisa Marie’s birthday [her daughter with Elvis]. …I went up and asked her for a picture. She snuggled right up next to me and, damn, she looked good for her age. But I got to tell you: Lisa Marie, I’d always been a little scared of that bitch. She just seems like she would just tear your ass like real good. So I didn’t ask for a picture with her. But Priscilla was just a total sweetheart. And I got the Holy Grail picture.
Boy Mike: How has your life changed by becoming an Elvis impersonator?
JG: [I repeat what] they say: “Do what you want and you’ll never work a day in your life.” If I could do anything in the world I wanted to do, it would be Elvis. And, you know, deal with people [on] the happiest days of their lives — I do weddings and things. So I really, truly, never worked a day in my life. I’ve been very blessed. I’ve only work maybe three, four hours a week, five tops…. And I live a hell of a lifestyle. I couldn’t get anywhere else doing anything else.
Boy Mike: And you have an enormous condo with a full view from your condo, which by the way, features an Elvis pinball machine in the living room.
JG: Yeah, we play strip pinball on that.
Boy Mike: Oh, lovely! But how do you play that?
JG: Uh, loser takes off everything.
Boy Mike: What’s your favorite Elvis song, and why?
JG: “Jailhouse Rock,” which is really gritty. His voice is almost like he’s yelling. It’s the world’s first rock video. Elvis at his core. But my favorite song changes from time to time. There’s one I forgot I liked, and another one for a couple of months, and so it’s constantly changing, because I went to jail, I’ve been to jail, which is god-awful.
Boy Mike: And what would you like your tombstone to say when you’re dead and gone?
JG: “Thank you very much” or “Jessie’s left the building.”
For more on Jesse, go to VegasElvis.com.
