INSIDE ENTERTAINMENT 7G TRAVEL 9G
Sunday Life Features & TrTravelavel LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL • AUGUST 17, 2014 • SECTION G FEATURES DESK • 702-387-2909 a
Mike HISTORIC LAS VEGAS CONCERTS Weatherford ENTERTAINMENT “If my memory is correct, I think we were in, like, the seventh row. But we were really close, and I just remember (Dad) sitting with his fingers in his ears the whole concert. I was just screaming, crazy loud. It was a wonderful thing.” CHRISTIE MULLIKIN JONES Could BEATLES FAN ‘Wizard Wars’ aid Ve gas?
couple of things you will see on Syfy’s “Wizard Wars” ATuesday that you don’t see in Las Vegas: A) New illusions created in a competitive setting, not just the same old stuffing of women into cabinets and stabbing them with swords. B) The larger illusion that young, attractive people actually sit and watch young, attractive people perform magic in cool nightclubs. “We did kind of build this ideal magic venue,” Rick Lax says of the latter, created in the Los Angeles Herald- Examiner building that’s seen new life for film and TV production. In Las Vegas, he agrees, “most magic shows are not set up that way. They’re not that intimate and the audience isn’t that attractive and young.” But maybe A can help JEFF SCHEID/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL make B come true. Christie Mullikin Jones, seen here with a T-shirt featuring The Beatles of a later era, saw The Beatles play Las Vegas on Aug. 20, 1964, and As I wrote in February remains a lifelong fan. (when “Wizard Wars” was first scheduled to air, then abruptly postponed), Lax created the concept of a magical spin on the Food Network’s “Chopped,” and sold it based on a YouTube pilot filmed in his Las Vegas apartment.
Now the Las Vegas THE writer and Penguin Magic associate is the producer BEATLES and magic consultant for six professionally produced hours of “Wizard Wars,” A DAY IN THE LIVES OF FANS starting Tuesday. Penn & Teller serve as the judges and wise sages to less-known local magicians such as Shimshi and Justin Flom. Longtime Las Ve gans recall “Wizard Wars” joins what seems to be a boomlet of television’s renewed interest the 1964 concerts and in magic. It’s not even the only show where Penn & Teller judge less-famous the surrounding hysteria magicians. Their British series “Fool Us” is in the By JOHN PRZYBYS midst of a U.S. airing on the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL CW. The CW also is running istoric? “Masters of Illusion,” Sure, some of the fans who attended The with a host of Las Vegas- Beatles’ first and only visit to Las Vegas 50 based magicians. Viewers years ago this week may have had an inkling are responding to “The that it would be historic. Carbonaro Effect” with For many — and maybe for most — it Michael Carbonaro on TruTV. wasHat the very least a great excuse to catch the latest “Magic goes in waves,” supergroup and a cool way to cap off summer before says Murray Sawchuck, who school resumed, in a town where popular music still was recently filmed “Extreme more about the Rat Pack than four English guys with Escapes” with Riviera scandalous haircuts. headliner Jan Rouven for a But historic it was. The Beatles’ 1964 U.S. tour, September launch on Reelz which came on the heels of the group’s now-iconic Channel. “If we really knew performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” furthered what was going to hit next, along a revolution in music, politics and pop culture that we’d all be millionaires.” had already begun, and there would be no turning back. Sawchuck, Nathan Burton When The Beatles came to Las Vegas on Aug. and Tommy Wind all compete 20, 1964, and took to a patio-sized stage in the on “Wizard Wars” with (appropriately) flying saucer-shaped rotunda at the Las magicians who aren’t trying Vegas Convention Center, it was an epic event, both to sell tickets on the Strip. for those lucky enough to be there and those who just Whether it helps them happened to be close enough by to experience a bit of, individually, the rising tide that’s right, history. could push Las Vegas magic • • • in the right direction. Glenn Shaw didn’t see the concert. But he and his “It should show people niece, Linda Shaw Stiles, believe they caught what that if you really focus on would have been an early sighting of the group. creating something from the Shaw was 20 then and working at a car rental agency ground up, it is possible,” at McCarran Airport. Lax says. “But for a lot of LAS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU FILE magicians, the incentive to The Beatles arrive in Las Vegas in preparation for their two ▶ SEE BEATLES PAGE 2G originate just isn’t there.” shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF FANS Just as Syfy’s “Face Off” taught Hollywood makeup secrets to laypeople, “Wizard Wars” is “the first show where you kind of get to see the magician’s thinking and the process,” not just the result performed on stage. And if the result in Las Vegas is a live version of “Wizard Wars”? “Wouldn’t Images from that be wonderful,” Lax says The Beatles’ with a laugh. “Hard Days Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at Night” album [email protected] or 702-383-0288. Page 2G • Sunday, August 17, 2014 a Las Vegas Review-Journal THE BEATLES: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF FANS
“I said, ‘Let’s try to sneak in between these two buildings.’ I turned off the lights of the car and, as I pull in between the two buildings, I see the limo trying to come out. We were no more than 10 or 15 feet from them. They just stuck their heads out watching, like,‘What’s going on?’ “ GLENN SHAW BEATLES FAN
TERRY TODD/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Beatles fans line up to purchase concert tickets at the Las Vegas Convention Center on June 29, 1964.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1G terrible summer. Berkley, former Nevada “Of course, the day of congresswoman and now CEO their arrival, the airport was and senior provost for Touro flooded with kids,” he says. University’s Western Division, “Having worked at the airport, was 13 years old. The month I knew where The Beatles before, she and her family were arriving, which wasn’t had driven across the country at the main terminal but the so that her father could seek old terminal out on Las Vegas employment in Southern Boulevard.” California’s hospitality industry. So, he says, “I got hold of my Instead, they stopped in niece and said I knew where Las Vegas, where the family they were coming in.” was living in a one-bedroom Linda already was a big apartment behind the Blue Beatles fan, owning every Angel Motel, one block north of album the group did to that East Charleston Boulevard. point and, of course, tickets for It was oppressively hot. one of the Las Vegas shows. So Berkley missed her friends when her uncle called, “I was so back home. She felt isolated and excited,” she says. “I couldn’t alone. honestly believe that I was “I thought my parents had going to be able to see them. I taken me to hell,” Berkley thought if I can just be close to recalls. them, I’d be thrilled.” But, somehow, her parents “I got off work,” Glenn were able to score four tickets recalls. “I had a little MICHAEL QUINE/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL to The Beatles’ concert. They Thunderbird convertible back Glenn Shaw and his niece Linda Shaw Stiles accidentally blocked the exit of The Beatles’ limousine from sat in nosebleed seats, Berkley then, and we drove over to the McCarran Airport after the group’s arrival. with her mom and her sister, other terminal. It was kind of Wendy, with her dad. dark. No one was around. But Berkley screamed. She cried. we did see the plane pull up. And, she says, for the first time “I said, ‘Let’s try to sneak in ONLINE EXTRAS since she had arrived in Las between these two buildings.’ I Vegas a few weeks before, she turned off the lights of the car STORY: felt happy. and, as I pull in between the two reviewjournal.com/ Berkley recalls that as she buildings, I see the limo trying beatles_fans left the concert, a big moon to come out. hung in the sky. It was then, she “We were no more than 10 or VIDEO: recalls, that “I realized that Las 15 feet from them,” Glenn says. reviewjournal.com/beatles50th Vegas might not be such a bad “They just stuck their heads out place to live. watching, like, ‘What’s going “Las Vegas was now home. on?’ It was the beginning of my “We were nose to nose with but my tears finally wore Dad incredible life in Las Vegas. the limousine. Finally a police down. He dropped Mom and After that show, I never looked officer came to help me back I off, and when we got to the back.” out and, in the meantime, my front of the line to get our The Beatles concert even niece and her girlfriend, they’re tickets, they were sold out! We may have planted the seeds jumping up and down.” sat on the curb and waited for of Berkley’s political career. Glenn backed out, parked and Dad to come back to get us. We MICHAEL QUINE/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL After Review-Journal writer watched as The Beatles’ limo could almost hear the singing Former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley recalls her first summer in Las Vegas, Don Digilio wrote, Berkley went by. Their excellent Beatles above the screaming girls when she attended The Beatles’ concert at the Las Vegas Convention says, “a scathing column about adventure even made the inside. Center. the show in which he insulted newspaper the next day where, “So close!” Ringo’s nose” (Digilio wrote Glenn recalls, laughing, “they • • • In her letters to Karen lead vocal on “Boys” (“I just about standing in “the shadow called us marauding teenagers.” Christie Mullikin Jones — which, Christie admits, about died. He is so neat”) and of Ringo’s nose”), Berkley “That was probably the was more fortunate. She and laughing, “were pretty how she sobbed when they joined other local Beatles fans most exciting thing that’s ever her family made The Beatles’ dramatic” — “I wrote about the sang “If I Fell” (“It sounds to protest at the writer’s front happened to me. I called my concerts the centerpiece of a restrictions. You couldn’t go stupid, but when you hear them door. nieces immediately. ‘We’re in Las Vegas vacation. up the elevator to the top floor. sing, it makes you feel like • • • the paper!’ ” Christie was 16 then and lived We were told that’s where The you remember a lot of good Philip Jones, then 17, worked Later, Linda saw The Beatles in Claremont, Calif., where Beatles were staying. And there memories”). the shows as an usher. He had play. “It was nonstop music and her father owned a trucking was a lot of security around. Pretty perceptive stuff for a worked other shows at the nonstop screaming,” she says. company. “They went between “One of the things I had in 17-year-old, actually. Another Convention Center, including “I remember that aggravated Los Angeles and Las Vegas, so (a letter) was, we were looking observation: What a great guy a Beach Boys concert, before. me, because I couldn’t hear.” he had some sort of contact in down out of the window to the Christie’s dad must have been. But, he says, “when this Did Linda think, even for Las Vegas,” she says. “That’s pool area and we could see “I look back on it now, and I opportunity came for both just a second, about getting out how he got tickets for us.” people. This is at night, and the think that was an amazing thing shows, I jumped on it.” of her uncle’s car and running Christie already was “a crazy pool was cleared out, but there he did for us,” Christie agrees. Before the first show, Jones over to The Beatles’ limo? Beatles fan. From the moment were four men sitting down Christie recently caught also was enlisted to serve as a She laughs. “Oh, I could never I heard them, I loved — I still there. We couldn’t even see. Cirque du Soleil’s “Love” and proto-roadie. have been brave enough to do love — The Beatles.” They were very small. We were discovered that the passage of “We had to get there early that.” The family stayed at the sure they were The Beatles. 50 years hasn’t diminished the to get our silly outfits — our • • • Sahara, the same hotel at which We were standing out on the power of The Beatles’ music. hat and tie — and they needed The Beatles played two shows The Beatles were staying. balcony and they waved.” “It’s just that whole time of somebody to help set up the in Las Vegas. Ticket prices During their stay, Christie Then came the concert. life that it brings back,” she stage, so I helped put Ringo’s ranged from $2.20 to $5.50, and wrote letters on official Sahara “If my memory is correct, says. “I feel like the songs still drums up,” Jones says. “You not everybody who wanted a stationery to her friend, Karen, I think we were in, like, the hold up. They’re wonderful. couldn’t imagine that nowadays. ticket got one. describing what she saw and seventh row,” Christie says. “They were so talented, and And if you see any photos of “I was 7 and my mother felt. “But we were really close, and I don’t think we knew how them playing that night, the and I were crazy for The “There was a lot of I just remember (Dad) sitting talented they were at the time. stage was nothing. It was like Beatles,” writes Kim Badgley excitement in the air,” Christie with his fingers in his ears We were just caught up in the a little curtain behind them of Henderson. “I loved Paul and recalls, as well as “a lot of the whole concert. I was just frenzy and loved them. But, to that said, ‘The Beatles.’ No my mom loved George and my supposed sightings of The screaming, crazy loud. It was a look back, we got to witness electronics, no fireworks, no Dad thought we were crazy! Beatles,” and at least one wonderful thing.” something amazing.” pyrotechnics.” “When they came to town, hotel page heard that Beatles Christie wrote to Karen about • • • Mom and I wanted to go so bad. manager Brian Epstein was the set list (The Beatles opened Meanwhile, a few miles away, ▶ SEE BEATLES PAGE 4G We didn’t have a lot of money, spotted. with “Twist and Shout”), Ringo’s Shelley Berkley was enduring a A DAY IN THE LIFE OF FANS Page 4G • Sunday, August 17, 2014 a Las Vegas Review-Journal THE BEATLES: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF FANS
“There were people screaming at the top of their lungs. So, from that standpoint, looking back on it, I remember people asking me right afterwards, ’Did you like it?’ We said, ‘We didn’t hear anything, but I loved it.’ “ SIG ROGICH BEATLES FAN
COURTESY SIG ROGICH Sig Rogich can be found somewhere in this photo, amid a galaxy of celebrities that includes Tommy Sands, Fabian and Pat Boone.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2G I really heard them. As they wrote music, going on in their Then, during the second show, careers, I was always taken by Jones says, “I got to stand in their ability and their harmony. front of the stage because they I’ve always loved music and I needed more security to guard played guitar most of my life, so them. The girls who saw the I always enjoyed great harmony first show started to rush the and good four-part harmony, stage, so they had ushers leave and we were just taken by their their seating posts after the ability right away.” people were seated and go down Not that the concerts were the in front of the stage. So I heard best place to truly appreciate them better during the second The Beatles’ musical ability. show because I was right there.” “It was the first time I’d ever Any fear of being trampled by been to a concert where it was overeager fans? “No, I was just quite like that,” Rogich says. glad I got to be closer,” he says, “There were people screaming laughing. “The whole thing was at the top of their lungs. So, from sort of magical. I was just there that standpoint, looking back on saying, ‘I’m going to enjoy this.’ ” it, I remember people asking Jones remembers feeling me right afterwards, ‘Did you vibrations from the music in the like it?’ We said, ‘We didn’t hear arena’s metal hand rails. “You anything, but I loved it.’ ” could imagine the whole saucer- And to illustrate just how shaped building taking off,” he small a town Las Vegas was back says. “Just the vibration and the then: In a separate recollection, energy level were so incredible.” Las Vegas native Kathy After the show, Jones and Bellflower writes that she went some other ushers went to to the concert with her sister and Denny’s on the Strip to unwind. MICHAEL QUINE/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL their baby sitter, Ronnie Rogich, Barbara Eddowes holds a photo of The Beatles taken while she and her daughter, Sherri, were backstage “All the teenage girls saw us Sig Rogich’s sister. after one of The Beatles’ Las Vegas shows. They attended one of The Beatles’ two Las Vegas shows. in our uniforms and wanted “That’s right,” Sig Rogich our autographs,” he recalls, says. “I guess two of us were at laughing. that concert.” “We had a moment, thanks to As a memento, Rogich years The Beatles.” later was given a photo of the • • • concert, taken from the stage, Sherri Eddowes-Plummer and that shows him sitting in the her mother, Barbara, got to visit audience. backstage after the show. • • • Sherri was 5 then. “I really The Beatles’s 1964 North don’t know how we wound up American Tour played more there, but we sat in the front than 20 cities, from San row, right by Ringo,” she says. Francisco and Los Angeles to “He was on the drums, and as LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE Philadelphia and New York. That A ticket stub from The Beatles’ soon as he hit the drums with his second show here. Las Vegas was on the itinerary stick for the first time, complete was key in ensuring that the chaos ensued. city that prides itself on being “I had no idea who they were,” drank out of this coffee cup.’ I the entertainment capital of the she admits. But her mom did, could have sold all this stuff, I’m world wasn’t left behind even as and she was a big fan. sure. I just gave it to them. ‘I the music and culture of the ’60s “Of course, I have no memory saw Paul eat out of this.’ ‘Here’s began to turn. of this, but she told me I was just a plate John had.’ I gave away, Rossi Ralenkotter, president sitting there listening, and after FILE like, a whole busboy’s tray of and CEO of the Las Vegas five minutes I was standing In a handout photo of the time, members of The Beatles are shown stuff.” Convention and Visitors on my chair. It was just utter atop the Sahara, where the group stayed while in Las Vegas. • • • Authority, attended both shows. insanity. People were crying, Las Vegas was still a pretty “August 20, 1964, was an people were screaming. Of small town in 1964, then, so it’s incredible day in Las Vegas, and course, it was mostly girls, and irony of this is now that, a drink 24 hours. They said, ‘Is it not surprising that some of the one I’ll never forget,” he writes. shaking their hair like they did good part of the year, I live in true you can gamble in grocery people who saw The Beatles “Beatlemania was beginning to back then. England.” stores?’ ” here would become some of Las sweep across the country, and “Then, I don’t remember “I used to live in London right But, Pinion says, “I was Vegas’ and Nevada’s better- there was an excitement in Las how we got backstage, but we across the street from Abbey nervous. I couldn’t get a known residents. Vegas that had rarely been seen were there after the concert,” Road. I work for the Defense conversation going. They kept Sig Rogich, for instance, at that time. The response was Sherri says. She figures that Department, and I’ve actually trying to talk to me, and I was political consultant and so great, the promoters — Herb had something to do with her been in England back and forth just a starstruck kid. I didn’t president of The Rogich McDonald, Stan Irwin and John stepfather-to-be, who “was one for more than 10 years now. So know what to say. I was scared Communications Group, was Romero of the Sahara hotel- of the pit bosses at the Silver it’s kind of full circle.” to death. John was the most 19 then and dating a girl whose casino — decided to add a show Slipper, and he had all kinds of — • • • talkative, but they all said father worked at the Sahara, and move the concerts from the I’ll put it nicely — connections. Dave Pinion was 16 then something to me.” a sponsor of the shows. So, he Sahara’s Congo Room to the Las So that’s probably how we and working as a busboy at the Pinion entered the group’s says, “as luck and good fortune Vegas Convention Center. wound up back there. Sahara. After the shows, he rode suite to wheel their dinner dishes would have it, I had a chance to “The minute John, Paul, “I just remember it was a an elevator with The Beatles up downstairs. In the hallway, he go.” George and Ringo walked onto lot of people trying to get close to their suite. ran into a group of girls who, “It was funny. I wasn’t a big the stage in the Convention to them, and because I was so “They were very nice, very with others, by now had packed concert guy per se, but I think at Center, Las Vegas’ title as young, it wasn’t really a big deal friendly,” Pinion recalls. “They the hotel. that time I remember thinking, ‘Entertainment Capital of to me.” asked me a few questions about “They were all over the place, ‘This is kind of a historic the World’ was cemented in She and her mom also ended the girls (in Las Vegas). They hundreds of them,” Pinion says. moment,’ ” he says. history.” up with a nice photo of the couldn’t get over the fact that “So I’m taking out the dishes But, he continues, “these guys Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ group. And, Sherri says, “the you could gamble 24 hours and and telling them, ‘Oh yeah, Ringo were great from the first time review journal.com or 702-383-0280. INSIDE VARIETY 5D ENTERTAINMENT 6D TELEVISION 7D COMICS 8D Healthand fitness FEATURES DESK • 383-0264 LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014 a SECTION D TREATING ALL PATIENTS AS PEOPLE Paul Harasim TO YOUR HEALTH Blacks wary of medical research
ou don’t have to be a psychologist to understand Ythat there’s a good bit of emotional turmoil accompanying a decision by a cancer patient on whether to participate in the first in-human trial of an anti- cancer drug. Even though their battles with cancer had left both Rosemary Rathbun and Lorrine Rodgers on death’s doorstep, they couldn’t help but fear that an untested drug would increase their pain or hasten their deaths. RONDA CHURCHILL/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL They understandably Dr. Warren Wheeler, medical director of palliative medicine at Nathan Adelson Hospice, examines a terminally ill cancer patient at the sought the advice of family hospice’s in-patient unit. The woman was transferred to hospice from a hospital the day before. on what to do. As it turned out, and as I reported Jan. 11, the cancer that was on the verge of taking their lives disappeared after both women had treatments at Comprehensive Cancer A GENTLE GUIDE Centers of Nevada with an antibody drug code-named MPDL3280A. Although their very participation in the drug trial — Rathbun is white, AT LIFE’S END Rodgers, black — is evidence race wasn’t a By JOHN PRZYBYS medical expertise, Cate says, Wheeler “has factor in who participated, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL such a respect for each person and treats the back story of how they Hospice doctor everyone with dignity.” came to participate may r. Warren Wheeler begins his “I think that’s one reason why he chose provide some insight as to workday with morning rounds. this profession, but also why he’s the why enrollment in clinical Accompanied by a handful works to help epitome of the profession, because he looks trials is disproportionately of students and medical staff at a person not just as ‘a renal failure’ or ‘a low among African- Dmembers, Wheeler visits his patients and terminally ill heart disease’ or whatever. He just looks at Americans, a situation greets them by name, introduces himself them as persons.” that can be immediately and asks how they feel, whether they are Wheeler says that’s probably a reflection harmful to blacks even as it experiencing any pain and whether they patients end their of both his experience and his training. dangerously compromises feel comfortable. “When I first got involved in hospice, the the accuracy of long- They’re the sort of questions most emphasis was on personhood,” he says, “in term generalizations doctors ask patients during rounds. lives pain-free and other words, treating the person with the made of trial results by But it takes a few minutes to notice the disease and not the disease in the person.” researchers. small touches of dignity and compassion Wheeler says palliative care involves When I spoke with that Wheeler weaves into each patient with dignity the treatment of people with incurable the 78-year-old Rathbun interaction. and life-threatening diseases. While about how she came to A brief touch of a patient’s arm. The pain management is a big component of participate, she said she reassuring tone he uses to speak to patients At the hospice, Wheeler helps terminally palliative care, he says, it also involves thought long and hard who aren’t able to understand him. His ill patients face their deaths free of pain managing symptoms of the disease that about getting involved interest in a stuffed animal held by a too- or discomfort and flush with dignity. As a cause discomfort, treating such allied in something that might young patient. The way his hand casually palliative care specialist, he treats patients conditions as nausea or delirium, and even make her even worse off. moves to smooth a rumpled bed sheet. with incurable conditions who are not addressing psychosocial issues that can be When she nervously told Each decidedly human touch has nothing necessarily facing imminent death. associated with serious long-term illness. members of her family to do, technically speaking, with the Next month, Wheeler will be among “Palliative care,” Wheeler says, “is a about the opportunity, she practice of medicine. Wheeler incorporates 30 palliative care specialists from across continuum of care, from diagnosis to death, said they wanted her to try them seamlessly into his daily routine. the country who will be honored as for people with incurable, life-threatening, anything to stay alive. But his rounds are a bit different: Just “visionaries” in the field by the American chronic illness, but there’s no time frame But when the 56-year- about every patient Wheeler saw on this Academy of Hospice and Palliative (of life expectancy).” old Rodgers told loving particular set of morning rounds a few Medicine. Honorees will be recognized as Wheeler notes that patients with, say, relatives about the weeks ago either has died or is expected to “key individuals who have been critical in diabetes — which is incurable, chronic and experimental drug, both die soon. building and shaping our field over the past potentially life-threatening — or who have she and her husband, Wheeler is medical director of the 25 years,” according to Steve R. Smith, the suffered heart issues or strokes, or who Nelson, said many of in-patient unit at Nathan Adelson organization’s executive director. have such conditions as Parkinson’s or Lou them urged her not to be Hospice’s Swenson Street facility and It’s a well-deserved honor, says Pam Gehrig’s disease or lupus, also can be a guinea pig, just as they medical director of palliative medicine Cate, advanced nursing practice manager had urged her not to go at the hospice. He also serves as Sunrise at Adelson Hospice, who has worked with ▶ SEE HOSPICE PAGE 4D along with some earlier Hospital’s palliative care director. Wheeler for about seven years. Beyond his More training needed in end-of-life care breast cancer treatments. There was a lack of trust in doctors, they said, with concern about discrimination. “I didn’t want to hear it any more,” Rodgers said. “I To boost your core, get the hang of these exercises finally made decisions that were best for me.” elieve it or not, some to think of your entire core as functional movements such as There’s no doubt many people actually use just the superficial six-pack and squats, dead lifts and presses. researchers recognize their abs as a lure Chris to benchmark your fitness level These movements give strength that a medical system that Bto the opposite sex. Huth based on whether you have to your entire core. abused blacks in medical Worse yet, some think that if PERSONAL them. If you are looking for that studies in the past has led they never achieve six-pack TRAINER Abdominals are part of your supershredded definition, then to distrust among many definition, they are lacking core. Your entire core supports start looking at the dinner table. African-Americans. How a crucial element to hooking your every movement. The That may not be the answer you the right fish in the ocean of better your movements are, ▶ SEE HARASIM PAGE 3D compatible mates. I try to change the way people the more conditioned your core ▶ SEE TRAINER PAGE 2D Past experiments often unethical In my columns about the core see their core. I don’t want you will be. This is why I advocate Hold body as long or briefly as you can " #'&#
) ! "(! '& ! # ! '&
## $ "# )$ Page 4D • Monday, February 17, 2014 a Las Vegas Review-Journal ▶ HOSPICE: Doctor encourages more end-of-life training for medical professionals
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1D thought of that.’” at all. All I knew was how to give strong “An unknown author said … the real The friend suggested that Wheeler chemotherapy and try to kill the cancer.” meaning of a physician is not clear until candidates for palliative care. instead study law or veterinary science Just a week later, Wheeler was one must treat without the hope of a Then, lying “at the end of the or medicine. Then, he said, Wheeler could approached by a woman seeking his help cure,” Wheeler says. “And physicians continuum of palliative care,” Wheeler make enough money as an attorney, a in founding a hospice. Wheeler had heard and pharmacists and nurses, still the says, is hospice care, for people who vet or a doctor to buy a greenhouse and about the still-new hospice movement in emphasis in those professional schools are expected to live six months or less. pursue horticulture as a hobby. the United States. But, he says, “I thought is on treating the disease. Yet, we all When death is imminent, palliative care Wheeler thought that becoming a it was hokey-pokey. It was outside the die, and you’d think they’d put more seeks to enable terminally ill patients to doctor, in particular, was absurd. medical community, and a grass-roots emphasis on end-of-life issues, but they experience comfortable, pain-free deaths. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I could never movement, and I thought it was like all don’t. We keep trying to penetrate the Palliative care in hospice involves no do that,’” he says. “But then I got to this complementary this and that. medical schools … but it’s a very slow curative intent, Wheeler adds, but exists thinking about it and said to myself, what “But when this woman called me and movement.” to maintain comfort by treating pain and do I have to lose?’” said she was interested in starting a He concedes that his work can be symptoms. Wheeler completed premed studies hospice, I said, ‘What have I got to lose? emotionally wearing. “I guess you just On this particular day, Wheeler’s at Ohio State University and medical What I’m doing now isn’t working.’” sort of get used to it.” patients at the Adelson Hospice’s in- school at Tulane University School of In 1978, Wheeler became founding It helps that Wheeler remains patient facility include a 54-year old man Medicine in New Orleans. After a year medical director of Hospice of Columbus, passionate in believing that the work with lung cancer, an 84-year-old woman of internship at Riverside Methodist the first hospice in that city and only the he and others in his field do has real and a 67-year-old man with congestive Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, he spent two 13th in the country. In 1985, he served as importance. heart failure, and a young woman barely years in the Army — one as a battalion founding medical director of Hospice at “Doctors will say, ‘What do you get in her 20s with malignant cancer. surgeon in Vietnam — then returned to Riverside and Grant, also in Ohio. out of that? Everyone dies. Isn’t that “Do you have any pain?” Wheeler Columbus to complete his residency. Wheeler continued his oncology depressing?’ ” Wheeler says. “I say, ‘Well, matter-of-factly but gently asks After completing a two-year fellowship practice until 2002, although he “wore you know, I’m human and I’m going to the 54-year-old, whose cancer has in medical oncology at the University of two hats,” striving to treat not just cancer die someday, and I sure as hell hope the metastasized to his brain. “Are you Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center in but the person with cancer, too, and physician at my bedside makes sure comfortable?” Houston, Wheeler returned to Ohio to recommending hospice care to patients that I’m comfortable on my way to the The man responds with a faint grunt. open an oncology practice. who “had not a chance in hell of surviving journey of death.” Wheeler gently moves the man’s leg, But just two years into his practice, cancer, and (for whom) chemotherapy Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal. eliciting what sounds like a weak cry Wheeler had a career- and life-changing was worse than the disease.” com or 702-383-0280. of pain. “I’m sorry,” Wheeler tells him. experience. Throughout his career, Wheeler has Then, to staff members accompanying During his training, Wheeler had been instrumental in working for passage him on rounds, he adds, “That’s an been taught to treat cancers with an of state and national legislation that indication we need to go up on the pain “extremely aggressive” approach — advanced the hospice movement by, for meds.” cancer kills, so kill the cancer. example, permitting physicians to more Wheeler examines the man for a few “My house staff and I were walking effectively address end-of-life issues more minutes. Later, he’ll note that the down a hallway and we heard my patient patients face. Since 2002, Wheeler has (+$ ( ( ( ( $ /$ / - $% dark brown urine the man is producing is screaming in her room. We walked into devoted his full professional attention to a sign of kidney failure. the room, and this woman had metastatic palliative medicine and hospice care. “He’s aware he’s dying,” Wheeler says. breast cancer. Both lower extremities In 2007, Wheeler moved to Las Vegas. “He’s been here the last two days. He’s had become gangrenous, had just become “I hated the cold weather,” he says, and really taken a turn to the worst in the last black, and she was in excruciating pain. “being a horticulturist, I came down and 24 hours. “Her two daughters were at the foot of saw all these gorgeous flowers bloom and “Maybe a few more days.” the bed, and they looked at me and said, thought it was wonderful. It’s a short — perhaps five minutes, ‘Doctor, how could you let my mother “The food is great. The town is at the max — encounter but a powerful suffer like this?’ exciting. It just appealed to me.” one. Thanks to Wheeler’s compassion and “It was humiliating,” Wheeler says. “I Wheeler says physicians spend too skill, it’s also surprisingly calm and, even, was in front of my house staff, I thought little time during their training learning life-affirming. I was a hot dog oncologist, and then I about end-of-life issues and medical Wheeler was born in Spring Valley, realized that I didn’t know how to comfort education still focuses largely on Ohio, a small town near Dayton. His dad people. I didn’t know how to control pain “treating the disease.” was a barber, his mom was a housewife, and Wheeler was one of five children. By the time he was in high school — there % % # were just 12 students in his senior class — Wheeler already had decided that he + ' +"# wanted to go to college. At first, Wheeler wanted to study " % $ (( " " $$ $ $/ - - ($($// horticulture. “I was in love with (/(/ $$( ($$( (/%/% $+ /$+ / horticulture,” he says. “Ever since I was, #' %% ! %% % +%% +% " ($($ like, age 8, I just loved to be outside, $%"$ ($%"$ ( $/ / $% $% %+%+ % % working in the dirt.” " % Then, during his sophomore or junior % %(,(%% %(,(% %/ %/ "("( %# "+ )% year, a friend, a local attorney, asked him #' %% what he wanted to do after high school. "'( % %($ $ % “I told him, ‘Well, I want to go into horticulture.’ He said, ‘Where are +($( ($ !!! you going to get $20,000 to build a && "# ))! # +%% # ( %($ %($ % % !* !*00 " " * " / &0*0*!00&0*0*!00 $ ,%( +% ( greenhouse?’ And back then, $20,000 %($$ %# % % $/.# % $/.# ) sounded like $20 million. I said, ‘I never # % " %#%"+
!-1, "2+/20 "1.+230. %*22( )*2%'./1, -/301-* ,/2 10-+*3 2+. #20 "1- 3/1+. -,( )22/ !-1, '##3030. )>EC-B9>D849 ;@>;8=CB@D?/2DDAB@?4 :@2E>A @75>D0E 2=DD< :=D3.>E=@E0E A3E==@?4. 2DDAB D#64E? :=D3.C?< E=@7@?CBE :DDB :CB@48E /?CB8>C==6 @? CA =@BB=E CA 7@?8BEA$
9CB 5C>B D: 6D8> A3D==E?. B@>E<. "2+/20 $3.'*/. 1, 1,'/3. D> C;96 :EEB 3D8=< 6D8 =@-E BD AEE $3+2 3,(3( D9? 1 D: C=@:D>?@C ;=C@7A9E:E=B 4D/C3C6! C@? A5E;@C=@AB D: @77E<@CBE >EA8=BA3@B9 9@A B@>E<. 6EC>A. '>1 C9?E> A3D==E?:EEB1 @B9D8B E#C44E>CB@D? +: 6D8A8::E>:>D7 5DD> ;@>;8=CB@D?. ;D77E?BAD?B9E B9E >E=@E: 3CA C=7DAB @?ABC?BC?ED8A1 @?8>6.A3E==@?4 D> C?6 ;D?<@B@D? B9CB '/3EC0EBE;9?D=/ +B @A =@-E C9ECB@?4 5C< AEB BD =D3 C?< =EC0EA 6D8>:EEB :CB@48E< C?< AD>E. D461 3>C55E
)#*$ !'%( # * )(%&(% *$ %(!'*" '& ' )#%*(# )' *##*$ &&" & ( D=< EEB )(" *'' (! (*'' (E>@59E>C= 0CA;8=C> ;D?<@B@D?A
,9@A 5>D<8;B 9CA ?DB 2EE? C55>D0E< 26 B9E DD< C?< '>84 <7@?@AB>CB@D?1 +B @A ?DB @?BE?
FEATURES DESK • 383-0264 AN EDITION OF THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL • SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2014 a SECTION J
Mike FINDING HER VOICE Weatherford ENTERTAINMENT “Then, they pushed us into the showers. Now, the other, left Looking side was pushed into hard to rooms that did not find twists have showers but had gas, and they were THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE on twists The inscription above the gate to Auschwitz — translated roughly as “work gassed to death.” makes you free” — greeted Meta Doran and other prisoners when they t’s not Elayne Kramer’s META DORAN arrived at the Nazi concentration camp. Doran was held in the Auschwitz, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR fault. Bergen-Belsen and Salzwedel camps during World War II. According to the Iwebsite Circopedia (yeah, who knew?), the young contortionist VIDEO reviewjournal.com/holocaust started training with her circus family at age 4 to become “one of the top hand-balancers of her generation.” All so, on a recent Saturday night at “Vegas Nocturne,” I could watch her practically sit on her own head. As she balanced on her forearms, her back was so curved that her bottom reached all the way to the top of her skull. Amazing, right? Just one problem. I had seen something similar the previous Saturday night. Yachen Wang from the Tianjin Acrobatic Troupe plays “The Princess Peacock” in “Panda!” She is said to practice her single handstand for at least an hour a day without letting her body fall. I connected the Saturday- night dots after struggling to write reviews of both shows. Why am I not more excited about these acrobatics? Well, perhaps because 14 Las Vegas shows feature them in some form. That’s conservative, leaving out the stuntwork of “Tournament of Kings” or the “silk acts” in some of the topless shows. And the number isn’t in proportion, because the count includes most of the JASON BEAN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL top-shelf titles. Holocaust survivor Meta Doran recounts her experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II while speaking with the Review- Journal recently in her Las Vegas home. Now 87, Doran says she felt the time was right to share her story. Acrobatics will surely define this era of Las Vegas entertainment, just as surely as celebrity showmen defined the golden age. When I scroll through microfilm, I see the years when the Strip was clogged ‘PEOPLE FELL with manic, Louis Prima- style lounge acts. And talk about Parisian showgirls. At one point, the Dunes alone had both “Casino de Paris” and “Vive les Girls.” For a while I considered AROUND US, DEAD’ this my cross to bear as a show reviewer. When I assess one title, should I ignore the other? Holocaust survivor describes life in Nazi concentration camps But now, I’m starting to wonder if it’s a collective problem. I have a weird gig, By JOHN PRZYBYS “fabulous.” but a lot of Las Vegas ticket- LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL But the disbelief, the pain, buyers are repeat visitors. the fear and the anger Doran They don’t see a show every experienced then can be heard week. But even if they see hen Meta Doran read in her voice as she struggles to one or two a year, it adds last year that a rail retrieve memories she has spent up. The Cirque backlash car of the type used her life trying to bury. started years ago, with Wto take prisoners to The death by starvation of her locals getting ho-hum about Nazi concentration camps during father in the ghetto. The horrors repetitive material in newer World War II was going to be she witnessed daily as a prisoner arrivals such as “Zarkana.” exhibited in Las Vegas, she was in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and No doubt the Chinese moved. Salzwedel concentration camps. producers of “Panda!” “It was the first time ever that Why does she choose to speak created their content I have seen pictures of that since now? “I’m getting older,” Doran independently of rehearsals I was in the United States,” Doran says. “I don’t know how much for Ross Mollison’s “Vegas says. “For the first time, it was a longer I’ve got left, and I don’t Nocturne.” Both were so true sign of the problems we went want this to be something that busy they may not even through.” isn’t known. have known about each Doran wasn’t able to visit the “And, then, my children are other. rail car exhibition, but she didn’t entitled to know what the life of The producers will have to. As a teenager, Doran, their mother was like.” probably tell us it’s two now 87, survived trips in three Doran was born in Hamburg, different audiences. Or even such cars while being taken to Germany, into what she describes that you should see their Nazi concentration camps. as a well-to-do family. Her show and not the other guy’s. “They packed about 120 of Polish-born father, who had But if they want to operate us into those cars,” Doran says. moved to Germany after World in a vacuum, they should “When they opened it up, 20 or 30 War I, worked in the rag trade, know the public doesn’t. had died, and it was normally (for collecting rags and old fabrics One day ticket-buyers will trips) of two-and-a-half or three for wholesalers, becoming “very say, “Enough.” For now, I days, but that was too bad. They respected,” she says, and creating guess we accept acrobatics couldn’t care less. They didn’t a company that became “one of as a common vocabulary, give us any fresh water, nothing the largest in Germany in that and embrace the creative to eat.” type of business.” variations. Doran is a charming and “My childhood was fabulous,” Kramer shot a bow and opinionated woman who bakes adds Doran, an only child who arrow with her feet. Cool! cookies for her visitors, beams was raised with an English At least I hadn’t seen that with pride when she talks — governess and who spoke English Holocaust survivor Meta Doran poses for a family before. actually, boasts delightedly — photo with her parents. Her father, Chil Kempinski, a Contact reporter Mike Weatherford about her children and calls the ▶ SEE SURVIVOR PAGE 4J prosperous merchant in Germany, died in the ghettos at [email protected] balance of her well-lived life Language skills saved her life in Poland. Doran never learned what happened to her or 702-383-0288. mother, Paula. Page 4J • Sunday, January 26, 2014 a Las Vegas Review-Journal
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A general view of the filth where women were forced to wash at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in April 1945, which was liberated by the British that month. ▶ SURVIVOR: Language skills played large role in saving her life
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1J all her life. But by the time she reached adolescence, life for Jews in Germany had become brutally oppressive. “I mean, the brown uniforms were everywhere,” she says. “I never went to general school. It was always Jewish school. And when we got out, when school was over, we all had an adult waiting for us because, otherwise, we were attacked by teenagers or the Hitler Youth (who would shout), ‘Those goddamned Jews.’ ” In late 1938 — about six months after the German government had confiscated Doran’s father’s business — Doran’s family was deported to Poland with nothing more than one suitcase each and the clothes they wore. Why? Officials “didn’t tell us a thing,” Doran says. They were taken to the train station, and “the train was packed,” she says. “We were taken to the Polish border, then the Poles wouldn’t let us in.” Luckily, her father’s sister lived in Poland, and they stayed with her for a time. Then, Doran says, “in September of 1939, the war with Poland broke out, and two weeks later they had JASON BEAN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL everything in Poland overrun. We were Holocaust survivor Meta Doran’s ability to speak her native German, and English, Polish and Yiddish, was among the reasons she is under German (rule).” alive today. For that, Doran says, she received just slightly more “human” treatment at Bergen-Belsen. The apartment in which Doran and her family were living became part of a ghetto, a severely overcrowded, constant threat of death. Once again, Doran’s language skills bordered and secured area used by the Doran estimates that she was at “We had no choice.That was proved to be valuable. She was enlisted Nazis to confine and segregate Jews. Auschwitz for 4½ months before she all that was there for us. as translator and administrative “We didn’t have to move away, but and other prisoners one day “were Every hour that we survived assistant to the camp’s American we had to take other people in with us,” picked from the crowd. They took us to supervisor, and she and other former Doran says. It was a “very old section the shower house, showered us and gave was found life, because we prisoners were moved into buildings at of town. They sealed it. And … no us fresh wooden shoes and new striped could have just as easily a former German military base. family had more than one room, and our (clothing).” “Do you have any idea what it’s like groceries were measured out to us. You With Russian troops advancing, the been killed by somebody.” to see running water? And bathrooms?” couldn’t go to the store and buy more.” prisoners were put into another rail META DORAN Doran says. “All of a sudden, we were Did Doran, who was then about 13, try car and taken to Bergen-Belsen in HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR beginning to become humans again.” to make sense of what was happening Germany. And eventually, Doran says, “life around her? “All we tried to do was Bergen-Belsen “got people in from was,” Doran says, “but I have to give slowly but surely started again.” survive the day,” she says. “We had all over Europe,” Doran says. “Many him credit: He saved my life.” Seeking to find other Jews, she to worry about having enough so our languages were spoken, and they took Doran was taken to a camp near traveled to a zone for displaced stomachs wouldn’t be growling and that the time to have everybody register Salzwedel in Germany, which, she says, prisoners outside of Frankfurt. It was our food should match the time that was themselves — where they are from, et “was better than any of the others.” there that she met her first husband, designated. cetera.” The Salzwedel camp was run by an Harry. They were married in a “People died of pneumonia, of being Doran spoke not only German, but “old-school” German military officer synagogue in Germany and lived in cold or starving to death. That was English, Polish and Yiddish, too, and was who “had a heart,” Doran says. When Belgium for four years while awaiting Poland in the ghetto.” ordered to help with the registration of the new prisoners arrived, “he put permission to move to the United Doran was made to work in a tailoring arrivals. That, she says, “saved my life.” his hand on our head and just enjoyed States. factory while in the ghettos — “What I What was daily life like at Bergen- seeing that the hair was growing in They arrived in Boston, where Doran knew of tailoring you could put into a Belsen? Doran rejects the word. there. And he brought — I’ll never had family, then moved to Houston and, small thimble,” she says — and, at work, “What are you talking about, ‘life’?” forget this — small combs.” in 1954, to Las Vegas. Here, Doran later “we would get one plate of watery soup she says. “Existence. There’s no ‘life.’ ” Prisoners at Salzwedel worked married her second husband, Gerald, a day, which was more than we had at Meals were “maybe a piece of bread” in factories that manufactured to whom she was married for 38 years, home.” for breakfast, and lunch was watery “ammunition of some sort,” Doran says. until his death in 2008. Doran says she and her family lived soup made out of peelings “from the As prisoners arrived, they were asked Doran’s home, which is filled in two ghettos, and that her father died vegetables the Germans ate for lunch,” if they spoke German. with family photos, is a testament of starvation during that time. When she says. Whenever such a question is asked, to the sweetness of her life after the Nazis liquidated the ghettos, Doran “And people fell around us, dead.” “you never know whether you’ll be the Holocaust. She counts as her — who never learned what happened How did she awaken each morning shot or they have something for us in greatest achievement her children: to her mother — was put aboard knowing that she might not live out the mind,” Doran says. “I picked up my Joseph, a noted implant and cosmetic a rail car and taken to Auschwitz, day? “You have no choice,” Doran says. hand, and the man who was in charge of dentist, Marc, who’s retired from the the concentration camp in German- “It’s either that or get a bullet. the kitchen talked to me, and I guess he construction industry, and Paula, who occupied Poland where an estimated “We had no choice. That was all that liked my answers.” died of cancer at the age of 34 and, 1.1 million prisoners, almost all of them was there for us. Every hour that we Doran was assigned to work in the according to her wishes, is buried in Jewish, were murdered. survived was found life, because we kitchen, making meals for prisoners. Israel. Doran knew nothing of Auschwitz. could have just as easily been killed by “So that was my saving,” she says. “I have wonderful kids,” Doran says. “All we hoped for was that they should somebody.” Doran isn’t sure how long she was “I mean, if I didn’t do anything right, by let us live,” Doran says. Doran doesn’t remember how long at Salzwedel. One morning, she says, the grace of God I was able, and thank Arriving at Auschwitz, prisoners who she was at Bergen-Belsen, but, she says, the prisoners awoke to find that “most God, to raise them properly. They’re survived the brutal — and, for many, “again, the Russians came too close.” of the German personnel had left the wonderful human beings.” deadly — trip in the tightly packed, cold Through her translation and camp” and had left the locks on the gate Doran never talked with her children rail cars were ordered to walk to either registration duties, “I got to know a few unlocked. about her experiences during the the left or the right. of the Germans that were watching But the camp’s commander stayed, Holocaust. “A word here and there, but “I was sent to the right,” Doran says. us,” Doran says. One day, one of them Doran says, and “when the Americans never in details,” she says. “I was with the living ones. approached her “to say, ‘There’s going finally came into the camp, they were, Why not? “It hurt too much,” she “We were sent into a huge building,” to be a group of people that are going to first of all, going to shoot him.” says. Doran says. “The first thing they did to be taken out from Bergen-Belsen to be However, she says, the prisoners Doran says in telling her story now, us was shave our heads. No hair. That put on a train and sent into Germany to “told them what he had done for us over “it engulfed me again. It brought back was No. 1. a concentration camp where they work, the time we were in his camp. So they things I haven’t thought of in years.” “Then, they pushed us into the and it’s fairly decent.’ listened to us and put handcuffs on him The deaths, the hangings, the showers. Now, the other, left side was “He said, ‘I want you to be on that and they took him in their jeep. Where atrocities she witnessed all “came back pushed into rooms that did not have train.’ they took him, I can’t tell you, but they to me,” Doran says, “things that I have showers but had gas, and they were “He asked me not to open my mouth took him in their jeep, so we saved his worked for years and years to put in the gassed to death.” and tell anybody. He said the reason is life.” back of my mind, because I had to work As the surviving prisoners left the that the Russians were coming in close Doran was just 19 years old. What did for the future, not the past.” showers, they were given shoes and so quickly that the Germans want to liberation feel like? Now, she says, “I think it’s time to misshapen dresses that did nothing to kill as many people in Bergen-Belsen as “Relief,” she says. “It was the most open my mouth. I don’t know how many protect them from the cold. From then they can and burn them. He said, ‘I don’t wonderful moment of my life. It was years I have left.” on, there would be no more showers, want you to be one of them.’ ” freedom, without being concerned Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ little if any food each day and the “So I don’t know who this person about: Are you going to get shot?” reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.