“Pussycat, pussycat, I love you” was sung to a clamorous ovation at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  It was my first trip to Vegas. and I was watching women throw their undergarments onto the stage.  There was a major celebration in the auditorium.   The room got dark and what appeared to be a two story flight of stairs were illuminated and you heard being announced “This is Tom Jones.”

In such a glamorous night, at one of the newest hotels on the strip, what should be ordered to accompany the dinner preceding the show?  Champagne is the logical course when you are young and the air is electric.   A non-vintage bottle of G.H. Mumm & Co. was delivered and who was I to complain.  The dinner and the show was “comped” by a friend of the family.  The bottle of Champagne was as dependable as everything else that evening.  A good color, a continuous stream of bubbles rising up the full length of the crystal fluted glass; all indications that this was a bottle the Mumm house could be proud of and produce year after year, without ever worrying about declaring a vintage year.

It was the epitome of a night in Las Vegas.  Bright lights, a full orchestra playing and one of the hottest acts of the time was performing.  It is what legends to relate later in your life is all about.  This was classic Vegas, when everyone dressed up to go to the casinos, even into the wee small hours of the morning you would still see the gamblers in their finest.  A far cry from what is seen in the casinos of today.