Tim Onosko says:
When I left Disney (and after that, Universal), my wife and I produced a feature documentary about old Las Vegas lounge performers — entertainers for whom show business was a job of incredibly long hours (eight hours a night, 45 minutes on stage, 15 minutes off, six nights a week) in very hazardous working conditions, the Vegas casinos. It's called "LOST VEGAS: The Lounge Era."
The lives these performers led were predictably ones of booze, broads and hanging with guys (like Sinatra, the Rat Pack) who made much more money than these second and third bananas. They owed the casinos for the gambling losses, and constantly hoped that a big break would make them instantly famous. Our film profiles a group of these guys, and a woman named Fay McKay, a talented jazz singer who became known for her boozy comic parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
Our film played the CineVegas festival in 2005, and is finally having its first theatrical play date at the famous Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, on January 8. We're waiting on whether IFC and/or Starz Cinema Channel are going to pick it up for cable showings. We're also looking for a distributor for DVD release.
Fay McKay is still alive and living in the desert, in obscurity. It would sure be nice for lots of people to see her do her famous comedy bit. Since it's the season, we've uploaded Fay's bit to YouTube. By the way, the actor/sleight-of-hand genius/show biz historian Ricky Jay is our film's narrator. Link
