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Dean Martin first performed in Las Vegas in 1949 at the Flamingo Hotel with Jerry Lewis. Martin and Lewis were at the height of their nightclub career. Together they were paid $15,000 a week. By the end of the first week, Jerry Lewis had run up a casino debt of $137,000. In 1952, the Sands Hotel opened under the baton of Entertainment Director, Vice-President and later President Jack Entratter, the night club impresario from New York's Copacabana Club. Entratter brought the biggest names in show business to the Sands by offering the biggest money. Entratter's headliners included Danny Thomas, Tallulah Bankhead, Tony Bennet, Edith Piaf, Lena Horne and of course Frank Sinatra. Sinatra in turn brought his friends, especially Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Dean Martin. Sinatra's Rat Pack presided over the Sands in its hey-day, lending their glamour to a town dominated by gambling and the mob. It was the entertainers who made Las Vegas a legitimate resort town.
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