Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Feb 4th 2006

NORM: King leaves rich Las Vegas legacy

Longtime Las Vegas entertainer Sonny King, left, introduced Jerry Lewis, center, to Dean Martin. King, 83, died Friday.

Sonny King was as much a chunk of Las Vegas history as the neon along the Strip.

Before he was a local lounge institution and Jimmy Durante's sidekick, it was King who introduced Dean Martin to Jerry Lewis in the 1940s. In the 1960s, he ran with The Rat Pack.

King, a 50-year Las Vegas resident, died Friday at age 83, wearing a straw hat, after a fierce battle with throat cancer. He died on the 88th birthday of longtime pal Joey Bishop, the jokester of The Rat Pack.

He was a storyteller supreme, the go-to guy for many a reporter looking for an old Vegas anecdote.

During an interview a few years back, he told me he roomed with Martin for 6 1/2 years at the Bryant Hotel on 54th Street in New York City.

"They put out a plaque that said, 'Dean Martin and Sonny King lived here and never paid the rent.' " Not true, said Sonny. "We would sing at all their functions in lieu of the rent."

Hired by Sahara entertainment director Bill Miller in 1955, King became part of the iconic lounge era with Sahara stars Louie Prima and Keely Smith.

In the 1940s, after introducing Martin and Lewis, they made up a trio called "The Three Lads" and performed all over New York.

"Sonny got a chance to do a gig in the Catskills, and he left for a few weeks," said King's wife, Peggy. "The rest, as they say, is history." Martin and Lewis went on to become show business megastars.