Let's talk about the seating capacity first. Looking at the "The Copa Room" drawing you can see the numbers that were designed for the room. It lists Banquets at 720 to 800. Meetings-Theatre style at 881. Now these figures were estimates for the final design. I don't think we ever had 881 in any show of Frank's or anyone else. Maybe, but I don't think so. We in the casino didn't do the head count, we were more interested in who was in the show, than how many were there.

Some history. The original room of the late 50s only seated about 350 to 400. Believe it or not, that's all we needed then. You must remember that during some months we did very little business in the hotel or casino. During April to June and again November and December we were dead. Dead. Maybe 50 to 100 people in the hotel. Afternoon casino play was almost nothing and at night some light play. In those days there were not all the hotels around us like they have now. Around us was desert. Just sand and more sand. Yeah, that's were the name comes from. The Texas owners wanted a western name on it but the New York guys called the shots.

After the now famous Rat Pack shows in 60, we did a lot more business. In fact the whole town took off. It became the place to see shows. Our New York gamblers, instead of going to Miami and up state NY, came out here to see the great shows.

In the early 60s a back wall was knocked out and more seats were put in. Looking at the drawing, look to stage left and the added section at the bottom of the picture. That section was about 2 foot higher that the room and seated about 150. It had a curtain that could be drawn in front of it if we had a entertainer that couldn't fill the room. During the slow months we kept that section closed with the curtain.

Now I don't want to break all your hearts, but with even Frank headlining there were times we didn't open that section. There were times when Frank played to 100 people or less. I know you hear all about the sold out shows but I'm telling you that in the slow times, Frank or Dean or Sammy or Danny or Red or Jerry all played to some very small audiences.

If you look at the center picture on the previous page (Copa Room, 1967), you can see the raised section. By the way that set up of tables was the most common one I saw. That arrangement could fill the room to around 650. I don't remember counts higher than that. Although in those years I wasn't interested in how many were in the show.

Looking at the drawing you will see at the top, there was the kitchen. This was so important in those years because we served a full course dinner at the 8 pm show. It was a really good dinner that all the people loved. It was truly a dinner and a show. Dinner started serving at 7 and for the most important ringside tables and casino holds it might be as late as 7:30 or 7:45.

I've seen some great photos of Frank on stage at the Sands. A tip I gave someone is, if the picture shows a small railing at the edge of the stage right in front of the first table in the audience then that picture would be after 1957. That railing was put in because one of the Copa girls fell off the stage. We has a chorus line of some Texas beauties who were brought here to dance. Very beautiful girls, not great dancers but very beautiful. When the line was disbanded around 57-58 some stayed on and became cocktail waitresses. So for many years there was no doubt who had the prettiest cocktail girls. We had. No one even close.

Looking at the bottom of the Copa room drawing you will see the backstage area. Now at the bottom of that you will see some exits. One of these lead to the Garden Room kitchens. The exit on the right from backstage leads to the hallway that went by the kitchen and to a hallway that went from the pool area entrance, by the dealers room and down to the front lobby and casino area.

Now go to the picture of the full property. I marked an "E" to show the dealers room. And a "D" to mark the now famous Steam Room. The tiny little mark between them is where the entrance to the hallway was.

This is the hallway where Frank and Dean - all the entertainers used to enter the main building to get backstage. They would pass the dealers room on the way to backstage.

That is the hallway and the dealers room I have told you about in the - Dean buys the dealers a TV - story. As I write this, I think of times that Frank came by and visited the dealers. He didn't to do it much but when he did, it was interesting.