BOB ANDERSON RETURNS WITH ORIGINAL ACT
Contributed by Jackie Brett
For singer Bob Anderson, multiple personalities are a good thing especially when they copy music stars such as Tom Jones, Bobby Darin, Steve Lawrence, Jack Jones, Tony Bennett, Elvis, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra. Backed by a quartet, he will bring his act, which folks who were lucky enough to see him when he ruled the town as a “must see” show at the Top of the Dunes back in the 1970s, to the South Point Friday and Saturday, March 23-24 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $30.
Anderson is a super storyteller with fascinating life adventures to tell; in fact, one which would and may even make for a good movie. At the South Point, he’ll bring folks back in time to old Las Vegas with a quartet backing him while he resurrects the type of show which made him an overnight star with Merv Griffin dubbing him “America’s Greatest Singing Impressionist.”
Anderson’s life changed when he stopped in Las Vegas while driving West in his Volkswagon with his long curly hair, wearing shorts, sandals and a peace sign for a belt. He blindly wandered into the showroom at the Sahara when Nancy Sinatra was rehearsing in the afternoon along with the Everly Brothers who got in a big argument and quit on the spot. It was a couple hours before showtime and courageously Anderson approached the stage and offered to help saying he was a singer. Sinatra’s conductor Billy Strange let him sing, which turned into him filling the two-week gig.
With lighting speed from there, Sinatra took him to Merv Griffin’s TV show, which lead to performing on Johnny Carson’s program and receiving a standing ovation. “The next thing I knew,” said Anderson, “I was at Merv Griffin’s home for his birthday party. Merv sat down to play piano and asked me to sing. As he played different songs, I sang in the voice of the star who made it and who happened to be at the party.
“That night Merv called me ‘America’s Greatest Singing Impressionist,” recalled Anderson. “Merv stayed up all night righting my act. My act started a new genre in showbiz. I was doing tribute shows way before ‘Legends in Concert’.”
More recently focusing on only one famous persona, folks will recall Anderson headlining at the Palazzo for nearly a year in 2015 performing with a 32-piece orchestra in “Frank: The Man, The Music.” He resurrected Sinatra down to looks, movement, and sound. Taking it over the top in detail, Anderson had Hollywood makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who just won the Academy Award for transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill, create his Sinatra mask.