Ken Berry - Las Vegas

Las Vegas

In 1956, after being released from Universal, Berry returned to Las Vegas where he opened for and joined Abbott & Costello in their stage act, doing sketches and song & dance routines at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. While working with Abbott & Costello, he met Dee Arlen, an actress whom he credits with getting him his first big break from which almost all of his other opportunities would come. This was Berry's first performance on the Las Vegas strip .

Then, in 1957, Berry was asked by Ken Murray, a well-known vaudeville performer, to join his stage variety show called "The Ken Murray Blackouts". The Blackouts played to standing room only audiences, and Berry was asked to choreograph and perform the opening number for the show when it played the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Berry eventually returned to Las Vegas again in the 1970s at the invitation of Andy Griffith. Griffith, along with Berry and Jerry Van Dyke played Caesars Palace, where Berry performed song and dance numbers sandwiched by Andy and Jerry's stand-up routines.