Sunday, February 27, 2005
Elite Ethnography
DOMINICK DUNNE, VANITY FAIR - For those too young to remember, Phyllis was the lead singer of the McGuire Sisters, an enormously popular and attractive trio that included her sisters w Dorothy and Christine. They started out on the Arthur Godfrey talent show in the 50s and went on to a long nightclub career. I interviewed Phyllis for the June 1989 issue of Vanity Fair; and the late, great Helmut Newton photographed her taking a bubble bath in a marble tub, wearing a fortune in diamonds and sapphires, at her extraordinary residence in the swank part of Las Vegas. . .
Phyllis and 1 hit if off from the first minute. There is a 44-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower in her living roomi as well as well as 55 bergere chairs. She has a lake with black swans in it, five gardeners, a putting green, and waterfalls that you can turn on and off. She also possesses one of the world's great collections of serious jewels and once told me that maybe a few Saudis were better: customers of Harry Winston's than she was. In 1960 she began a long romance with Sam Giancana, the notorious crime figure who shared one of his mistresses, Judith Exner, with President John F. Kennedy and was assassinated in Chicago in 1975.
The first time I went to Phyllis's house, the door was opened by a guard with a machine gun. At the push of a button; I learned, steel shutters descend to cover every window and door, turning the house into a fortress. Phyllis is a revered figure in Las Vegas.
Phyllis and 1 hit if off from the first minute. There is a 44-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower in her living roomi as well as well as 55 bergere chairs. She has a lake with black swans in it, five gardeners, a putting green, and waterfalls that you can turn on and off. She also possesses one of the world's great collections of serious jewels and once told me that maybe a few Saudis were better: customers of Harry Winston's than she was. In 1960 she began a long romance with Sam Giancana, the notorious crime figure who shared one of his mistresses, Judith Exner, with President John F. Kennedy and was assassinated in Chicago in 1975.
The first time I went to Phyllis's house, the door was opened by a guard with a machine gun. At the push of a button; I learned, steel shutters descend to cover every window and door, turning the house into a fortress. Phyllis is a revered figure in Las Vegas.
