When Jack was a baby, his father abandoned him on the back steps of the Stardust Hotel and then wandered off into the desert, never to be seen again. A showgirl, on a cigarette break from the Wayne Newton Show, found Jack with nothing but a five-dollar poker chip, tied to a string around his neck. She brought Jack inside and secretly raised him backstage, visiting him between performances. As Jack got older, the other Stardust Entertainers adopted him as the show’s new mascot. He even got a blessing from the man himself, when Wayne Newton asked Jack to shine his shoes before one of the concerts. That exchange would set in motion a journey into “show life” far beyond Jack’s young comprehension. He took to shining Wayne’s shoes before every commanding performance. And so, Jack’s dream of, one day, singing at the Stardust, was born.

One particular night, Wayne called Jack up on stage, beckoning him to shine his shoes before the adoring crowd of five thousand fans. When Jack appeared from behind the velvet curtain, the audience burst into laughter, shattering young Jack’s fragile self-esteem. He had his first drink of whiskey that night. From then on, Jack vowed to arm himself against the cruel realities of “show life”. He started missing performances, opting to hang out in the numbing shadows of Sin City. Wayne was forced to fire him. The downward spiral began. The thrill of “show life” was gone, but not lost…

Years later, after waking from a drunken blackout, Jack found refuge in a local dive bar, The Pink Lady, where night after night, from the tiny stage, he poured out his anger and frustrations onto an audience stranger than strangers. Despite his toxic ways, Jack honed his voice in these performances and developed a style that created a buzz in the sub-culture of the Lounge World. But sadly, any talent that might have shown some promise was quickly sabotaged by his tortured ego, still the fragile shutdown little boy, who couldn’t bear to endure another humiliation. When the routine became rote, Jack found hope in gambling, betting on horses with names like, ‘Star Gazer’ and ‘Confederate Dancer’. After burning bridges with every bookie in town, Jack turned to his last resort, the Mob.

Jack’s new Italian Family was happy to cater to his destructive ways, spinning him deeper and deeper into a web of deceit, promising him fame and fortune, only to deliver dead end opportunities. Jack’s career never got better and his debts only got worse. Booze was the only thing left in his life that worked. With no options and a death threat from the Mob hanging over his head, Jack fled the City of Lights for the City by the Sea. But deep in his heart, he could never let go of his boy-hood dream, “to sing at the Stardust, the main room, five thousand seats.”