The mansion in which Danny Gans died has been sold, cutting another tie between the family of the late Las Vegas superstar and the city with which he'd been identified for more than a decade.
Coldwell Bankers announced that the lavish estate owned by Gans and his wife Julie was sold quietly this week to a couple from California. Reports say they paid about $9 million for the 9,400-square-foot French-chateau styled main residence on 2.57 acres in Roma Hills in neighboring Henderson, Nevada.
Gans designed the estate, which includes a guest house house, built atop of basement garage in which Gans kept his collection of 20 cars.
Coldwell coordinated the estate sale in conjunction with the auction of a dozen of Gans’ cars and bikes by the Barrett-Jackson auctioneers (the lot fetched about half a million dollars).
Gans' wife and three kids pulled up stakes and moved to the Los Angeles area shortly after Julie Gans called 911 to report she'd found the superstar musical impressionist was found dead in his bedroom in the early hours of May 1, 2009. The charitable, athletic Born Again Christian and family man overdosed on hydromorphone, a powerful opiate sold as Dilaudid and known on the streets as "drug store heroin."
The family of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans has thanked Tabloid Baby.com for remembering the first anniversary of his sad, untimely and mysterious passing on May 1st.
We take no satisfaction in the knowledge that we were the only news organization to mark the approach and date of this tragic milestone. There was no surprise that the Las Vegas media and its flamboyant leading figures deliberately avoided mention of the anniversary. They were exposed over the past twelve month with their embarrassing, shameful and deliberate refusal to investigate the circumstances that led to the musical impressionist's death.
Gans 'widow and children, however, made special mention this week on the revamped and very much alive official Danny Gans website, thanking us and fans around the world for our acknowledgment: The family is truly touched by your kind emails, blogs and notes that have been received from around the world remembering Danny and supporting us at this time. Our day was spent with family and a few friends sharing memories of Danny, yet mindful of the magnitude of our loss and to that of his fans everywhere.We thank you for your continued support and prayers.
The Las Vegas Strip did not dim its lights to mark the first anniversary of the passing of the man who was the entertainment and gambling mecca's greatest homegrown superstar, but there were some who took time to remember the life and legacy of Danny Gans.
Norm Clarke tells us that friends and colleagues of the late musical impressionist gathered yesterday afternoon at his grave at Palm Memorial Park on Eastern Avenue. About a dozen people attended the 2 p.m. tribute, and it is that story-shifting inner circle, the ones who hold the secrets of his life and death, whose names stand out. Among them:
Chip Lightman, his longtime manager who says he received a phone call from Gans' wife Julie in the early hours of May 1, 2009, telling him that Gans had died hours earlier;
...Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen-turned-television entertainment reporter for local station KVBC-TV, who touted her close friendship with Gans and was the first person Lightman notified of the death that morning (around the same time that paramedics arrived at Gans' Henderson estate);
...R.G. Ryan, who collaborated on Gans' posthumous autobiography, The Voices In My Head, and who's refused to comment on the controversy regarding the timeline of Gans' demise or the drug use that led to it; his assistants and members of his band and crew.
Gans' wife and family packed up and moved from Las Vegas to La Cañada Flintridge, California, outside Los Angeles shortly after his death, which occurred about three months after he opened at Steve Wynn's Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino.
It was a year ago today that the world learned of the death of Las Vegas musical impressionist, Strip superstar and uniquely American show business legend Danny Gans. One year later, the feature-length articles on the unexplored areas of his life and the unanswered and uninvestigated aspects of his death that more than one Las Vegas journalist had promised would be written have yet to materialize. And neither of the two daily newspapers has posted any mention of the tragic anniversary on its website.
And click here to visit the official Danny Gans website, which includes performance footage and other Gans, including his favorite recipes, cooked by his wife Julie, who reported his death at age 52 in his bedroom in the early hours of May 1, 2009, to police.
How would one react upon awakening to find a loved one unexpectedly unresponsive, and from all indications, dead? The continuing drumbeat of celebrity deaths and the intense investigation and speculation accorded them by the media have made these awful events open to public scrutiny and interpretation. In January, we contrasted the 911 call made by the mother of tragic actress Brittany Murphywith the call made in the early hours of May 1st by the wife of Las Vegas superstarDanny Gans. Today, it is the 911 call made by Judy Haim, mother of addict and former teen idol Corey Haim, that reveals the reactions and actions of those tossed into the grief-stricken maelstrom of prescription drug-related death vary considerably, and are certainly not so easy to judge.
How would one react upon awakening to find a loved one unexpectedly unresponsive, and from all indications, dead? The continuing drumbeat of celebrity deaths and the intense investigation and speculation accorded them by the media have made these awful events open to public scrutiny and interpretation. The 911 calls, made by the mother of tragic actress Brittany Murphyand the wife of Las Vegas superstarDanny Gans, however, reveal that reactions and actions of those tossed into the grief-stricken maelstrom vary considerably, and are certainly not so easy to judge.
A spokesman for the Henderson, Nevada Police Department says that recent comments by Danny Gans' manager do not lead them to question the accepted timeline about Gans' death on May 1st, nor to suspect any evidence of foul play.
Tabloid Baby has been in contact with Henderson Police spokesman Keith Paul since the beginning of the week. After conferring with detectives assigned to the Gans case, he told us exclusively:
"There is absolutely no evidence based on their investigation to not believe Mrs. Gans' timeline. There is no indication of foul play, no indication for us to suspect that Mrs. Gans' timeline is incorrect or that Mr. Gans was dead for any perceptible amount of time prior to his wife calling.
"Again, there is absolutely no indication of foul play."
Danny Gans' wife Julie called the Henderson 911 operator at 3:44 a.m. on May 1st, to say she had awakened four minutes earlier to find her 52-year-old husband was not breathing. She then performed CPR while the 911 operator guided her through the motions.
“I get a call at 3:15 in the morning, and it’s Julie, his wife, and she goes, ‘Dan is gone.’ I’m like, “What!?” At that moment, it was like I was dreaming. I didn’t think I was awake and on the phone, and then I go, What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Danny died, Chip.’
“...I asked, ‘When did it happen?’ She said, ‘A couple of hours ago.’”
Lightman's statement not only indicated that Danny Gans had been discovered dead hours earlier, but that his wife had phoned Lightman a half hour before calling 911.
Police spokesman Paul would not say if detectives had interviewed Lightman about his latest story, or whether they had checked cell and home phone records in their investigation. "We will not be releasing details into the death investigation," he said.
Las Vegas news media fails again
Of perhaps equal significance, Paul also told us that no other news organization-- not the Las Vegas Sun, whose columnist John Katsilometes got the explosive scoop, not the competing Las Vegas Review-Journal, not any television news outfit, blogger or gossip columnist, had contacted Henderson Police to inquire about this latest twist. No one in the Las Vegas news media has followed up since December 23rd, despite the fact that Tabloid Baby representatives had reached out to Katsilometes and several other Las Vegas journalists to tip them on the story.
No one with a journalistic background could deny the Lightman statement was provocative and compelling. Any journo with a stake in Las Vegas crime reporting would check it out, even knock it down. But no curiosity whatsoever? Not even a phone call?
That's another reason the behaviour of the Las Vegas news media has become a story of its own.
Musical impressionist Danny Gans may be a distant memory in Las Vegas in 2010, but a little bit of his act and legacy live on thanks to Donny Osmond, whose sibling show with sister Marie at the Flamingo was produced by Gans and his manager Chip Lightman.
Las Vegas Sun entertainment columnist John Katsilometes mentions in another 2009 wrapup column that the crowd-pleasing Gans, who was guaranteed to bring the audience to its feet more than once in every show, gave his pal Donny am "awww"-inspiring line he uses every night:
"A line Danny Gans gave to Donny Osmond: When Donny is cheered during 'Puppy Love,' he says, 'I still got it.' Osmond still uses it in the show at Flamingo."
Katsilometes brought a new twist to the Danny Gan's death in an article published on December 23rd, in which Lightman contradicts the official police report that says Julie Gans told Henderson Police Detective Chad Mitchell that she suddenly awoke at 3:40 a.m. when she no longer heard her husband's snoring dialed 911 four minutes later:
Said Lightman: "I get a call at 3:15 in the morning, and it’s Julie, his wife, and she goes, 'Dan is gone.' I’m like, 'What!?' At that moment, it was like I was dreaming. I didn’t think I was awake and on the phone, and then I go, 'What do you mean?' And she said, 'Danny died, Chip.' I’m saying, 'No.' She said, 'Call whoever you have to call and let them know, and I’ll talk to you later.'
"I asked, 'When did it happen?' She said, 'A couple of hours ago.'"
No Las Vegas news organization has yet followed up on the story. In fact, one prominent Las Vegas journalist suggested in an email that this out-of-state volunteer organization do the work they're paid to do:
"Nobody cares about Gans as much as you do... Why would you 'want' us to investigate it? If you're this big-shot investigative guy... and you're convinced there's a big story being covered up in a concerted, orchestrated effort by a daily newspaper, wouldn't you be trying to uncover and sell it yourself?"
Aside from the "selling," every "journo" in Las Vegas knows that's what we've been doing for eight months now...
In a shocking interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Danny Gans’ manager has raised disturbing new questions about the circumstances of the musical impressionist’s drug-related death.
Chip Lightman, who was first to receive word from Gans’ wife Julie that the Las Vegas Strip star had died in his bed early on the morning of May 1st, indicates that Gans may have died hours earlier than police reported, and that Julie Gans phoned Lightman a half hour before she called 911.
STEVE MARCUS/LAS VEGAS SUN
According to the incident report from the Henderson Police Department, Gans’ wife Julie (“Julia”) awoke “at approximately 0340 hours… and realized Daniel was no longer snoring. When Julia checked on Daniel she realized he was unresponsive and she could not tell if he was breathing and or if he had a pulse. Julia immediately called 911.”
Lightman, however, tells Sun columnist John Katsilometes that Julie Gans called him at 3:15 a.m., and told him that Gans had died “a couple of hours ago.”
“I get a call at 3:15 in the morning, and it’s Julie, his wife, and she goes, ‘Dan is gone.’ I’m like, 'What!?’ At that moment, it was like I was dreaming. I didn’t think I was awake and on the phone, and then I go, 'What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Danny died, Chip.’ I’m saying, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Call whoever you have to call and let them know, and I’ll talk to you later.’
“I asked, ‘When did it happen?’ She said, ‘A couple of hours ago.’”
Lightman also responds to a question Tabloid Baby first asked in the days following Gans’ death: why he immediately phoned Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen turned local entertainment reporter who flaunted her close relationship with Gans, to inform her of Gans' passing.
“I had collected my thoughts, and I thought, ‘OK, how do I get the word out? Do I get Steve Wynn up at about 4 in the morning and tell him? Or do I call (Wynn Las Vegas spokeswoman) Jennifer Dunne? ... I finally just called Alicia. She was the first person I thought of to get the word out, get it on the air, and I knew her number. When something like that happens, you’re in shock. Danny had just done an interview with her, and she was fresh on my mind when I thought ‘media.’ I thought, ‘I’ll just call Alicia.’ They were friends, too.”
Lightman’s latest statements are all the more disturbing in light of the fact that they come more than seven months after Gans’ death, with more than enough time to prepare his answers, and after he and others close to the situation have altered their stories more than once to fit new information and circumstances that arise.
And while it's Lightman's backhanded swipe at Gans' widow in an interview to promote the Gans autobiography that stands out, Lightman's latest version also paints a very different picture of Gans.
While he once claimed that Gans seemed to be in perfect health in the days leading to his death, he now tells Katsilometes that the star was ill.
“A few days before he died, I said, ‘You don’t look like you feel well.’ He said, “I’ve been fighting something. I’m just drained beyond drained. My shoulder has been acting up, the kids are sick, everyone around me is sick.’ The Wednesday night before he died — we always sat and met before onstage, usually at 7:10 — and he didn’t look good. He looked worn out..."
He admits that Gans may have been using steroids-- for his vocal cords:
"People said to me, when the coroner’s (report) hadn’t come out yet, 'We know he’s doing tons of steroids, and he had bulked up like the Hulk,' and all this stuff. And you know, if Dan did that, he didn’t do it around me. If Dan took any steroids, it was for his voice, to lessen the inflammation on his vocal chords... He worked out five days a week, and he had a 2,000-square-foot gym at his house."
He even says Gans' Encore Theatre may have been cursed.
“The biggest concern was the room People said it was a bad-luck room, it’s cursed. Dan was saying, ‘Spamalot didn’t work, Avenue Q before Spamalot didn’t work. Nothing has worked, and they were very good shows.’"
The Henderson Police Department investigation into Gans’ death was open for almost two months, but no criminal charges were filed. We do not know if the police looked into the records of Gans' home or Chip Lightman's phone calls.
Julie Gans and her children moved to Los Angeles during that time. Although the three teenage children have been brought out to speak with the media twice since the tragic death, Julie Gans has not been seen in public.
The Las Vegas news media as a group deliberately avoided any investigation of the circumstance of Gans' death or unexamined private life (Katsilometes wrote the day after Gans’ death about rumours of Gans’ steroid use — but never followed up), and Steve Friess, a local blogger, comp queen, New York Times stringer and close associate with Gans boss Steve Wynn, joined with Jacobs in a campaign to stop any investigation into the death and in fact, have this site shut down.
Public perception of the Born Again Christian, athletic, corporate entertainer has shifted in recent months with the revelations that a pharmacy co-owned by Gans marketed a male erection party pill. Gans’ children, brought out to face the media last month to promote the recently-published autobiography, changed a story they’d told earlier to acknowledge that their father did take prescription medication.
Said Andrew: "We knew he had high blood pressure but was taking something to control that, and he had to watch what he ate."
"So what about the reports that his father wasn't feeling well prior to his death and seemed to be sending signals to close friends that he was aware something was seriously wrong?
"'There are some bad...' he said, searching for the right word, 'rumors out there.'"
Norm teased his upcoming interview yesterday afternoon in Twitter postings:
"Coming up: the first interview with Danny Gans family. I just left the reception in the Margaux room at Wynn Las Vegas..."
"In my exclusive interview with Danny Gans' son, Andrew, he's adamant: The family had no inkling of medical problems. Not once? 'Never!'"
"The story will be posted in a few minutes on http://www/normclarke.com. I saw him walking by himself & we chatted for more than 10 min."
"His sister, Amy, 21, was unbelievable during the memorial. She got her dad's humor genes. The family wore red and black, Danny's colors."
Norm also twittered that bronchitis kept Andre Agassi from speaking at the memorial and added in his column: "At Gans' memorial: entertainers Donny and Marie Osmond, Siegfried Fischbacher, Rita Rudner, Criss Angel, Clint Holmes and Kelly Clinton, Earl Turner, Carrot Top,George Wallace, and The Scintas. Spotted at the reception held by the family in the Margaux room at Wynn: KVBC-TV, Channel 13 entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, former Gov. Bob Miller (Andrew Gans attended Bob Miller Middle School), entertainer Gerry McCambridge, and Mitch Fox, host and producer of Nevada Week in Review."
Click the photo for our complete coverage of the death and legacy of the Las Vegas superstar
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