Newton Talking Retirement?

Actually, Newton, isn’t specifically talking retirement, but the 67-year-old entertainer known as “Mr. Las Vegas” chatted with Associated Press yesterday, saying it all comes down to whether his desire to work conflicts with his home life and raising his seven-year-old daughter.

You can’t blame people for thinking Newton might be considering life in the retirement lane. His new show, which launched last night at the Tropicana, is titled, “Once Before I Go,” a moniker suggesting Newton’s days on the Las Vegas Strip might be numbered.

But Newton says he won’t make any decision until after April. Meanwhile, he’s balancing being a “pop” with singing pop songs on the Strip.

“I’m enjoying my second daughter in a way that I didn’t get a chance to do the first time around,” Newton told AP. “The decision that I make, whether or not to perform or retire, will pretty much be based on that.”

Newton said his new show took 2 ½ months to write and is a memoir of his life as an entertainer. Along with singing, Newton is also telling stories, like when Dean Martin refused to rehearse for a duet or when Bobby Darin fought a publisher to let Newton record what would be his signature tune, “Danke Schoen.”

Newton began his Vegas career in 1959 as a teenage lounge singer working six nights a week. A 1962 appearance on the “Jackie Gleason Show” catapulted him to fame, movies, and, eventually, his “Mr. Las Vegas” nickname.

But he’s not quite ready to sing that final encore. However, he is thinking about it.

“If I still feel like I have something to give when this particular show is over, then I’ll make the decision to probably curtail work a little bit but not give it up totally,” Newton said. “If I don’t feel that way at the end of this, then I’ll probably hang it up.”

Click here for the complete Associated Press article.