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They were appearing as an unheralded attraction under Xavier Cugat, but Entratter thought enough of them to sign them for the next 5 years for his Copacabana shows. It was this kind of foresight...and planning that made Mr. Entratter sign Johnny Ray for $300 a week, when he first spotted him singing in a small bar in Queens, New York, while (r^ watching another bigger act. | n Miss Bankhead did her first night club engagement for Jack Entratter at the Sands. ^ K^y Van Johnson, the movie star, had never appeared on a nightclub floor. Mr. Entratter convinced him into going onto the stage before live people for the first time and advanced him his first week's salary of $15,000 to pay special material writers and choreographers, to work up an excellent act for Van. As a result, Johnson's 10 year attempt to get a musical part in pictures was helped by his Sands engagement, and he landed a starring role in "Brigadoon" and a whole new movie career for himself. It was Entratter's confidence In the late great Ezio Pinza that prompted the great singing star to debut a nightclub act at the Sands. Another example of showmanship was the teaming of Robert Merrill and Louis Armstrong in a "Jazz versus Opera"