Phyllis McGuire, a Casino Headliner and McGuire Sisters Vocalist, Dies in Las Vegas

Phyllis McGuire, who lived in a Las Vegas mansion that included a replica Eiffel Tower, performed solo during the years her sisters raised families, the Times reported.

Phyllis McGuire married broadcaster Neal Van Ells in 1952. They divorced in 1956 without having children.

Her sisters preceded her in death. Dorothy died in 2012, Christine in 2019.

Phyllis McGuire was at the center of a controversy in the 1960s that led to singer Frank Sinatra forfeiting his ownership in the Cal-Neva Lodge. The now-shuttered lodge was a hotel-casino on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. The lake is on the California-Nevada border near Reno.

During this era, Sinatra performed with other Rat Pack members and Hollywood celebrities at places such as in Las Vegas and the Cal-Neva Lodge.

In 1963, state gaming officials challenged Sinatra about Giancana being at the lodge. The mobster had been there visiting McGuire, according to news accounts. She was at the lodge performing in the Celebrity Room with her sisters. 

Giancana, rumored to have a hidden partial ownership in the Cal-Neva, had been included in Nevada’s Black Book. This inclusion banned him from setting foot in any casino statewide.

Years later, Sinatra regained a key employee license in Nevada.

Giancana was shot to death at his home in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb, in 1975. No one was ever arrested or charged in the killing. Giancana was 67 at the time of his death.

In 1989, McGuire told Dominick Dunne of Vanity Fair magazine that Giancana was “The greatest teacher I ever could have had,” according to the Times.

“He was so wise about so many things,” she said.

McGuire is the second celebrity with a Nevada connection to die this week. Dawn Wells, star of the 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island, died of complications from COVID-19 on Wednesday at a Los Angeles nursing home. She was 82. 

Born in Reno, Wells was and real estate developer, Joe Wesley Wells.

In 1959, she was crowned Miss Nevada. In addition to her later television work, Wells also performed on stage, including in a one-woman show at the MGM Grand hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.