Norm Clarke died recently. He covered Las Vegas legends and became one in his own right.
Clarke grew up in Montana. He began wearing what became his signature eye patch after a childhood accident. He started in newspapers in Montana and went on to be a reporter for the Associated Press. He covered the championship Cincinnati Reds teams of the mid-1970s. He made a name for himself as a dogged and determined journalist. When a fire killed 165 across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, he was caught in traffic and ran the last mile to get there, and scooped his competitors. He went on to work for the AP in San Diego, and covered the 1980 MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas and the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Then he moved to Denver as a sports reporter for the Rocky Mountain News and broke stories about illegal betting and the successful quest for the Colorado Rockies expansion baseball team.
In 1999, he came to Las Vegas and began writing a regular page 3 column in the Review-Journal, Vegas Confidential. He covered the celebrities, yes, but a lot more. He also racked up more scoops—Britney Spears’ 55-hour marriage, Michael Jackson moving to Las Vegas to work on a production show, and much more. He wrote the column for 17 years. He also spent several years doing “Conversations with Norm” at The Smith Center, with the money going to the performing arts center’s educational fund.
Many great local columnists have written items or man-about-town pieces who captured the essence of their city—Herb Cane was a legend in San Francisco. Clarke did a similar column in Denver, and others preceded him here. They included Murray Hertz, who worked his way through the airport until he found a private plane carrying the Beatles and jumped into their limousine for an interview; he was invited to leave, and did. Forrest Duke wrote for decades as The Duke of Las Vegas, coining the term The Best City of Them All. Joe Delaney produced and managed jazz acts in Chicago before moving to Las Vegas and writing an entertainment column for the Las Vegas Sun for more than 30 years. He also produced telethons and charity events, and taught hotel entertainment at UNLV for a quarter-century. Ralph Pearl came to Las Vegas and covered entertainment for his old law school friend, Hank Greenspun, at the Sun. Sig Sakowicz wrote columns and freelanced for years. Most of them also had television shows where they interviewed entertainers. But they were part of the older Las Vegas, before the reinvention of the Strip. Norm made his mark in a different, later time, with some of the same celebrities and some different ones.
Clarke said he wanted to be remembered as a reporter, not a gossip columnist. He definitely was a reporter and got into some scrapes. Magician Criss Angel was upset with what Clarke wrote and threatened him. He covered Pete Rose for many years, at times displeasing the major league baseball hit king. When Rose saw that Clarke ranked him among the worst celebrity tippers, he slapped Clarke. They apparently reconciled before Rose died last year. When Clarke died, he had just finished writing his fifth book, this one about his career. To the end, indeed, a reporter.