By E.C. Gladstone, Photographs: Francis George

ayne Newton does not play fair. When an interviewer is invited into the entertainer's storied Las Vegas estate, the first thing he experiences is the Red Room, Newton's clubby private office, where he is left alone for several minutes to absorb a nearly overwhelming array of personal memorabilia from a who's who of 20th-century politicians and entertainers. On display are handwritten letters from Presidents Reagan and Bush (41); inscribed photos from John Wayne, Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball, Gene Autry, Colonel Tom Parker and Egypt's Anwar Sadat; gifts from Frank Sinatra and Bill Cosby; Jack Benny's violin, Nat "King" Cole's makeup kit and Gleason's pool cue from The Hustler; and dozens of tributes and awards from the USO and others.

"It's wild," says Newton when he arrives. "This probably encompasses maybe 30 percent—I have stuff stuck away in boxes, and I really am in dire need of expanding." Newton himself is equally "bigger than the room." At a very robust 64, he is a physically imposing bear of a man with a steel-grip handshake, who would be intimidating were it not for his immediate warmth, candor and ease. Truthfully, the interests that this room—and the rest of his Casa de Shenandoah mansion and grounds—reflect are so varied and widespread that no one could say they form any kind of crafted image.

Still, it's hard to swallow when Mr. Las Vegas, walking icon of a certain era, says, "Living in the past is not something I have ever reveled in. Yesterday has never been that important. I am a man of the moment." He will happily let audiences see that for themselves when he returns to the Strip (for the umpteenth time since 1959) with his holiday show at Harrah's this month.

What's new? Well, nothing…and everything. "I never do the same show twice," Newton insists. "I really gear each show to the crowd I'm in front of. If they are predominantly Southerners, they're going to want more country. If they're Easterners, they're going to want more show tunes and standards." The entertainer's trick is to do three very different songs at the outset and gauge from there. Though he views Vegas audiences as some of the most challenging in the world, because they comefrom around the world, "we do get repeats." Newton, who has a photographic memory, says, "I can walk out and recognize faces from before. And that keeps me honest." Furthermore, since the early '90s, he has been conscious of a need to engage a younger crowd, and in doing so has taken pride in knowing what audiences expect of him, and trying to bring them something different from that ...

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