Per Biography, Wayne Newton declared bankruptcy in 1992. Not only was he out of cash, but he was also $20 million in debt, an amount that included a $341,000 lien to the IRS for unpaid taxes (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal).
In 1997, Newton embarked on a new project, per the Las Vegas Sun. Newton and entertainer Tony Orlando opened The Talk of the T.O.W.N. together, which had 2,100 seats. But problems arose when shows were only pulling in between about 360 to 900 people per show, and this simply wasn’t enough to pay off the building’s $2 million lease. Then, Tony Orlando’s son discovered recording devices in a shared private room. Newton claimed he was just recording the show, and the audio was so poor that it was basically useless, but the damage had clearly been done. Newton said of Orlando (per the Las Vegas Sun), “I decided that I have never given up a friendship over money, but he did.”
Per the theatre’s website, the duo stopped performing together in 1998, and by 1999, Newton renamed the location the “Wayne Newton Theatre.”
