Michael Tell, concert promoter-turned-chronicler of Las Vegas’s Jewish community, dies at 80

Michael Tell, a prolific and proud Nevada newsman who carried on his father’s legacy by taking charge of the long-running Las Vegas Israelite newspaper, died Sunday.

Tell, who earlier in life spearheaded a rock-and-roll renaissance here as a concert promoter, was 80.

“He, for the last several decades almost single-handedly kept the Las Vegas Israelite alive so that the Jewish community could have a newspaper filled with news that the community cares about,” said Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley, who’d known Tell for six decades.

Berkley said she grieved when she heard of Tell’s passing, describing it a “the end of an era.”

His niece, Michele Tell, described him as “the coolest uncle” and a deeply spiritual being who had a “Zen attitude of life.”

Tell, who enjoyed sporting suspenders, would tell his niece to “be like water and flow: everything will come to you when it’s meant to come to you,” she said. “He was just a very special man.”

Tell took the reins of the Jewish-focused newspaper in 1979 after his father’s passing. He led the publication until recently, serving as editor and publisher. He once declared that he was “married to a newspaper.”

“When a baby is born, it takes a year for it to become one, but when a newspaper is born, it’s one from the moment of its existence,” he said in 2018 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. The UNLV Libraries projects allow local figures to tell their stories in their own words.

“We went from a national newspaper doing national stories of Israel,” he said. “And then we built our focus as it was growing on local.”

‘The Wild West’

Michael Tell, the youngest of three sons, was born to Jack and Beatrice Tell. He was raised in New York City.

Jack Tell, a former New York Times photo editor, founded the Las Vegas Israelite in 1964 after his first foray into the industry. The elder Tell had purchased the Territorial Enterprise in Northern Nevada, which was established by Mark Twain.

“I commuted with my dad to Virginia City, Nevada, which was really the Wild West,” Tell said. He was a teenager at the time.

His father had always dreamed of running his own operation, so he moved west. Investors helped found the Territorial Enterprise, but it didn’t work out, Michael Tell said in the interview.

The elder Tell moved the family to Las Vegas — population about 90,000 at the time — where he had stints at a couple of newspapers.

“We came to Vegas broke,” Michael Tell said.

Former Mayor Carolyn Goodman told the Review-Journal she was sorry to hear about Tell’s death. She and former Mayor Oscar Goodman knew the family as anyone else “who’s lived here for any period of time.”

The Las Vegas Israelite has a pulse on the “heartbeat of the Jewish community” and a “wonderful free paper for so many,” Carolyn Goodman said.

“He became a very significant member of the entire Las Vegas community,” Goodman said. “He’ll be very much missed.”

Rock and Roll promoter

Michael Tell was young when he started promoting concerts, quickly booking high-profile entertainers.

“I started a teenage nightclub, and I went to Bobby Darin, in jeans, and said, ‘Look, Bobby, I don’t have any money. I can’t pay you anything. But the teenagers have nothing to do in Las Vegas,’” he said.

“He played for me for free and he got me Wayne Newton the next night,” Michael Tell added. “The first weekend of my life in show business, I netted $10,000 and was buying groceries for my family.”

Between 1968 and 1972, Tell booked entertainers who would have otherwise not stopped in Las Vegas back then, his niece said.

They included Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Steve Miller Band. He organized a memorable concert by The Doors; the band played on plywood placed atop ice at the old Las Vegas Ice Palace.

“I think he really helped change the musical skyline in Las Vegas by having the courage to bring huge rock and roll acts to Las Vegas at a time when they weren’t stopping in Las Vegas,” Michele Tell said.

For his contributions, he was inducted into the local Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In a photo shared by Michele Tell, uncle and niece proudly posed in front of a poster memorializing The Doors’ performance. Michael Tell flashed a wide smile.

When the “biggest disc jockey” from Los Angeles spotted a James Brown billboard on the Strip with Tell’s promotion company underneath, he contacted the young promoter and persuaded him to take his talents to Southern California for the next two decades.

”I became the fifth-largest concert promoter in the United States,” said Tell. He said he helped launch the careers of Jimi Hendrix and Jose Feliciano.

Famous son

Tell was briefly married to the late Hollywood star Patty Duke, the mother of his son, Sean Astin, who himself is a well-known actor.

The truth about Sean Astin’s father came to light when Astin was 25, according to People magazine.

“If you want to know who I am, John Astin is my father, Michael Tell is my biological father,” Sean Astin told the magazine in 2021.

Astin told the magazine he had a healthy relationship with Michael Tell, a sentiment echoed by Tell.

“We get along great,” Tell said. “He has three daughters. He’s my only son, and his three daughters are my grandchildren.”

Love of Las Vegas

Tell’s newspaper primarily serves the Jewish community. The March issue of the newspaper showcases events, “Passover cleaning” and bar mitzvah features.

In his interview, Tell reflected on the growth of the Jewish community and the quashing of anti-Semitic incidents in the Las Vegas Valley. He recalled an incident in which casino magnate Ralph Engelstad “threw a Hitler party, and I saw the older Jews picketing with Nazi skinheads,” Tell said.

Tell said his newspaper didn’t define who he was as a Jew.

He instead highlighted how much the city had grown.

“There was one temple in 1973,” he said. “There’s 28 temples now.”

And Tell cherished the valley entirely.

“Las Vegas is my home, and I love it. When it was a small town, I loved it, and now 2 million people, I love it,” he told the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. “There’s only one Las Vegas in this world.”

In addition to son Sean Astin, three grandchildren and niece Michele Tell, Michael Tell is survived by wife, Nelcy Tell, brother Jay Tell, nieces Bonnie Lally, Robyn Reinhart, Jeni Davis and Jackie Tell. Brother Donald Tell and his parents preceded him in death.

A memorial service is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Bunkers Eden Vale Mortuary, 925 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

The family said that in lieu of flowers, mourners can donate to any local temple of their choosing.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.