The author asks: What is it about Las Vegas that captivates us? Is it how the skim worked at the Stardust and how millions of dollars walked out the door uncounted? Or what really happened when Frank Sinatra threw a chair at the casino boss of the Sands? Did you ever hear the story about how some very bad Vegas guys rigged the gin rummy games at the Friars Club and took a bunch of famous people to the cleaners? Howard Hughes had some weird notions about the Silver Slipper and put his money where his paranoia was. The author answers with: Behind-the-headlines stories about the men, the Mob, movie stars, and missing money that made '50s and '60s Vegas such a hot spot in the Nevada desert. Vegas then was another world. The days when small-time gamblers like the author, in town with his wife for a weekend of shows and great food, could ride down the elevator at one of the Strip hotels with Lucille Ball, have an "A" table at the Versailles Room at the Riviera to see Rowan and Martin, with Edie Adams opening, and laugh until it hurt when Buddy Hackett played the old Congo Room at the Sahara. Behind the scenes, the Mob ran Vegas in those days and stories abound. Through years of study and interviews and just talking to people from all strata of Las Vegas comes this book, a glimpse into the money, mayhem, and murders of early Vegas. Index Photographs 257 Pgs. 2007
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- That Damn Kefauver Committee
- Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo
- The Havana Mafia Conference: The Vote to Kill Bugsy
- Fat Irish Green
- Help! We Just Lost the Thunderbird
- Two Dumb Tonys
- A Check Signed by 3 Las Vegas Legends
- Uncle Morrie and Aunt Audrey's Las Vegas Vacation
- The Story of Mr. Lucky, Tony Cornero
- History and Mystery of the Moulin Rouge
- Vegas Showgirls
- Frank Costello Builds the Tropicana
- Does the Riviera Still Kill Its Executives?
- Frank Sinatra's Cal-Neva Lodge
- Teamsters Palace Las Vegas
- Fight Night at the Sands
- How to Cheat a Friar
- Howard Hughes Buys Nevada
- The Great Stardust Skim
- The Silver Slipper's Slipper
- Left and the Ant
- Coffee Shop Stories: Rat Pack and the Sands
- References
- Photo Credits
- Index