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00:00:00Las Vegas is the place where the steam gets let off.
00:00:18It's like a vacation.
00:00:21People can come here and feel they're living a naughtier life.
00:00:26Las Vegas is clockless, and in that sense, it does throw your whole rhythm off.
00:00:31And I think that that induces a kind of spacelessness and weightlessness and a placelessness so
00:00:38that Las Vegas becomes a world into itself.
00:00:43This is, after all, a city in the desert, so Las Vegas suggests, of course, that the
00:00:49whole rest of the world is the desert, and it is the oasis.
00:00:56We don't want anything in Las Vegas that upsets the tourist, and if it's a touch of
00:01:00reality that is not pretty, then we want to get rid of it.
00:01:04You don't want to come in contact with reality when you're here for fantasy.
00:01:09It's not a deeply introspective culture.
00:01:12It's not about the interior life.
00:01:17There is no gap between the thought and the act.
00:01:19It isn't like, oh, should I do this, should I do this, should I do this?
00:01:24Am I going to walk you down the aisle and give you away?
00:01:26So that kind of hesitation and contemplation is not really a part of this culture.
00:01:38Maybe there's some mystical thing about Las Vegas.
00:01:42You know, you'd like to think that man governs and dominates all the decisions that make
00:01:47history unfold, but clearly, people must have been in the right place at the right time.
00:01:54Now, some could say it's just nature.
00:01:57I say it's luck.
00:02:13There's so much more to Vegas than the Strip.
00:02:18And when you get here and see what else they have, you won't even come to the Strip.
00:02:24No.
00:02:29Housekeeping.
00:02:34Hello.
00:02:35Well, when I lived in California, I didn't have that many opportunities.
00:02:38But here, they got so many hotels coming up, stores opening up every day.
00:02:43So you can get a job real easy.
00:02:44It might not be the job you want, but it'll be a job until you can get the job you want.
00:02:48My brother moved here, to Las Vegas.
00:02:50So I would come here and visit him.
00:02:52And he said, you should come up here.
00:02:54It's easy to get a house up here and stuff.
00:02:55When you apply for it, you can move into a brand new house.
00:02:58They build it the way you want, you know, the way you want them to.
00:03:02No money down.
00:03:04Not a penny.
00:03:05Now, that was for me.
00:03:08I was ready for that.
00:03:09So it's real nice.
00:03:10It's a two-bedroom, two-bathroom.
00:03:12But right now, I'm thinking about getting a bigger house.
00:03:14I have three granddaughters now.
00:03:17So we're gonna get a bigger place.
00:03:19It's just like any other town.
00:03:21It has clubs, zoos.
00:03:24You wouldn't think Vegas would have a zoo, but it got a zoo.
00:03:27We never drove around.
00:03:28When we come to Vegas, we come straight down the boulevard.
00:03:30And we stayed on the strip.
00:03:33And I never got out.
00:03:35You know, once you get them and lose your money, you go home.
00:03:37What else to stay for?
00:03:39But it's a real town.
00:03:41This is indeed the best move I ever made.
00:03:44I wasn't established in California.
00:03:46I went there in 1970.
00:03:47I never bought a house.
00:03:48I never owned anything.
00:03:50And when you get in your 40s, you have to own something.
00:03:53You know.
00:03:54So as soon as I moved here, I got my jobs.
00:03:57Got a new car.
00:03:58Got a new truck.
00:03:59Got a new house.
00:04:01And I've only been here six years.
00:04:03I cleaned up.
00:04:04Come on.
00:04:11Come on.
00:04:12Let's see.
00:04:34I think the hold of this place is, it's on the edge.
00:04:39And it needs to be.
00:04:41It's always been a place where you look out of your windows
00:04:45and see the sun rise or set on the desert.
00:04:48And know that there are snakes and serpents out there.
00:04:53It's biblical in that way.
00:04:56And if you can imagine the place devoid of all construction,
00:04:59you would quickly say,
00:05:00well, who on earth would have come here?
00:05:04Because it's not a sensible place to build a city.
00:05:09And I think there is still that feeling
00:05:12of kind of loony, surreal triumph over the elements.
00:05:17You know.
00:05:18Damn those elements.
00:05:20We can beat them.
00:05:22And I think that's what we need to do.
00:05:24Damn those elements.
00:05:26We can beat them.
00:05:54A more God-forsaken locale could scarcely have been imagined.
00:05:59But in 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression,
00:06:02Southern Nevada's Black Canyon
00:06:04looked to many Americans like paradise.
00:06:14In just six months,
00:06:16some 42,000 people had been evacuated
00:06:19from the Great Depression.
00:06:21In just six months,
00:06:23some 42,000 men descended on that desolate spot,
00:06:27desperate to land one of the 5,000 construction jobs
00:06:30on the Boulder Dam,
00:06:32also known as Hoover Dam,
00:06:34a massive engineering project
00:06:36that would harness the mighty Colorado River
00:06:38for the benefit of a half dozen states
00:06:40throughout the Southwest.
00:06:45For four and a half long years,
00:06:47the dam workers would spend their days
00:06:49slaving between walls of stubborn hard rock
00:06:51that was literally too hot to be touched.
00:06:55And their nights penned up in Boulder City,
00:06:58a federal reservation
00:06:59with few of the comforts of home
00:07:01and all of the same hometown rules.
00:07:04No gambling,
00:07:05no prostitution,
00:07:07and absolutely no liquor.
00:07:10They lived for payday.
00:07:12With money in their pockets,
00:07:13they blew out of Boulder City as if it were on fire
00:07:16and headed straight for a dusty little town
00:07:19in the middle of the Mojave
00:07:20called Las Vegas.
00:07:25There, along a two-block stretch of Fremont Street,
00:07:28the town's main drag,
00:07:30and in the nearby red-light district
00:07:32known as Block 16,
00:07:34they encountered one of the greatest concentrations
00:07:36of wide-open vice
00:07:38to be found anywhere in Prohibition America.
00:07:41A bawdy, brightly-lit cluster
00:07:43of gambling dens
00:07:44and hot-sheet prostitution cribs.
00:07:47And saloon after saloon after saloon.
00:07:54They were living in these camps
00:07:56in this unforgiving desert
00:07:59in a state of real lockdown.
00:08:01And let's face it,
00:08:02there's absolutely nothing to do.
00:08:04So you had two choices on payday in Boulder City.
00:08:07You could stay back in the camp
00:08:10and not drink
00:08:11and maybe play some cards
00:08:13with your friends
00:08:14and wait for night to come.
00:08:16Or you could hit Fremont Street
00:08:19and gamble and drink
00:08:21and party
00:08:22until your check ran out.
00:08:24Which one would you choose?
00:08:37Founded in 1905 as a railroad town,
00:08:40Las Vegas had enjoyed
00:08:41about a dozen years of prosperity,
00:08:44catering to passengers on layover
00:08:46and supplying the mining camps
00:08:48to the north and south.
00:08:50But its stint as a classic Western boomtown
00:08:53had been short-lived.
00:08:55In 1922,
00:08:57after a national strike
00:08:59idled the line through the town
00:09:00for nearly a month,
00:09:02the railroad moved its repair shops
00:09:04and laid off hundreds of people.
00:09:06Many businesses went belly-up
00:09:07and some observers thought
00:09:08sure,
00:09:09the place would wind up a ghost town.
00:09:13In desperation,
00:09:14local boosters
00:09:15dreamed up wild schemes
00:09:17to keep the town afloat.
00:09:19A county fairground,
00:09:22dude ranches
00:09:23for prospective divorcees,
00:09:25and a nine-hole golf course
00:09:27that lacked
00:09:28only one key component,
00:09:30grass.
00:09:33But nothing really worked.
00:09:34In the end,
00:09:36what saved Las Vegas
00:09:38was Nevada's historic tolerance
00:09:40for sin.
00:09:57Nevada lacked the resources
00:09:59that other states had.
00:10:01It was a place
00:10:02so arid
00:10:04that it lacked enough water
00:10:06to develop industries.
00:10:08In 1890,
00:10:10Nevada was the lowest populated
00:10:12state in the Union.
00:10:14It had less people
00:10:15than you could fit
00:10:16in Fenway Park in Boston.
00:10:18Some states actually talked
00:10:19about Nevada becoming
00:10:20part of California
00:10:21and abolishing
00:10:22Nevada altogether.
00:10:24And so in order
00:10:25to keep people here
00:10:26and keep the economy going,
00:10:28none of the towns
00:10:29really abolished
00:10:30their frontier vices
00:10:31in the first place.
00:10:34Well,
00:10:35I mean,
00:10:36the history of Nevada,
00:10:37I mean,
00:10:38it's just a big desert.
00:10:39It's an eight-hour drive
00:10:40with nothing
00:10:41in between here and Reno.
00:10:42I mean,
00:10:43it's really nowhere.
00:10:44And its whole tradition
00:10:45is doing illegal stuff.
00:10:47You know,
00:10:48I mean,
00:10:49they do divorces,
00:10:50they do prize fights,
00:10:52they do all this stuff
00:10:53that was banned
00:10:54from Prohibition America.
00:10:56And so this became
00:10:57the way you make
00:10:58money in the desert.
00:11:01But it wasn't
00:11:02until early 1931
00:11:04that Nevada
00:11:05had truly solidified
00:11:06its reputation
00:11:07as the nation's rogue state.
00:11:11At a time
00:11:12when games of chance
00:11:13were illegal
00:11:14everywhere else
00:11:15in the country
00:11:16and diehard gamblers
00:11:17had to play
00:11:18in back alleys
00:11:19and underground clubs,
00:11:22Nevada lawmakers
00:11:23had taken
00:11:24the scandalous step
00:11:25of legalizing
00:11:26wide-open
00:11:27casino-style gambling.
00:11:28Inside of a few months,
00:11:29Las Vegas'
00:11:30Fremont Street
00:11:31was wall-to-wall
00:11:32gambling houses
00:11:33and penny slot machines
00:11:34had been installed
00:11:35in nearly every
00:11:36gas station
00:11:37and grocery store
00:11:38in town.
00:11:41This allowed
00:11:42East Coast America,
00:11:44academia,
00:11:45Washington,
00:11:46the churches
00:11:48to say
00:11:49sodom and gomorrah.
00:11:54And in 1932
00:11:56an enormous stain
00:11:57upon Nevada
00:11:59in the eyes
00:12:00of the East,
00:12:02which I think
00:12:03lingers to this day.
00:12:07Legal gambling alone
00:12:08would likely
00:12:09never have brought people
00:12:10to a place
00:12:11as remote as Las Vegas.
00:12:14But with the pleasure-starved
00:12:15residents of Boulder City,
00:12:17now just down the road,
00:12:19the desert outpost
00:12:20was about to make a killing.
00:12:26Curiosity about the dam
00:12:28boosted business
00:12:29even further.
00:12:31In 1932,
00:12:33some 100,000 people
00:12:34went to gawk
00:12:35at what was fast becoming
00:12:36known as
00:12:37the eighth wonder
00:12:38of the world.
00:12:41And many paused
00:12:42en route
00:12:43to sample
00:12:44the unique attractions
00:12:45of Las Vegas.
00:12:48By that time,
00:12:49the opportunistic town
00:12:50had long since
00:12:51taken to billing itself
00:12:52as
00:12:53the gateway
00:12:54to the Boulder Dam.
00:12:59Then in 1935,
00:13:01President Franklin Roosevelt
00:13:02came to town.
00:13:04We are here to celebrate
00:13:05the completion
00:13:07of the greatest
00:13:08dam in the world.
00:13:10And within a matter
00:13:11of months,
00:13:12the thousands
00:13:13of dam workers
00:13:14abruptly disappeared.
00:13:16Fremont Street,
00:13:17one observer remembered,
00:13:19was suddenly
00:13:20as empty
00:13:21as could be found.
00:13:23Thanks mainly
00:13:24to the dam,
00:13:25Las Vegans
00:13:26had discovered
00:13:27the immense potential
00:13:28for profit
00:13:29in America's
00:13:30forbidden desires.
00:13:32But to fully
00:13:33exploit it,
00:13:34they would have to
00:13:35find a way
00:13:36to lure people
00:13:37to the desert.
00:13:39For now,
00:13:40the prospect
00:13:41seemed dim.
00:13:43As one writer put it,
00:13:44the people were not
00:13:45here yesterday,
00:13:46and they will not
00:13:47come back.
00:13:49The dam was
00:13:50here yesterday,
00:13:51and they will not
00:13:52be here tomorrow.
00:14:07There is a thread
00:14:08that runs through
00:14:09the whole history
00:14:11of this place
00:14:12as it relates to
00:14:13American and
00:14:14American culture.
00:14:16It's a refuge.
00:14:17It's a place
00:14:18that you run to.
00:14:19It's a place
00:14:20that you
00:14:21indulge yourself in.
00:14:24It's a way out
00:14:25of the incredible
00:14:26straitjacket
00:14:28that we find
00:14:29ourselves in
00:14:30in our highly
00:14:31regimented
00:14:32and regulated lives.
00:14:42A lot of people
00:14:43come to Vegas
00:14:44and get married
00:14:45because they start
00:14:46planning a wedding
00:14:47at home,
00:14:48and the cost
00:14:49gets out of hand.
00:14:51You might have
00:14:52cousin Charlie
00:14:53come along and say,
00:14:54oh, you can't do it
00:14:55that way.
00:14:56You gotta do this.
00:14:57And then Grandma
00:14:58says, well,
00:14:59you gotta do this.
00:15:00And they say,
00:15:01forget it.
00:15:02They get on an airplane,
00:15:03come to Vegas,
00:15:04and get married.
00:15:05Will you love,
00:15:06honor, respect,
00:15:07and be faithful to him
00:15:08all the days
00:15:09of your life?
00:15:10Yes.
00:15:11Marriage is
00:15:12an honorable estate
00:15:13instituted by God
00:15:14in the very beginning
00:15:15of man.
00:15:16It is, therefore,
00:15:17an effort to be
00:15:18entered into lightly,
00:15:19but reverently,
00:15:20sincerely,
00:15:21and in the love
00:15:22of God.
00:15:35I've been doing
00:15:36weddings 10 years,
00:15:39and I have done
00:15:40a little more
00:15:41than 37,000.
00:15:4486 is the most
00:15:45I've done in a day.
00:15:48I did one wedding
00:15:50on stage
00:15:51in a total nude joint.
00:15:54I did a commitment
00:15:55ceremony one night
00:15:56for a man
00:15:57and his motorcycle.
00:16:00I had a lady
00:16:01come in one day,
00:16:02had a couple of
00:16:03attendants with her,
00:16:04all dressed up.
00:16:05She wanted
00:16:06to marry herself.
00:16:08I noticed that
00:16:09one of you lives
00:16:10in New Orleans
00:16:11and one lives
00:16:12in Metairie.
00:16:13Metairie, yeah.
00:16:14Metairie?
00:16:15Mm-hmm.
00:16:16Or are you going
00:16:17to be happy?
00:16:19We've got to move together.
00:16:25The wedding chapels
00:16:26are a business.
00:16:28Right there, guys.
00:16:30I think that some
00:16:31of the ministers
00:16:32that do weddings
00:16:33in this town
00:16:34confuse that
00:16:35with a ministry.
00:16:36I mean, I roll
00:16:37with the punches.
00:16:38Whatever these people
00:16:39want is okay with me.
00:16:41Jurgen,
00:16:42do you take Gudrun
00:16:43to be your
00:16:44lawful wedded wife?
00:16:46Yes, I do.
00:16:48Gudrun,
00:16:49do you take Jurgen
00:16:50to be your
00:16:51lawful wedded husband?
00:16:54By the powers
00:16:55vested in me
00:16:56by the state of Nevada,
00:16:58I pronounce you
00:16:59husband and wife.
00:17:01You got a wedding
00:17:02down there?
00:17:04Okay.
00:17:05All right.
00:17:06Hold on to him.
00:17:07I'll be there
00:17:08as quick as I can.
00:17:10I think marriage
00:17:11is great.
00:17:12I think marriage
00:17:13is great.
00:17:24The British writer
00:17:25Somerset Maugham
00:17:26once described
00:17:27Monte Carlo,
00:17:28the glamorous
00:17:29gambling resort
00:17:30on the French Riviera,
00:17:31as a sunny place
00:17:32for shady people.
00:17:34By the early 1940s,
00:17:36the same might have
00:17:37been said of Las Vegas.
00:17:42The first big wave
00:17:43of so-called
00:17:44sporting life characters
00:17:46had arrived back in 1938
00:17:48after a reform-minded mayor
00:17:50ran them out
00:17:51of Los Angeles.
00:17:54An easy day trip
00:17:55from the city of angels,
00:17:56Las Vegas had become
00:17:57the obvious destination
00:17:59for the scores
00:18:00of illegal gambling operators
00:18:02and card sharps
00:18:03and dirty cops
00:18:04on the lam.
00:18:07They gravitated to the city
00:18:08because they had
00:18:09the expertise.
00:18:10They knew more than many
00:18:11of the local yokels
00:18:12who were running
00:18:13the small casinos
00:18:14of how to make
00:18:15customers happy,
00:18:16how to give comps,
00:18:17when to do it,
00:18:18and they brought
00:18:19a real expertise
00:18:20in casino management
00:18:21to Las Vegas.
00:18:33Now came one
00:18:34of the more infamous
00:18:35denizens of L.A.'s underworld,
00:18:37a dapper
00:18:38and often volatile mobster
00:18:40Benjamin Bugsy Siegel.
00:18:44A key player
00:18:45in a national crime organization
00:18:47known as the Syndicate,
00:18:48Siegel, at 36,
00:18:50was arguably
00:18:51one of the most
00:18:52crooked entrepreneurs
00:18:53of his time.
00:18:55He'd spent most
00:18:56of the 1930s
00:18:57in Hollywood,
00:18:58overseeing L.A.'s
00:18:59half a million dollar a day
00:19:00bookmaking enterprise
00:19:02and palling around
00:19:03with studio executives
00:19:04and movie stars
00:19:05on the side.
00:19:08But when Nevada
00:19:09became the only state
00:19:10in the Union
00:19:11to legalize the race wire,
00:19:12a service that relayed
00:19:13thoroughbred racing results
00:19:15to off-track bookies
00:19:16across the country,
00:19:17Syndicate boss
00:19:18Meyer Lansky
00:19:19sent Siegel
00:19:20to take over the action
00:19:21in Las Vegas.
00:19:24Bugsy Siegel
00:19:25was sent up to Las Vegas
00:19:26in 1941
00:19:27with Moe Sedway
00:19:28to eliminate
00:19:29James Reagan
00:19:30who owned a race wire here
00:19:31that the mob
00:19:32did not control.
00:19:34These guys came here
00:19:35and they created
00:19:36a rival race wire,
00:19:37they charged lower prices,
00:19:38and eventually
00:19:39they got rid of Reagan
00:19:40by poisoning him.
00:19:44Once they had
00:19:45eliminated Reagan,
00:19:46it was obvious to Siegel
00:19:47that there were
00:19:48real possibilities here
00:19:49for the mob.
00:19:52Las Vegas
00:19:53was still basically
00:19:54a one-horse town,
00:19:56a train depot,
00:19:57and a row of
00:19:58gaudy gambling joints
00:20:00surrounded by
00:20:01thousands of acres
00:20:02of undeveloped desert.
00:20:04But there was
00:20:05every reason to believe
00:20:06the place was headed
00:20:07for a spectacular boom.
00:20:13Two new
00:20:14defense installations
00:20:15had been recently situated
00:20:16on the outskirts of town,
00:20:18which together
00:20:19had brought thousands
00:20:20of people
00:20:21and their payrolls
00:20:22into Las Vegas' orbit.
00:20:24And now that
00:20:25the country was at war,
00:20:26hordes of impatient couples
00:20:28were already stampeding
00:20:29over the border
00:20:30into Nevada
00:20:31where state law
00:20:32allowed them to tie the knot
00:20:33without waiting
00:20:34for the blood tests
00:20:35required back home.
00:20:38Since Las Vegas
00:20:39also performed
00:20:40quickie divorces
00:20:41and already ranked
00:20:42as one of the country's
00:20:43top spots
00:20:44to dump a spouse,
00:20:46Siegel figured
00:20:47the casinos
00:20:48on Fremont Street
00:20:49would soon be
00:20:50packed to the rafters.
00:20:52If the syndicate
00:20:53wanted to get in
00:20:54on the ground floor,
00:20:55he told Lansky,
00:20:56now was the time.
00:21:00Over the next
00:21:01several years,
00:21:02with Lansky's blessing,
00:21:03Siegel sank
00:21:04mob money
00:21:05into a handful
00:21:06of gambling halls
00:21:07on Fremont Street
00:21:09before buying
00:21:10the El Cortez outright
00:21:11in 1945.
00:21:14The official owner
00:21:15was a front man.
00:21:16Behind him
00:21:17was a roster
00:21:18of investors
00:21:19that read like a
00:21:20who's who
00:21:21of organized crime.
00:21:22Men who got
00:21:23their share of the profits
00:21:24from cash
00:21:25skimmed off the top.
00:21:28There's no taxes
00:21:29on a skim
00:21:30and there's no bookkeeping
00:21:31on the skim.
00:21:32It is your upfront money.
00:21:34When the mob
00:21:35controlled one
00:21:36of these casinos,
00:21:37they had their operatives
00:21:39who would
00:21:40effectively supervise
00:21:41what's called
00:21:42the hard count room,
00:21:43which is where
00:21:44you'd count up the money.
00:21:46And you knew
00:21:47that if Bob or Joe
00:21:48was the guy
00:21:49who would come in
00:21:50literally with a sack
00:21:51or with a box
00:21:52and pick up some money
00:21:54and walk out the door,
00:21:55well, nobody saw anything.
00:21:56A lot of money
00:21:57came out of those places.
00:21:59And you would know
00:22:00there were people
00:22:01who had the breakdown
00:22:02of how much
00:22:03this goes to Chicago,
00:22:04this goes to Milwaukee,
00:22:05this goes here.
00:22:06You knew to the penny
00:22:07where that money was going
00:22:09and who was getting it.
00:22:12The scheme
00:22:13was so simple
00:22:14and so profitable
00:22:15that Siegel
00:22:16was soon pushing
00:22:17the syndicate
00:22:18to make a more
00:22:19sizable investment.
00:22:20This time
00:22:21in a risky new development
00:22:22roughly three miles
00:22:23from the center of town,
00:22:25on frontage
00:22:26bordering Highway 91,
00:22:28the two-lane road
00:22:29to Los Angeles.
00:22:31Out there
00:22:32in the barren desert,
00:22:33Siegel told his associates,
00:22:34they could open a place
00:22:35that would be
00:22:36beyond the city limits
00:22:37and the reach
00:22:38of the city's slot tax.
00:22:41Better still,
00:22:42there was space enough
00:22:43for a full-fledged resort,
00:22:45an upscale joint
00:22:46with a casino
00:22:47and a swimming pool
00:22:48and a parking lot.
00:22:51Two sprawling motor inns,
00:22:52the El Rancho Vegas
00:22:53and the Last Frontier,
00:22:55had already been built
00:22:56on that model
00:22:57and so far
00:22:58they'd been doing
00:22:59a respectable business.
00:23:01Now, Siegel's
00:23:02longtime acquaintance,
00:23:03Billy Wilkerson,
00:23:04the publisher
00:23:05of the Hollywood Reporter,
00:23:06was trying to raise money
00:23:07for a third.
00:23:09A glamorous place
00:23:10like the nightclubs
00:23:11he owned
00:23:12on the Sunset Strip.
00:23:14Ben Siegel then
00:23:15wound up looking at Vegas
00:23:17and he said,
00:23:18the war is over.
00:23:20It's 1945 and 46.
00:23:23America wants to party.
00:23:25Gotta remember,
00:23:26the country had been
00:23:27through a horrendous war.
00:23:29America was looking
00:23:30for a good time
00:23:31and he said,
00:23:32let's invest money.
00:23:34Siegel's associates
00:23:35ponied up 1.5 million,
00:23:38enough to buy
00:23:39a two-third stake
00:23:40in Wilkerson's project.
00:23:42The plan now,
00:23:43Siegel told a reporter,
00:23:44was to build
00:23:45the goddamn biggest,
00:23:46fanciest gaming casino
00:23:47and hotel
00:23:48you'd ever seen
00:23:49in your whole lives.
00:23:51He would call it
00:23:52the Flamingo.
00:23:55Before Benny Siegel
00:23:57opened the Flamingo,
00:23:59the look of the casinos
00:24:00in Las Vegas
00:24:01were all cowboy casinos.
00:24:03They were Western,
00:24:04there was sawdust
00:24:05on the floor.
00:24:06Benny Siegel comes in,
00:24:07he creates an urban,
00:24:09Miami Beach hotel
00:24:11in the middle of the desert.
00:24:12Suddenly,
00:24:13when you walk
00:24:14into a casino,
00:24:15you're not met by a guy
00:24:16with a cowboy hat
00:24:17and a six-shooter
00:24:18and cowboy chaps.
00:24:19No, you're met
00:24:20by a guy
00:24:21with a cowboy hat
00:24:22and a six-shooter
00:24:23and cowboy chaps.
00:24:24No, you're met
00:24:25by a guy
00:24:26in a tuxedo.
00:24:27You're met by a guy
00:24:28that looks like
00:24:29Dean Martin.
00:24:30With its swank atmosphere,
00:24:31wall-to-wall carpeting,
00:24:32and a newfangled
00:24:33air cooling system,
00:24:35the Flamingo
00:24:36would eventually
00:24:37become a favorite hot spot
00:24:38for the Hollywood crowd.
00:24:41But by the time
00:24:42construction was
00:24:43finally completed
00:24:44in the spring of 1947,
00:24:46Siegel had overrun
00:24:47his budget
00:24:48by $4.5 million,
00:24:50and the syndicate's mood
00:24:51had soured.
00:24:54A few months later,
00:24:55Siegel was gunned down
00:24:56in his girlfriend's
00:24:57Beverly Hills home,
00:24:59and Lansky's deputies
00:25:00took over the Flamingo
00:25:02for the syndicate.
00:25:07By then,
00:25:08the word on Las Vegas
00:25:09was out,
00:25:10and wise guys
00:25:11from all over the country
00:25:12had already begun
00:25:13decamping to the desert.
00:25:15From Phoenix,
00:25:16syndicate bookmaker
00:25:17Gus Greenbaum.
00:25:19From Minneapolis,
00:25:20local mob boss
00:25:21and rum runner,
00:25:22Davey Berman.
00:25:24And from Cleveland,
00:25:25the one-time kingpin
00:25:26of the Mayfield Road Gang,
00:25:28Moe Dalens.
00:25:38When these guys came here,
00:25:40it was like a morality
00:25:41or ethical car wash.
00:25:43You came here,
00:25:44you were cleansed
00:25:45of your sins,
00:25:46you were now
00:25:47legitimate and legal.
00:25:48I didn't care what you did,
00:25:49you got a wash.
00:25:59Las Vegas,
00:26:00of 50 years ago,
00:26:02was an island.
00:26:04A desert island,
00:26:05an outpost
00:26:06of hedonistic excess,
00:26:08of vice.
00:26:10Everywhere else in America,
00:26:11every four years
00:26:12when the district attorney
00:26:13needed to get reelected,
00:26:14he busted the gambling dens.
00:26:17But here is this island
00:26:19where bad could become good,
00:26:21where illegitimate
00:26:22could become legitimate.
00:26:27They came out here
00:26:28and the shackles came off.
00:26:31They could do in the sunshine
00:26:33what they could only do
00:26:34in the shade
00:26:35where they came from.
00:26:37And they said to themselves,
00:26:38I know they said it,
00:26:40this is a place
00:26:41to make our home.
00:26:43This is a place
00:26:44to raise our families.
00:26:53As one resident put it,
00:26:54Las Vegas is now home
00:26:56to more socially prominent
00:26:57hoodlums per square foot
00:26:59than any other community
00:27:00in the world.
00:27:13It was also fast becoming
00:27:14the ideal front
00:27:15for organized crime
00:27:17as new casinos
00:27:18like the Thunderbird
00:27:19and the Desert Inn
00:27:20sprouted up on Highway 91
00:27:22and the cash from the skim
00:27:24found its way
00:27:25into the pockets of mobsters
00:27:26as far away as Chicago
00:27:28and Miami.
00:27:32Nevada authorities
00:27:33could do little about it.
00:27:36Gambling was so stigmatized
00:27:37and was so morally impure
00:27:40that the only way
00:27:41you could finance this
00:27:42was with illegal funds.
00:27:44So the gambling interests
00:27:46and the mob interests
00:27:47were intertwined
00:27:48with the establishment.
00:27:50Everybody from the PTA
00:27:52to the Mormons
00:27:53to the businessmen,
00:27:55they saw nothing,
00:27:56they heard nothing,
00:27:57and they did nothing.
00:27:58The money was rolling in.
00:28:02For Nevada,
00:28:03it was a devil's bargain.
00:28:05Were it not for its shady citizens,
00:28:07Las Vegas may well have shrunk
00:28:09back into the desert.
00:28:11But a thriving gambling town
00:28:12run by reputed mobsters
00:28:14was not likely
00:28:15to earn much respect
00:28:16in the centers of national power.
00:28:19The question now was
00:28:21not if Washington
00:28:22would come calling,
00:28:23but when.
00:28:32A lot of people
00:28:33who settled here
00:28:34had a real frontier mentality.
00:28:38So that attitude of
00:28:39don't regulate me,
00:28:40don't tell me what to do,
00:28:42don't fence me in,
00:28:43especially if you're
00:28:44the federal government,
00:28:45still prevails today.
00:28:55When we first moved here,
00:28:57you could ride out
00:28:58my back door
00:29:00and ride 500 miles north
00:29:02and only cross
00:29:03two paved roads.
00:29:05It used to feel like
00:29:06it was pretty wide open.
00:29:08You knew your neighbors.
00:29:10Everybody talked to each other.
00:29:15The kids were always out
00:29:17hunting rabbits,
00:29:18hunting coyotes.
00:29:20They would ride clear back
00:29:21to Sheep Mountain
00:29:22and there's some old
00:29:23Indian caves back there
00:29:24and they'd spend the day
00:29:25and then come home.
00:29:27You didn't have to worry
00:29:28about where they were
00:29:29or who they were with
00:29:30because you knew everybody
00:29:31in the neighborhood.
00:29:33There was only 20 families
00:29:35in the five-mile area.
00:29:39It was a rural way of life
00:29:41and we're trying to maintain
00:29:42that in this little block
00:29:43right here,
00:29:44but they're slowly
00:29:45chipping away.
00:29:50If they would have had
00:29:51some kind of planned growth,
00:29:53this could have been
00:29:54a good thing.
00:29:56But when you run out of water
00:29:58and you run out of usable land
00:30:01and you start crowding
00:30:03people together
00:30:05just for the sole purpose
00:30:07of making an extra buck
00:30:09instead of trying to develop
00:30:11a quality of life
00:30:13or a type of life
00:30:14that people want,
00:30:16then it becomes something
00:30:17entirely different.
00:30:20More and more of my neighbors
00:30:21are moving.
00:30:22More and more people
00:30:23are putting their houses
00:30:24up for sale.
00:30:28Vegas has changed.
00:30:40The nation's underworld
00:30:41gets the unwelcome spotlight
00:30:43of publicity
00:30:44as the Senate's
00:30:45Investigation Subcommittee
00:30:46begins new hearings on crime.
00:30:49For the men who ran Las Vegas,
00:30:51periodic scrapes with the law
00:30:52were a fact of life,
00:30:54so none were particularly alarmed
00:30:56until the spring of 1950.
00:30:58The U.S. Senate launched
00:30:59a major investigation
00:31:01into organized crime.
00:31:03Word had it
00:31:04that the Senate committee
00:31:05was slated to take testimony
00:31:06from some 800 witnesses
00:31:08in 14 American cities.
00:31:11Not surprisingly,
00:31:12Las Vegas was high on the list.
00:31:16As the more seasoned players
00:31:17in town saw it,
00:31:19there were a variety
00:31:20of possible outcomes.
00:31:22The Senate hearings
00:31:23could force greater regulation
00:31:24of the casinos
00:31:25or increase taxes
00:31:26on their profits
00:31:28or even, God forbid,
00:31:29actually shut Las Vegas down.
00:31:33But many took comfort
00:31:34from the fact
00:31:35that the probe
00:31:36was being headed
00:31:37by none other
00:31:38than Estes Kefauver,
00:31:39a man whose regular tirades
00:31:40against gambling
00:31:41didn't keep him
00:31:42from chalking up
00:31:43near-perfect attendance
00:31:44at the racetrack.
00:31:46The Kefauver Crime Committee
00:31:47meets the press
00:31:48in Washington.
00:31:49Organized crime
00:31:50does operate
00:31:51on a syndicated basis
00:31:52across state lines
00:31:53in the United States.
00:31:55That is a much bigger,
00:31:56more sinister,
00:31:57and a larger operation
00:31:59than we had ever suspected.
00:32:01Kefauver was a senator
00:32:02from Tennessee,
00:32:03a Democrat from the Bible Belt.
00:32:05He was an opportunist,
00:32:06and he saw bashing Vegas
00:32:08and attacking the mob
00:32:10as a way to perhaps
00:32:11get the Democratic nomination
00:32:12in 1952.
00:32:15Throughout the summer
00:32:16and early fall,
00:32:17the publicity surrounding
00:32:18the nationally televised proceedings
00:32:20forced the closure
00:32:21of illegal gambling dens
00:32:23and other mob-run enterprises
00:32:24across the country.
00:32:28Las Vegans, meanwhile,
00:32:29awaited their turn
00:32:31with amusement.
00:32:32As one mobster's daughter
00:32:33remembered it,
00:32:35privately, my father
00:32:36and his friends
00:32:37joked that the committee
00:32:38would never shut them down.
00:32:40They'd never had any respect
00:32:41for politicians
00:32:42since they'd made
00:32:43a career of bribing them.
00:32:46Some in town
00:32:47even saw fit to lay odds
00:32:49on the outcome of the hearings.
00:32:51Almost no one
00:32:52put their money on Kefauver.
00:32:55The Senate committee
00:32:56spent hours taking testimony
00:32:58from local witnesses
00:33:00and uncovered
00:33:01no hard evidence
00:33:02of wrongdoing whatsoever.
00:33:05The casinos in town
00:33:06were legal,
00:33:07and the operators
00:33:08had the full sanction
00:33:09of the state.
00:33:12In the end,
00:33:13the entire hearing
00:33:14came off as an advertisement
00:33:16for America's
00:33:17unofficial mobster metropolis.
00:33:22His intention was
00:33:23to drive these scoundrels
00:33:24underground,
00:33:26to put a little light on them
00:33:27and watch them scatter.
00:33:29Well, some of them did scatter.
00:33:31They scattered from the east
00:33:32and from the south,
00:33:34and they came out to Las Vegas.
00:33:37He created a gangster diaspora.
00:33:39All of a sudden,
00:33:40gangsters, illegal gamblers
00:33:43from bingo parlors
00:33:44and roulette bins,
00:33:46they had nowhere to go.
00:33:47They were feeling the heat.
00:33:48Meyer Lansky
00:33:49and Bugsy Siegel
00:33:50had already gotten
00:33:51a foothold here.
00:33:52Moe Dalitz was already here.
00:33:54And they said,
00:33:55you know what,
00:33:56we're going to Las Vegas.
00:33:57So really,
00:33:58it was the organized drive
00:34:01to push gambling
00:34:03out of American life
00:34:04that created
00:34:05the biggest gambling center
00:34:06in the world.
00:34:08I love that man Kefauver
00:34:09cracked one recent arrival.
00:34:11When he drove me out
00:34:12of an illegal casino operation
00:34:14in Florida
00:34:15and into a legalized operation
00:34:16in Nevada,
00:34:18he made me a respectable,
00:34:19law-abiding citizen
00:34:21and a millionaire.
00:34:29Las Vegas had managed
00:34:30to survive the federal government's
00:34:32scrutiny,
00:34:33but it still needed
00:34:34to make its mix of sin
00:34:36and syndicated crime
00:34:37appealing to Main Street USA.
00:34:45The Vanguard
00:35:01Las Vegas has been
00:35:02a place apart.
00:35:03It's been other,
00:35:04it's been outlaw.
00:35:05And it actually fought
00:35:06against that image,
00:35:08that reputation.
00:35:09Initially,
00:35:10trying to sell itself as,
00:35:12we're just like
00:35:13everyone else,
00:35:14Boy, don't we have a lot of chapels and churches.
00:35:18But this has always been cross-roader country.
00:35:26I was in music for 25 years.
00:35:29My family, I'm one of 10,
00:35:31and my family was in show business.
00:35:33We were the Louisiana Family Band.
00:35:36I remember I was really young,
00:35:38and we used to travel all the time.
00:35:40We didn't even go to school.
00:35:41We would perform six nights a week,
00:35:43and we lived in hotels.
00:35:45It was the way I grew up,
00:35:46and we were all together.
00:35:47We would play cards in the back of the truck,
00:35:49and we'd sing all the time,
00:35:52and that's just how life was.
00:35:54Always wanted a home, though.
00:35:56Oh, Chanel, look at you.
00:35:58That's how we came to Vegas.
00:35:59We were performing.
00:36:01And then I got into cocktails.
00:36:02I was schlepping cocktails,
00:36:04and he was valet-ing,
00:36:05and we would meet at home.
00:36:07He'd say, okay, we got $150,
00:36:10and we had a little bucket.
00:36:11I swear to you, a little bucket.
00:36:12We'd put it in, and we'd kind of cry
00:36:14at each other.
00:36:15It's kind of tough, you know?
00:36:16So we'd put our money in our bucket,
00:36:17and we saved up $15,000,
00:36:20just like that.
00:36:22We just did it one drink at a time.
00:36:25So we did that until I came home one day,
00:36:27and my daughter had on my cocktail outfit.
00:36:29She says, Mommy, I want to be just like you.
00:36:32So I started real estate school the next day.
00:36:35I think this fits right into
00:36:36what we're looking to accomplish.
00:36:38We're trying to change the look
00:36:40of the Las Vegas market.
00:36:42It's a nice community park.
00:36:43Obviously, you see the gorgeous,
00:36:44incredible mountain views there.
00:36:46When was this built, Cora?
00:36:48This is built in 2003.
00:36:50We bought our first home,
00:36:51and it was out in the boonies.
00:36:53It was 1,400 square feet.
00:36:55We sold it. We doubled our money.
00:36:57The next one we did, we quadrupled our money,
00:36:59and I just kept saying, I know I can do this.
00:37:04I see right now, I see a million-dollar houses
00:37:05to people who 10 years ago were just like me,
00:37:08and in this community
00:37:10and in this kind of an environment,
00:37:11it's given us that dream.
00:37:13I never could have done this for us anyplace else,
00:37:15and music brought us here, and here we are.
00:37:18All right, girl!
00:37:20Oh, yeah!
00:37:23Oh, yeah!
00:37:24If somebody would have ever said
00:37:26my daughter would go to Our Lady of Las Vegas
00:37:28or that on their birth certificate it would say Las Vegas,
00:37:31I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that,
00:37:34because you think it's in the city.
00:37:36When we first decided to get off the road
00:37:38and raise our baby here,
00:37:40I said, how can we live in Las Vegas?
00:37:42We're raising a little girl.
00:37:45He says, you know what, I have a vision,
00:37:47that we can have our life here,
00:37:49and we can be in it, but not of it.
00:37:53Woo!
00:37:56That's it, that's a Saturday night!
00:37:59♪♪
00:38:01♪♪
00:38:04The fall of 1950.
00:38:07A fierce international war
00:38:08rips through a small country called Korea.
00:38:12Russia has successfully detonated an atomic bomb.
00:38:16Now, more than ever before,
00:38:17we need to develop and produce a greater number
00:38:20and possibly even more powerful atomic weapons.
00:38:24And like all new ideas in weapons,
00:38:27new atomic bombs must first be tested.
00:38:31But where?
00:38:35♪♪
00:38:39Just before dawn on January 27th, 1951,
00:38:44a blinding white flash lit up the Las Vegas sky.
00:38:48Minutes later, there was a thundering blast
00:38:52that left a trail of broken glass
00:38:54from Fremont Street clear out to the strip.
00:39:00Atomic bomb testing at the Nevada Proving Facility
00:39:03had begun.
00:39:042, 1, T-0.
00:39:07♪♪
00:39:13Over the next 12 years, 120 nuclear devices,
00:39:17an average of one every five weeks,
00:39:19would be detonated above ground in the Mojave Desert,
00:39:23just 65 miles from downtown Las Vegas.
00:39:30We have glorified gambling, divorces,
00:39:33doubtful pleasures to get our name
00:39:35before the rest of the country,
00:39:36wrote Las Vegas Sun publisher Hank Greenspan.
00:39:40Now we can become part of the most important work
00:39:42carried on by our country today.
00:39:45We have found a reason for our existence as a community.
00:39:48♪♪
00:39:52Having the atomic testing program here
00:39:55gave us a certain amount of legitimacy.
00:39:58Up until that point, we were just a spot in the desert.
00:40:01We were prostitution, we were gambling.
00:40:04Suddenly, we were helping to win the Cold War.
00:40:07And I think people could grab a hold of that
00:40:10because it was a good thing to do for democracy.
00:40:15-♪♪
00:40:19At a moment when the word atomic
00:40:21was cropping up on signs all over the country,
00:40:24when Boy Scouts were laboring
00:40:26to earn their atomic energy merit badges,
00:40:29and Hollywood was putting out films
00:40:30about nuclear espionage,
00:40:33Las Vegas had the singular distinction
00:40:35of being the only city in America
00:40:38with a front-row seat at ground zero.
00:40:40♪♪
00:40:47In the hands of Las Vegas' publicity machine,
00:40:49the specter of nuclear annihilation
00:40:52now became spectacle.
00:40:54The Chamber of Commerce put out a series of press releases
00:40:57promoting the explosions as entertainment,
00:41:01churned out up-to-date shot calendars
00:41:03to help tourists schedule their trips,
00:41:06and distributed road maps
00:41:07that highlighted the best vantage points
00:41:09around the test site.
00:41:14Casinos, meanwhile, hosted bomb parties
00:41:17that culminated with a pre-dawn blast
00:41:20and offered limousine service to guests
00:41:22hoping to get as close to ground zero as possible.
00:41:25♪♪
00:41:31The bombs went off at dawn.
00:41:34Wonderful spectacle.
00:41:35People would go up to the roofs,
00:41:37and they'd watch with glee.
00:41:41It was part of the entertainment.
00:41:43It was definitely part of the show.
00:41:47If you think about the mushroom cloud,
00:41:48it's a very powerful, very sexy, very scary concept,
00:41:53and so it fits right in with tourism.
00:41:56Risk, you know, gambling is all about risk,
00:41:59so you take that mushroom cloud,
00:42:01and you pin it on a beauty pageant contestant,
00:42:05or even some of the casinos would pack picnic lunches
00:42:08for you to go out and watch the mushroom cloud.
00:42:11I would have done it if I'd been here at that time.
00:42:13What could be more exciting than that?
00:42:15♪♪
00:42:22This is Walter Cronkite, and this is Newsman's Knob,
00:42:27some 75 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada.
00:42:31The bomb will be exploded from a tower 300 feet high,
00:42:35and this time, some 1,000 troops will be in the trenches
00:42:40only some two miles from the tower
00:42:43where the atomic device goes off.
00:42:44Three, two, one, zero.
00:42:48♪♪
00:42:58♪♪
00:43:08♪♪
00:43:15My father used to take us as kids.
00:43:18We used to go up to Mount Charleston,
00:43:20and I remember watching these mushroom clouds,
00:43:25and a number of minutes later, these particles,
00:43:27these pink particles would just settle over us as dust.
00:43:31It was all radioactive, you know, fallout.
00:43:36We all took the government's word that it was safe,
00:43:39and the government lied to us.
00:43:40♪♪
00:43:48As the decade wore on, there would be pockets of protest,
00:43:52and in 1963, the limited test ban treaty
00:43:56would finally put an end to the atmospheric detonations.
00:44:01But for now, any misgivings Las Vegans harbored
00:44:04about the bombs were easily brushed aside.
00:44:08The town was growing, tourism was booming,
00:44:12and every time a radioactive cloud bloomed over the desert,
00:44:16Las Vegas again made the news.
00:44:19♪♪
00:44:29♪♪
00:44:37Las Vegas succeeds because it has to.
00:44:41When you deal with adversity, you've got to be creative.
00:44:45I mean, it's brittle, and it's brutal.
00:44:48But if you make it, boy, there's no stopping you.
00:44:52It's a very American thing.
00:44:53It's that very kind of egalitarian notion,
00:44:56everybody can strike it rich.
00:44:57I think that's one of the things that's appealing.
00:45:00It appeals to that American dream.
00:45:03♪♪
00:45:06The lovely thing about Vegas
00:45:07is dancers can have a long life here.
00:45:10The show Jubilee, it offers job security
00:45:12that you don't usually get in the shows in other places.
00:45:15It's been going on for 23 years.
00:45:18As long as your body is in shape and you look good,
00:45:20you can hang, you can stay in the show.
00:45:22We've got a lot of dancers that are, you know, 30s, 40s.
00:45:26Our principal dancer just left last contract.
00:45:29She's 51 years old.
00:45:30That's cool, because I like it.
00:45:31It's nice, easy living out here.
00:45:33Hi.
00:45:34This is the largest production of its kind in the country,
00:45:38if not the world, I think.
00:45:39It represents all classic Las Vegas.
00:45:41That's Bally's whole theme is, you know, real, live Las Vegas.
00:45:45It's where, you know, classic, glamorous Las Vegas lives.
00:45:49You know, I just love the show.
00:45:50I thought it was, you know, I was like,
00:45:51oh, it's a little campy, but it's fun, you know,
00:45:53and it's a good show, and I think that, you know,
00:45:55this is, it has everything that people want
00:45:58when they come to Vegas, you know.
00:45:59This is what they're expecting, they want, you know,
00:46:01the feathers and the, you know, rhinestones
00:46:04and tits and glitz, we call it.
00:46:09¶¶
00:46:18¶ If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
00:46:21¶ Why don't you go where fashion sits
00:46:24¶ Putting on the wrist
00:46:27¶ Strolling down the avenue so happy
00:46:32¶ All dressed up just like an English chappie
00:46:36¶ Come, let's make the Rockefellers walk with sticks
00:46:39¶ Remember where I was in their midst
00:46:42¶ Putting on the wrist
00:46:45¶¶
00:46:46We do like six hours at Bally's
00:46:48and usually about nine to ten hours sometimes at Dre's.
00:46:52I sleep for maybe three, four hours
00:46:54and get up and do it all again.
00:46:56So for the better part of the last two years,
00:46:59I've been working seven days a week.
00:47:03¶¶
00:47:04When people come here and they come to party,
00:47:07especially in the after hours,
00:47:09they tend to get louder and ruder and more demanding.
00:47:13You know, I keep my pace, but you're still absorbing it,
00:47:16you're still taking it in, you're still being affected by it.
00:47:23Definitely getting different extremes of Vegas
00:47:26with the two different jobs.
00:47:32Eventually I'll have to let go of it.
00:47:35It's kind of wearing me down a lot,
00:47:37but, you know, now I'm just hooked.
00:47:39I'm just hooked on having money in my pocket again.
00:47:42I just struggled so much in New York
00:47:44that I just don't want to go back to that.
00:47:47¶¶
00:48:00Do you realize what it would mean
00:48:02if anybody in North Point found out
00:48:05that Mr. Ernest Rapp, the president of the bank,
00:48:08was in Las Vegas?
00:48:10Our life has been rich and full.
00:48:12You don't want to ruin our reputation
00:48:14by spending a weekend in a place like that.
00:48:17No one will know anything about it but us.
00:48:20All right.
00:48:22I'll dare anything you dare.
00:48:24All right, get in.
00:48:26¶¶
00:48:28All right, get in.
00:48:30There you are.
00:48:32Slide over.
00:48:36Next stop, Las Vegas.
00:48:39¶¶
00:48:43In the prosperity of the post-war period,
00:48:47that notion begins to creep in around the edges
00:48:51and then begins to seep to the center
00:48:53where people look at each other and say,
00:48:55maybe we could have some fun.
00:48:57And everyone says, well, what do you mean by fun?
00:49:02¶ If you want to have fun in the sun out west,
00:49:05¶ here's what we suggest.
00:49:08¶ Meet me in Las Vegas.
00:49:14¶ Just take a tip and pack a grip
00:49:17¶ and make the trip today.
00:49:20¶ Meet me where the people play,
00:49:23¶ play in the sun.
00:49:25¶ Meet me in Las Vegas.
00:49:28Las Vegas said to people,
00:49:31look, you could come here for a weekend,
00:49:34you can gamble, leave your wife at home.
00:49:38Do you understand what I mean by that?
00:49:41And we'll give you a little bit of fun.
00:49:44¶ Just take a tip and pack a grip.
00:49:46Las Vegas was perfectly positioned to cash in
00:49:49on the post-war consumerist prosperity boom.
00:49:52Think about it, 1950s,
00:49:54the rise of the national highway system,
00:49:56the emergence of motoring as a leisure activity,
00:50:00and money.
00:50:02It's okay to have fun, it's okay to seek leisure,
00:50:05it's okay to go on frivolous vacations,
00:50:07and it's okay to push the edge.
00:50:10¶ It's in Nevada.
00:50:12¶ Nevada, U.S.A.
00:50:22By the mid-1950s,
00:50:24Las Vegas was everywhere Americans looked.
00:50:27A casual flip through any of the country's leading magazines,
00:50:31and one was reminded yet again
00:50:33that the wanton desert city was the place to be.
00:50:38At this point, for the average tourist,
00:50:41Las Vegas was not really one city, but two.
00:50:45Downtown on Fremont Street,
00:50:47lately dubbed Glitter Gulch,
00:50:49the rugged Western feel of the old frontier outpost
00:50:52still prevailed,
00:50:54and joints like the Horseshoe set the tone.
00:50:58Owned and operated by Benny Binion,
00:51:00a convicted bootlegger who had killed
00:51:02at least two men back home in Texas,
00:51:05the Horseshoe was the only place in town
00:51:07that would accept any bet a player put on the table,
00:51:10no matter how high,
00:51:11and the first to ply the clientele with free booze.
00:51:16If you want to get rich, Binion liked to say,
00:51:19make little people feel like big people.
00:51:23Here was a guy who was a bigger-than-life,
00:51:26tough-talking, pistol-packing Texan,
00:51:29but he instilled the ethic in this city
00:51:32that customer was number one.
00:51:34It's a cliché, but it's the cliché
00:51:36that has built the most visited place in America.
00:51:41But it was the stretch of Highway 91,
00:51:44on the southern edge of town,
00:51:46that now most often leapt to mind
00:51:48when Americans thought of Las Vegas.
00:51:56Known as the Strip,
00:51:57it was fast becoming what one journalist called
00:52:00a never-never land of exotic architecture,
00:52:03flamboyant scenery, and frenetic diversion
00:52:06that is the heart of this unspiritual mecca.
00:52:15Bankrolled almost entirely by the mob,
00:52:18new Strip resorts rose up out of the scrub
00:52:21with dizzying regularity.
00:52:23First the Sahara, and the sands,
00:52:26then the New Frontier, and the Riviera,
00:52:30and the dunes,
00:52:31then the Tropicana, and the stardust.
00:52:36At times, the gala openings were just weeks apart.
00:52:41And by the end of the decade,
00:52:43the swath of highway would be so lit up with neon
00:52:47that it was visible from 50 miles away.
00:52:57What happens is the mob quickly realized
00:53:00that it's an enormously lucrative thing,
00:53:03that there could be many casinos.
00:53:06And they also realized that tourists,
00:53:09they're going to hear about Las Vegas
00:53:12and it's going to be exotic, and romantic, and glamorous.
00:53:26In the quest for tourist dollars,
00:53:29no gimmick was too bizarre.
00:53:34At the sands, there was an annual
00:53:36Miss Atomic Bomb beauty contest.
00:53:40The New Frontier installed a glass-enclosed chamber
00:53:43at the bottom of its swimming pool
00:53:45so that guests could enjoy their cocktails
00:53:47with an underwater view.
00:53:52One publicist even toyed with the idea
00:53:55of filling a hotel pool with jello
00:53:58before a desperate maintenance engineer
00:54:00put a stop to the stunt.
00:54:04¶¶
00:54:12Resort owners touted the strip as Hollywood's playground
00:54:16and kept their hotels in the news
00:54:18by offering the press regular access to their stars.
00:54:22Well, all right!
00:54:24Okay!
00:54:25You win!
00:54:33And unlike the bare-bones casinos on Fremont Street,
00:54:37the strip resorts lured patrons to the tables
00:54:40with an irresistible concoction of luxury and diversion.
00:54:44Posh accommodations, eternally green golf courses,
00:54:49lavish midnight buffets.
00:54:53But the biggest draw was the shows.
00:54:56Inspired by the sands, which had been the first
00:54:59to hire a top-flight entertainment director,
00:55:01the new resorts poached managers
00:55:03from the hottest nightclubs on both coasts
00:55:05and charged them with booking the brightest stars
00:55:08in the country.
00:55:09By the mid-'50s, the strip marquees boasted
00:55:12what one reporter called
00:55:13a wider choice of top-banana talent
00:55:16than could be found even on Broadway.
00:55:20Suddenly, for the price of a cup of coffee,
00:55:23visitors to Las Vegas could catch the kind of act
00:55:26they had only seen on the silver screen.
00:55:30CHEERING
00:55:32Noel Coward is hired to come here,
00:55:35and the idea that, boy, that place, this new place,
00:55:39this upstart place, can get Noel Coward.
00:55:44And Dietrich came.
00:55:47And Judy Garland.
00:55:49And, you know, people who were major showbiz legends
00:55:53came and had smash hits for a lot of money.
00:56:00PIANO PLAYS
00:56:03Nowhere else in America, not even New York,
00:56:06were performers paid so well,
00:56:08as much as $50,000 for a one-week stand.
00:56:12The stars, in turn,
00:56:13plugged their Vegas gigs every time they appeared on TV.
00:56:17The arrangement was so mutually beneficial, in fact,
00:56:20that by the mid-1950s,
00:56:22the entertainment industry's newspaper, Variety,
00:56:25found it necessary to station a full-time correspondent
00:56:28in Las Vegas.
00:56:30APPLAUSE
00:56:37As the competition in town mounted
00:56:39and the price of star-studded production soared,
00:56:42some resorts made skin their headline attraction.
00:56:49With each passing month,
00:56:50costumes and local reviews grew skimpier,
00:56:53until finally, in 1957,
00:56:55the dancers at the Dunes appeared on stage topless.
00:57:01Pretty girls sell, one Las Vegas promoter explained.
00:57:05You need to do something to get people's attention.
00:57:12But the entertainment was never more than a sidelight.
00:57:16A smart business hype, noted Life magazine,
00:57:19that brings gambling patrons in.
00:57:22Actress Tallulah Bankhead put the matter more baldly.
00:57:25Darling, she once said to a reporter,
00:57:28we're just the highest-paid shills in history.
00:57:34To the casino owners, it was an investment well worth making.
00:57:38With the odds stacked overwhelmingly
00:57:40in favor of the house, they stood to make a fortune.
00:57:43All they had to do was get people in the door.
00:57:47Some Americans, at least,
00:57:48proved more than willing to be taken.
00:57:51I know I'd go from rags to riches
00:57:58If you would only say you care
00:58:04You came here, and just by coming here,
00:58:07you were making a statement.
00:58:09You were a little bit gamey.
00:58:11You were a little bit on the edge.
00:58:13And that was a real novel concept
00:58:15in American popular culture.
00:58:17It was the first national permission
00:58:19granted to you to be an adult
00:58:21and to do things that you might not ordinarily do,
00:58:24but you wanted to do.
00:58:25And I think that was really kind of the intoxicant
00:58:29that drove Las Vegas.
00:58:33By 1955, Las Vegas was reeling
00:58:36in an estimated 7 million visitors a year,
00:58:39more than the Washington Monument,
00:58:41Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park,
00:58:44and the Grand Canyon combined.
00:58:46Few, if any of them, ever ventured off the strip,
00:58:49the frenetic adult playground
00:58:51that had now given Las Vegas the moniker Sin City.
00:58:56My fate is up to you
00:59:17I think this notion that Vegas is a place
00:59:21where the underside of the American psyche
00:59:25could express itself a little more,
00:59:27could come out from under the rock, as it were,
00:59:30has been there for a long time.
00:59:33Las Vegas was created as this place
00:59:37in which sort of good people could be bad
00:59:40and yet not lose any points for doing so.
00:59:44That whatever happens here doesn't count.
00:59:52I gamble on the way to work, I gamble after work.
00:59:59On my way to work, if I want some money,
01:00:02I wouldn't go to work.
01:00:08Then I'd go home and lie to my girlfriend
01:00:12that I'd worked overtime or my car broke down or something.
01:00:16I was living quite a lie, you know.
01:00:21My name's Randy, I'm a compulsive gambler.
01:00:24My last bet was June 9th, the famous day.
01:00:30I'm Bob and I'm a compulsive gambler.
01:00:33My name is Chris, I'm a compulsive gambler.
01:00:35When I was out there gambling, I was just crazy.
01:00:39I mean, I would leave my newborn son at home
01:00:42with my 12-year-old at the time
01:00:45and not caring about going home, not caring about anything.
01:00:50You can't walk into a 7-Eleven or A.M.P.M.
01:00:54or anyplace else without there being slots.
01:00:58The grocery stores have slots.
01:01:00They ain't got them in McDonald's or Burger King yet,
01:01:03but it'll happen probably.
01:01:06Yeah, I got to the point where I was gambling my whole check
01:01:11and I was borrowing from whoever, family, whoever,
01:01:16to cover my...cover my butt.
01:01:19And I finally ran out of people to borrow from
01:01:23and, well, I didn't want my fiancé to leave me.
01:01:30So in a...I guess in a panic, you could say,
01:01:34I figured I had no other alternative
01:01:37other than to rob a bank.
01:01:40Ran in there and gave the lady a note
01:01:44and she started handing me money and went running out of there.
01:01:49I can remember saying excuse me to somebody walking out the door.
01:01:53Doesn't hurt to be a nice bank robber.
01:02:00Right now I'm waiting sentencing.
01:02:06It seems that it'd be a really scary time, which it is,
01:02:10but I know that the sentencing I'm waiting on
01:02:14could not be as bad as the sentence I was in.
01:02:24Thank you very much, my dear friends.
01:02:26Thank you very much, my dear friends.
01:02:28On behalf of Keeler Smith, Sam Buter and all the witnesses,
01:02:31it's wonderful playing for you nice people.
01:02:33We have another show in exactly 30 minutes.
01:02:35We're going to be recording a new album
01:02:37which will be called The Sahara Swing Shift.
01:02:40And you've been a wonderful audience.
01:02:42We love you for being so nice.
01:02:43Thank you for coming to see us.
01:02:46The Sahara Swing Shift
01:02:54Beyond what one visitor called
01:02:56the fabulous, extraordinary madhouse of the strip in the 1950s,
01:03:01Las Vegas was exploding.
01:03:04Each year thousands of newcomers flock to the booming desert city,
01:03:08first doubling, then nearly tripling its population.
01:03:12At the end of the decade,
01:03:14the metropolitan area would be home to more than 127,000 people.
01:03:22Most tourists never even glimpsed the neighborhoods
01:03:25where all these new residents lived.
01:03:27They likely had no idea that Las Vegas claimed
01:03:30more houses of worship per capita than any other city of equal size,
01:03:34or that growth had so taxed the water distribution systems
01:03:38that sewage effluent was used to keep the golf courses green.
01:03:43And certainly almost none of the millions
01:03:45who passed through Las Vegas each year
01:03:47had ever been to the West Side,
01:03:50a sprawling, squalid neighborhood
01:03:52across the railroad tracks from Fremont Street
01:03:55that was home to some 15,000 African Americans.
01:04:04West Las Vegas, the West Side,
01:04:07was like nothing I had ever seen before.
01:04:11It was not unusual to see cars
01:04:14almost bigger than the very houses they were parked in front of.
01:04:18It was the most segregated neighborhood
01:04:22that I had ever witnessed in my life.
01:04:25It was a given, if you were African American,
01:04:28you had to live west of the railroad tracks.
01:04:34The first significant numbers of African Americans
01:04:36came to Las Vegas during World War II
01:04:38to help build and work in the basic magnesium factory,
01:04:41the defense plant.
01:04:43There were many white people who hoped that once World War II ended,
01:04:46they would leave and go someplace else.
01:04:49But the hotel industry, the growing strip and downtown,
01:04:52created lots of low-paying jobs for custodial labor,
01:04:55roommates, waiters, and whatever.
01:04:57And so ironically, it was the Las Vegas hotel industry
01:05:01that kept African Americans here.
01:05:08Like virtually every other city in the country,
01:05:11Las Vegas was rigidly segregated.
01:05:14African Americans were relegated
01:05:16to the lowliest positions in the hotels and casinos
01:05:19and barred from patronizing most every establishment
01:05:22in Glitter Gulch and on the Strip.
01:05:28Even the black performers who headlined in town
01:05:31were shunted out of the showrooms when the curtain came down
01:05:34and effectively exiled to the West Side,
01:05:37where cringy rooming house accommodations
01:05:39went for as much as $15 a night,
01:05:42roughly 50% more than the going rate for a room on the Strip.
01:05:49That was the excitement of Las Vegas.
01:05:52You could go to a lounge show for a two-drink minimum,
01:05:55not only see top-notch entertainment,
01:05:58but you might be sitting next to Frank Sinatra.
01:06:01Those were the kinds of experience you could have
01:06:04walking through a casino.
01:06:06That was the kind of show you would run into.
01:06:09That was the thing after the shows.
01:06:11They went to the lounges.
01:06:13But the African American entertainers could not do that.
01:06:18But in 1955, the color line began to threaten gambling profits.
01:06:24The trouble began with the Moulin Rouge,
01:06:27the city's first integrated resort,
01:06:29which upped the ante in town by adding a third nightly show
01:06:34that ultimately siphoned off business from the Strip.
01:06:38It was a fabulous place.
01:06:40That's where we used to gather,
01:06:42and we were joined by a lot of people from this side of town.
01:06:45In fact, everybody was over at the Moulin Rouge.
01:06:48It was a huge success.
01:06:50Every night was packed to jam.
01:06:58Meanwhile, as the struggle for civil rights
01:07:01gained force and momentum in the South,
01:07:03African American celebrities began to challenge Jim Crow in Las Vegas,
01:07:08demanding rooms in the hotels where they played,
01:07:11and refusing to perform unless black people were allowed in the audience.
01:07:20Strip owners were over a barrel.
01:07:22They could either concede
01:07:24or risk losing some of their biggest attractions.
01:07:27The desire to keep the casino crowded
01:07:30was a headline nearly every time.
01:07:33Then in early 1960,
01:07:36the local NAACP ratcheted up the pressure.
01:07:40NAACP called a march on the Strip,
01:07:44and they notified the Resort Hotel Association,
01:07:48and if they didn't want to see it on national television,
01:07:53they would open the doors.
01:07:56The hotels don't want this fight.
01:07:58They don't want these headlines all over the country.
01:08:01And this town was run by the hotels.
01:08:04When they said do, it got done.
01:08:09The day before the planned protest,
01:08:11at the Moulin Rouge,
01:08:13members of the NAACP met with the mayor,
01:08:16the governor, and a group of local businessmen.
01:08:19In a matter of hours,
01:08:21they had finalized an agreement to lift the Jim Crow restrictions
01:08:25on every hotel, restaurant, bar, casino, and showroom in Las Vegas.
01:08:33You know, in retrospect, people will look back
01:08:36and remember how liberal they were,
01:08:38but in reality, back then,
01:08:40there were very few whites standing up with blacks.
01:08:43There were folks who believed that blacks were bad for business.
01:08:47But the one thing that the casino bosses have always protected
01:08:51is their bankroll.
01:08:53Everything that they see that has threatened it was put aside.
01:09:00It would be more than another decade
01:09:02before the city was fully desegregated,
01:09:05before African Americans could hold the more lucrative casino positions
01:09:09or make their homes beyond the West Side.
01:09:12But the Moulin Rouge Agreement, as it would come to be known,
01:09:16had underscored an irreducible truth.
01:09:19The color that mattered most in Las Vegas
01:09:22was not black or white, but green.
01:09:35People say that Las Vegas is a town based on fantasy,
01:09:39but I don't think so.
01:09:41I think Las Vegas is, in some ways,
01:09:43the more honest and most authentic place in America
01:09:46that gets us down to what much of our relationships are about,
01:09:49in any case, which is money.
01:09:51And we don't like to talk about that out in the real world.
01:09:55This is a city where the only currency is currency.
01:09:58It's a place where, as long as you have the chips,
01:10:01you are equal to everybody.
01:10:03Nobody cares what your race is, your color, your gender,
01:10:06your sexual orientation.
01:10:08In fact, they don't even care if you have a criminal record.
01:10:11Everybody's the same until you're out of money.
01:10:14And when you're out of money, you're just out.
01:10:28By late 1960, Las Vegas was so iconic
01:10:32that Warner Bros. was inspired to set a major motion picture in town,
01:10:36a rollicking saga about a $5 million casino heist gone awry.
01:10:41Starring three legendary veterans of the Vegas entertainment scene,
01:10:45Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.
01:10:50When shooting on the film wrapped for the day,
01:10:53the trio would make late-night appearances,
01:10:55along with their co-stars Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford,
01:10:59in the luxurious Copa Room at the Sands.
01:11:03They called their act The Summit.
01:11:06Their fans called them The Rat Pack.
01:11:09The show was such a hit that it would run on and off for years.
01:11:15We went to the Sands Hotel where every business guy with money on the planet
01:11:20was trying to get through the door.
01:11:22Every swinger and doo-dah-diddy guy,
01:11:25every sporting life character on the face of the Earth
01:11:29was in Las Vegas taking every room in this small town
01:11:33so they could get a seat at The Rat Pack.
01:11:37And the air in the Sands crackled.
01:11:41Something was happening.
01:11:43The music was playing on the PA system of Sinatra and Dean Martin
01:11:47doing Guys and Dolls and things like that.
01:11:50The charisma, the excitement, the electricity in the building
01:11:55in the afternoon was beyond belief.
01:11:58There is no parallel to it today.
01:12:02The lights go out, the band plays the music,
01:12:05and an announcer says,
01:12:07Welcome to the Sands Copa Room.
01:12:10And then without another word,
01:12:12the curtain opens and Frank Sinatra walks out.
01:12:16Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford
01:12:20with no introduction.
01:12:32Hi, everybody.
01:12:35How'd everybody get in the room?
01:12:38Now, Dean.
01:12:40He was here a minute ago. I'll get him. Hey, baby.
01:12:43Listen, I want to talk to you about your drinking.
01:12:45What happened? I mess around?
01:12:47No, you didn't mess around.
01:12:49I want to talk to you about the amount that you drink.
01:12:51Well, as I live and breathe, Sammy Davis.
01:12:54I'd like to thank the NAACP for this wonderful trophy.
01:12:57Will you put me down?
01:13:01Nothing can be finer than to shack up with a miner.
01:13:05La-dee-dee-doo.
01:13:09They were not nice America, you know.
01:13:11I mean, they were just sort of the dead end of cool.
01:13:14They were the dead end of all that jazz scenes, you know.
01:13:18They were sort of the embodiment
01:13:20of these big Italian ghettos and Jewish ghettos.
01:13:23I mean, they are the emblematic creatures of this culture,
01:13:28and they don't, you know, count out to no-one.
01:13:39I think people who came here knew the mob were in control,
01:13:45and Sinatra and the Rat Pack,
01:13:49they sort of acted it out, as if to say,
01:13:53you know what's really going on here, don't you?
01:13:56It was part of the glamour for the ordinary person.
01:14:00There he is, folks. Welcome to the Sons of Italy banquet.
01:14:04They were urban, half-ass wise guys.
01:14:08They played the game,
01:14:10and they were very sharp and dangerous.
01:14:15They drank too much.
01:14:17They played around with different women.
01:14:19Everybody knew they were cheating on wives.
01:14:21This was not a Donna Reed film festival.
01:14:24These guys were bad.
01:14:28Everything that Vegas promised it would be and said it would be
01:14:33really was embodied in those handful of weeks
01:14:36when the Rat Pack was here performing every night.
01:14:39What it really was was the pinnacle of Vegas cool.
01:14:44No question that that really was the high-water mark of Las Vegas.
01:14:51We flippantly refer to Las Vegas now and then as Sin City,
01:14:56but that's when Las Vegas was really Sin City.
01:15:10Among the scores of luminaries who caught the summit
01:15:13in the winter of 1960 was John F. Kennedy,
01:15:17a young senator from Massachusetts
01:15:19who recently announced his candidacy
01:15:21for president of the United States.
01:15:26Kennedy had been coming to Vegas for years,
01:15:29bewitched by its beautiful women,
01:15:31its whiff of danger,
01:15:33and its promise of a never-ending good time.
01:15:36You son of a gun, you got the Jewish vote.
01:15:41The city in turn had claimed the charismatic candidate as its own.
01:15:46But once Kennedy reached the White House,
01:15:48his administration would turn on Las Vegas
01:15:51and launch the most sustained attack on the city in its history.
01:15:57The question then would be whether a place made famous as Sin City
01:16:02could survive if it cleaned up its act.
01:16:11Las Vegas grows faster than ever before tomorrow night at 9
01:16:15when this two-part series concludes.
01:16:17Back to tonight on PBS America.
01:16:19At the Smithsonian's National Zoo,
01:16:21the vets are handing out specialised treatment.
01:16:23Next.
01:16:47.