QOD 3
Anonymous
Question of the Day
January 9, 2007
Q:
Whatever happened to all the folks on "American Casino"? Are they still around or was fifteen minutes of fame their fate?
A:
"American Casino" was a popular reality-TV show, loosely modeled on "American Chopper," which originally aired on the Discovery Channel, then moved to the Travel Channel, from June 2004 to December 2005. The show followed the everyday workings of Henderson's Green Valley Ranch casino and gained high-profile publicity early on following the unexpected death of Vice-President of Hotel Operations, Michael Tata. Tata, a larger-than-life 33-year-old who was an instant hit with the show's audience, was found dead at his home in July 2004 from what was ruled an accidental overdose of the powerful prescription opiate fentanyl, mixed with alcohol. His position was first filled by Bret Magnun and is now occupied by Claes Landberg.
As far as some of the other major players in the series are concerned, here's the update we obtained from Station Casinos, plus some extra sleuthing we did on our own.
Vice President & General Manager Joe Hasson is now General Manager of Aliante Station, the new casino on the north side of Las Vegas that's due to break ground in early 2007.
Assistant General Manager Ralph Marano is no longer with Station Casinos and they don't know where he's gone. Neither do we.
Director of Marketing Wayne Shadd is now Special Events Assistant, City of Henderson/Henderson Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Marketing Manager David Demontmollin is no longer with Station Casinos, but he went on to write Las Vegas' Little Black Book: A Guy's Guide to the Perfect Vegas Weekend and has his own Web site if you want to find out more: www.daviddemontmollin.com.
Like many of her "American Casino" colleagues, beauty-pageant queen and ex-Hotel Manager Ninya Perna is no longer with the Station group and we don't know what she's up to.
Joseph Mulligan, aka "Chef Joe," has also moved on to new pastures: He left Las Vegas to head up culinary operations at Glacier Bay and Denali National Parks in Alaska and as far as we know, he's still there.
Bill Burt remains Director of Casino Operations at Green Valley Ranch.
Director of Player Development (aka casino host) Matt Sacca is still Director of Player Development, but he's now at Red Rock Resort.
Assistant Security Manager Fred Tuerck is no longer with Station Casinos.
We hope this goes some way toward satisfying your curiosity and if anyone has any additional information about any of these characters, or any of the others featured in the series, let us know and we'll keep adding updates to this answer.
UPDATE: 01/10/2007 Thanks to the various readers who wrote in with the following additional information:
"I have some additonal updates for the "American Casino" question:
Dave Demontmollin is in Marketing at Hooters
Dawn LaGuardia - Food and Beverage Manager, moved east, maybe to New York
Ninya Perna got married and I heard at GVR that she is expecting
Keri Printi - Spa Manager is still there
Brett Magnun - Michael Tata's replacement is now VP of new a hotel under development at the Tulalip Casino in WA state. (Tulalip was the casino GVR execs visited in the 'Executive Retreat' episode.)"
"Last fall when I was at Green Valley Ranch, I found out that Ninya from "American Casino" had left the hotel business and had gotten married. According to the people at Vegastripping.com (http://www.vegastripping.com/news/news.php?news_id=1449), Ninya is now working at a retail store and is very pregnant."
"In late December I stayed at GVR and asked the whereabouts of Ninya Perna...I was told that she now works at the Pottery Barn, located at The District."
"Here is a little more info about David deMontmollin from "American Casino" fame.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=43026796"
Q:
While we're on the subject of gambling books [see QoD 9/1/06], how about your take on the best gambling/Las Vegas fiction books?
A:
Gambling and Las Vegas seem to inspire more pulp than serious fiction and, admittedly, we don’t read much pulp. However, researching this answer, we wound up with two lists of titles that we haven’t read. The books on the long list have some potential for strict entertainment value, while those on the short list could have some literary potential (and you never know when a book from one list might cross over to the other). So we could revisit this answer in the future, based on new discoveries. Meanwhile, if anyone out there in QoDland has a favorite novel about gambling and Las Vegas, we’d appreciate hearing about it.
For now, though, we can only go with the ones we’ve read. Also note that the gambling books here have nothing to do with mathematical accuracy (that list would be very short); these selections are based entirely on literary merit.
Perhaps the greatest gambling novel ever written is The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, in 1866. The intrigue surrounding this novel is almost as good as the book itself: Dostoevsky, himself a compulsive gambler, bet his publisher that he could write it in one month. For doing so, he received an advance for Crime and Punishment; if he’d lost, he would have forfeited the copyrights to all his past and future work. The manuscript was dictated to a young stenographer who later became Dostoevsky's wife. The Gambler is a short (by Russian standards) and deeply psychological drama whose protagonist, Alexey Ivanovitch, is a tutor working for a Russian general. Most of the action occurs in Roulettenberg, a fictional town in Germany, where Alexey develops a serious gambling addiction while falling in love with the general’s stepdaughter, the cruel and manipulative Polina. Highly recommended.
Another classic is Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (1953). This was the first of Fleming’s 12 James Bond novels, which takes place at a French casino where baccarat “expert” Bond is assigned the job of bankrupting an agent for SMERSH, the secret Soviet assassination bureau. Bond eventually beats the Russian agent (with a little help from the CIA), but eventually discovers that his beautiful assistant and lover, Vesper Lynd, is a Russian double agent.
A third keeper is Loser Takes All by Graham Greene (1955). Stranded in Monte Carlo, the husband of a newly wedded young couple devises a gambling system and wins so much money that he makes a devil’s deal with the bad guy, but loses his bride in the process. It all works out in the end when the husband loses his money to the bad guy, but gets his wife back.
Snake Eyes by Edwin Silberstang (1977) is a great one if you can get your hands on it (last time we looked, it was available at UNLV). It’s an old-Las Vegas story of a card counter, a chip hustler, a compulsive gambler, a cheating blackjack dealer, a hotel owner and his underworld backers, and a has-been household-name entertainer.
Last Call by Tim Powers (1992) is a strange, suspenseful, and violent tale in which chaos and randomness, the patron saints of Las Vegas, manifest from certain combinations of cards in poker hands. A particular poker game, called Assumption, is played once ever 21 years on a houseboat on Lake Mead, using the most contraband tarot deck in existence, by players unaware that the stakes are life and death.
A personal favorite is Dice Angel by Brian Rouff (2001). Rouff is a long-time local who has a solid grasp on Vegas and all its quirks and twists. The “Dice Angel” is a karma-spouting planet-charting colon-cleansing floozy who claims to be able to supply luck at the crap tables -- and the main character, Jimmy D, needs all the luck he can get.
Finally, God Doesn’t Shoot Craps by Richard Armstrong (2006) is the latest great gambling fiction. It’s the story of Danny Pellegrino, a junk-mail con man who sells fake gambling systems to gullible people. But then, he discovers that his latest system, “Win by Losing” (based on a real game-theory concept called Parrondo’s Paradox), actually works, so he has to win his fortune before the whole world catches on. Unfortunately, a Mafia boss catches on first, and Pellegrino has to escape his evil clutches.
Now for Las Vegas novels.
Perhaps the closest that Las Vegas fiction comes to a Great American Novel is The Lucky by H. Lee Barnes, a creative writing professor at the Community College of Southern Nevada. In this sprawling Western saga, based loosely on the story of the Binions, the main character, Peter Elkins, is adopted by Willy Bobbins, a ruthless Las Vegas casino owner in the 1950s. The plot spreads out from Glitter Gulch to the Bobbins’ Montana ranch to Vietnam and back again. It’s mostly dark, finally uplifting, and always powerful.
Ivory Coast by Charles Fleming (2002) is another masterful treatment of 1950s Las Vegas, as seen through the eyes of a jazz musician and heroin addict named Deke. The story revolves around opening night at the Ivory Coast, based loosely on the Moulin Rouge. The characters include the Coast’s business-savvy black owner, a racist Vegas sheriff, an underage truck stop waitress, and a courier from Chicago carrying a suitcase full of incriminating evidence. The ending goes off on one of the strangest tangents ever seen in a book about Vegas.
The Death of Frank Sinatra (1996) is by Michael Ventura, a well-known L.A. writer and one of the most astute modern commentators on the psychological and emotional significance of Las Vegas. Mike Rose is a private eye whose father was a Sicilian Mafia enforcer and whose mother -- well, you’ll have to read the book to find out about the mother. Anyway, Rose takes a case involving a twisted woman intent on murdering her husband and along the way, he finds that he has to pay off deadly debts incurred by his parents and shed a lot of blood in the process. It’s one of the most disturbing and intense novels we’ve ever read about anywhere, let alone Las Vegas.
Devil’s Hole by Bill Branon (1995) is the second novel by a local author who made it big with his first (originally self-published) novel Let Us Prey. A professional killer, Arthur Arthur only accepts contracts to hit people with a history of evil. He’s hired by a Las Vegas sports book to eliminate a wise guy with a wildly successful betting system, who reportedly sells drugs to children. Things get complicated when it turns out that Arthur and his target share a girlfriend. Rugged, bloody, and edgy.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson (1971) is the famous account of a trip taken by the master of gonzo journalism to Las Vegas, with his 300-pound Samoan attorney in tow, to cover the Mint 400 Desert Race for Sports Illustrated.. As such, it’s not fiction. But thanks to the drug-induced adventures -- and later writing -- it might as well be.
Question of the Day
August 10, 2006
Q:
Back on July 19, we ran a QoD listing all the shows we'd found that had a token "the gang goes to Vegas" episode. Knowing that there must be more, we threw it open to our readers -- and the response was overwhelming...
A:
It's taken us a while to compile, but here, in chronological order, is what we believe is a pretty comprehensive list of all the shows, from sitcoms to cop shows via cartoons, that have set at least one episode in our fair city. A big thank you to everyone who took the time and trouble to write in with suggestions. Here goes:
Topper
"Cosmo Goes to Las Vegas"
Season 1
Episode 29
Aired: 04/23/54
Topper is to go on a short trip with Henrietta sailing. The trip gets stopped because he needs for business reasons to go make a bid for a client on a hotel in Las Vegas. He takes Henrietta, George, and Marion with him to Las Vegas. Marion and George teach Topper to gamble.
I Love Lucy
Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour
"Lucy Hunts Uranium"
CBS Specials
Episode 3
Aired: 01/03/58
Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethyl drive from California to Las Vegas. Ethyl meets Fred MacMurray.
Phil Silver's: SGT Bilko
"Bilko Retires from Gambling"
Season 3
Episode 101
Aired: 05/13/58
Colonel Hall hires a professional card player to beat Bilko at cards. He’s so upset at losing that he gives up gambling.
Twilight Zone
"The Fever"
Season 1
Episode 17
Aired: 01/29/60
Tight-fisted Franklin Gibbs is not pleased when his wife wins a trip for two to Las Vegas. But things change when he falls under the spell of a slot machine that calls his name.
The Flintstones
"The Rock Vegas Story"
Season 2
Episode 56
Aired: 03/30/62
Fred and Barney run into old friend Sherman Cobblehead, owner of the Golden Cactus Hotel in Rock Vegas, at an eatery. Cobblehead's casual promise to "take care of" Fred should he ever come to Vegas is misinterpreted as a guarantee that Fred will be a big winner in the casino.
The Beverly Hillbillies
"Mr. Farguhar Stays On"
Season 2
Episode 13
Aired: 12/08/65
Mrs. Drysdale's father, an aristocratic Bostonian, is coming to visit and invites Granny to accompany him to Vegas. She thinks he's trying to elope with her, rather than take her (and her money).
Gomer Pyle USMC
"Vacation in Vegas"
Season 2
Episode 25
Aired: 03/11/66
Gomer wins a trip for two to Las Vegas and he and Carter win a fortune gambling.
Rockford Files
"Dexter Crisis"
Season 1
Episode 10
Aired: 11/15/74
Jim meets Susan's roommate Louise Henderson, a law student, who demands to come along on the case. They go to Las Vegas and find Susan playing at the gambling tables.
Starsky and Hutch
"Vegas Strangler 1 & 2"
Season 2
Episodes 24 & 25
Aired: 9/25/76
Starsky and Hutch are loaned to the Las Vegas Police Department to snare a serial killer who has strangled a string of chorus girls.
Charlie's Angels
"The Vegas Connection"
Season 1
Episode 17
Aired: 2/9/77
Charlie's Angels stage an elaborate con to hoist a Las Vegas blackmailer on his own petard. As part of the ruse, Sabrina poses as an investigator, Bosley a high-roller, and Kelly as an aspiring showgirl.
Rockford Files
"Dirty Money, Black Light"
Season 3
Episode 67
Aired: 04/01/77
Something is delivering thousands of dollars in the mail to Rocky and someone is desperate to get it back.
The Incredible Hulk
"The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas"
Season 1
Episode 8
Aired: 4/21/78
While working in a casino, David helps a Las Vegas reporter with a gambling scandal, only to discover that the reporter is Jack McGee's partner.
Charlie’s Angels
"Angels in Vegas"
Season 4
Episode 49-50
Aired: 09/13/78
While undercover at the Tropicana Casino, the Angels must discover the culprit behind a series of mysterious murders before it's too late.
Rockford Files
"The Battle-ax and the Exploding Cigar"
Season 5
Episode 103
Aired: 01/12/79
Jim is driving himself and a man named Potrankis in a car from Las Vegas, when they’re pulled over by the police and guns are discovered in the trunk of the car – which happens to be stolen.
Alice
"Hello Vegas, Goodbye Diner"
Season 5
Episode 3
Aired: 11/16/80
Robert Goulet makes an appearance when Vera wins a free trip to Las Vegas and Alice, Mel, and Belle tag along to try their luck.
The Hogan Family
"Viva Las Vegas"
Season 4
Episode 68
Aired: 03/06/89
David, Burt, and Rich wager they'll have a wild weekend in Las Vegas, but they don't bet on ending up in jail.
Married With Children
"You Gotta Know When to Fold 'Em 1 & 2"
Season 4
Episodes 73 & 74
Aired: 2/11/90 & 2/18/90
Peggy takes Marcy on a trip to Las Vegas to get over her divorce from Steve. Al, Bud, and Kelly arrive in Las Vegas to find Peg and Marcy completely broke, and they must find a way to raise some money to get back home.
Full House
"Viva Las Joey"
Season 4
Episode 75
Aired: 11/02/90
Joey gets a gig right before Wayne Newton and, to his surprise, his dad is there.
Roseanne
"Vegas & Vegas Vegas"
Season 4
Episodes 79 & 80
Aired: 11/5/91 & 11/12/91
Arnie decides to wed Nancy in Las Vegas, inviting Dan and Roseanne to stand up for them. Roseanne and Nancy show up at the nightclub that Wayne Newton's performing at, and they unknowingly start to heckle him.
Designing Women
"Viva Las Vegas"
Season 7
Episode 147
Aired: 11/6/92
After Vanessa calls off their wedding, Anthony joins the gang on a getaway to Las Vegas, where he nurses his broken heart -- in the company of a show-stopping showgirl he impulsively weds.
Designing Women
"Fools Rush In 2"
Season 7
Episode 148
Aired: 11/13/92
BJ offers to help a desperate Anthony, who invents various schemes to extricate himself from his hasty marriage to the Las Vegas showgirl.
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
"Viva Lost Wages"
Season 6
Episode 32
Aired: 11/13/95
Carlton is on a roll in Vegas, celebrating his birthday at the gaming tables with Will in tow, but suddenly the tables turn and the duo enter a dance contest to recoup their losses.
Grace Under Fire
"Vega$"
Season 4
Episode 92
Aired: 02/19/97
When Grace isn't invited to Rick's weekend getaway because he's made plans with someone else, she decides to go to Vegas for the weekend with Jean. Jean wins it big on the slots and Grace finds out she's only lucky for other people and not herself.
Drew Carey Show
"Drew Gets Married"
Season 2
Episode 40
Aired: 02/26/97
Drew returns from a convention in Las Vegas looking angry and disheveled. He points out that Kate drove away with his luggage after she dropped him off at the airport. He tells his friends that he planned on buying some clothes for the convention, but stopped to play one of the crap tables. He hit a hot streak for a while, but was distracted by a woman he believed was a hooker (actually Grace trying to get rid of Cirque du Soleil tickets) and wound up losing all his money.
Coach
"Viva Las Ratings"
Season 9
Episode 192
Aired: 02/26/97
Luther travels to Las Vegas for an Elvis memorabilia auction.
Ellen
"Secrets & Ellen"
Season 4
Episode 81
Aired: 02/26/97
Paige takes Spence with her to Las Vegas, where they plan on having some fun, but Spence gets amnesia.
The Simpsons
"Viva Ned Flanders"
Season 10
Episode 213
Aired: 01/01/99
Flanders gives Homer his power of attorney and Homer takes him to Las Vegas. They go on a drunken binge at a casino, only to wake up with new wives. They run from their new spouses and all the famous Vegas personalities chase them down and kick them out of town.
Friends
"The One in Vegas"
Season 5
Episode 120
Aired: 05/20/99
Phoebe keeps score with the Vegas trip vs. the London trip (which she didn't get to go on).
Friends
"The One in Vegas 2"
Season 5
Episode 120
Aired: 05/20/99
Monica and Chandler are on a big roll. Chandler proposes to Monica; her response will be based on a throw of the dice. She rolls a hard eight and says yes. Phoebe gets kicked out of the casino, but comes back in to annoy the "hand twin." Monica and Chandler go to the chapel to get married ... only to find out that the drunken Ross and Rachel got there first.
7 Days
"Vegas Heist"
Season 1
Episode 18
Aired: 5/5/99
As the team vacations in Las Vegas, a group tries to rob a casino to save their African village.
X Files
"Three of a Kind"
Season 6
Episode 137
Aired: 5/22/99
While on a stakeout of a government defense convention in Las Vegas, the Lone Gunmen are reunited with Susanne Modeski, the mysterious woman who disappeared ten years earlier when they first met Agent Mulder.
Friends
"The One after Vegas"
Season 6
Episode 122
Aired: 09/23/99
Phoebe argues that Ross and Rachel aren't really married. The two wake up together. Joey's movie was canceled and he invites Phoebe to drive the cab back to New York with him. Ross and Rachel still don't know that they're married.
The Huntress
"The Two Mrs. Thorsons"
Season 1
Episode 11
Aired: 01/14/01
Charged with the murder of a woman who claimed she was the real Mrs. Ralph Thorson, Dottie has to hide from the law in Las Vegas while investigating her husband's past, in an effort to prove her innocence. Her investigations implicate other powerful people in Las Vegas in criminal activity.
Roswell
"Viva Las Vegas"
Season 2
Episode 37
Aired: 02/26/01
When the gang makes a spur-of-the-moment trip to Las Vegas in order to spend the DuPree money, the event-filled excursion ends in a face-off between Max and Michael over leadership; Tess and Liz can't pass for over-21-year-olds; Maria recruits Alex to help her audition for a role that ends up to be for a stripper.
Six Feet Under
"The Trip"
Season 1
Episode 11
Aired: 08/12/01
The day before Rico is expecting his own new baby, he must deal with handling a three-week-old dead one. Nate, David, and Brenda go to Las Vegas for a funeral director's convention.
Alias
"The Coup"
Season 1
Episode 14
Aired: 2/24/02
Sydney and Dixon are sent to Las Vegas to gather information from a K-Directorate agent, who has ties to the group that attacked and nearly destroyed SD-6. Meanwhile, Sydney learns some shocking news about Francie's fiancé Charlie, Will begins his journey in discovering what SD-6 really is, and Jack continues to try to be more of a father to Sydney when he helps her decide whether or not to continue with graduate school.
Lexx
"Viva Lexx Vegas"
Season 4
Episode 21
Aired: 4/5/02
Kai, Xev, and Stan stop off in Las Vegas while waiting for a space shuttle to take them back to the Lexx.
Yes Dear
"Vegas Vacation’
Season 2
Episode 47
Aired: 5/6/02
Kim isn't happy to hear that Greg's mother will be staying with them for four days, as all Natalie does is make boring small talk with her.
Auf Wiedersehen Pet
"Another Country"
"An Inspector Calls"
Season 3
Episode 31 & 32
Aired: 5/26/02
Neville befriends a prostitute on the road to Las Vegas and Oz is forced into a heroic act of bravery to rescue the bridge project from ruin.
Girlfriends
"Viva Las Vegas"
Season 4
Episode 77
Aired: 11/10/03
After Brock invites Joan to join her for a weekend in Las Vegas, she's convinced that he plans to pop the question.
Viva La Bam
"We're Going to Vegas"
Season 1
Episode 4
Aired: 11/16/03
It's two days before Phil and April's wedding anniversary. Bam wants to do something special for them, so he decides to take them to Las Vegas.
The Bernie Mac Show
"The Getaway"
Season 3
Episode 58
Aired: 03/29/04
Bernie takes the family on vacation to San Diego, but it's Las Vegas that's really on his mind.
My Wife & Kids
"Fantasy Camp"
Season 5
Episode 99
Aired: 09/21/04
Michael can't focus on much else after learning that he'll be going to sports-legend Michael Jordan's fantasy basketball camp in Las Vegas.
Joey
"Joey and the Road to Vegas"
Season 1
Episode 11
Aired: 12/2/04
Bobbie gets Joey a job as a celebrity judge for the Miss Southwestern USA pageant, taking place in Las Vegas. With Gina, Michael, and Alex in tow, he heads for Sin City. While there, Alex reveals her Celine Dion obsession, Michael teaches Gina how to count cards, and Joey accidentally sleeps with a pageant contestant.
Family Guy
"When You Wish Upon A Weinstein"
Season 3
Episode 50
Aired: 12/10/04
After hearing about the good jobs his friends' lawyers and accountants are doing, Peter becomes fixated on the idea of Jews as mathematical and legal geniuses. Hoping to give Chris a chance for a better future than he can provide as a Catholic, Peter decides to have his son convert to Judaism at a quickie Las Vegas Bar Mitzvah in order to turn him smart.
Monk
"Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas"
Season 3
Episode 43
Aired: 02/18/05
In the middle of the night, Monk receives a phone call from a drunken Stottlemeyer, who's gone to Las Vegas with Disher for a fellow officer's bachelor party. Stottlemeyer believes that a wealthy casino owner has murdered his wife, but he needs Monk's help to prove that the death wasn't an accident.
Listen Up with Jason Alexander
"Last Vegas"
Season 1
Episode 22
Aired: 04/25/05
When Tony and Bernie go to Las Vegas to promote their show, Tony anticipates a fun "guys" weekend with Bernie, until Dana suggest she and the kids come along and spend their 20th anniversary together.
Entourage
"Vegas Baby, Vegas"
Season 3
Episode 31
Aired: 8/6/06
No summary available yet.
UPDATE: 08/07/2006 Oops - thanks to Steve for spotting our deliberate mistake in placing the Gomer Pyle show in '96 rather than '66. We blame repetitive stress injuries incurred during the compilation of this epic for the slip-up! Now rectified.
LATEST UPDATE: Here's another one that a reader just brought to our attention:
"Almost afraid to admit this, but I remember on Blossom, older brother Anthony falls off the wagon in Vegas (not sure if whole family was there) and wakes up the next morning with a stranger who had also gone on a bender. They also find they got married the night before. The couple decide instead of annulling the marriage, to stay together and get to know one another. Episodes 77 and 78 ("Big Doings" Pt. 1 and 2) aired Nov 22 '93 and Nov 29 '93 (show info from tv.com)."
:
"The gang goes to Vegas" seems to be a popular plotline for sitcoms. I remember seeing it on "Friends," "Alice," "Joey," and a few other shows. What are some of the major TV shows that have had a Vegas episode?
A:
This one took some serious sleuthing, but we hope we've put together a pretty good list for you. No doubt we'll have missed some, so if anyone has more to add, please let us know. We've excluded factual programs, game shows, reality shows, and drama series that are entirely based in Las Vegas like "CSI," "Las Vegas," "State Trooper" (1956-'59), "Blansky's Beauties" (1977), "Vega$" (1978-'81), "Crime Story" (1986-'88), "The Tortellis" (1987 failed "Cheers" spinoff), "The Watcher" (1995), and "Nikki" (2000-2002). Seems there's nothing new about cashing in on Vegas' appeal for an occasional ratings boost -- series have been basing one-off episodes here for decades. So, in chronological order, here goes:
The earliest show we found was "Topper," a 1950s comedy series about Cosmo Topper, a grumpy banker and two ghosts who only he can see or hear (reminds us of the cartoon "Fairly Odd Parents"). We haven't seen it, but Season 1, Episode 29 (April 23, 1954) was titled "Cosmo Goes to Las Vegas," so we're guessing that's what he did.
Next comes "The Beverly Hillbillies" - Season 4, episode 13 (December 8, 1965), titled "Mr Farquhar Stays On," in which Mrs. Drysdale's aristocratic -- and perennially broke -- father, Lowell Farquhar, invites granny to accompany him to Vegas. She thinks he's trying to elope with her, rather than take her (and her money) on a gambling spree.
"Starsky and Hutch" - Season 2 (October 1976) opened with a two-parter titled "The Las Vegas Strangler," in which the duo goes undercover as garish gamblers and an old-school buddy of Hutch's turns out to be the bad guy...
"Charlie's Angels" - Season 1 (1977) episode 17 was titled "The Vegas Connection," in which Jill and Kelly (Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith) pose as aspiring showgirls and Bosely poses as a high roller, in order to bust a prostitution ring. In fact, Las Vegas was not the true location of this show at all: Stock shots of the interior and exterior of Caesars Palace were used to represent the fictional Versailles Hotel and Casino in the show. The cast and crew never actually left California for the filming.
"The Incredible Hulk" - Season 1, Episode 6 (1978) was titled "The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas" and featured David working undercover in a casino as a shill while trying to bust a crime syndicate.
"Alice" - The TV version of the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, in which Linda Lavin played Alice Hyatt, a widow who ends up working in a diner in Phoenix when her car breaks down on the way to Hollywood. The series featured an episode titled "Hello Vegas, Goodbye Diner," but we've been unable to verify exactly when it aired (November 1980?)
"Married With Children" - Season 4, episodes 16 and 17 (1987) consisted of a 2-parter called "You Gotta Know When to Fold 'Em," where Peggy and Marcy go to Vegas and lose $5K of Al's money. He finds out and takes off after them, with the kids in tow...
"Roseanne" - Season 4 (1991) also featured a 2-parter (episodes 7 & 8, titled "Vegas" and "Vegas Vegas," respectively), in which Nancy and Arnie tie the knot in a Las Vegas wedding chapel. Features guest appearances by Wayne Newton and Danny Gans (impersonating Wayne Newton).
"X Files" - Season 6, episode 20 (1993) was titled "Three of a Kind," in which Scully is tricked into coming to Las Vegas by the Lone Gunmen, who are at a defense contractors convention, trying to get inside information on military secrets.
"Alias" - Season 1, Episode 14 (February 24, 2002, was titled "The Coup" and sent agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) to Las Vegas on a mission that involved her posing as a casino cocktail waitress.
"Lexx" - Perhaps the most contrived and random use of Las Vegas as a staging post, Season 4, Episode 21 (April 5, 2002) of this sci-fi series was titled "Viva Lexx Vegas" and apparently featured characters Kai, Xev, and Stan stopping off in Las Vegas while they waited for a space shuttle to take them back to the Lexx.
"Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" - Season 3 of this (dark) British comedy series about a group of construction workers featured a double bill set in Las Vegas and the Nevada desert (episodes 31 & 32, May 2002), when the crew is hired to build a bridge across a canyon for a Native American tribe wanting better access to their casino.
"Friends" - Season 5 ends with the triple bill of "The One With Joey's Big Break," "The One in Vegas Part One" and "The One in Vegas Part Two," in which Joey goes to Vegas to make a movie that's already wrapped by the time he gets there. He ends up working as a gladiator at Caesars and the rest of the cast comes out to join him for drunken high jinks and casino capering.
"Joey" - In what can only have been a desperate bid for ratings, Season 1, episode 11 of this "Friends" spinoff, which we proudly confess to never having seen, apparently featured Joey being invited to be a celebrity judge at a Las Vegas beauty pageant and somehow learning to count cards. The show was titled "Joey and the Roadtrip."
That's what our research has dug up. Let us know of any we've missed, with dates and plotlines if possible, and as usual we'll add them to the list.
UPDATE: 07/19/2006 Wow! The response to today's QoD has been fantastic -- thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to write in. There are so many more shows to add to the list that it's too much for a simple "Update" -- we'll run it as a Part Two in the near future, when all your feedback is in (plus a summary of the ones we already had, so you should wind up with a pretty complete list). Thanks again and stay tuned
What are your all-time favorite Vegas/gambling-themed movies? Which do you feel portray the most realistic vision of Las Vegas as it exists today, or did so during the time the movie pretends to cover?
A:
This question arises from the QoD of 3/27/2006, when we wrote, "There has rarely been a well-conceived and accurate small- or large-screen portrayal of casino gambling." (We invite QoD readers to submit their favorite gambling movies and justify them in terms of accuracy and scrupulousness with the facts and details, or to cite the worst gambling movies.)
We received several responses, which we reprint below.
"With regards to the question of movies that accurately portray gambling in Las Vegas, I can't help you. Never saw a good one. But I did see an episode of the CBS TV show "Numb3rs" this year that did a very good job of explaining how blackjack card counting works. It was so realistic that when they finally caught the folks, it turned out that their ridiculously high win rate was due to cheating, rather than mere card counting. And the show took the time to explain a realistic and intricate cheating scheme that, with the right inside people, just might work. But probably not!"
"My favorite gambling scene in any movie would have to be from Rainman. Not too realistic, but it did get me interested in gambling and Las Vegas."
"My favorite gambling movie (well, one of them): A Big Hand For A Little Lady, set in a saloon in the Old West, the yearly big poker game for some big-time players. Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Burgess Meredith, Paul Ford, Charles Bickford, other terrific actors I'm forgetting at the moment. Sorry that I can't justify it for accuracy ... who knows how it was back then? But there's top acting, great entertainment, and a surprise ending. I suspect there's some truth to it, in that somebody outfoxes somebody, and for some big money (in case you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil it for you)." Note: In a similar discussion, Bob Stupak once told Anthony Curtis that he felt this was one of the best gambling movies. And, ironically, Stupak had a part in what was (by his own admission) one of the worst films ever made on gambling, Fever Pitch, starring Ryan O'Neal.
"I loved Ocean's Eleven, the George Clooney version, but honestly, they really took liberties! The 'vault,' how those guys got around Bellagio in places where they weren't supposed to, blowing the power out on the whole Strip, bungee-jumping down the drop to the vault while avoiding the motion detectors... There's just too much that would never happen in a million years. However, no movie would ever make it on everyday true life, and I still love this movie. Who needs real life anyway ... we get enough of that every day!"
"IMHO, the best (most accurate) depiction of gambling has to be the Philip Seymour Hoffman movie based on a true story: Owning Mahowny. Another small film featuring Hoffman in a brief but memorable role would be my second choice: Hard Eight. Both films were small on box office, but big on accuracy and acting talent. Some artistic license is used in both films, but to good effect."
Finally, someone sent us this excerpt from a review of California Split, written by Lucia Bozzola from the All Movie Guide.
"The most narratively loose of Robert Altman's '70s films, California Split details the haphazard lives of two compulsive gamblers searching for that ever-elusive big score. Newly single and soon-to-be-unemployed Bill (George Segal) joins live-wire pal Charlie (Elliott Gould) as the pair moves from Fruit Loops with Charlie's hooker roommates Sue (Gwen Welles) and Barbara (Ann Prentiss) to bets on horses, backroom card games, boxing, and basketball. They make it to Reno, but Bill comes to realize that even the big score may not be the answer to the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life. For Charlie, however, that's all there is. Infusing his episodic narrative with an equally laid-back attitude toward events and emotions, Altman produces a 'celebration of gambling' that is in itself something of a game, filled with random incidents, trivial and serious, amusing and not, that emphasize the essential rootlessness of the gambler's life."
As for us, we mostly agree with the above assessments. We loved California Split and liked Owning Mahowny (based on the story of Brian Moloney, the 25-year-old Toronto bank manager who, in 1982, figured out how to embezzle eight figures from his bank's loan accounts, then lost it at Caesars in Atlantic City. We didn't care for Hard Eight, though not especially due to the gambling content (the casino scam was purposefully outdated), but rather because it had no point. Ocean's Eleven, of course, was just plain silly.
In thinking about "gambling movies," we realized that we should probably have specified "casino movies." There are a lot of good movies about compulsive gamblers: The Gambler with James Caan (often cited as the best gambling movie) and Let It Ride with Richard Dreyfuss are the two standouts.
Good poker movies include Rounders with Matt Damon and Edward Norton (though a bit heavy on the jargon); Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, directed by Madonna’s husband Guy Ritchie (watchable); and the Cincinnati Kid with Steve McQueen.
The two classic movies about gambling at pool are, of course, The Hustler and The Color of Money, both with Paul Newman.
And the little-known "Big Town," with Matt Dillon and Diane Lane, though hokey in some spots, provided a rare realistic look at back-alley craps, thanks to the technical assistance of the great gambling authority, Edwin Silberstang.
As for casino movies, we liked Casino with DeNiro, Pesci, and Stone; though Sharon Stone was way over the top, we thought the movie did a good job of remaining true to the book, which was historically fairly accurate. Havana was another historically entertaining movie about the casino scene in Cuba in the '50s. We also liked Croupier, a British noir flick that gives a peek into the London gambling scene. Casablanca, of course, is a classic of the genre. We even liked Indecent Proposal, with Robert Redford and Demi Moore, for its look at the high-rolling lifestyle.
But our favorite all-around gambling movie has to be The Sting. This flick has it all: a historical '30s setting, a fabulous soundtrack of Scott Joplin's ragtime piano, cheating at poker, grifters, gangsters, murder, revenge, and the super-elaborate swindle of one of the great villains in filmdom. We saw it, again, recently, and it totally stands the test of time.
UPDATE: 04/26/2006 Here's some extra feedback we've received today from other readers:
"I just wanted to add Vegas Vacation as the most fun gambling movie. Chevy Chase was great -- perhaps I identified too much!"
"Probably none of you have seen it, but Lookin' to Get Out starring Jon Voight, Burt Young, and Ann-Margret, is a dynamite film about a degenerate gambler (Voight). The guys with the lion perform at the old MGM Grand in it. Also, Jon Voight's daugher, Angelina Jolie, makes her screen debut. She was about 6 years old. Out in 1981, it is available on video."
:
At what casino is the TV show “Las Vegas” filmed?
A:
"Las Vegas" is a 60-minute drama series, which airs on NBC, about a team of people working in a fictional Las Vegas casino called "The Montecito." "Las Vegas" first aired in September 2003 and has enjoyed a successful Monday-night run.
The show stars veteran actor James Caan (Ed Deline), Josh Duhamel (Danny McCoy), Nikki Cox (Mary Connell), James Lesure (Mike Cannon), Vanessa Marcil (Samantha Jane "Sam" Marquez), Molly Sims (Delinda Deline), Cheryl Ladd (Jillian Deline), Marsha Thomason (Nessa Holt), who, depending on her character’s fate, may or may not return, and newcomer to the show this season, Lara Flynn Boyle (Monica Mancuso).
The location of the Montecito has changed from season to season. Not only does the property bear some close resemblances to Mandalay Bay, but many of the show's visuals also place the Montecito at the far southern end of the Strip, though on the airport side of Las Vegas Boulevard, opposite the real Mandalay Bay. Other episodes apparently place the Montecito at the corner of Giles Street and Reno Avenue, about a half-mile away from Mandalay Bay. Then again, in the first season of the show, many of the Montecito’s suites overlooked parts of the center Strip, including the Venetian and Flamingo.
The show has used many of Mandalay Bay’s interior and exterior areas, including its wave pool. A few episodes of the show were clearly shot in the MBay casino, since you can actually see Mandalay Bay signage in the fly-through shots. All the interior shots are now filmed at a specially built Los Angeles set that is a replica of Mandalay Bay.
Las Vegas airs Monday nights at 9 pm on NBC.
The city has long been a popular context or backdrop for movies and TV shows and some of the other existing casinos that have been featured on the silver and the small screen include: Bally’s (Honeymoon in Vegas, also starring James Caan, and Rocky IV), Bellagio (Oceans Eleven and Oceans Twelve), Mirage (Vegas Vacation), Monte Carlo ("The X-Files"), Caesars Palace (Rain Man, Fools Rush In, Get Shorty, Rocky III, and "Friends"), Circus Circus (Diamonds are Forever), Fremont (Miss Congeniality 2), Binion's (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Golden Gate (Pay It Forward), Las Vegas Hilton (Indecent Proposal), Paris ("Six Feet Under"), Plaza (Casino), Luxor (Mars Attacks! and Showgirls), Stardust (Fear and Loathing and Feeling Minnesota), Venetian (Get Carter, Rat Race, and "CSI"), and the Riviera (3000 Miles to Graceland, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Casino, Fear and Loathing, The Godfather, and the original Ocean's Eleven).
There was also a series called "Vega$" that aired from 1978 to 1981 on ABC that starred Robert Ulrich and was filmed at the Desert Inn.
Much of this information, which isn't a comprehensive list, but does include most of the well-known titles and featured properties, was kindly supplied by the Nevada Film Commission and is taken from a forthcoming book about filming locations in the state.
UPDATE: 12/01/2005 The 40,000-square-foot Montecito set was the subject of a recent article in Gambling Magazine (11.26.05). Built on six soundstages at Culver Studios in Culver City, the set for the new series has been extended with a new wing which houses, among other things, an Aston Martin dealership, mirroring the real-life Ferrari shop in Las Vegas' Wynn property. This new approach to product placement is a way of helping cover the costs of what is now thought to be the largest set in TV series history.
Q:
What's the story behind Tom and Tim's selling of the Golden Nugget? Seems like they only bought it to be in that TV show. Did they lose money? Why did they sell so quickly?
A:
We can't know for sure why Tim Poster and Tom Breitling sold the Golden Nugget a mere year after they bought the place. Their personal feelings and ambitions are their own and haven't been made public; even if they were, they'd probably be subject to so much spin that the truth would remain obscured.
However, it's been rumored, on the one hand, that Tim and Tom found themselves over their heads in the rough-and-tumble downtown Las Vegas casino business, especially since they went after high rollers, whose swings of fortune can whipsaw a casino to the max -- and, by some accounts, did. Reports we saw at the time suggested that the casino's most recent earnings were "mixed" and the property suffered from poor cash flow. In fact, after the sale was announced, the respected Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison reported that Tim and Tom lost $5.5 million in the first nine months of operation, "partly because by going after the higher rollers they were exposing themselves to more risk."
Jane Ann also quoted an observer as saying, "In general, Tim shouldn't be in a regulated industry.’ Poster and Breitling both found it frustrating that they couldn't just do as they liked without worrying about rules and regulations. Their license was good for only four years, so they had to keep their noses clean. Gaming regulations blocked them from entering certain business deals."
On the other hand, Tim and Tom were certainly the glamour boys of the Las Vegas casino business for a while. They were A-list celebrities at the hippest parties. Their mugs were splashed all over advertisements as being synonymous with the ultimate cool in Las Vegas. And as the questioner points out, they were the stars of the reality TV show "The Casino," produced by Mark Burnett (of the "Survivor" series) and aired on the Fox Network. "The Casino's" huge production crew, including 18 cameras, followed Tim and Tom around for six weeks, starting on January 23, 2004, the day they took over the Nugget. Nearly 300 hours of action were taped for 13 hour-long episodes.
Meanwhile, a contact of ours, who worked closely with Tim and Tom in the Golden Nugget marketing department, told us that selling the casino was a no-brainer for them. They bought both the Vegas and Laughlin Nuggets from MGM Mirage for $215 million, then sold them, a little more than a year later to the Landry Group, for $295 million ($140 million in cash and the assumption of $155 million in debt). Analysts initially estimated that Tim and Tom would cash out a $110 million to $150 million profit from the sale.
However, after the sale closed, Liz Benston of the Las Vegas Sun reported that the final cost to Landry's was "was closer to $345 million ... according to a recent quarterly financial statement that Landry's filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "The final price tag is about $130 million more than the $215 million, including debt, that Poster Financial Group paid to acquire the properties in January 2004. Tim Poster, Tom Breitling and three business partners received $163 million in cash in the deal. Their initial cash contribution was $50 million -- meaning they received a return of 226 percent on their less than two-year investment."
We believe that the brevity of their ownership of the Nugget probably points to a combination of the above factors. Tim and Tom didn't, ultimately, enjoy controlling casinos, they had a rip-roaring year-long run, and they sold at a nice profit when the right offer came along.
Question of the Day
May 9, 2006
Q:
Whatever happened to the Mint 400 off-road race that Hunter Thomspon made famous in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? Is it still run?
A:
The race, whose official name was the Del Webb Mint 400 Desert Rally, was first run in 1968. It was dreamed up by Norm Johnson, the PR director for the Mint Hotel at the time. Johnson was a man about Las Vegas who'd worked as a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun and had been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Watts riots for the Copley News Service in 1965.
It was a 400-mile course that started in front of the Mint Hotel-Casino in downtown Las Vegas (now the west wing of Binion's), headed northwest through the desert up to Beatty, Nevada, then circled back to Vegas. Like most off-road races contested by all manner of motorcycles, dune buggies, cars, and trucks, it was an utter free-for-all. A hundred and one vehicles of all stripes started the race that year; how many finished is lost in the dustbin of history.
The 1969 race attracted 188 entries. Celebrities flocked to the race in droves; 1969 participants included Indy 500 champions Bobby and Al Unser, actors James Garner and Lee Majors, even local comedian Shecky Greene. Also participating was Mickey Thompson, who went on to found SCORE, the international off-road racing organization that today promotes many off-road events.
The late Hunter S. Thompson was dispatched by Sports Illustrated magazine to "cover the race" in 1971. Actually, his assignment was to write a total of 250 words for photo captions. In the freelance tradition of double-duty, he was also assigned to cover a law-enforcement conference by Rolling Stone magazine.
Thompson got a bit sidetracked by a few, shall we say, minor details, such as a trunk full of pot, coke, mescaline, amyl nitrate, LSD, alcohol, and ether, ripping up Circus Circus hotel rooms (and scaring housekeepers half to death), and infiltrating the District Attorneys' national convention. The fictitious account of the whole gonzo trip first ran as a book-length feature in the November 1971 issue of Rolling Stone and was later published as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.
That put the Mint 400 on the map, big time.
In 1975, the race attracted 354 cars and 51 bikes, competing for a piece of the $100,000 guaranteed purse. It was the first off-road race ever to guarantee a prize fund and was, at one time, the richest guaranteed race in the world.
For the first few years of the event, Jim Beam produced commemorative decanters (selling on eBay these days for $25 or so). Also, to add a little sex-appeal to the gritty event, every year the racing committee named a revolving contingent of "Mint 400 Girls," Lynda Carter (of "Wonder Woman" fame) and Vanna White among them. A parade of race cars closed Fremont Street.
Along the way, the Mint itself was bought out by Binion's Horseshoe, which took on the race. It was renamed the Nissan 400 in 1987 and ran through 1992, but the thrill of the thing was gone for Binion's, which stopped promoting it, which killed it.
Then, SCORE decided to start up a race similar to the Mint 400, and it launched the Terrible 250. This race has evolved over the years and is now the Terrible 400. The cars gather in downtown Henderson and the 80-plus-mile race takes place in Eldorado Valley and the McCullough Mountains between Henderson and Boulder City. It's sponsored by the Henderson Convention and Visitors Bureau, Herbst Gaming, and the city of Boulder City.
Other off-road races in Nevada today include the Laughlin Desert Challenge, the Las Vegas Terrible's Cup II, and the Primm 300.
Q:
Is there any plan to develop the land across from the Sahara, or is the north end of the Strip still considered taboo?
A:
Development plans have been proceeding on the vacant lot across the Las Vegas Strip from the Sahara, site of the original El Rancho Vegas, which burned to the ground in 1960.
In 2000, Hilton bought all but 26 acres of the parcel and announced a $450 million Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare project. The first of four towers, a $128 million 33-story 295-unit high-rise, opened in January 2004; a second tower, $126 million and 431 units, is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2006. Whether or not Hilton builds the third and fourth timeshare towers on the property remains to be seen, but they do control the southern half of the lot -- except for a three-acre parcel closest to Circus Circus, where Sky Las Vegas, a 45-story 409-unit luxury condo high-rise, is currently rising at a floor every four days and is on schedule to open in 2007.
As for the northern half, this 26-acre parcel is owned by the Estate of William Bennett. Bennett was the long-time president of Circus Circus before being forced out by shareholders in the late 1990s. He then bought the Sahara, and the vacant El Rancho Vegas property across the Strip, from Paul Lowden. He sold off the piece to Hilton, but kept the rest of it. Since Bennett’s death, the lot has remained in his estate.
It’s long been rumored that the Sahara is for sale. A few prospective buyers have come and gone; one expressed an interest in purchasing the 17-acre Sahara and the 26-acre lot across from it, then developing both in the same project. But nothing official has ever been announced and the privately held Sahara plays its cards close to the vest.
As for the north Strip, it’s far from taboo. It might look that way at the moment, with the Westward Ho dark and fenced, the old El Rancho property (formerly the Thunderbird) also fenced-in dirt, and the El Morocco and Algiers motels shuttered. But the Ho closed to make way for a new development that’s expected to be announced by summer of next year. The Stardust sits on an extremely valuable 63-acre parcel; Boyd Gaming is exploring options for redeveloping the entire site. The New Frontier could be razed as early as the first few months of next year to be replaced by a $1.6 billion 3,500-room megaresort; Trump Tower is going up on vacant New Frontier property.
Turnberry Associates plans to build a $1.5 billion 4,000-room Fontainebleau Resort on the old El Rancho (Thunderbird) site. And the two-tower Allure condo project is rising a half-block west of the Strip on Sahara.
Has the Horseshoe made any headway in returning to the atmosphere of old?
A:
On a scale of one to ten, we’d give it a two.
The thing is, the atmosphere you refer to was so alive and legendary that it would be like trying to reincarnate it whole. And in the end, the atmosphere is now so dead that the one feeble attempt to resurrect it was doomed to fail.
The glory days of Binion’s were the ‘50s and ‘60s, when Benny greeted all comers with a handshake, a drink, a meal, a story, and a square bet. To us, the symbol of those days was the million-dollar display -- a hundred gorgeous drool-worthy $10,000 bills encased in foot-thick glass.
Before the Horseshoe set up its own souvenir-photo operation in front of the display decades later, in the ‘50s and ‘60s Binion’s sold postcards of it for a dime, hundreds of thousands of them, for visitors to send to the folks back home who hadn’t ever seen a $10,000 bill, let alone a hundred of them. In addition, it was the most popular backdrop in Las Vegas at the time for taking a personal snapshot.
Well, shortly after the display went up, the Treasury Department went after the Horseshoe for illegal reproduction of the currency. Two T-men confiscated 150,000 postcards and combed the town for prints and negatives. Benny was merely amused. He foresaw a lifetime of busy work for the two agents: tracking down a million postcards; finding tens of thousands of people all over the country who’d taken photographs of it; and seizing scores of newsreels and television-show tapes on which the display appeared. All it cost Benny was $15,000 in postcards.
Of course, Treasury had the last laugh, sending Benny to Leavenworth for three years for that old workhouse, federal income-tax evasion. He had to "sell" the hotel to his Texas oilman friend Joe W. Brown, who "held it together in a kind of deal" till Benny served his time and "bought it back." Photos of the million-dollar display from the incarcerated years sport the logo, "Joe W. Brown’s Horseshoe."
It was that kind of atmosphere.
The Horseshoe had the $2 steak dinner. It had the jammingest blackjack tables, crap pit, poker room in town; the most brutal security guards; a glass elevator to the rooftop steakhouse; the World Series of Poker. It booked the world’s biggest bets. And all the profits accrued to a single nuclear family, with a gangster father and four predictably wild children, who couldn’t, ultimately, hold it together.
Binion’s died a protracted and painful death. The $2 steak went up, in increments, to $6. The free souvenir photos were discontinued. Then the million-dollar display itself was sold off for cash. One of the sons, Teddy, was murdered for his money. Casino-chip scandals. Morale problems. Legal problems. Bankruptcy problems.
Finally, Harrah’s bought Jack Binion’s Horseshoe casinos, all of them except Binion’s itself. Then it bought Binion’s from Jack’s sister, Becky Binion Behnen, solidifying its ownership of the Horseshoe brand and coming away with the World Series of Poker. After a year, Harrah’s short-term partner, MTR Gaming, a West Virginian company with two race tracks and one small casino in North Las Vegas, took over the operation. MTR now owns the building and manages the casino.
But after the 10-year downhill slide of the joint, MTR had its work cut out. Some money, not much, was invested in the property. The snack bars, complete with the famous daily bean soup and fresh turkey sandwiches, were reopened (earning it our two rating). The carpet is being replaced and a fresh coat of paint is being applied. And they announced plans to hold a major televised poker tournament in 2006 (a momentary three rating). But earlier this month, Binion’s decimated its video poker pay schedules -- from 10/7 to 8/5 and from 9/6 to 6/5. That’s desperate.
Which might be part of why a rumor is going around town that MTR is looking to unload the joint. Atmosphere of old? Highly unlikely.
Question of the Day
August 30, 2005
Q:
Who and what determines which hotels are showcased on TV?
A:
In a previous incarnation, this writer was senior producer on "Casino Diaries," plus a host of other Las Vegas-based documentaries, so I’ll put my TV head back on to answer this one.
In terms of general procedure, the norm is for the producers of the show to approach the public relations department of their preferred casino(s) with a detailed proposal of what, when, and where they’d like to film. The PR department assesses the potential merits or pitfalls of the project, in terms of how much publicity it might generate and how positive the exposure would be. They also consult with any specific departments within the property that might be featured, to see if they have any objections. Obviously, issues of security and the degree of potential disruption are also taken into account in the decision-making process.
In terms of how likely a reasonable proposal is to get a green light, things have changed a lot in recent years. Back in the late ‘90s when I first started working on shows based in Las Vegas, it was tough getting access to film in any casino. This city (and the whole gambling universe) was a lot less competitive then than it is today and there seemed to be a general attitude that Las Vegas casinos didn’t need the publicity and couldn't tolerate the disruption of hosting a film crew. There was also an understandable fear of impinging on guests’ privacy and of losing, or even being sued by, customers who didn’t wish to appear on camera. In addition, the casinos held a distinct distrust with regard to how Las Vegas and gambling would be portrayed and a reluctance from PR departments to stick their necks out, in case they got burned. (A notorious example occurred in 1998 when Larry Flynt caused a furor at the Las Vegas Hilton by beating the casino out of $1 million on camera during a segment for CBS’ “48 Hours” and by revealing the hush-hush policy of rebating percentages of losses to high rollers. It was felt that the piece reflected badly on the property and the publicity director was fired the same night it aired, sending shockwaves through PR departments all over town, which took a couple of years to dissipate.)
In short, the city was an extremely difficult place to break into and I spent my first week on location sitting in a hotel room at the same Las Vegas Hilton, with no one returning my calls. I finally got a toe in the door at the Rio, which proved to be slightly more camera-friendly back then. (Flynt had lost a million on camera there in the same “48 hours” show which, strangely enough, was considered good publicity.)
Things have changed a lot since then. Increased competition has given casinos a greater stake in raising the profile of individual properties. The success of documentaries like “Casino Diaries” and the plethora of programs that followed on everything from Travel Channel and E!, from Court TV to HGTV, demonstrated that ratings for anything Vegas-related were huge and paved the way for big budget dramas like “CSI” and “Tilt.” This in turn ensured that the networks wouldn’t shoot the goose that laid their golden eggs by portraying the city in a negative light, which might get them shut out again. Hence, a powerful symbiotic relationship was born.
So that’s the general background. As far as specifics go, in my experience some properties have always been more open to filming than others. Privately owned casinos were often a good bet to approach, because the decision rested with an owner who didn’t have shareholders to answer to, rather than with a committee of nervous executives. The Hard Rock, for example, has traditionally been very accommodating and has even allowed crews into sensitive areas like the count and surveillance rooms. Ditto the Venetian, which has generally welcomed crews and was one of the first casinos to let them film behind the scenes throughout the property. At the other end of the spectrum, none of the properties in the Mirage group permitted filming while Steve Wynn was at the helm and to the best of my knowledge, it’s still tough getting access to them today.
>From the producer’s point of view, if your story isn’t based in a specific property, you try to get access to those that are most appropriate to your subject matter. If your show is about high rollers, for example, obviously you’d rather film at Bellagio or Caesars than downtown. On the other hand, if your target demographic is the 18-30 crowd, then the Hard Rock, Palms, or Green Valley Ranch would be preferable. If you’re lucky enough to be presented with a choice, then practical considerations are taken into account, such as ease of access, proximity to other locations or services you’re using, lighting levels, aesthetic factors, and how accommodating the staff is.
What's the story behind that large piece of the Berlin Wall in the gentlemen's restroom at Main Street Station?
A:
When Germany was reunified and the Berlin Wall dismantled between 1989 and 1990, most of the Wall, a much-hated symbol of Cold War oppression, was crushed and recycled to make new roads. Today, the former location of the Wall is marked either by a red line or a double row of cobblestones, with only a few vestiges left standing in Berlin as memorials. In addition, sizable segments (a 3-foot-by-10-foot section weighs about 6,000 pounds) of graffiti-laden pieces were either given away as gifts or auctioned off by the German state. Many of these segments ended up in notable locations within the U.S., including CIA Headquarters in Washington D.C., the U.S. State Department, both the George Bush and Ronald Reagan Presidential Libraries (located in Texas and California, respectively), and the Microsoft Art Collection.
One such segment, however, was bought by Robert Snow, former owner of downtown Las Vegas' Main Street Station casino, and is now housed in a far less salubrious location, namely the back of the urinal in the men's restroom off the main casino. This section of the infamous Wall was an interesting addition to the Victorian-style casino's already eclectic collection of antiques and artifacts, which includes "Buffalo" Bill Cody's private rail car, a fireplace from a Scottish castle, and some 18th century Belgian street lamps (there was also a ring where the Australian gambling game two-up was played; it's since been removed). The men's latrine seemed to Snow to be the most appropriate place to display the chunk of the wall.
For additional photographs and information about other exotic urinals around the world, visit www.urinal.net, which lists the Main Street Station facilities among the world's Top 100. They didn't make it into the Top 10, however, which features, among others, an al fresco hilltop urinal in war-torn Afghanistan, the men's room at the Taj Mahal, the urinal in the Mir Space Station, artist Clark Sorensen's "Nature's Call" series (which includes latrines in the form of lillies, orchids, and sea shells), and even a women's urinal (located in the Dairy Queen in Port Charlotte, Florida).
UPDATE: 05/21/2006 We haven't seen them for ourselves yet, but we understand that the urinals in Red Rock Resort's Cherry nightclub consist of glass, red hot, pouting lips, shipped all the way from Holland
Question of the Day
October 5, 2006
Q:
Whose bright idea was it to move the penguins from the FLAMINGO Habitat to some place called Dallas, TX? There are no penguins in Texas! Penguins are native to Las Vegas, aren't they? I miss them and hope that they can be repatriated soon.
A:
Actually, the FLAMINGO's penguins originated a lot farther south than Texas, although not as far south as you might think. They’re African penguins, colloquially known as blackfoot or Jackass penguins, and are found on 24 islands around southern Africa, from Namibia to St. Croy island at Port Elizabeth, plus three mainland colonies in South Africa and Namibia, but nowhere else in the world. At least not in the wild. Oil spillages, over-fishing of their waters, and other interference from man, plus diseases like avian malaria, have sadly depleted their numbers this century and they are now an endangered species. So, much as we'd prefer to see them in their natural habitat*, at least bird sanctuaries and zoos will help to keep their numbers up.
Which brings us back to the FLAMINGO penguins and your question. Although they're native to S. Africa, that's not where this colony came from, although the answer to exactly where that was remains a matter of some debate. We've read that they were originally loaned by Dallas Zoo some decades ago and were simply being repatriated, but we've been unable to confirm this by any credible source.
The other version we've heard, this one from the FLAMINGO, was that the older members of the group came from Honolulu Zoo and Hilton Hawaiian Village, and the rest were actually hatched at the FLAMINGO. They had apparently been here since 1998, but Harrah's had different plans for the penguin habitat -- either a steakhouse or Mexican restaurant, we understand -- and that's why they've been sent to Dallas.
During their sojourn at the FLAMINGO, they provided plenty of entertainment, courtesy in particular of their narrated twice-daily feeding-time spectacle, and we assume they must have been fairly happy, since they produced some baby penguins: It made the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other news outlets when, on December 30, 2003, Norton penguin (age 10) and Sweet Pea (his four-year-old child-bride) became the happy parents of the colony's 13th member.
Although their export to Dallas could be looked upon as an exile, we understand that they're happy in their new home and have a new custom-built habitat to look forward to, which opens to the public October 7. We figure that although they're warm-weather penguins, the arid conditions in Las Vegas can't have been their top choice of climate.
What we can confirm is that they all arrived safely at their destination and this came as a relief to us, having learned that some penguins had been involved in a fatal truck crash on an east Texas highway this summer. When we first read about this story, we feared the worst, but it turns out the unfortunate penguins were from the Indianapolis Zoo and were on their way to Moody Gardens in Galveston, where they'll reside while their home is being renovated. (We had no idea Texas was such a penguin hotspot.) Apparently, the refrigerated truck that was transporting them (and an octopus, some crabs, two tropical birds, and some fish) went off the road when the driver lost control after leaning down to pick up a piece of paper. One of the penguins died in the crash, while three more were run over by cars. Another 21 penguins survived, including one rockhopper penguin that was trapped under the truck for hours.
Although the beloved FLAMINGO penguins should be free from many of the dangers posed in the wild or on the freeway, there's still one peril that faces them on a daily basis. We understand that all the penguins in Dallas Zoo must be metal detected every day to check for ingested coins, which could prove fatal. Apparently, humans just can't resist the urge to throw money into the penguin pool, although it bears scant resemblance to a wishing well. The naturally inquisitive birds are apt to eat anything thrown their way, and hence must be scanned on a regular basis and have any offending objects removed from their digestive tracts.
If you don't live in Texas and want to see some penguins, check out this link to the world's first penguin Webcam on the Antarctic continent, which, from October to April, shows the breeding activities of Gentoo penguins. The penguins haven't arrived yet, but are expected back at Station O'Higgins later this month sometime.
*A member of LVA staff was fortunate enough to see a colony of Jackass penguins at Boulder Beach, outside Cape Town, and can confirm that they were very happy indeed. They build burrows in the hillside that look like rabbit holes or badger sets and, when they're not at home, spend most of their time frolicking on their own private beach and "flying" in the ocean. Humans are permitted to watch them from an overhead wooden walkway, but the beach itself is for penguins only.
UPDATE: 10/03/2006 Thanks to the reader who wrote in with the following:
"Just a follow-up on the penguins. I just returned from Honolulu where I stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. They do indeed have a colony of 'jackass' penguins."