Las Vegas Babylon: The True Tales of Glitter, Glamour, and Greed

Las Vegas Babylon: The True Tales of Glitter, Glamour, and Greed

by Jeff Burbank
Las Vegas Babylon: The True Tales of Glitter, Glamour, and Greed

Las Vegas Babylon: The True Tales of Glitter, Glamour, and Greed

by Jeff Burbank

Paperback(Revised Edition)

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Overview

What happens in Vegas doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas and the proof is in this lively and entertaining compilation of stories chronicling decades of decadence, celebrity shenanigans, and political corruption, as well as the glitz and glamour of the casinos that pass for everyday life in Las Vegas.
Underneath the city's present success lies many infamous tales of excess and debauchery. Using new information from recently released FBI documents, Jeff Burbank brings to life the Vegas mob in its heyday, recounting never-before-heard tales of the mobsters who made Vegas what it is today.
But mobsters aren't the only ones with skeletons in Las Vegas' closet. Over the years, Hollywood stars have had their share of the limelight. Burbank has uncovered the many fateful, and often amusing, incidents that have befallen the glamorous and here he recalls the details of the darkest moments in the lives of the famous and foolish: Marilyn Monroe's quickie divorce; boxer Sonny Liston's secret heroin deal just before his death; The Doors singer Jim Morrison's arrest for fighting on the Strip; and the hookers who trick-rolled comedian Tommy Smothers in his hotel room.
With fast-paced and entertaining prose, Burbank captures the true stories from Las Vegas' seedy underbelly that have led to America's 100-year fascination with the aptly named Sin City.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781590771365
Publisher: M. Evans & Company
Publication date: 03/07/2008
Edition description: Revised Edition
Pages: 352
Sales rank: 1,072,891
Product dimensions: 5.96(w) x 10.88(h) x 0.10(d)

About the Author

Jeff Burbank is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, The Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle. Burbank is a commentator for KNPR-FM radio in Las Vegas where he lives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     xiii
Hype and Cold Reality     1
The Vegas Mob
A Hundred-Year Play in Three Acts     25
Highway 91 Blues: Bugsy Siegel     59
Mr. Las Vegas: Moe Dalitz     79
Excess Celebrities
Rancho Sanitarium: Clara Bow     93
Norma Jeane's Perjury: Marilyn Monroe     99
The Sahara's Freak Show: Christine Jorgensen     111
Mrs. Bates's Closet: Vera Krupp     115
Striking Oil: Louis Armstrong     121
Get Happy Pills, Please: Judy Garland     123
Sagging Career: Jayne Mansfield     129
Meet Me in Las Vegas: JFK     133
Holding Up the Customers: Lenny Bruce     155
Landmark Pharmacy: Elvis Presley     159
Jail a' Go-Go: Jim Morrison     167
Smack Down: Sonny Liston     169
Audition in My Hotel Room: Tommy Smothers     171
One Night in Vegas: David Strickland     175
Momo's Moll Flips: Phyllis McGuire     177
Whipped Cream Dreams: Robin Leach     185
Vegas Politics
Harry Reid's Favorite Sons and Daughters     191
Democrats and Daiquiris: Shelley Berkley     201
GOP Rocks the Vote     209
Bad Girls, Sad Girls     215
Gaming with the Future
The Bonfire of Kirk's Vanities: The MGM Fire     239
Binion Family Values     243
Ginji's Aladdin Genie Loses {dollar}100 Million     251
Billionaire Sandboxes: Steve Wynn versus Sheldon Adelson     257
True Crimes
Three Women in a Cell     265
Criminal Refuge
Vegas Confession     275
Evil Spirits     279
Dueling Shills
Vegas's Little-Read Newspapers     291
Bibliography     295
Index     299

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