Chip-Wrecked in Las Vegas [Paperback]

Barney Vinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994 | ISBN-10: 0934422079 | ISBN-13: 978-0934422079

This entry is a riotous collection of vignettes about Nevada and Las Vegas. Peppered with nearly 90 photographs---old and new---Chip-Wrecked reads something like a gigantic Reader's Digest of Las Vegas and Nevada.

In 70 spellbinding chapters you'll read about strange events that have occurred inside casinos, why video poker is taking over the industry, scams and shams through the ages, the rise and fall of the mighty Dunes Hotel/Casino, the inside story about Las Vegas's tourists traps and who's who and what they do. You'll see actual photos of early gambling, Bugsy Siegel . . . in life and death, inside Hoover Dam---before it filled with water, Reno's famous Virginia Street in the 1930s, craps shooters in the Las Vegas Club in 1947, Louis Prima singing at the Sahara Lounge in 1956, casino surveillance through one-way mirrors, Pappy Smith in Harolds Club with old-time slots, Double Mills slots being played for $10,000, Howard Hughes and other young casino owners, and opening night at the Sands Casino in 1952. Size: 5.5" x 8.5".

Editorial Reviews

Review

Las Vegas casino worker-cum-author Barney Vinson has served up his latest book on the city of lights . . . packaged by Mead Publishing Company, it features photos and anecdotes guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of hardened wiseguys and hopelessly romantic Vegaphiles -- John L. Smith, Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 1994

Take a romp through the casino capital of the world in this bizarre collection of true stories and rare photos of old Nevada -- Digby Diehl, "Books," Playboy magazine, May 1995

From the Publisher

Before the railroad came through this part of the country, life was tough for folks in the west. To give you an idea of how popular Nevada was, anyone who wanted to live here could get 160 acres of land just for the asking. Until the late 1950s, Las Vegas wasn't even the largest city in Nevada (Reno took the honors). Places like Virginia City, Rhyolite and Goldfield---all ghost towns today---were where the action was. But all that changed, and America's fastest-growing city became one of the nation's most infamous. Barney's book traces the Las Vegas area from its inception to the present time with humorous stories which couldn't have been written about anywhere else in the world.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Mead Co (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934422079
• ISBN-13: 978-0934422079
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,358,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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