Customer Reviews

Cult Vegas: The Weirdest! The Wildest! The Swingin'est Town on Earth

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This informal history of Vegas entertainment is the best book on the subject, the product of a Vegas-phile's 14 years of reporting for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Weatherford chose to tell the whole story of the city through its entertainers, and as history it feels exactly right. He's got the precise date that the first bare breast was uncovered in the city, as well as the cost of Liberace's wardrobe on the night of his debut. Nothing here about gangsters or gambling or byzantine Nevada politics, but who would think you could write a chapter about Frank, Dean and Sammy and make it as fresh as though you were sitting at the Dunes in 1959? In fact, the opening chapter--telling Frank's story one more time--is as fine a history of the Las Vegas showroom as you're ever likely to read. He then follows up with expansive essays on the origins of the Vegas lounge. (Louis Prima gets the major credit, of course, but he also remembers that Prima was preceded by the Mary Kaye Trio, which started the midnight-to-dawn style of improvisational lounge entertainment that would become a Vegas trademark until it was watered down in the seventies to the level of Bill Murray's "Saturday Night Live" lounge lizard singing "Star Wars.") Before the era of comedy clubs, but after the age of burlesque, Vegas was pretty much the only place for top comics to work, and Weatherford dispenses that history through the lives of what he calls the big three: Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene and Don Rickles. What, no Joe E. Lewis? Weatherford actually convinced me that Joe E. does not belong on the list, mainly because he was popular with the Vegas founders but never that big a star to the public. One very helpful aspect of this history is that Weatherford has gone deep into the morgue, poring over old microfiche and faded yellow clippings, to show the ups and downs of familiar careers. (For example, he reproduces a rare ad for Elvis' April 1956 debut at the New Frontier, where he's third-billed. Second billing is Shecky Greene. And the headliner? Freddy Martin and His Orchestra!) I could quibble with some of Weatherford's choices. Tom Jones is a sidebar in the Elvis chapter, but shouldn't that be Wayne Newton? His chapter on showgirls is fascinating--going into the lives of such forgotten beauties as Lili St. Cyr, Dyanne Thorne (better known as "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS"), Charo, Juliet Prowse and Mamie Van Doren--but it doesn't give enough credit to the hundreds of girls who have passed through the Tropicana's Folies Bergere, the longest-running show of them all. Still, there are so many gems that you can't stop reading. His section on TV stars who have tried to do Vegas shows--a list that includes Irene "Granny" Ryan, Monty Hall, Suzanne Somers, Mary Hart and Tony Danza--is devastatingly funny without being mean-spirited. And you can sense his genuine affection for such Vegas institutions as Ann-Margret, classiest of all the dames ever to hit town, and the Chairman of the Board. He also remembers the truly tragic characters like Totie Fields, Redd Foxx and Sam Kinison, without getting maudlin or melodramatic.

This book does a great job of charting the strange, crooked route that the evolution of entertainment in Vegas has taken. I found the chapters dealing with the rise and fall of the lounge act, and the changing face of what "lounge entertainment" meant, to be absolutely fascinating. Of course, Elvis and the Rat Pack get their own parts of the book, but you've read about them already. It's the lounge acts, the comedians, the sexpot starlets turned show-singers, and the "parisian" revues that are given a funny and insightful view in this book. Easy reading, you'll burn through this book in a day or two, but it's a very entertaining read, and manages to be very informative at the same time.

You'll read how a city evolved into a phenomena, what was lost, and why. You'll hear the real stories behind the gossip, the personalities behind the public personas, and, best of all, you'll meet the intriguing cast of characters who were there when the spotlight dimmed.

There is an underlying tone of regret in Cult Vegas, a sense that some of the best of a city has been lost forever. For those of us who remember the excitement of the 50's and the 60's, the question is an affirmation of our memories of the dinner showrooms and the performers who played the venue.

But this book is not a lament. It's a blast! Mike Weatherford's style is as fast-paced and dynamic as the culture he chronicles. The fact that he is a long-addicted student of the Las Vegas Strip entertainment scene and a reporter who has recorded events for a decade gives this author a solid overview of how and why a desert oasis grew into a mega entertainment center.

Don't miss this one. You'll find history in Cult Vegas, none of it boring. Great photos. Fascinating sidebars. If you are a Sinatra fan, a trivia guru, or just love good writing, this is one book packed with page after page of good reading!

"Cult `Vegas" is not a history of Las Vegas per se, rather a history of casino entertainment from the rise of the Strip and Fremont Street in the 1950s up to the "family destination" of the early 21st Century. From the earliest days of legalized gambling, entertainment of one sort or another was key to get gamblers in the establishment. Later, the Rat Pack stimulated the aura of a "cool swingin'" Las Vegas. As Mr. Weatherford points out this was probably a reputation that the city held on to way too long. The rise and decline of the Lounge Singer, showgirls, Elvis and the Rat Pack are described with a clearly nostalgic eye. But the author doesn't hesitate to show the faded polyester leisure suit image of Las Vegas during the locust years of the mid 70's. He points out that holding on to the schlocky comics, and warmed over crooners moved the entertainment of Las Vegas away from the tourists with the most disposable income: singles and couples. Films about Las Vegas are also part of the "Cult" and those with the city as subject or backdrop are listed and critiqued. The book itself is quirky, with lots of sidebars and anecdotes but this fits the overall tone of the prose. This is a great anecdotal history of postwar casino entertainment, that would make a great souvenir or as another reviewer wisely suggested, cool reference material for your next trip (whether you're a local or a tourist). If you're at all interested in Las Vegas-get this.

As a professional tour director I'm always on the lookout for good reference material that I can share with my vacationers. For a 4 day tour titled, Hidden Las Vegas, I brought along this book to add some color to my commentaries.

Here's a fun book that looks at Las Vegas from an entertainment point-of-view. It is packed with stories about Sinatra and the big name acts, Louie Prima and the lounge acts, the comedians such as Don Rickles (who's show I appeared in!), Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene, Totie Fields, and Red Foxx, Elvis, Liberace, Diamonds Are Forever and other movies shot in Las Vegas.

I think that the strongest part of the book is about the Rat Pack Era (Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford) and its fans (JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson, Sam Gianciana). There's a great new show in Vegas called "The Rat Pack is Back" and this book's stories help make the show more real.

Is this a great book? Probably, not.

But it's got some interesting stuff in it and it's well laid out.

What a swelligant book! The detail and the insight from Weatherford are well worth the price. Any hipster who understands how much Frank Sinatra and Las Vegas mirror what American society really pines for should read it well, know it well and take note to preserve and protect all that is Cult Vegas. My only complaint is that I'd like to see a Volume II. Las Vegas is a misunderstood town, but not in Weatherford's hands as an author who plies his trade well. Las Vegas matters to America and Weatherford explains why.

This book is outstanding! I've been waiting more than a year for it to be printed and believe me, it was well worth the wait. I haven't heard comedian Pete Barbutti's name since the old Mike Douglas Show. Now, not only does Mike Weatherford mention him, he actually interviews the guy! It was great. The chapters featuring Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima with the other lounge acts, Ocean's Eleven, and Elvis are stand-outs. Also, Don Rickles is a scream!

Many books on the history of Vegas dwell too much on the hoodlum and gangster stuff. Weatherford bypasses this and fills his pages with fresh and entertaining information. Where else could you find behind the scenes anecdotes on the Night Stalker? Mike's personal stories also make this book fun.

The book may not be big, but it is packed with information. You can tell the author really did his homework. The sidebars of trivia are great, and the author's story about his experience in Vegas films ("Casino" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas") add yet another personal touch.

I'm waiting for the casino operators to get the hint and build a casino with the theme of Old Vegas. Weatherford's book would make a great blueprint.

I'll make this short and sweet. I really liked this book. My mother and I go to Vegas at least once a year, and there are so many changes each year that I began to wonder what happened to the good old days. Well they're right here. Mike Weatherford brings the 50's and 60's to life like never before. He tells the story of the comedy club beginnings, singers who might have never made it if it weren't for the lounges, movies filmed in Vegas and show girls from a bygone era. And yes of course there's the Rat Pack and Elvis (who by the way bombed on his first try in Vegas). I'm too young to have expierenced this side of Las Vegas myself, but I asked my mother about it and she recalled some more stories and loved the fact that this book is out. It's important to know where we've been to know where we're going. But it's books like this that will be the only memory of Vegas we have. Today's Vegas will be gone in a blink of the eye, just like yesturday's Vegas and Mr. Weahterford will be pinning another book about Cult Vegas in the 1990's. If you love the retro era, entertainment, and history about such fab, weird, wild places like Vegas, don't pass this one up.

I have just finished reading Mr Weatherford's book and am profoundly impressed with the style, content, and flow of his book. Having lived in Las Vegas in the early 1990's, I had a special interest in reading about the early days of the Rat Pack and many other entertainers and future stars who got their starts in Las Vegas. "Cult Vegas"is incredibly well-researched and is an easy and very fun read for anyone interested in Las Vegas!