Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The stories presented in this cynical, hasty book could have happened anywhere--what does this have to do with Las Vegas? So the mob was involved in Las Vegas--so what? That topic is covered thoroughly in other, better-written books. So casino execs care more about the bottom line than about their customers--is that news? Also, how many times can the author describe casino partons as "losers" and "suckers"? The author then shares bawdy stories of unruly celebs, their sexual obscurities, etc. The author relishes sharing the naughty side of celebrities and politicians but then adopts a high-road attitude as if he's disgusted by them (and by Las Vegas as a whole). Tabloid journalism just to sell some books? Well, whatever sells, I suppose.

Many of the vingettes the author includes in this mess have nothing to do with Las Vegas except that the city is where the story happened to take place. The casinos, desert, history, etc. of Las Vegas has nothing to do with many of the chapters.

As if the negative tone wasn't enough to prevent people from trodding through this sensationalized tripe, there's roughly 90 typos, grammatical errors, broken sentences, etc. in this book. Maybe next time some of the money spent on the dust jacket design could be diverted to hiring a proof-reader? I'm not exaggerating, by the way. During certain chapters the errors can be found as frequently as every other page.

What a waste of time. There's only about 20 other books on Las Vegas that I would recommend before this. Then again if you're hard up for mean, amateurish, and irrelevant writing, this book might be just what you're looking for.

While not the worse book on Sin City, the glaring omission of Vegas' most famous resident is unforgiveable. Reduced to little more than a footnote by the author, its unfathomable that Howard R. Hughes, Jr. would not have at least 2 chapters devoted to his Vegas footprint.

Rather than move out of the Desert Inn, Hughes bought it! Hughes didn't even want to move down one floor with no charge for 6 months (ask the author why). With more than a half billion dollars in windfall cash from the TWA judgement, Hughes treated the Vegas Strip like his own personal monopoly board. Even beyond the feat of personally owning more casinos (5 or 6) than any other human on earth, the man NEVER, I repeat, NEVER appeared before the Nevada Gaming Commission (a requirement by law for everbody else but him?). Never mind that he tried to derail the Atomic Energy Commission from testing bombs 90 miles outside Vegas'! He swore out he could feel the earth shaking. Of course, when $100,000 of your money finds its way to 1600 Penn Ave., wouldn't you ask a favor, too?

Hughes never set foot in his casinos - he never even set foot on Las Vegas Blvd. In fact, Howard R. Hughes, Jr. never set foot on Nevada soil. He rolled into, and out of, town by private railcar; his Mormon aides carried him by stretcher into, and out of, the Desert Inn penthouse. Howard R. Hughes bought numerous casinos from known mobsters (Big Bob Maheu was the face of HRH), all from the 'comfort' of the blacked-out penthouse he occupied the years he was in Vegas'. The man NEVER saw the Vegas sun.

The fact that Mr. Burbank omits each and every one of these 'minor details' is appalling in a book entitled Las Vegas Babylon. It's like leaving Al Capone out of 'Windy City Babylon', or leaving Alfred P. Sloan out of a book on GM. This major omission is a cardinal sin for someone supposedly a journalist. Glad I only paid...

EXCELLENT BOOK WRITTEN ABOUT LAS VEGAS AND THE EARLY PIONEERS. WAS VERY VERY FASCINATING IN THE BEGINNING. THEN WENT TO THE POLITICAL SCENE WHICH BECAME VERY BORING AND UN-INTERESTING. THEN IT PICKS UP AGAIN TO TALK ABOUT THE STARS. THE CONCLUSION WAS ALMOST LIKE AN AD FOR THE NEWSPAPERS. HOWEVER, WITH ALL THIS SAID, WAS VERY INTERESTING, INFOMATIVE BOOK. A GOOD READ. I ONLY WISH THE AUTHOR WOULD HAVE GONE MORE IN DEPTH ABOUT THE EARLY AND LATER PERSONALITIES RATHER THAN THE POLITICAL FORUM THAT HE WROTE.COULD HAVE BEEN AN EASY 5 STAR. BUT I WOULD BUY IT AGAIN.

I found the book very intersting and a quick read since it was split into many short chapters of all sorts of interesting characters and events. Not sure who, if anyone, proof read it though. There are numerous grammatical errors and several incidents where it seems little mistakes were overlooked. For instance it said Tony Spilotro started his fifteen year Vegas career in 1986 (thats when it ended) and said Wynn Las Vegas was the most expensive casino ever built at the time (2.7 million? Maybe billion!?) Overlooking the minor details it is a good book with lots of interesting stories for the novice Vegas reader. Recommend it. Good one for the flight to Vegas.

After reading the reviews on this book..... I still was interested enough to buy it.

The first hundred or so pages were interesting, albeit a little light on the details that you would want to read about the start of sin city, but kept me reading.

About 1/2 way through, it started to bore me when the chapters seemed like they were just "thrown in" to fill pages and the new chapter had absolutely nothing to do with the previous one. It was obvious that it was written that way, but still the content was kind of stupid. Many of the chapters that started off interesting were soon dull. Filler for sure.

The last 1/4 of the book was so F'ing boring that I had to force myself to finish it.

Typos and grammatical errors (as one reader indicated) were abundant - like no one really edited it.

Personally, I would NOT read another book written by this author.

Las Vegas Babylon is an excellent peek at the "real" Vegas. It is loaded with fun stories that you won't find anywhere else. What's amazing is the horrible editing job done by the publisher. There are factual, grammatical and spelling errors that should have been caught before publication. Jeff Burbank has done a fine job here, but has been let down by his publisher.

Love this book! It gives descriptions of the hotels and who created them. Fun to read if you love Las Vegas.