Customer Reviews

The Man Who Invented Las Vegas

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a sketchy at best account of a powerful man during his time. The book is short and did not give me enough details to his insight on Vegas except that he was a gambloholic. It left me wanting to know more about this man and his rise to power. Honestly I enjoyed more his accounts as the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and the power he had there than his accounts of trying to build the Flamingo. I thought the book would give more insight on early Vegas but to me gave more to early Hollywood.

Whatta story! If Mr. Wilkerson only had control of his addiction there is no telling what he could have accomplished. This is a talented man who had half the world by the tail, but couldn't get that 2nd half. He was able to accomplish a lot and was the creator of modern casinos in Las Vegas. This is a short story, but filled with interesting information. Highly recommended.

This is a top notch read. It is hard to find books of this caliber about the mob. The research is scholarly but still accessible. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the birth of Las Vegas and the gritty details of Hollywood history in general.

One man's chronic gambling habit became the foundation for modern Las Vegas: The Man Who Invented Las Vegas documents his rags-to-riches story and his impact on building the casinos and hotels of Las Vegas. Black and white photos pepper an examination of publisher Wilkerson's life and investments in the Las Vegas image in a fascinating blend of local history and biography.

A really fascinating little book, with a very rare quality... it's really the first time this story has been told. Other Vegas books are good, some are great, but most in one way or another repeat the stories we've read before (another exception: Fly on the Wall by Dick Odessky).

Every now and then, time & place & circumstance meld together to produce a battalion of larger-than-life types, and Hollywood in the 20s, 30s, and 40s was one of those perfect storms. Or maybe it happens more often than that, but Hollywood was especially adept at attracting attention. At any rate, giants who walked the earth back then had names like Mayer, Warner, DeMille, Cohn, and Selznick. To that list can be added Wilkerson. After a sketchy bootlegging career in the 1920s, Billy Wilkerson arrived on the Hollywood scene with the publication of the "Hollywood Reporter" and then set about putting the Sunset Strip on the map with a series of swanky joints like the Trocadero and Ciro's. As if that wasn't enough, he then conceived a gambling haven in the middle of the Nowhere Desert in Nevada called Las Vegas. This biography, written by Wilkerson's son, tells the life story of a man whose life story needed to be told. My only criticism is that this book wasn't long enough!

Well it's about time. I know this book has been out for a while but it was new to me. I first heard about Wilkerson reading some on the wall comments about him that are posted at the Valet parking area at the Flamingo itself. Sort of came as a shock. As a writer myself, I was fascinated by what I read and started to talk to Vegas locals who verified the writing on the wall - so to speak. I think Wilkerson's son did what he could with what he had but you sure wish there was a lot more detail since you just want to know so much more of this amazing story. I mean, the Flamingo is one story, but Wilkerson was maried five times and not any details at all about any of his marriages to round out the eclectic entrepreneur except a comment from one of them who said he should have been a gangster but he didn't have the guts. And I'm presuming his efforts to expose the "red menace" from Hollywood by going after people in the film business, the business he tried to protect and at the same time ridicule as founder of "The Hollywood Reporter", had more to do with other personal issues than the book brings up. But Wilkerson's retelling of his father's gambling problems made it clear to me that with chronic gambling it's not winning or losing - it's the actual moment of the wager that causes the addiction and his solution of "owning the house" was a clever one.

Mr. Wilkerson makes a very strong case for his father's role in "creating" modern Las Vegas. As this distinction is popularly credited to the gangster, Bugsy Siegal, in both print and the movies, it is refreshing to see the record corrected in these engaging and compelling pages.