April 11, 2016 Monday
BEVERLY HILLS COURIER ARTICLE ABOUT LA TIMES FESTIVAL of BOOKS
SPEAKING TO THE LADIES OF BRANDEIS U FUNDRAISER
March 6, 2016 Sunday
I had lunch today at the Brandeis University National
Committee fundraiser hosted by the Las Vegas Chapter of women alumnus. After
the meal, I spoke to these ladies about the history of the Las Vegas gambling
industry, and then I autographed books. The invitation, the great response of
these ladies to my speech, their many questions afterwards, and the number of
books they had me autograph indicates the popular interest in the authentic
history of organized crime and the Las Vegas gambling industry by women as well
as men.
The following pictures include the invitation, appropriately
titled "Hidden Lives" for the secret backgrounds of gangsters Moe
Dalitz and Benny Binion, who were so instrumental in the building of the Las
Vegas casino industry. In the picture at the speaker's podium after my
presentation, I still had the microphone in my hand. With me is Evelyn Brunner
who arranged my participation at this event and who was absolutely delightful
to work with. Thank you for a wonderful experience, Evelyn!
A MORNING & AN AFTERNOON RADIO INTERVIEW
March 2, 2016 Wednesday
This morning I did a 15-minute interview with Ms. Frankie
Boyer on her Boston radio show. It is my sixth appearance since 30 Illegal Years To The Strip came out.
My first radio show for this book was also with her. We discussed the
differences between Las Vegas when it was a gambling town versus the way it is now
as a convention and retail-shop center, the great publicity generated about Las
Vegas produced by Frank Sinatra both because of his musical talent and his
sometimes bad behavior, and the fine quality and distinctive menu items of the
early Las Vegas casino restaurants.
I just completed this afternoon a 30-minute interview with
Ashley Adams on his nationally syndicated House
of Cards radio show. It is a one-hour weekly show about poker and casinos, but
for my first appearance, we discussed the major Prohibition gang leaders
featured in my book 30 Illegal Years To
The Strip, who later went on to build the Las Vegas Strip. In a future
appearance, Ashley wants to discuss the two popular poker rooms I operated for
so many years at the Castaways and Silver Slipper casinos in the heart of
the Las Vegas Strip, and my relationship with gambling-operator Benny Binion and
the very positive impact he had on my career and life. Ashley also wants me to
tell my bad-beat stories from playing in Benny's World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe Club in downtown Las Vegas. It
was in the Casino Owners' Competition that I went up against Benny's sons, Jack
and Teddy. My nemesis, however, was the wife of Stratosphere builder Bob
Stupak. Those contests were more than three decades ago, but the thought of going
up against this woman still upsets me.
ANOTHER CLEAR-CHANNEL RADIO INTERVIEW
February 20, 2016
Saturday
I just finished my third interview with Morgan White Jr. on
his clear-channel broadcast from Boston that reaches the eastern two-thirds of
the country. We discussed the Godfather movie series, and what each film
presented that was true about the New York City gangs and the development of
the Las Vegas Strip resorts in the 1940s and 1950s. During the first hour,
Morgan fielded the questions; and for the second hour he turned the questioning
over to listeners.
I HAD LUNCH WITH MOE DALITZ' DAUGHTER
February 13, 2016 Saturday
What a treat! I had lunch with Suzanne Dalitz, daughter of
gangster Moe Dalitz. As I described in "30 Illegal Years To The Strip",
he was one of the top three fine-liquor importers during Prohibition, then he
operated illegal casinos throughout the Midwest, before going on to build two
of the greatest resort casino operations on the Las Vegas Strip. His Desert Inn
was the first high-rolling casino, and his Stardust was the largest hotel and
biggest casino in the world. Between the two casinos, he catered to every
economic level. He taught the rest of us in the industry the best way to
design, operate, and market casinos to every income demographic.
This lunch was special for me because Moe Dalitz had a great
impact on my research, career, and becoming a man. He and all of his top
executives each spent an enormous number of hours teaching me how they operated
and the histories of Moe's hotel-casinos. As I point out in the Introduction to
"30 Illegal Years To The Strip," it was references by the two most
notorious gangsters to ever settle in Las Vegas, Moe Dalitz and Benny Binion, which
got me the job as President of both the Castaways and Silver Slipper on the
Strip for Howard Hughes' corporation Summa. I am still the only person to ever
manage two Strip casinos simultaneously.
I told Suzanne the impact her father and his key executives
had on my research and my personal values. Moe Dalitz was the epitome of
integrity. His word was absolute. I learned in my dealings with him what great
lengths he would go to in order to make sure he kept his word to every last
detail.
Suzanne shared the strengths and weaknesses Moe Dalitz had
as a father. Like all of us dads, he was imperfect, but she brought home the humanness
of her dad in ways I did not expect. Some aspects touched me deeply about a man
for whom I have so much respect. I and Moe always talked to each other from our
adult and never exposed our inner child to each other. Suzanne, thank you for
sharing the man at home and in activities with the people he loved!
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