|
|
Article: Las Vegas who built America's playground? Larry Gragg digs beneath the glitzy surface of America's 'sin city' to find out how this extravagant home of gambling and glamour came into being.
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- February 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
IN THE 1974 BLOCKBUSTER Godfather Ha character named Hyman Roth, modelled after crime boss Meyer Lansky, pays homage to a departed friend,
... he had an idea--to build a city out
of a desert stop-over for GI's on the
way to the West Coast. That kid's
name was Moe Green--and the city
he invented was Las Vegas. This was a
great man--a man of vision and guts.
And there isn't even a plaque--or a
signpost--or a statue of him in that
town! ...
Green is a reference to Lansky's associate Benjamin, 'Bugsy' Siegel of the infamous New York and Brooklyn-based crime syndicate known as Murder Incorporated. Seventeen years after ...