For this answer, we turned to someone else who's obsessed with the Rat Pack era and its lingering legacy in Las Vegas. Jessica McManus Warnell is the author of Finding Frank: The Glorious Golden Age in the New Las Vegas, due in 2007. Here's her report.
The "new" Vegas, as everyone knows, has upped the ante with megaresorts, first-class dining, Broadway entertainment, decadent spas, ultra lounges, and all the modern amenities. But aficionados lament the increasing homogenization of the city, while classic locales are closed, razed, and imploded at a staggering rate. The Sands and Desert Inn are memories, and all that remains of Bugsy's reign at the Flamingo is a plaque in its recent rose garden. It's become so serious, in my opinion, that Vegas risks abandoning all that made it "Vegas, baby!" in the first place, and I encourage visitors to seek its storied, luminous, glitzy glory.
Old-school spots invoke the mood of collective memory: cocktail dresses and slender suits; martinis dry and tall (rather than pink and sugar-rimmed); Dean Martin's voice wafting through the air. In this race to the luxurious but mundane, nostalgia is now a niche for an increasing number of seekers, like yourself, of a time when Vegas was, in Mike Weatherford's immortal words, "the swingin'est town on Earth!"*
To find it, however, you have to look pretty hard. Here are some pointers.
Your first stop should be the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign at the far southern end of the south Strip. Erected in 1959 at a cost of $4,000 (see QoD 8/21/05), every headliner since then, no matter how major or minor, who drove in from Hollywood has passed it.
A few grand dames from the era that still hold their primo-Strip ground include the Tropicana, Riviera, Sahara, and Caesars Palace. The Riviera exudes old-school style (and is often a bargain for a Strip resort). Except for its NASCAR wing, my favorite is the Sahara, with its venerable Casbar Lounge and low-limit casino.
The Tropicana features the last remaining "garden rooms" on the Las Vegas Strip. These low-rise buildings consist of the original rooms, complete with outdoor balconies looking over the pool. Who knows what hanky-panky might have taken place on some of these very same balconies 50 years ago? But see them while you can: The Tropicana has an upcoming date with the Grim Imploding Reaper.
Bally's, once the site of the original MGM Grand and now a Harrah's property branded as "Classic Vegas" with modern amenities, and the Tropicana feature the last two full-blown old-guard Vegas revues, Folies Bergère and Jubilee! Both are reminders of the glitzy glamour and audacious entertainment when Steve Wynn was a liquor distributor. Folies is the longest-running Vegas show, going on 50 years old. Jubilee! – celebrating its 25th anniversary – is Vegas kitsch at its best. Spend a bit more on the Backstage Walking Tour – with an old-fashioned showgirl, no less, as your guide.
You can also hit the Greek Isles for the quintessential tribute show, The Rat Pack is Back – A Tribute to Frank, Sammy, Joey and Dean. Also from the Greek Isles, you can take the Vegas Mob Tour bus trip to locations of "murder and mayhem" from organized-crime's Vegas heyday (it runs every Saturday through Thursday at 9:30 pm; cost $56.25, but there's a 2-for-1 coupon in the 2007 LVA Pocketbook of Values).
Downtown, you’ll find the El Cortez, Las Vegas’ only hotel-casino to retain its original façade (all the way back to 1942). Stand on the corner of Fremont and Sixth and you can see exactly what Ben Siegel, Sammy Davis Jr., Joe E. Lewis, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Lili St. Cyr, Liberace, and Elvis saw. The glass dome atop the Plaza’s Center Stage restaurant overlooking Fremont Street was originally built as a martini-glass-shaped swimming pool. And a stroll along Glitter Gulch and its side streets puts you inside the Neon Museum, where refurbished neon signs from the good old days shine on. Also try the Beauty Bar on Fremont near Fifth, a retro-cool ‘50s’ beauty-salon-themed nightspot. The bar features (New Jersey) retro salon equipment, including hair-dryer seats in which Lucy and Ethel would’ve felt right at home, and Las Vegas lighting -- the alcove lights are from the venerable (and recently razed) Algiers Motel.
A handful of Rat Pack restaurants. The Bootlegger Bistro, at 7700 Las Vegas Blvd. S. next to the Outlet Center, is open all hours and offers live old-school Vegas entertainment. The Peppermill coffee shop, at 2985 Las Vegas Blvd. on the north Strip, features the retro-vibe Fireside Lounge, which could be Vegas’ original ultra lounge. And an actual favorite Rat Pack hangout is Piero’s Italian Cuisine (formerly Villa d’Este), at 355 Convention Center Drive; with the lights turned down low, Dean Martin music playing, and love in the air, you can almost imagine Frank and Dino walking in and nodding to everyone, even Bugsy and Virginia Hill.
Finally, for a great soundtrack, pop into your iPod or CD player Sinatra: Vegas, a just-released four-CD/one-DVD set.
Everywhere you go, keep your eyes and ears open for the signs that Sinatra’s magic era of cool lives on -- and continues to fascinate.
