What Are the Best Las Vegas History Books?

I was wondering if there are any books you could recommend about the history of Las Vegas. Something that would be both entertaining and historical. I have been to the Mob Museum and found that fascinating. There are so many books out there about Vegas I was hoping you had a favorite or two,

Happy to. And not just our choices, but those of other experts as well.

Our number-one choice for a Las Vegas history book that's both enlightening and entertaining is our own The First 100. This was a joint venture between us and the Las Vegas Review-Journal (back in the good old days), so the thumbnail portraits of the men and women who most shaped Las Vegas -- 100 of the most colorful and influential personalities over the past 115 years -- were written by resident historians/reporters and the book is profusely illustrated with archival black-and-white photographs. Best of all, the paperback edition is available now for the ridiculously low price of $5.

Other history books we like include The Money and the Power by Sally Denton and Roger Morris; Lady Las Vegas by our old departed friend Susan Berman; Sin, Sun and Suburbia by Geoff Schumacher; Las Vegas: A Centennial History by Eugene Moehring and Michael Green, and Resort City in the Sunbelt by Eugene Moerhing.

Our colleague Jeff from VintageLasVegas agrees with us about Las Vegas: A Centennial History, which he recommends "for those who want to read about more than just hotels" and says is "the best I know in that category."

Jeff also sent us the following selections.

"My favorites are firmly in the sign & architecture realm:

Viva Las Vegas: After-Hours Architecture (1993) by Alan Hess is now 27 years old, so it's officially out of date by Las Vegas standards, but no one writes about mid-century architecture history like Alan Hess. This book explains better than any how the style of Las Vegas came to be. Hess also wrote a fantastic introduction for Motel Vegas (2019) by Fred Signman, which is my favorite photo book. The worthy successor to Hess's book is The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream (2017) by Stefan Al -- very reliable, enjoyable, and up-to-date. The Magic Sign (1993) by Charles Barnard would be my first reply to this, but it's so rare that it's almost cruel to mention it to people. It's my go-to encyclopedia of Las Vegas signs, manufacturers, and designers. I also have a great respect for Larry Gragg's biography of Bugsy Siegel for being accurate.

Another friend, Karen Carmichael, author of Eyes in the Sky (which is extremely entertaining, if not a comprehensive history) tells us, "Su Kim Chung of UNLV Special Collections helped me tremendously to track down photos for Eyes. Her book, Las Vegas Then and Now, is great. And I was recently gifted Healing Las Vegas, by Stefani Evans. The stories and testimonials that accompany the photos in that book are amazing. I must have cried 100 times.

As good as the books are, you can also watch two excellent documentary videos: 1) The City of Las Vegas: The Early Years 1905-1920 and 2) The Twenties. The first 75-minute production premiered on May 15, 2019, Las Vegas' 114th birthday, the second (72 minutes) exactly a year later. Both were funded by the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial, in part using revenue generated from the special commemorative Las Vegas Centennial license plate, and both are extremely well-done and worth watching. We hope another is released next year.

For anyone who doesn't want to watch the full hour-plus "Twenties" video, here's a link to a 28-minute truncated "pre-show" version. We also hear that the Commission has funded a "Thirties" version that, perhaps, will be released next May.

How about it, QoDers? Got any favorite Las Vegas history books you'd like to recommend?

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

Have a question that hasn't been answered? Email us with your suggestion.

Missed a Question of the Day?

Have a Question?

Tomorrow's Question

Has Clark County ever considered legalizing prostitution?

Comments

Dave Jun-22-2020

Dr Dave Schwartz

You can’t go wrong with any of Dr Dave’s books. 
https://dgschwartz.com


Note: Although my name is Dave, I’m not Dr Dave.

Donald Levkus Jun-22-2020

Don L.

JU

Donald Levkus Jun-22-2020

Good Read

Just finished The First 100. VERY interesting and informative.

lonvg Jun-22-2020

Pete Earley

Several years ago, I really enjoyed Pete Earley's book Super Casino

Jeff Jun-22-2020

Some more books

 1. Tom Wolfe's famous 1964 Esquire article "Las Vegas (What?) LAS VEGAS (Can't hear you! Too noisy) LAS VEGAS !!!!" is free and a must read on the Esquire website. https://classic.esquire.com/las-vegas/

2. Mario Puzo "Inside Las Vegas " Puzo loved Vegas. The book has amazing photos. 

3. "Vegas: A Memoir of a Dark Season " John Gregory Dunne. Dunne (Joan Didion's late husband) wrote about his experiences and the people he encountered in Vegas after leaving his home in L.A. and living in Vegas for several months during a serious depression. It's a little known book.

4. "Literary Las Vegas: The Best Writing About America's Most Fabulous City," 1995. A large collection of various articles and short stories about Las Vegas. 

5. "Learning from Las Vegas," 1972. Robert Venturi, a prominent architect was the first in his field to seriously study the architecture of the Strip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_from_Las_Vegas

All the books are still available on Amazon.

Kevin Lewis Jun-22-2020

How Vegas became a city, sort of

My favorite history of Vegas book is more recent--Sun, Sin, and Suburbia, by Jeff Schumacher (2012). In it, he chronicles Las Vegas's attempts to become just another typical American city--Phoenix, but with casinos. I was aa resident during that time and saw things like actual paved sidewalks (Sahara, very near the Strip, had dirt sidewalks well into the 90s!), city parks, and businesses springing up in the outer reaches of Vegas--suburbia in the environs of Sin City.

Particularly hilarious is the story of how "locals'" casinos winkled themselves into neighborhoods and subdivisions that were expressly intended to NOT have casinos.

Jon Anderson Jun-22-2020

LV Documentarys

Just watched the 2+ hrs of documentaries you supplied the link for in today's QoD. So informative and interesting the time flew by. Thank you LVA for the link and kudos to the commission for the Las Vegas centennial for funding an incredibly entertaining and informational program.

Jun-23-2020

recent book

I don't know whether any of the books listed in the Answer are what I'm thinking of, but last summer I read with an ad or a story that announced that a "coffee table" book about Las Vegas history (and I believe about architecture too) was going to be published in the fall (if not the winter) and they were accepting advance payments to reserve purchases of the book.  I basically forgot about it and misplaced the paper, so I can't even say what the title was.  Were any of the books on the list published within the last year?

IdahoPat Jun-23-2020

My Top 5 ...

... in no particular order.

1. Whale Hunt in the Desert: Secrets of a Las Vegas Superhost, Deke Castleman. Basically a biography of Steve Cyr, who pioneered a lot of marketing efforts toward high rollers that are still in place today.

2. Grandissimo, David Schwartz. Biography of Jay Sarno, the creative force behind both Caesars Palace and Circus Circus, and embodiment of all things self-destructive.

3. Casino, Nicolas Pileggi. Honestly, speaking to a forum of Vegas enthusiasts, if you've failed to read the book and/or see the movie, Anthony should just refund you your money and kick you out of the forum -- it's that big of a sin!

4. The Murder of Sonny Liston, Shaun Assael. A true-crime story based in Las Vegas, but rarely about the Las Vegas people think of.

5. Lost Vegas, Paul McGuire. A known blogger sets up camp in a seedy Vegas motel and covers the WSOP at the height of the online poker boom.

Question of the Day - 22 June 2020

Comments