Unconventional Las Vegas history airs Feb. 26 on PBS as repeat
It’s almost surely a re-run of the 2005 PBS two-part classic confected for the 100th anniversary of Las Vegas’ founding, but it’s worth watching the American Experience screening at 9 p.m. tonight (Feb. 26) of “Las Vegas: An Unconventional History” on KLVX-TV Channel 10.
(For those who might have missed it, the two-VHS set is available for $24.99 from www.shoppbs.org or from www.amazon.com for $22.99.)
Las Vegas started out as a railroad land promotion on May 15, 1905 with the auction of townsite lots conducted from the side of a boxcar. An abundant set of nearby artesian springs made the place a major watering stop for the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, later to become the Union Pacific Railroad.
By 1931 when construction began on Boulder Dam, gambling and prostitution were rampant. In the 1950s and 1960s the Mob had control of the major casinos such as the Stardust, closed last October after 48 years of operation. The Mob couldn’t finance great expansion of resort hotels and casinos, so in stepped Howard Hughes who used his fortune to snap up and control the major casinos. That eventually led to the control of Strip casinos and resorts by large corporations, some Nevada based, and some not.
The unconventional history of Las Vegas has many quirks and nuances connected to it. Major highlights are addressed in the PBS documentary. The main criticism of the work is the lack of disclosure in the over-dominating interviews of Brian Greenspun, president and editor of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper. It would have been more honest to disclose that it is his family’s American Nevada Co. whose real estate (mainly housing) developments provide the cash cow for Greenspun publications, including the Sun.
For the uninitiated, America Nevada Co. bills itself as “a preeminent real estate developer” in Southern Nevada. It specializes in the development of master-planned communities, office parks, retail centers and mixed-use properties.
