orermore because... ♪ geran: in las vegas, everything has to do with the tourists. so, you still have segregation existing, and it didn't make sense. ♪ please be true ♪ geran: but as the country started changing, las vegas would change, too. ♪ ♪ in other words ♪ ♪ i...love ♪ ♪ ♪ you ♪ [ applause ] the las vegas showgirl was a unique specimen. weatherford: vegas probably hung onto its sexism longer than it should have. schumacher: the state of nevada was constantly vigilant about doing whatever it took to keep the feds out. reporter: for the mafia, las vegas is an open city.

zoglin: elvis was the hottest thing in show biz. he changed rock 'n' roll. mckee: your heart's pounding, and you're getting this build up. he was at the top of his game again. ♪ announcer: friends, viewers, countrymen, lend me your eyeballs. las vegas has always been able to grab you by the lapels and pull you in. little: it's glitz and glamour, entertainment, gambling. it's a place that's like no other. announcer: with time on your hands and money to spend, your thoughts may turn to las vegas. anka: by the late '60s, vegas started to figure out, "what else can we bring here?" woman: love you, elvis! thank you, dear. ♪ elvis was, like, an alien-like thing. he was so unique, so charming, and so hot.

they saw that sex and debauchery sells, so let's do sex and debauchery. [ chuckles ] ♪ ♪ ♪ luck, be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ ♪ luck, be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ tonight ♪ ♪ luck, if you ever were a lady to begin with ♪ ♪ luck, be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ ♪ luck, be a ladyyyyyy ♪

♪ toniiiiiight ♪ the stars of the las vegas shows may be frank sinatra, dean martin, and wayne newton, but for years, the fantasy and the razzle dazzle came from the famous long-legged showgirls. ♪ the las vegas showgirl was a unique specimen. she was very tall, minimum of 5'9", and to be hired, your body had to be, i mean, perfect. schwartz: a lot of things went into being a showgirl. it wasn't just about being able to dance. it was being able to wear the costumes. they were incredibly elaborate affairs -- lots of feathers, lots of sequins. mckee: i had some headpieces that would be about 20 pounds. i wore headdresses that it took two people to carry backstage to put on me. little: that was a way to open up a show -- having a bunch of girls come out in skimpy little costumes

and get everybody excited and then bring out the headliner. woman: in this business, you have to make it while you can, because once you reach the age of 30, they automatically bring somebody younger in. weatherford: las vegas probably hung onto its sexism longer than a lot of places, and definitely longer than it should have. reporter: these women are outraged at the clichés and stereotypes that hold women to be creatures of inferior intellect. they resent the way women are portrayed as sexual playthings, conditioned to believe that their sole reason for existence is to snare and service men. ♪ green: in the early '60s, you are seeing women fighting for their rights, but that's leading people to look at las vegas and say, "well, the only women you get to see in las vegas, if they aren't showroom stars, are showgirls showing most or all of themselves." what does this say about las vegas?

schumacher: you look at the cultural movements of the 1960s in america, las vegas was not a leader because whatever was good for the economy was good for las vegas. culturally, las vegas missed the boat. when i was 16, i was working in paris in the moulin rouge, and then i got a contract for the casino de paris at the dunes. we landed in vegas. it was 3:00 in the morning, december 7th, freezing cold, and we had to get into our costumes and do a dance on the tarmac. i thought they were crazy. i said, "this is vegas?" schwartz: some of the showgirls wore all the sequins, some of them wore fewer sequins. at the time, most american entertainment was still fairly conservative. in your town, women don't walk around on the stage topless, but here, they do.

so it had this kind of countercultural appeal. mckee: we had a lot of power. i could get whatever i wanted whenever i wanted because of how i looked and the position that i had in vegas. you were kind of on a pedestal. it was such an honor to be a showgirl. do you know how few showgirls there were? i mean come on, to be a showgirl? ugh. ♪ gill: it could have been very exploitative if you couldn't stand your ground and say no. i did a strip in the show. i said, "look, i want to make it classy, sophisticated, and elegant." i took the stockings off and took my shoes off, but i said, "i don't want to wind up with just a g-string on." i said, "i don't mind taking these things off, but i'm gonna put my shoes back on 'cause it made you finished and elegant." it wasn't the whole, "oh, well, let's see boobs." it all was glamour and sophistication, done with class.

binkley: i think that when we hear former showgirls saying that they felt empowered, that you have to hear that in the context at the time that they experienced that. i don't think there's a doubt that that era of showgirls in las vegas was exploitative. but that doesn't mean that they weren't being exploited better there than they might have been exploited someplace else. ♪ mckee: whenever i would go out to the casino, there were always men that wanted me to come over and bring 'em luck. and then if they'd win, they'd give you chips, they'd give you money. i was making more money than my father was making working his whole life in detroit. without the women, i don't think you would have had the money in vegas. the richest men in the world were in that audience. we got to a point where the long stem roses would come in, never met the guy, and if the box did not rattle with jewelry, we didn't open it.

binkley: they were paid really well, but i don't think that in the post "metoo" era that we look at that kind of experience as empowered. ♪

♪ hey, young man, if you want an autograph, would you stand in the back there? but i'm -- i don't care who you are. everybody want -- i'm -- i'm -- i'm -- i'm elvis presley. elvis presley! [ women screaming ]

from '56 to '58, elvis was the hottest thing in show biz. he changed show business. he changed rock 'n' roll. and then, at the height of his stardom, he gets drafted. announcer: the king of rock 'n' roll no longer has that rock 'n' roll beat. the tempo is, "hut, two, three, four" for private presley. he's at camp chaffee, arkansas, beginning his two-year army hitch courtesy of the memphis draft board. schilling: but even though elvis wasn't performing the whole time he was in the army, he was still on the charts, and elvis came back to a career. and he came back in a big way. he was on the frank sinatra special. man: there he is, folks! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ we work in the same way, only in different areas. [ laughter ] weatherford: it adds an extra layer of irony for vegas buffs

with this special that welcomed him back. you had the outgoing and the future kings of vegas there on the same tv show. ♪ i love you ♪ man, that's pretty. [ laughter ] ♪ and i always will ♪ [ women screaming ] zoglin: vegas became elvis' retreat, his place to go for rest and relaxation. elvis and his friends from memphis would travel around the town at night going from show to show, and some smart newspaper columnist dubbed them the "memphis mafia." vegas was perfect. it was a place where elvis could have freedom as a star amongst stars that he could not have even in hollywood. if we wanted to go to see a lounge act at 2:00 in the morning, we did that.

it was our kind of life. zoglin: after 1960, colonel tom parker, his manager, didn't think that rock 'n' roll was gonna last, so he decided that elvis would do no more live performing. he would just do recording and make movies. one of his best films from the '60s was "viva las vegas." can you help me, please? can we help you? yes, ma'am. well, then, i'd like you to check my motor. it whistles. i don't blame it. what did you say? ♪ zook: in "viva las vegas," you have elvis presley and ann-margret together. they have this incredible chemistry. ann-margret turned the tables on the traditional vegas chanteuse that was always a secondary role or window dressing. hold on for a second. you can't do that to me! zook: in "viva las vegas," she speaks her mind. she doesn't take a lot of guff from elvis. she's a very strong female character.

that was appealing to a lot of the female audience back in the mid-'60s. ♪ it was a film that probably gives you the best picture of las vegas in that era. vegas was always indebted to elvis for putting it on the map. schumacher: it made it look fun. it made it look sexy. it glamorized the place. ♪ viva las vegas ♪ ♪ viva las vegas ♪ ♪ viva, viva las vegas ♪ schumacher: who didn't want to come to las vegas after seeing that movie? announcer: this rock 'n' roll group has taken over as the kingpins of musical appreciation among the younger element. you guessed it -- the beatles. ♪

the beatles actually made a stop in las vegas on their first us tour. zook: the beatles had come in 1964. they wanted to see las vegas. when the beatles came here, they played the convention center. of course, it was a mob scene. ♪ but it was a whirlwind. they came through one day, and left. [ cheering ] schumacher: the beatles were a bit of an anomaly because las vegas wanted to capitalize financially on whatever was going on, but when you look deeper, las vegas was resistant to rock 'n' roll. it was resistant to the counterculture that was happening all over the country. reporter: how would you compare this beatlemania to the idol worship around frank sinatra and elvis presley? to my mind, those of us who are an older generation, of course, think the beatles, you know, they don't appeal to us at all. zoglin: as the '60s went on, the counterculture revolution was happening, vietnam,

the whole rock 'n' roll revolution, and vegas was old-fashioned. vegas was your parents' entertainment. charles: they didn't want the party people. they wanted gamblers. they wanted people who were adult and successful enough to spend a lot of money on the tables. ♪ takes a worried man to sing a worried song ♪ ♪ takes a worried man to sing -- ♪ oh, hold it. hold -- hold it. who the hell's worried? they were much more interested in this nostalgic form of music that would appeal to that wider base. man: ladies and gentlemen, wayne newton. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ hello, my honey ♪ ♪ hello, my baby ♪ ♪ hello, my ragtime gal ♪ wayne newton was sort of the cultural bridge between elvis and frank sinatra. he was doing a sinatra-type show with that veneer of class. ♪ danke schoen ♪ ♪ darling, danke schoen ♪

♪ thank you for all the joy and pain ♪ i was comfortable in the kind of music that frank did. loved the ballads, loved to be able to sing that way. zook: wayne newton started out performing in the lounge at the fremont hotel in downtown las vegas. he'd have to go sit in the coffee shop and drink a coke in between shows [chuckles] 'cause he was way too young to be anywhere in the hotel other than the stage or the coffee shop. newton: the gentleman who was auditioning us listened to two songs. and he got up to leave and i thought, "well, back to school." and he said, "if we can get you a work permit, then i'll hire you for two weeks." the two-week engagement turned into a five-year contract. ♪ fly me to the moon ♪

♪ let me sing among the stars ♪ i think the time has come and gone that a singer can just stand and sing. you have to do more things than just sing. you have to be a performer. then it's a little easier to achieve some kind of longevity. ♪ in other words, i love you ♪ listen to that, george. you're all talkin'. i can tell you if i learned anything about show business, it came from those five years in the lounges. the discipline that it taught me, the rapport with the audience that it taught me -- i couldn't even begin to articulate all the things that that five years has meant to my life. ♪ i said, in other words ♪ ♪ i love you ♪ yeah, i do.

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but in the state government in nevada, there was this feeling that this was a way for this state and for this city to grow. the casinos were gonna be good for the economy. anka: they were running a great business. they knew how to do it, they knew how to cater to people, and it was a great place to work. ♪ zoglin: frank sinatra definitely had connections with the mafia going back into the '40s. exactly how close it is is always a little bit of a question. schumacher: frank sinatra was a jazz crooner, right? and all these nightclubs were owned by the mob. so he had this inevitable interaction with mobsters all over the country. schwartz: frank sinatra was trying to fit into many different worlds at once. one, he always liked to pal around with the mob guys from his youth. you know, two, he's trying to make it as a political figure with jfk. so imagine you're going to see frank sinatra and dean and sammy at the copa, and you're sitting there

and all of a sudden in the middle of a show, sinatra gets up and says, "hey, wait. we have somebody in the audience." the brightest man in the political world in this country or any other country today, say hello to john kennedy from the great state of massachusetts. [ cheers and applause ] bow! follow that, joey. [ laughter ] you son of a gun, you got the jewish vote. [ laughter ] schwartz: originally, sinatra and jfk got along very well. sinatra had been one of his biggest supporters. the mob guys, it's been alleged, were also his supporters. the mob really was excited about john kennedy becoming president because they thought he was one of them. what they didn't anticipate was that he was going to appoint his brother bobby to be the attorney general. i was seriously concerned with organized crime before i took office. i have become even more aware of how far racketeering

has infiltrated our society. the mafia thought they were pretty much protected with helping jfk get elected, but when bobby kennedy came in, things started to evolve where the heat was too intense. where we have seen illegal gambling operate, it has not been a very happy picture so far. senator: have you found, then, that legalized gambling actually attracts this element of society into its midst? it does, senator. schwartz: so bobby kennedy gets it into his head that the mob is using las vegas, basically, to wash all their money. he wants to come and shut down all the casinos and kick the mob out. it is my firm belief that new laws are needed to give the federal bureau of investigation increased jurisdiction to assist local authorities in the common battle against the rackets. ♪

schumacher: the state of nevada was constantly vigilant about doing whatever it took to keep the feds out. one of the ways they could do that is to show that they, in fact, were regulating the casinos here and doing a good job of keeping organized crime out. the state of nevada decided to create the list of excluded persons. it became nicknamed the "black book." the black book was created in 1960, and it's called the black book because, believe it or not, it was in a black binder. they could've been more creative. they made a list of people who could not set foot in a casino. schumacher: it really was a facade to say, "you know what? we're really doing something, you don't need to bother with nevada right now." anka: when the boys ran las vegas, you'd see them sitting at ringside. if that spotlight went off the performer and went into the front rows, guys were jumping under tables.

[ chuckling ] they didn't want to be seen. man: stand back, please. please stand back. reporter: can we just have a word with mr. sinatra? sorry. i'm sorry. can we please have a word with mr. sinatra? schumacher: when frank sinatra started investing in casinos here and in northern nevada, that's when things got a little bit screwy. i'm sorry -- well, when can we get a word -- [ voices distort ] sinatra: in theatrical work and nightclub work and concerts and restaurants, you meet all kinds of people. but then came the ridiculous accusations and statements that i was consorting with mobsters and gangsters. the fact that i used to be involved was a legitimate business reason. schwartz: he entertained sam giancana, who allegedly was the boss of the chicago mob at his lake tahoe casino, the cal neva.

schumacher: when this was discovered, he was forced to relinquish his ownership of that casino. green: at the end of the day, bobby kennedy didn't succeed in clearing out the las vegas mob, but he made them nervous. he put las vegas more squarely in the sights of law enforcement generally, but critics said the mob will find a way around it. they were right. ♪

♪ follow me.

ladies and gentlemen, the dynamic checkmates! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ [ scatting ] ♪ weeee-da-la-la ♪ ♪ la-la-lo-ray-bam, bam bam ma-ma, baby love ♪ ♪ all right ♪ ♪ baaaby ♪ charles: as a kid in the '50s watching television, they would have all of these las vegas acts. those are the people i grew up idolizing, and, in 1963, i got a chance to play here. ♪♪ 'cause i-i-i, i feel blue ♪ we ended up getting a job at a place called the pussycat a go-go. it was five of us -- three black guys, two white guys. one of the first integrated bands to play the city, as a matter of fact. ♪ man: they call themselves the checkmates. and everybody says they're going to be big stars. and if versatility is any criteria, they'll make it.

the checkmates were what i call the backbone of the business. the ones that are always there working, working. charles: we would start at midnight, and we'd finish at 8:00 in the morning. elvis, frank sinatra, and sammy davis and all those people would come over, and the place would be packed the whole time. [ applause ] ♪ we'd heard the whole thing about the mob involvement here, and you didn't want to make those guys angry. they sat us down and they said, "these are the rules. you do your shows, and then you go to your dressing room and you wait 'til your next show. you don't go out and mingle with the audience." and we said, "but we got two white guys." that doesn't get you in. [ laughs ] mckee: black people really weren't welcomed. even though the laws had changed, the people's attitude hadn't changed.

charles: one saturday night, it was raining, and we had black people waiting in line, and there were open seats in the white area. and we said, "wait a minute, these people are standing in the rain, there's open seats. we're not going on until you bring them in." the greatest group that you've ever heard, the checkmates. let's hear it. two, three! ♪ you get to the point that you can make those demands. so it changed. once the bosses saw that we weren't going to run away business by mixing, then they just relaxed a little bit and let it happen. that's when they had the article in the paper saying, "checkmates integrate the strip," which you cannot find that article anywhere anymore. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ man: witness a memorable moment that is about to take place in this luxury of roman architecture,

of italian marble and roman statues. white: in 1966, caesars palace opens with two black cocktail waitresses and a black bartender working in those high-paying, front-of-the-house jobs. and in so many ways, caesars palace is just a bit ahead of the game. man: his name is jay sarno. he dines alone, as is often his custom, in the bacchanal room of his caesars palace hotel in las vegas. the wine girls were handpicked by him. they're a necessary part of his life and his image. oh, my god. jay sarno changed las vegas. and he had ideas that matched nobody else's. sarno comes on and it's, "let's imitate ancient rome." [ chuckling ] you know, "let's run around in togas."

schwartz: in the '60s, vegas started to get a lot bigger, and really, you needed more than just the entertainment to draw people. so now the hotel becomes the main attraction. the timing was so perfect for a mega resort. and everything about it, from the bellman to the busboy to the entertainment, were simply the best there was. when caesars was really going, caesars was here, and the rest of us was all down here. there's never been a place like caesars. ♪ binkley: caesars palace was the first themed hotel. it was literally an ode to hedonism. sarno brought to las vegas this idea of bringing you into the fantasy by having characters throughout the casino.

man: in las vegas now, there is yet another new gambling casino. the gambler is in, under, and surrounded by a circus. circus circus, gambling and circus acts 24 hours a day, one on top of the other. at least 10,000 people daily actually pay admission in a town where admission to practically anything is unheard of. [ circus music playing ] schumacher: sarno's next project was circus circus, and circus circus was as thoroughly themed as caesars palace. it was a wild place. ♪ gill: and they had the trapeze artists, and they had that wonderful elephant, tanya. and she had no qualms about going up to the crap table and sticking her trunk out there and throwing the dice. i mean, it was fabulous. binkley: jay sarno was a playful person who could pull together a lot of money and pull these things off. he saw something that you could do that really didn't exist in las vegas.

so he was both ahead of his time and setting a model for things that would follow. ♪

♪

[ cheers and applause ] liberace: you've been a beautiful audience. bless you. [ bell dinging ] but now, i must fly. [ cheers and applause continue ] ♪ [ crowd exclaims ] mary poppins, eat your heart out. ♪ liberace was an embodiment of this crazy, glitzy loveliness that las vegas wanted to be. mcbride: he recognized that the audience he was playing to were people who came from small towns around the country to las vegas. he wanted to be sure that he gave them a show. [ playing piano ] [ cheers and applause ] ♪

♪ the saying was that what mattered in the showroom was whether you attracted the whales, the big gamblers. sinatra did. liberace really didn't, but he attracted their wives. hi! so the joke was that he was the best of both worlds. the wives went to see liberace while the gamblers went to gamble. yeah, i love yours. it's gorgeous. that's a big stone. i love it. my stones aren't large, but i didn't have to do anything to get mine. [ laughter ] woman: yes, you did! [ laughs ] [ applause ] >> didn't have to do anything to get my do you think that being a bachelor has kept you free to express yourself as you wanted to. well, i think my career has spanned perhaps the most interrupting thing because most of the people i've gotten

involved with romantically don't want to play second fiddle to a piano i worked at the riviera with liber raci and we all knew he was gay. nobody spoke of it, but we that was 1955, by the way, it was like this elaborate game. i know you're gay. you know, i know you're gay. but i'm not going say anything about it. and you're not going to say anything about it. he was absolutely deep deep in the closet that was the way it worked. >> then they didn't tell you and you didn't discuss it? >> nevada had always been a state pretty much behind the times because of religious influence from the mormons. and conventional sexuality from the mob being gay was tantamount to

a death sentence liberal archie had come out and said, i'm gay there was a felony. you can be thrown in jail his career would have been over certainly tragic on one hand, ridiculous on another and so liberal raci managed to stay deeply in the closet while being absolutely busting out of the closet his whole life of entertainment the great misconception about los vegas is that it was a live and let live party and let party place to be. and that might be true. if you're a straight white guy. >> ladies and gentlemen so night live from caesars palace in las vegas. this is tom jone s

>> tom jones brought the male sex appeal to las vegas, brought the sweat and then buttoned shirt and the chest hair to vegas the women adored him. >> they were throwing their intimate apparel at him onstage he wore those really, really, really tight polyester pants with his basket sticking right out there. >> and swiveling in a way that even an elvis presley never did you have loud music outlandish, close and a more raw kind of sexuality than you ever had in the 19 50s, or in the early

1960s the fact that he was from wales, we thought of him as having an international appeal, but that will only hear used to always really do with this generation small shift in vegas where you go from sinatra to tom jones singers are getting a little bit more dangerous it's just a much different vod that was a real sensational change because sexuality became key ingredient to success and margaret is another case in point she was perfect with her dancing, with her films, enter

popularity. vegas terror to realize they could broaden the base of entertainment and margaret became a pretty big vegas start. >> she did a show in the late 60s that caught the counterculture hippy, psychedelic feeling. it was very visual and fast she wrote a harley out on stay she was just this very flamboyant sexual performer was like, i can't be an margaret yeah it can be an margaret and that's when you started getting an margaret almost in a g string with ropes and ropes of rein stones and lots and lots more bare skin. >> that was a total change in las vegas, you began to see more and more of that kind of

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tongue moves down one mole stuff crumbled all around lager house in the 1960s, elvis was making a string of musicals. >> basically plane the same character over and over and over elvis made a lot of bad movies, not bad, but just stupid. >> boy finds girl, girl five, stupid movies. >> imagine that the entire 1960s go on and everything that's happening in rock music. the beatles rolling stones, and poor elvis has just doing when movies and recording, he's not doing any live performing his career really needed a reboot elvis

went to see tom jones has first vegas showed the 1968. he went backstage and he told tom, this is really exciting me and i've really got to get back to live performing. so he signed a deal with nbc to do a special event. b, c, and the elvis presley's special he looked incredibly handsome in the audience was seated around him and suddenly people remembered why they liked elvis presley most of elvis presley's early music contemporaries are now fairly footnotes in the history of

rock and roll. that's because they didn't have the one thing that elvis presley had colonel tom parker after the success of the pelvis, comeback special, the kernel decided, okay, now is the time for elvis to come back to live performing. >> and the kernel decided that to make a splash, las vegas was the place to do it. >> well, now it was announced the country was excited and the notion that he was going to perform in las vegas gave a lot of people who did not come to las vegas on a regular basis, a new excuse to come it so happened that the international hotel was just being completed it had 2000 seats twice as large as any showroom in las vegas. and they were looking for a suitably big star to open the hotel and they wanted elvis but the colonel said, elvis will play your hotel, but he doesn't want to be first the host hell is still being completed. he wanted to make sure that all the sound system was right. there weren't any

glitches. he said, let somebody else be first will come in second so the hotel went to their second choice barbra streisand, open the hotel in july 1969 colonel parker had in mind a traditional kind of vegas show with dancing girls and stuff elvis said, i'm doing if my way, or i'm not doing it. >> i think you're aware that this is called elvis is summer. but i feel that we as members of the international hotel good. put forth our effort and making sure that this is the greatest engagement of elvis's career the entire town was just elvis. >> elvis everywhere there were balloons, there were posters. >> he went in the grocery market. >> al-hussein coming he has

been on the stage and ten years and everybody's waiting to see it. >> it's like a championship fight, but i know he's gonna be the winner every movie star every celebrity you could think of your hearts found and you're getting this build-up for the show. >> it's kinda quiet. people who didn't stuff ready it's when he walked out on that stage wearing the white jumpsuit and you saw him. >> this was the first time i had seen him live. i get goosebumps just thinking about it my dad saved all his money and took my mother and myself to see elvis presley. and he knew how to play to the crowd. he was at the top of his game

again we're caught in a trap the climax of that vegas show was one big seven minute number that nobody had heard before. >> he had recorded it, but hadn't released it yet suspicious minds we rolling stone called the show's his own resurrection it was an amazing endorsement by all the rock critics and the audiences too. >> i must have seen him close to 200 times. and i loved it every time i would come out exhilarated and non-cloud nine

in the late 60s vegas was trying to get him what elvis proved was that vegas could be welcoming to rock and roll. >> that rock and roll wasn't just a little sideline in the lounge but it could be big, big entertainment on the main vegas stage and that was something new howard hughes quiz the starting point for the corporatization of las vegas. he was helping to build modern las vegas as we know it in federal grand jury looking into the links between organized crime and las vegas casinos, handed down on an indictment when elvis was in vegas, the city was on fire. >> i noticed a decline and overseas appreciation of being on stage, i think he had this fear of getting older, being relevant, and then a gd