Vegas: The City the Mob Made (DVD)

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"When was the last time you were in Vegas?"
--George Clooney as Danny Ocean, "Ocean's Eleven."

Well, Mr. Ocean, it was April, 2009, my second visit. I'd been once before in 2002 for a basketball tournament and was consistently told I needed to return at age 21. I brought a longtime friend from college along who hadn't yet experienced Sin City. We ate well (buffet after buffet after buffet), walked everywhere (we stayed at New York-New York, so everything pretty much required a trek north up the Strip), saw high quality entertainment (Cirque de Soleil's "Zumanity," the spectacular rock-and-roll drama "Jersey Boys," and the Broadway classic "The Phantom of the Opera"), and had a great time during our three nights (if you've never been to Vegas, three nights is just about right for a first visit). After generously contributing to the local economy in southern Nevada, we returned home rich with memories and a desire to do it all over again.

Unsurprisingly, Vegas hasn't always been this way. In fact, during its history and "Golden Age," Vegas was about as typical as you might expect from a town in the developing American Southwest. This desert paradise has gone through significant changes over time, thanks to influence from mobsters, city planners, gangsters, local citizens, organized crime and organized communities. "Vegas: The City the Mob Made" opens a window into the past and unlocks a door with a key to the present. This isn't the best documentary on an American city you'll ever see, and although it takes an episode or two to warm up, my guess is you'll be somewhat interested or entertained (perhaps both, if you're lucky).

The series is broken into ten episodes and spread over two discs. It isn't uncommon to see the filmmakers duplicate or reuse materials you saw in an earlier episode, meaning they sought continuity and consistency or were underfunded (again, perhaps it's both). Each episode has the same opening two-minute sequence with a nighttime Strip flyover and narration, and the same experts tout their unique personal experiences and knowledge throughout. There is a solid blend of personal stories and hard facts, which gives a different degree of credibility to this work. It lacks not in content, but in presentation. The first four episodes feel like traditional documentaries, and in a series about not just Vegas, but the Mob's significant influence therein, I had different expectations. When I think "Vegas," certain images and perceptions drift into my brain. The same happens when I think "Mob," and I was excited about how this feature might play with a viewer's perceptions and present a unique product. Instead, this series feels quite conventional, while "Vegas" and "Mob" scream unconventional. Although it didn't mesh for me, the content and structure are on point. As I stated, the issue is with presentation.

Here's an episode breakdown and quick synopsis (some of the titles are pretty self-explanatory):

Episode 1 – The Mob Before Las Vegas (they spent most of their time in New York)

Episode 2 – Las Vegas Before the Mob (yeah, there wasn't much out there)

Episode 3 – The Mob Comes to Las Vegas (they really started in the 1920s and 1930s)

Episode 4 – Las Vegas' Golden Age (that'd be between the end of World War II to 1960)

Episode 5 – On Top of the World (bigger acts, more tourists and higher revenues)

Episode 6 – Las Vegas Becomes a Modern City (extravagance and technology start creeping in)

Episode 7 – Vegas Reinvents Itself (the old Mob fades, but the new Mob expands)

Episode 8 – The End of Mob Rule in Las Vegas (the 1980s)

Episode 9 – Corporate Vegas (the beginning of Vegas as we know it today)

Episode 10 – Las Vegas – America's Third City (the twenty-first century)

Early on, we learn it was ironically the Mormons who first settled in Vegas (aside from Natives who had a presence, a Mexican trader named Rafael Rivera who called the area "Vegas" ["the springs"] and traders, fur trappers and explores travelling between New Mexico and California), attracted to the natural spring water sources nearby. Early efforts to harness these water resources were coupled with some work on the converting the Natives, but all changed in 1864 when the southern tip of Nevada was formally linked with the rest of the state and removed from Arizona territory. Vegas developed slowly after this (in 1900, the city's population was a whopping 20 persons), but more or less remained in the "old west" persona. There weren't a ton of hotels, but the gambling and alcohol were plentiful as the city retained a mining town feel. Vegas was formally founded on May 15, 1905.

As the railroads grew throughout the west, Vegas expanded its downtown into the Fremont Street district and increased its production of alcohol throughout the prohibition years (according to the disc, no one in 1920s Vegas really thought getting rid of alcohol made sense, including the police chief, mayor and city officials). By now, the population had grown to 2,304 and the Great Depression had sunk in. In another ironic twist, the Depression helped Vegas out. Folks seemed to want a place that wasn't horribly impacted and provided cheap fun and entertainment, plus it brought an appropriation from President Herbert Hoover to build the Boulder (later changed to Hoover) Dam. All those workingmen needed three things that Vegas provided: booze, sex and gambling. Once the state legalized gambling in 1931, the population soared to 25,000. Four years later the dam was finished, and soon the city entered its Golden Age. With the 1950s came some of the big casinos and hotels you may recognize: the Sahara, the Sands, the Showboat, the Last/New Frontier, the Riviera and the Tropicana.