So... Alright - Viva las Vegas

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Geoff pours over the history of Las Vegas, from its Mormon beginnings, to its nuclear attraction era, to the family friendly destination of the 80s. We also go over some NBA of course. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam So, today I wanna talk to you all a little bit about Las Vegas. I mentioned last week that I was kind of doing a rabbit hole on closed Vegas casinos and hotels. I don't know, just some of them were wild and crazy themed. Anyway, as I went down that rabbit hole, it turned into something a little different. But we're going to get into it first. However, I have to give you our now weekly update

on the Luca AD situation. AD still out, still hurt, but no update on his health. I think he gets reevaluated next week. But in the last week, since we have recorded, we recorded last Tuesday, whatever day that was, and today we are recording again March 4th on a Tuesday. Let's look at how the Lakers and the Mavs have done post-trade. The Mavs are 1-3 in the last week, meaning they've won one game, they've lost three. One of

those games was against the Lakers, it was NLA, so Luca got to play against his his old team. on his new home court He had a triple double 19 points 15 rebounds 12 assists by all accounts Fantastic game pretty inefficient shooting. He's missing a lot of shots. That's kind of continued across the board Luke is playing very well overall, but his his shot efficiency is down Not sure what to attribute that to, maybe just learning to work within the new system, but he is excelling everywhere else.

The Lakers, however, in the last week are four and oh, which, man, I'm so conflicted here because I so want to root for Luka because of this fucking trade, but it's the Lakers, you know? So I can't be happy about the Lakers going four and O, but I will say it seems to be working out for them, this incredibly one-sided trade that everybody thought would work out for them.

Few interesting tidbits though. Last night in the Dallas Mavericks game, Kyrie Irving, who is, if you would say Anthony Davis is the number one player on the team, you'd have to say Kyrie is number two. Then I guess maybe Clay would be a distant number three. I don't know. He's been pretty good this year. However, Kyrie Irving is the best thing they have going for him right now since 80 is out.

And he sprained his knee last night badly, badly had to be helped over to. He got fouled and sprained his knee so bad he had to be helped over to, he got fouled and sprained his knee so bad he had to be helped off the court, which is not a great sign. I will say he shot his free throws. He had to be helped over to the free throw line, shot his free throws and then was helped off the court. It's just a sprained knee,

but a sprained knee can sideline you for quite a while. Also, Jayden Hardy right after that went down with a sprained ankle. So not only is Anthony Davis now out for Dallas, but their second best player is out and one of the role players is out. Not looking great for them. Today we would talk about the playoff picture though, because everybody knows, because I keep saying it to you guys, that the Dallas Mavericks made this trade because they thought it would help them win now, even though they went to the NBA finals last year with Luka Doncic So let's see how the trade is affecting the rankings the Los Angeles Lakers have climbed all the way up to second place In the West they are 11 games out of first they are in no danger of

Getting first place Oklahoma City has that locked up and they are in some danger of falling right now because Denver Memphis and Houston are right on their heels But Dallas is nowhere to be found. They are holding on to 10th place for dear life. Why is 10th place important? That's the last place in the play-in tournament. So theoretically a 10th place team could make it into the playoffs and then eventually win the championship. That would be insanity. But if they fall to 11th, they got no shot. They're out of the play in. I don't think that's going to happen.

Right behind them is Phoenix and they are a dumpster fire. The Spurs are totally screwed now that women Yama is out. The Pelicans and the Jazz are way too far back. Even if the Pelicans turn it on here with Zion back has been playing pretty well. I don't think there's any way they could come close to competing for that 10th place spot So unless Dallas's recent injuries really tank the team or if they decide to tank to try to go for Cooper flag which I don't think they have any shot at the Cooper flag, by the way, he's a highly highly anticipated and touted

Rookie playing for Duke right now who will be in the NBA draft. And a lot of teams are losing so that they can get a shot at getting him. Kind of like what happened with Wimby last year. This kid's very good. He's not Wimby good, but he's very good. So it looks like the Lakers will probably finish somewhere between second and fourth, which is great. You want to be in the top four. That gives you home court advantage, at least in the first round of the playoffs. And then the Dallas Mavericks, who went to the NBA finals last year

and traded away their best players to make them better now, I might add, are desperately clinging to 10th place. If you're not familiar with what the play in tournament is, it leads into the playoffs by determining who the bottom two teams in the playoffs are. So the 10th place. If you're not familiar with what the play-in tournament is, it leads into the playoffs by determining who the bottom two teams in the playoffs are. So the 10th and ninth place team will play each other. The loser of that game is gone. They're on their way to Cancun.

The winner will go on to play the loser of the seventh and the eighth place team who play. The winner of that game immediately goes into the playoffs. The loser of that game then plays the winner of the nine and 10 game,. The loser of that game then plays the winner of the nine and 10 game and the winner of that game will go on to be the bottom seat in the playoffs. Does that make sense? One through six are guaranteed seven and the winner of seven and eight goes in immediately. The

loser of seven and eight gets a second opportunity to make it into the playoffs by playing the winner of nine and 10. So if you're the ninth to the 10th place team, you have to win your game, then when your second game against the loser of the seventh and eighth place team game to make it into the playoffs, it's a tough road to get into the playoffs, but if Dallas is 10th, they theoretically have a shot. We will see. Talked a lot about TV last week.

I hadn't yet seen Gross Point Garden Society, watched it over the weekend. It is not what I expected and kind of what I expected. The tone is what I expected. The story's a little different. I think I said that it reminded me a little bit of Rosemary in Time. It's not that at all.

It is absolutely Desperate Housewives mixed with How to Get Away with Murder, with the over the top acting. And it's kind of goofy and overly written. If you can if you can get past that and appreciate it for what it is, if you liked Desperate Housewives, I was I wasn't I wasn't really a fan of that show. I liked a few elements of it. But I am I'm bound and determined to give

Grosse Pointe Garden Society every shot because I Just like to see people interacting in the area that I'm gonna be moving to at some point hopefully and also I Like a murder. I like a good murder in a TV show so Cautious thumbs up after watching episode one wasn't the best pilot I have ever seen But also you gotta remember episode ones are always pilots and pilots are never as good as the rest of the show. So you got to keep that in mind. However, I think we should get into Las Vegas because I'm excited to talk about it. When I decided to do this episode, I just went down a couple of interesting

hotel rabbit holes of defunct casinos or whatnot on or near the strip. And all roads kind of kept leading me back to the inception and history of Las Vegas. So I thought, why not start there? How did Las Vegas become Las Vegas? Well, in 1829, it gets its name. It was inhabited by nomadic paleo Indians and then Anasazi Indians and the Paiute people.

It was first visited by Europeans in 1829 when Raphael Riviera arrived in the valley. I don't know who that is. I'm just reading this. In search of a new route from Santa Fe to Los Angeles. It was beautiful. There were desert spring waters, which are pretty sparse in the desert.

And so they named the valley. It also had an abundance of wild grass and it was kind of like a little oasis. So they named the valley Las Vegas, which never crossed my mind to translate. I never even thought about it, but Las Vegas is Spanish for the meadows. So right off the bat,

I learned something that I never knew and I felt stupid for not knowing it, but Las Vegas literally translated means the meadows. Traffic was picking up in 1855. Tons of pioneers are headed west in search of fame and fortune and gold, but also the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, AKA the Mormons, were traveling as well.

They're the ones who built the first fort in Las Vegas, making it essentially the halfway point between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. And that fort was occupied for a while. They eventually abandoned it and it's still there though, or rather it's been reconstructed in Las Vegas. It's called the Old Mormon Fort and you can go visit it. I looked it up on Google Street View.

It's at the corner of Washington Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. And if you zoom in and I guess it's the northeast corner, maybe you can see a sign for old Las Vegas, Mormon Fort State Historic Park. That's cool. So you can go see a recreation of what the original Mormon Fort looked like way back in, I guess, 1855. Although they abandoned it,

it wasn't long before more pioneers settled in the area. And in 1905, Las Vegas was founded as a city, a very sparsely populated city, but a city. I don't know how granular I need to get with this, but there was a mining dude who made a lot of money named William Clark, who is actually Clark County where Las Vegas is is named after him He was the main investor in the Union Pacific Railroad and he built the railroad from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City He recognized the Vegas is kind of a perfect location in between the two and so he bought a ton of land and water rights

All around it then he built a railroad depot. Then on May 15th, 1905, the city was founded. He auctioned off all the land holdings, including the first casino at the Station Cafe. That's right, the first casino in Las Vegas opens in 1906. Crazier than that, believe it or not, and this kind of blew me away, it was called the Golden Gate Casino.

And crazier than that, it's still there. You can go to it. And this is this kind of blew me away. It was called the Golden Gate Casino and crazier than that It's still there. You can go to it. The building is still there. It's over around. I think it's on Fremont Street and It has been in operation since 1906 it's still a hotel. It's still a casino. I've never heard of it I've probably walked by it four or five times on Fremont Street. I am absolutely gonna go there stay there. I looked it up. It's not the nicest hotel in the world. Not the worst either. I think rooms start at about $24 a night, which is pretty average for the Fremont Street area. But man, what a crazy thing to be able to go and stay in the same building in the same casino that has been operating for more than 100 hundred years in Las Vegas, the very first one, the one that set Vegas off on this course of

exorbitance and flair and excess, you know what I mean? Now Vegas wasn't super attractive to people. It's not the, I don't know, it's not the nicest climate in the world. It's not the most attractive climate in the world Let me say that however, it was pretty attractive as a red light in gambling district So even though the state outlawed gambling in 1910 casinos still continued to operate illegally until 1931 in which you know gambling was legalized again

That's where the name sin city comes from at least they think it's come from I don't think that they they necessarily 100% locked it down, but they believe it originated from these, the couple of blocks of Fremont Street where you could gamble and get drunk and probably get some prostitution as well. Another area that made it super popular and popular to people from Los Angeles actually,

a lot of Hollywood people showed up because you could get a quickie divorce there, which was pretty popular, I guess in the 30s. A lot of film stars would come in and I think you had to live there for like a month and a half or two months, and then you were eligible for divorce, whereas everywhere else it was a much harder

and prolonged procedure. So it became popular as a destination for people to get divorces. And then they would go on a holiday because they were already in Vegas, right? So it's like, get divorced, get drunk, do a little gambling. Then the Hoover Dam was constructed. It becomes an immense tourist attraction, driving even more people towards Las Vegas. This is in like 1936. Now we're off to the races. It not only allowed Las Vegas to flourish with electricity and more water,

but it became a huge tourist attraction. And Vegas becomes this place that's not only synonymous with getting divorced in the 30s, but getting married in the 40s. The first two wedding chapels open then. And of course the little white chapel is still there. I had a friend that got married there a couple of years ago. Judy Garland got married there.

Frank Sinatra got married there. A bunch of other people, Britney Spears. Then in 1941, the military arrives and they build, this is fucking crazy. This is crazy. They build, well, Nellis Air Force Base is there now, but at the time it was like the Vegas Army Airfield, right? and

Vegas becomes Another kind of tourist attraction in this time because this is where they're testing all the nuclear bombs This is where they're doing all their nuclear bomb testing and supposedly you could sometimes see mushroom clouds in the distance From the Vegas strip so that in itself becomes a tourist attraction in the distance from the Vegas strip. So that in itself becomes a tourist attraction in the 40s. At this point, the strip is is kind of popular, I should point out one of the very first hotel resorts to open opened in 1931. I guess I should go back a little bit so we can get to the strip. It was called the Meadows Club. It was opened by these bootleggers who were, you know, kind of unsavory characters.

This was also on Fremont Street, not the strip, but it kickstarted tons of resorts. It was very popular. It was hugely successful. One of the brothers was in jail when they made it. When he got out, I think by the time he got out, his other brothers had already sold it off. It became, I think it ultimately ended up being owned by Bugsy Siegel, the mafia boss at some point. We can get into that in if we do like a deep dive on an actual casino, I think this would be the one. But anyway, once they, once they hit on the idea of a hotel casino resort, they were kind of off to the races. It wasn't long before in 1941, the El Rancho opens on the strip.

It becomes the first hotel casino on the strip. It's almost immediately followed by one called the Last Frontier. And in 1946, the Flamingo, which is to this day still operating on the strip. It is a dump. When Emily and I first walked in there, we went, oh, this is where COVID originated. It is a dirty, grimy place. But in 1946, it was considered one of the best resorts in the entire world. It was incredibly beautiful and impressive and ambitious and people flocked to it for many years. And it is still, it's not what it was. It's a shadow of a shadow of a shell of what it was in the 1940s. However, it does have

the distinction of being the only hotel on the Vegas Strip that has been operating since 1950 or before. So that's pretty impressive. What is that? They've managed to stay afloat 75 years on the Strip. Hey, it's DJ First Dibs. I noticed you've been listening

to a lot of summer vibes lately. I get it. You're dreaming about vacations. Ooh baby, that's my jam. With Sunwing's first dibs on summer savings, let us curate something stronger than what you've been listening to. Because while your playlist screams, I need a vacation. My algorithm suggests book before March 30th. Remember Sunwing, save more, do more. Book with your local travel advisor or at sunwing.ca. So I think we're going to talk of Vegas in eras now. I think we're in the 1940s.

The strip is exploding with growth. This whole idea of a hotel casino is taking off. The mafia gets heavily involved. Hell, the Flamingo, I think, was a Bugsy Seagull hotel, as a matter of fact. It wasn't long before the Golden Nugget opened with its giant neon sign, which instantly becomes an icon on Fremont Street.

I know we're talking about the strip a second ago, but Fremont Street is still going strong. Fremont Street at this point is the heart of Vegas. The strip is just getting started, right? But the Golden Nugget neon sign ushers in more neon signs for like the El Cortez, the Apache, and it ends up creating what they call glitter Gulch, which is this couple of blocks of just narrow streets that have neon on top of them just shining down. So the 1940s become the era of the mob and the mafia. They're gaining prominence in Vegas as Vegas is kind of becoming what it's going to be.

I mentioned earlier that the military opens up a base, an air base. It becomes the Nevada test site and it's what earns Vegas the nickname Atomic City. And that is because, like I said, it was the primary testing location for nuclear devices in the 50s and they carried out hundreds and hundreds of tests. So you literally could see mushroom clouds off in the top and off in the distance if you're at a hotel in a high enough floor.

That before we understood how fucking terrifying and scary that was, that was cool to vacationers, I guess. So the 40s are basically Vegas becoming a mafia institution, but also becoming a vacation destination that's known for many things. You've got gambling, you've got quick marriages, you've got nuclear testing in one direction, you've got the incredibly impressive dam in the other,

and it's really starting to become a destination. Plus it's kind of conveniently located, like they say, between LA and Salt Lake City. The 50s see a rush to growth, right? You're talking tons of establishments opening up all at once. The Sands, the Riviera, Dunes, Tropicana, Stardust. They're just opening up left and right. And it's becoming essentially Vegas's golden age,

right? In the 1950s, big time celebrities start coming and performing to Judy Garland. Obviously Frank Sinatra starts making his first performances, which brings the Rat Pack in. Suddenly you can see, you know, the entire Rat Pack, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, all those dudes, Joey Bishop, I forgot. And they're making appearances all over the strip. They're in love with Vegas.

They're in love with the excess of gambling and drinking. And so it becomes very cool. Then they also start to usher in the era of desegregation. There were places that wouldn't let Sammy Davis Jr. perform or play there. The Rat Pack doubled down on it and says they're not playing anywhere without him. And so thanks to their support

and refusing to work anywhere that has racial segregation, they're able to help break down those walls. Then the Moulin Rouge opens up in May in 1955, believe it or not. It's the first integrated casino in Las Vegas. And then in 1960, it brings in full desegregation. Thank Christ. Okay, so the next era of Vegas, let's talk about it.

It's the 1960s. This is the era of what I would call corporate ownership. Howard Hughes comes in, falls in love with Vegas, goes to stay there, doesn't wanna leave, ends up buying multiple hotels. He buys the Desert in and the sands and a bunch of other ones. And in this process, it starts to push the mafia out as well. The Nevada Gaming Commission becomes a thing.

It becomes harder and harder for the mafia to make money and claim control. And as happens in all facets of life, corporations end up winning out. And so in the 60s, corporations start buying up hotels, independent hotels and casinos left and right, consolidating power. Vegas is pretty crowded at this point for the tourists that are coming in. So to compete with all the existing casinos,

new ones have to be different, right? This is when Caesar's palace is born. This is when circus circus is born. This is in the late sixties. They launched with these themes, Caesar's obviously being the Roman empire and with statues and all the nonsense. And then circus circus is like a giant circus tent

and circus themed, huge, huge wins. Everybody loves it. This brings in the era of, I guess you would say Elvis and themed hotels. That goes on for a while till the eighties hit and it's a tough time for Las Vegas. The city is struggling because Vegas has become nothing more than a tourist trap of old casinos, rundown restaurants.

It's not very impressive. It's not very fancy. It's becoming kind of a grimy version of what it was. The 80s is a conservative time for America. This is the era of Reagan and fiscal conservatism, sort of. If you, you know, it didn't, I don't think it bared out that way. Trickle down economics is bullshit. However, it was an era of Reaganomics

and fiscal conservatism, and it wasn't great for Las Vegas. Also Atlantic City pops up, and so now it's got competition on the East Coast. Cue the 90s. The 90s becomes a revitalization of Las Vegas. They decide to go all in. They create these mega hotels.

The Mirage comes out. They still have their themes. It's Polynesian themed. It's huge. It's a 3000 room hotel. It's the largest in the world at the time that it comes out. They go all out to hire Siegfried and Roy to be their main attraction.

It's a huge hit. It's also the beginning of the family-friendly Las Vegas. This is when Treasure Island and Excalibur and New York, New York start popping up and they're creating family-friendly environments. It's a more conservative time of less excess and people are pulling back and they're not being as wild and flamboyant

as they have been. The sexual revolution is over. Everybody's terrified of AIDS and it becomes kind of an unfun era, right? So Vegas in its brilliance decides to pivot from this den of vices into a family friendly destination, and it works incredibly well. People and families throng to it at this time. Also, Fremont Street has taken a huge nose dive.

It is no longer a big deal. The strip has completely and totally taken over as the Center for Gambling and Nightlife. And so they decide they have to bring it back. It's too cool, it's too historical to just waste away. So they create this Fremont Street experience, then they turn it into like a pedestrian mall with like concerts and stuff.

And then they create this like five block long canopy that goes over the street. It's lit up. Fremont Street is starting to be revived. But also the strip has been revived by the Paris and like I said, New York, New York and all these family-friendly hotels that are just bringing people in throngs and droves.

We enter into the 2000s, the family- schtick is starting to wear thin, people are getting over the conservative 80s, they're coming out of that bubble and wanting to, you know, level a little again, right? Enter the luxurious era of Vegas, the 2000s, where Vegas before had been a place to get a cheap steak. Now it becomes a place to go to a Michelin-starred restaurant, to buy Louis Vuitton and Hermes and high-end luxurious brands. They open malls, they cater to the richest and the most affluent of us. They create very fancy hotels. They start to leave this whole family-friendly idea in the dust

for this idea of just like pure luxury and excess and fancy, right? This is when the Bellagio releases the Fountain, which is a huge hit. And I would say this runs until about 2020, right? So about 20 year era there that's just Vegas is, just gets nicer and fancier and more expensive and caters to that more and more and more. Now I would say in the 2020s,

Vegas has entered into its sports era We have a professional hockey team. We are about to have a professional baseball team. We have a professional WNBA team we have an NFL team There's a very good chance Vegas is gonna get an NBA expansion team here in the next two or three years They already have every sport covered essentially, and this has all happened in the last few years. Vegas has now become a place where you can go watch your favorite team play a road game,

and then as soon as it's over, hit the strip, right? This I think is going to prove to be hugely successful for Las Vegas. They're still in kind of the, I wouldn't say the infancy of this, but in the early days of it, they've had a hockey team for a couple years now. They've had a WNBA team for a couple years now. They've had a NFL team for a couple years now. It's going to be another two years or so before the baseball stadium is done. Around then the expansion NBA team should be announced.

But I think that's only going to grow. And I think it's also going to help combat a problem that Vegas seems to be having right now. As has been widely reported, Vegas was a ghost town during the Super Bowl this year, and that's probably because of online gambling and being able to use DraftKings on your phone. Why go all the way out to Vegas, Tibet, on your NFL teams when you can just do it from your living room with your iPhone, right?

However, throw in those teams playing in Vegas, and suddenly it becomes a lot more alluring, I will say. I go to the NBA Summer League there every chance I get and it is the time of my life. I haven't seen any other professional sports there other than the NBA Summer Games, but I fully intend and plan to go see the Red Wings play the Golden Knights at some point.

I definitely wanna see the A's play. Maybe I'll go see the Tigers play the A's when the stadium opens up. Point being, we're about five years or so into this new pivot of Vegas becoming a sports hub and a sports capital And we'll see how it plays out But I think it's gonna be an era that lasts for a long last era lasted maybe 20 years in my estimation We'll see I imagine this one will have some long legs too, and I have no idea what's gonna be after it maybe technological innovation, who knows?

But Vegas is such a fascinating place to me. And I don't drink anymore. I don't have a lot of vices. I do like to eat a good meal. And I do like to bet on sports. When I'm in Vegas, I don't ever do it. I can't do it in Texas because it's illegal here. But even if I could do it, I wouldn't. I like to go to Vegas and sit in a sports book

and watch the horses race or watch an NFL team play. It's something about being there in the moment makes betting and on sports fun in a way that it's not fun at home in my living room. You know what I mean? And so and I'm glad of that because of my addictive nature, I would not want to become addicted to gambling. But above all else, one of my absolute favorite things to do on this planet is people watch and Vegas has it like no other place on earth. And so that's Jeff's quick little historical rundown of Vegas. I missed a million things. I probably got some stuff wrong. I've got a bunch of dates and figures and data in my head from reading way too much stuff about the history of Vegas over the last couple days. This didn't turn into a

deep dive on abandoned hotels and casinos like I initially thought it would. But it will at some point. I figured we had to get past this first, wrap our heads around this, so that now we can go in and deep dive into some insane hotels and casinos that existed in Vegas at a time that are gone now. And that'll be for future episodes. However, I think that's probably enough for today, the history of Las Vegas, and a pretty meaty little section on the NBA.

Hopefully you didn't mind that. Let's do a song of the episode and get the fuck out of here. Song of the day today is going to be Acoustic Guitar by Magnetic Fields. It's one of my favorite songs of theirs. The whole album, 69 Songs About Love, is brilliant, I think, but this song in particular is fucking awesome and I hope you enjoy it and I hope you come back next week

so we can talk about more bullshit. Alright. This is the end of the show. What?