One for the Vegas Fans
A look through the blog posts here or a follow of the Degen Social Club Twitter feed makes it clear that on the whole the club enjoys Las Vegas. In particular this reviewer keeps up on the city from afar, and reads up on the subject often. So there is a certain affinity already for the subject matter of Carolyn V. Hamilton’s memoir, “Coming To Las Vegas: a true tale of sex, drugs, & Sin City in the 70s”.
In addition, the 70s themselves hold an innate appeal for people of a certain age. Not at all old enough to have experienced the decade in the way that Hamilton did, but this reviewer is old enough to remember the times. So when Hamilton describes an ad exec “wearing a purple jumpsuit with a white patent-leather belt” or a room with “dark wood paneling and olive green carpeting” there is a recognition and clear evocation of place and setting (often ridiculous, but clear nevertheless).
For most people, though, the allure is going to be found right in the title: sex and drugs in a decade known for an excess of both. Hamilton delivers on the promise of the title.
Having been a Playboy Bunny at the Playboy club in Detroit, and then working as a designer in advertising in Los Angeles in 1972, she meets an older man with a past she fines intriguing. He convinces Hamilton to move to Las Vegas with him, and she soon finds herself working as a cocktail waitress at the newly opened MGM Grand.
The book recounts Hamilton’s time as a cocktail waitress, her escapades with her colleagues, and the constant opportunity to cross ethical lines for personal advantage, both financial and sexual.
Those opportunities are the result of a work environment plagued by harassment, abuse, and a constant power play within teams, across roles like bartender and waitress, and between labor and management. It is a world dominated by “juice”, the patronage that helps people find and hold on to jobs in a town dominated by one industry run as a club.
Hamilton also paints a picture of Las Vegas when the Dunes and the Stardust were anchors on the Strip, and land that is now positioned between major arenas was a trailer park.
That is where the Vegas fans are going to really enjoy the book. Hamilton visits the Bootlegger, now a staple on lists of “old school Las Vegas joints”, when it premieres. She meets André Rochat when he opens his first venue (a bakery), long before he is renowned for restaurants at the Monte Carlo and Palms. She talks about going to the Village Pub opened by Frank Ellis behind the MGM Grand and the Vegas nerds are going to think “wait, is that the original Ellis Island?”
Not to mention that the Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM Grand Hotel is at the center of it all. Having been rebranded twice (first to Bally’s and now the Horseshoe Las Vegas), the original MGM Grand is probably best known now for a deadly fire that took place in 1980.
That is not the MGM Grand that Hamilton describes. Instead we get a view of what the MGM Grand was when it opened – a 2,100 room resort meant to compete directly with Caesars Palace. Thousands applied to work there, celebrities toasted the opening, and Hamilton was there for it.
Those stories, and of course the sex and drugs (plus all that wood paneling), make the book a fun read.
