Recommended Books & Films

Brinkley, Christina, Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas (Hyperion, 2008). The explosion that is today's Las Vegas didn't just happen; it was largely the work of these three competing tycoons, who come together in a crush of money, ambition, and vision.

Cooper, Marc, The Last Honest Place in America (Nation Books, 2004). Long fascinated by Sin City, the reporter-author investigates its evolution into its current corporation-driven status.

Denton, Sally, The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America (Vintage, 2002). An exhaustive, often behind-the-scenes investigative history of Vegas.

Fischer, Steve, When the Mob Ran Vegas: Stories of Murder, Mayhem and Money (Berkline Press, 2005). Ah, the good old days.

Hess, Alan, Viva Las Vegas: After Hours Architecture (Chronicle Books, 1993). Vegas doesn't have architecture as much as set design, and here you can learn all about how its bizarre skyline is really an icon of model American urban culture.

Martinez, Andrez, 24/7 Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas (Villard, 1999). The author chronicles his efforts to spend his $50,000 book advance in a wild Vegas spree.

McCracken, Robert, Las Vegas: The Great American Playground (University of Nevada Press, 1997). A comprehensive history of Vegas up to the last decade.

McManus, James, Positively Fifth Street (Picador, 2004). The author came to write about the 2000 World Series of Poker and stayed to play, with surprising results that only demonstrate the seductive and strange lure of the city.

Mezrich, Ben, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (Free Press, 2002). The title says it all. Recently the basis for the movie 21.

O'Brien, John, Leaving Las Vegas (Grove, 1995). The basis for the critically acclaimed movie, this novel demonstrates that not everything that happens in Vegas is fun and games, as the protagonist comes to town certain it's the perfect place wherein to drink himself to death.

Puzo, Mario, Inside Las Vegas (Grossett & Dunlap, 1972). Though out of print, it's not that hard to find, and well worth reading to get the take of the man who invented the Corleones on the city invented by the mob.

Spanier, David, Welcome to the Pleasure Dome: Inside Las Vegas (University of Nevada Press, 1992). First-person history and analysis of the Las Vegas phenomenon.

Thompson, Hunter S., Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Random House, 1971). The gonzo journalist and his Samoan lawyer head to Sin City for the all-time binge. An instant classic, made into a movie starring Johnny Depp.

Tronnes, Mike, ed., Literary Las Vegas (Henry Holt, 1995). A terrific collection of different essays and excerpts from books about Vegas.

Anthony Zuiker's Top Seven Las Vegas Movies

A graduate of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas who's lived in Vegas for 35 years, Anthony Zuiker worked for The Mirage as a graveyard-shift tram driver, bellboy, and ad writer before he was inspired to create CSI, currently the number-one-rated TV show in the country. Here are Zuiker's seven favorite Las Vegas flicks and what he thinks about them.

• Ocean's Eleven (the remake) -- It's our modern-day Rat Pack actors. Who can deny George Clooney and Brad Pitt?
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- It epitomizes the surreal journey of coming to Las Vegas, and it captures the hyper-reality very well.
• Indecent Proposal -- I remember seeing Demi Moore shooting the film at the Hilton, and Bruce Willis was playing blackjack at the tables while the filming was going on. She would run over to him and kiss him, and then go back and shoot the scene. That was my first taste of Hollywood glory long before I was in the business.
• Ocean's Eleven (the original) -- It's timeless actors and classic Vegas, platinum swagger that can never be replicated. I watch it, remembering that Sinatra would do just one take and that was it. Being in the business now, I marvel at that. He was always dressed so amazingly in those sweaters, he always had a cocktail, and he was just so cool.
• Viva Las Vegas -- To me, this was the first movie to put Las Vegas on the map, with the King of rock 'n' roll, no less, exemplifying what Vegas was all about, in its true glory days. Back then, times were good, it was all about the gambler, and it was amazing.
• Casino -- I actually grew up in town during this era, so I remember these characters very well. It was one of the first movies that took us inside the world of the casino, not just on the floor, but also behind the scenes. It was the look of the mob era in Vegas, how it really was; and since I knew of those men, I could see both how accurate it was and where creative license was taken.
• Leaving Las Vegas -- It's one of my top-five films of all time. The concept of an alcoholic going to Vegas because they never close the bars was a genius dramatic idea. And the way that director Mike Figgis shot Nick Cage, with Luxor in the background, with the red lights of Bally's blinking, the seedy hotel, it all just felt like the dark, surreal side of Vegas that we are used to as locals on a much more gut and emotional level. A wonderful movie.