The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas

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The Grit Beneath the Glitter

Tales from the Real Las Vegas

Edited by: and

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2002

About this book

The Grit Beneath the Glitter is the first real look at the new Las Vegas from the inside. In it, long-time residents as well as professionals reflect on the transformation of one of the fastest-growing and most famous cities on earth, yet one about which relatively little is known. They offer a lively and compelling portrait of the other side of Las Vegas: the people and institutions that support the glitter of the gaming and entertainment industry. Examining a range of topics--from the city's commercial history, labor conditions, and environmental problems to an analysis of the famous lights of the Strip--the contributors uncover the contradictions between the illusion and the reality of the city, the seam between fantasy and the life it masks. The essays in this collection explore the world that employees experience when they enter gaming palaces from an employee entrance in a back parking lot rather than through the scripted doors of casino/hotel palaces. They take readers into the neighborhoods where 1.4 million Americans now live, attend school, eat dinner, and go to work.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Hal Rothman Hal Rothman is Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Among his books are Devil's Bargains (1998), The Greening of a Nation? (1998), and Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the 21st Century (due out in 2002). Mike Davis is Professor of History at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is the author of City of Quartz (1992) and Ecology of Fear (1998), among other books.

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Frontmatter
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Contents
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Introduction: The Many Faces of Las Vegas
1
Hal Rothman and Mike Davis

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PART I. IMAGE AND REALITY
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Scripting Las Vegas: Noir Naïfs, Junking Up, and the New Strip
17
Norman M. Klein

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Las Vegas of the Mind: Shooting Movies in and about Nevada
30
Francisco Menendez

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Discordant Infrastructure
59
Peter Goin

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PART II. NUTS AND BOLTS
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Growth, Services, and the Political Economy of Gambling in Las Vegas, 1970–2000
73
Eugene Moehring

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Lighting Las Vegas: Electricity and the City of Glitz
99
Jay Brigham

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Build It and the Water Will Come
115
Jon Christensen

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The Social Costs of Rapid Urbanization in Southern Nevada
126
Robert E. Parker

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Rise to Power: The Recent History of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas
145
Courtney Alexander

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Class Struggle in Oz
176
Mike Davis

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PART III. VOICES
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“Squeezing the Juice Out of Las Vegas”: Reflections On Growing Up in Smalltown, USA
187
Brian Frehner

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I Didn’t Know Anybody Lived There
195
Shannon McMackin

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How I Became a Native
208
William N. Thompson

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Inside the Glitter: Lives of Casino Workers
214
Kit Miller

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PART IV. SHAPING LIFE
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“She Works Hard for Her Money”: A Reassessment of Las Vegas Women Workers, 1945–1985
243
Joanne L. Goodwin

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The Racial Cauldron
260
Mike Davis

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Inside Jean
268
Constance Devereaux

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Looking into a Dry Lake: Uncovering the Women’s View of Las Vegas A Film Journal
291
Amie Williams

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PART V. FROM PARIAH TO PARADIGM
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Colony, Capital, and Casino: Money in the Real Las Vegas
307
Hal Rothman

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Who Puts the “Sin” in “Sin City” Stories? Girls of Grit and Glitter in the City of Women
335
Kathryn Hausbeck

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Nevada Goes Global: The Foreign Gaming Rule and the Spread of Casinos
347
William N. Thompson

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Canto: Las Vegas
363
Richard Misrach

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Contributors
377

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Index
379

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Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

August 5, 2019

eBook ISBN:

9780520935457

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

388

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520935457

eBook ISBN: 9780520935457

Keywords for this book

las vegas; nevada; regional history; essay collection; essay anthology; las vegas strip; politics; sin city; political economy; water; drought; urbanization; power; culinary; casino; casino workers; race; racism; racial issues; academic; scholarly; noir; sex workers; global; race issues; unions; regional; norman klein; peter goin; jon christensen; mike davis; kit miller; hal rotham

University of California Press

The Grit Beneath the Glitter

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: The Many Faces of Las Vegas

Scripting Las Vegas: Noir Naïfs, Junking Up, and the New Strip

Las Vegas of the Mind: Shooting Movies in and about Nevada

Discordant Infrastructure

Growth, Services, and the Political Economy of Gambling in Las Vegas, 1970–2000

Lighting Las Vegas: Electricity and the City of Glitz

Build It and the Water Will Come

The Social Costs of Rapid Urbanization in Southern Nevada

Rise to Power: The Recent History of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas

Class Struggle in Oz

“Squeezing the Juice Out of Las Vegas”: Reflections On Growing Up in Smalltown, USA

I Didn’t Know Anybody Lived There

How I Became a Native

Inside the Glitter: Lives of Casino Workers

“She Works Hard for Her Money”: A Reassessment of Las Vegas Women Workers, 1945–1985

The Racial Cauldron

Inside Jean

Looking into a Dry Lake: Uncovering the Women’s View of Las Vegas A Film Journal

Colony, Capital, and Casino: Money in the Real Las Vegas

Who Puts the “Sin” in “Sin City” Stories? Girls of Grit and Glitter in the City of Women

Nevada Goes Global: The Foreign Gaming Rule and the Spread of Casinos

Canto: Las Vegas

Contributors

Index

Bibliographic data