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SHOWGIRLS newspapers and books. It wouldn't take long, after all, for the next audience of tourists to be ushered to their seats, and for the call to be sounded in anticipation of another 90-minute collision of vin- tage-Vegas pizzazz on stage and controlled chaos in the wings and dressing rooms. This well-oiled nightly ritual is nearly as old as the Strip itself. Once the bread and butter of Las Vegas nightlife, these grand sequined-and-feathered productions?╟÷since 1957, known collo- quially as "tittie shows"?╟÷have dwindled in scope and number to a precious few survivors. The Tropicana's 45-year-old Folies Bergere and Bally's 23-year-old Jubilee! remain the two most prominent exemplars of a glamorous adults-only tradition that has been rav- aged by competition from R-rated movies, gentleman's clubs, rock 'n' roll and the proliferation of such hip upstarts as Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group. Hollywood contributed to the decline as well, by allowing Paul Verhoeven's largely reviled Showgirls to be released in the- aters around the country and the world. The NC-17-rated drama expected us to believe a newly hired ex-stripper could fill in for an injured featured dancer practically overnight, and that the dancers routinely share dressing rooms with monkeys and wealthy Stage Door Johnnies. None of it was accurate?╟÷especially its insistence that a single showgirl could become a marquee attraction in today's Vegas?╟÷but the outrageous hype that surrounded the pic- ture's release convinced many potential ticket buyers to see Mys- tere and EFX instead of Jubilee! or Folies. "It was garbage...all of it," angrily declares Fluff LeCoque, the legendary company manag- er of Jubilee!, when asked her reaction to the film. Indeed, far from existing merely as cornball relics or museum pieces, today's editions of Folies Bergere and Jubilee! continue to "People are short-changing themselves. By sitting around watching the boob tube they've lost interest in the live tradition." be every bit as eye-poppingly entertaining as they were in the hey- day of the Las Vegas production show in the '60s. Someone might want to mention this fact to local tourism authorities, whose recent re-embrace of the Sin City mystique conveniently ignores the productions which helped popularize that particular image in the first place and which many people still consider pretty naughty. Of course, these are some of the same marketing genius- es who eight years ago foisted the Family Vegas conceit on an unsuspecting public, until someone figured out that parents can travel together with their children at most only about 16 weeks of the 52-week year, and children can't drink, gamble or order Happy Meals at Spago. Fact is, visitors will continue to flock to Las Vegas, but only as long as it can offer attractions and recreation not available back home. 'They can't do things on Broadway even that we do here," LeCoque adds. "Las Vegas is one of the few places where dancers can work and there's glamour. People who see our show can't believe the production values, the variety, the quality of the casts and the sets. "For a lot of dancers, this is a dream job." Well, there you go. Maybe Elizabeth Berkley's character Nomi Malone wasn't so far- fetched, after all. "People are short-changing themselves if they don't see 78 Vegas