ent001323-033

Hands-in-pockets town they call it Glitter Gulch by DAVID LEWIN, cabling from the desert city of LAS VEGAS (Nevada). ?╜?╜ ]| \ASTEN your money belt?╟÷Las Vegas is _H'just ahead," says |j^n^a^-utjQ#ft^^ * JL seat as tliT'pIane'swings low over the desert and heads for-' the sandy strip that is the airfield.* Las Vegas is a city built on slot machines in the desert in the only State in/ the Union where gambling is legal. As a by-product it has become one of the most important show business centres of the world. Suddenly, out of the sand, the old Western frontier town has crowded : into -a* strip li miles long seven luxury hotels rating five stars in any guide. Glitter Gulch Hands in pockets in Las Vegas may mean idleness?╟÷but more oftenS?½ is a sign of a money-searching gambling fever. the local name. Desert stars TWICE every night and three times on Saturday the restaurants of every hotel present full-scale cabaret shows. The stars of the desert night Hie include Betty Hutton, Tallulah Bankhead, Van Johnson, Jimmy Durante, Joe E. Lewis, Jane Powell. In every case they are supported by three or four West End standard acts and a full line of show girls. The prices are knock down and give away. There is no cover charge. The price of the" cheapest drink ?╟÷ 3s. 6d. ?╟÷ will give you a table. There is no obligation to buy dinner. The stars are offered salaries which look like telephone numbers. Miss Bankhead in her first cabaret appearance is being paid ?·33,000 for^, month's stay. Betty Hutton picked up ?·8,000 a week. Van Johnson received ?·5,800 foi a week's work. It is crazy but Las Vegas is a mirage in the sand with the Shadow of the atom bomb explosions just 65 miles away. The money is here because of the gambling, and the entertainment is here to entice people in ,to gamble. Every hotel on the strip is a casino?╟÷with rooms. There is no lobby or lounge ?╟÷but a vast arena crowded with slot machines, roulette wheels, dice games. The currency is not available because it is too tiring. Women used to come here to spend the necessary six weeks for a quick divorce. They are barred from the big hotels On the strip because it was found they did not gamble as they waited for their decrees. Lost money THREE or four days is considered a useful stay because in that time you will either have lost your money or if you have not then ~the chances are you are not a gambler and your hotel room is needed for someone who is. . The prosperity Of Las Vegas (pop. 37,000) and the entire State of Nevada (the size of England with the population of Southerid) is based on gambling. The only worry about the atomic explosions out in the desert is that they might disturb the balance of the rpulette wheels. Even the petrol stations, the barber shops, and the drug stores have a gaming machine to help the customer get rid of his loose change. Walk with me along the desert dollar . . . and there is never { r-~- P H| a moment when a roulette j wheel stops spinning. Amateurish ?√ßt* yjrONTE CARLO is yv II amateurish com- IvJLpared with this. Gambling in Las Vegas Is a calculated scientific industry. Meals in hotel rooms are dis couraged?╟÷it takes people away I from the gaming rooms. Tennis 1 strip. The hotels 1_ names.: El RahgHoT the .Frontier, the ^Flamingo, Desert Inn, thjjrQ&underbird, \ ands. fronts, >oms, ^%wnsj0Rere rew. beiOTffrswim- id three sets of ?√ßy- service. Sahara, and, They havj" conditioned no grass evefj ming pools, staff for &?·-h1 . .The Sands cost ?·1,500,000 to build this year. In New. York it would take nearly 15 years to g?·t chat money back. In Las Vegas Jack Entratter, who runs the Sands. 'r^^fiiliJMYilfi t*;11 *?╟≤"'"" gbnly five y_ cabaret, Pfferything. The profit comes tftom the gaming tables. "To get people in we need f^Big acts. We pay enormous "money to lure artists away from ' New York or Los" Angeles." Last year 7,000,000 people J came to Las Vegas. Fear ?╟≤HEN it is dawn over I the desert the gaming I rooms along the strip j are still filled with people trying J to win back the price of the I evening's entertainment. The 1 women may wear evening dress I ?╟÷but the men have open necked I sports shirts still. Las Vegas has more star 1 cabaret than New York or the 1 West End of London. It is still I a frontier town. But the fear is I no longer the desert or the Red I Indian. The fear today is that I gambling might be made legal I somewhere close by and then I the show business-gaming boom ?║ would go bust.' ?√ß..-.- m ______ THE ORIGINAL _ IomeikF I ?√ß?√ß PRESS CLIPPINGS ?√ß?√ß 220 W. 19* St., NEW YOREll, N.Y. Tel. CHelsea 3-8860 This Clipping From VARIETY,-* NEW YORKrJi^ j?·*!ark Barron^Arf^iack Gaver j #UP), Hy jarfaner (Tr%), Frank! j Farrell Wo??Tele), Ben ftehneider I ! (Women>^^ie^^Phylli| Batalle J! HNS), Mel BihnerTKing features), amonjf others, on the "Broadway iMissnfh to Bankhead" 1 weekWor Tallu's preej (Wed.latthe ?║a&4&, Laf r air this j rj. tonight j 5 Vjgas. i \