Rating: 
Summary: All that was good in Vegas is here!
Review: This book is outstanding! I've been waiting more than a year for it to be printed and believe me, it was well worth the wait. I haven't heard comedian Pete Barbutti's name since the old Mike Douglas Show. Now, not only does Mike Weatherford mention him, he actually interviews the guy! It was great. The chapters featuring Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima with the other lounge acts, Ocean's Eleven, and Elvis are stand-outs. Also, Don Rickles is a scream!Many books on the history of Vegas dwell too much on the hoodlum and gangster stuff. Weatherford bypasses this and fills his pages with fresh and entertaining information. Where else could you find behind the scenes anecdotes on the Night Stalker? Mike's personal stories also make this book fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Joe Bob says check it out
Review: This informal history of Vegas entertainment is the best book on the subject, the product of a Vegas-phile's 14 years of reporting for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Weatherford chose to tell the whole story of the city through its entertainers, and as history it feels exactly right. He's got the precise date that the first bare breast was uncovered in the city, as well as the cost of Liberace's wardrobe on the night of his debut. Nothing here about gangsters or gambling or byzantine Nevada politics, but who would think you could write a chapter about Frank, Dean and Sammy and make it as fresh as though you were sitting at the Dunes in 1959? In fact, the opening chapter--telling Frank's story one more time--is as fine a history of the Las Vegas showroom as you're ever likely to read. He then follows up with expansive essays on the origins of the Vegas lounge. (Louis Prima gets the major credit, of course, but he also remembers that Prima was preceded by the Mary Kaye Trio, which started the midnight-to-dawn style of improvisational lounge entertainment that would become a Vegas trademark until it was watered down in the seventies to the level of Bill Murray's "Saturday Night Live" lounge lizard singing "Star Wars.") Before the era of comedy clubs, but after the age of burlesque, Vegas was pretty much the only place for top comics to work, and Weatherford dispenses that history through the lives of what he calls the big three: Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene and Don Rickles. What, no Joe E. Lewis? Weatherford actually convinced me that Joe E. does not belong on the list, mainly because he was popular with the Vegas founders but never that big a star to the public. One very helpful aspect of this history is that Weatherford has gone deep into the morgue, poring over old microfiche and faded yellow clippings, to show the ups and downs of familiar careers. (For example, he reproduces a rare ad for Elvis' April 1956 debut at the New Frontier, where he's third-billed. Second billing is Shecky Greene. And the headliner? Freddy Martin and His Orchestra!) I could quibble with some of Weatherford's choices. Tom Jones is a sidebar in the Elvis chapter, but shouldn't that be Wayne Newton? His chapter on showgirls is fascinating--going into the lives of such forgotten beauties as Lili St. Cyr, Dyanne Thorne (better known as "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS"), Charo, Juliet Prowse and Mamie Van Doren--but it doesn't give enough credit to the hundreds of girls who have passed through the Tropicana's Folies Bergere, the longest-running show of them all. Still, there are so many gems that you can't stop reading. His section on TV stars who have tried to do Vegas shows--a list that includes Irene "Granny" Ryan, Monty Hall, Suzanne Somers, Mary Hart and Tony Danza--is devastatingly funny without being mean-spirited. And you can sense his genuine affection for such Vegas institutions as Ann-Margret, classiest of all the dames ever to hit town, and the Chairman of the Board. He also remembers the truly tragic characters like Totie Fields, Redd Foxx and Sam Kinison, without getting maudlin or melodramatic.
Rating:
Summary: Joe Bob says check it out
Review: This informal history of Vegas entertainment is the best book on the subject, the product of a Vegas-phile's 14 years of reporting for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Weatherford chose to tell the whole story of the city through its entertainers, and as history it feels exactly right. He's got the precise date that the first bare breast was uncovered in the city, as well as the cost of Liberace's wardrobe on the night of his debut. Nothing here about gangsters or gambling or byzantine Nevada politics, but who would think you could write a chapter about Frank, Dean and Sammy and make it as fresh as though you were sitting at the Dunes in 1959? In fact, the opening chapter--telling Frank's story one more time--is as fine a history of the Las Vegas showroom as you're ever likely to read. He then follows up with expansive essays on the origins of the Vegas lounge. (Louis Prima gets the major credit, of course, but he also remembers that Prima was preceded by the Mary Kaye Trio, which started the midnight-to-dawn style of improvisational lounge entertainment that would become a Vegas trademark until it was watered down in the seventies to the level of Bill Murray's "Saturday Night Live" lounge lizard singing "Star Wars.") Before the era of comedy clubs, but after the age of burlesque, Vegas was pretty much the only place for top comics to work, and Weatherford dispenses that history through the lives of what he calls the big three: Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene and Don Rickles. What, no Joe E. Lewis? Weatherford actually convinced me that Joe E. does not belong on the list, mainly because he was popular with the Vegas founders but never that big a star to the public. One very helpful aspect of this history is that Weatherford has gone deep into the morgue, poring over old microfiche and faded yellow clippings, to show the ups and downs of familiar careers. (For example, he reproduces a rare ad for Elvis' April 1956 debut at the New Frontier, where he's third-billed. Second billing is Shecky Greene. And the headliner? Freddy Martin and His Orchestra!) I could quibble with some of Weatherford's choices. Tom Jones is a sidebar in the Elvis chapter, but shouldn't that be Wayne Newton? His chapter on showgirls is fascinating--going into the lives of such forgotten beauties as Lili St. Cyr, Dyanne Thorne (better known as "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS"), Charo, Juliet Prowse and Mamie Van Doren--but it doesn't give enough credit to the hundreds of girls who have passed through the Tropicana's Folies Bergere, the longest-running show of them all. Still, there are so many gems that you can't stop reading. His section on TV stars who have tried to do Vegas shows--a list that includes Irene "Granny" Ryan, Monty Hall, Suzanne Somers, Mary Hart and Tony Danza--is devastatingly funny without being mean-spirited. And you can sense his genuine affection for such Vegas institutions as Ann-Margret, classiest of all the dames ever to hit town, and the Chairman of the Board. He also remembers the truly tragic characters like Totie Fields, Redd Foxx and Sam Kinison, without getting maudlin or melodramatic.
Rating: 
Summary: ALMOST
Review: Very good, but names are just thrown into the narrative without any introduction. Some of these people, places and artists may be discussed in depth later in the book, but others are just thown out there without any context. Readers age 30 and under, or anyone not familiar with Las Vegas, will likely find this to be a particularly vexing problem.
Rating:
Summary: Weatherford Leads You Down The Right Path To Righteousness
Review: What a swelligant book! The detail and the insight from Weatherford are well worth the price. Any hipster who understands how much Frank Sinatra and Las Vegas mirror what American society really pines for should read it well, know it well and take note to preserve and protect all that is Cult Vegas. My only complaint is that I'd like to see a Volume II. Las Vegas is a misunderstood town, but not in Weatherford's hands as an author who plies his trade well. Las Vegas matters to America and Weatherford explains why.
Rating:
Summary: Cult Vegas IS the Vegas story!
Review: You'll read how a city evolved into a phenomena, what was lost, and why. You'll hear the real stories behind the gossip, the personalities behind the public personas, and, best of all, you'll meet the intriguing cast of characters who were there when the spotlight dimmed. There is an underlying tone of regret in Cult Vegas, a sense that some of the best of a city has been lost forever. For those of us who remember the excitement of the 50's and the 60's, the question is an affirmation of our memories of the dinner showrooms and the performers who played the venue. But this book is not a lament. It's a blast! Mike Weatherford's style is as fast-paced and dynamic as the culture he chronicles. The fact that he is a long-addicted student of the Las Vegas Strip entertainment scene and a reporter who has recorded events for a decade gives this author a solid overview of how and why a desert oasis grew into a mega entertainment center. Don't miss this one. You'll find history in Cult Vegas, none of it boring. Great photos. Fascinating sidebars. If you are a Sinatra fan, a trivia guru, or just love good writing, this is one book packed with page after page of good reading!
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