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Shimmering from the desert haze of Nevada like a latter-day El Dorado, Las Vegas
is the most dynamic, spectacular city on earth. At the start of the twentieth
century, it didn't even exist; at the start of the twenty-first, it's home to
well over one million people, with enough newcomers arriving to need a new
school every month.
Las Vegas is not like other cities. No city in history has so explicitly valued
the needs of visitors above those of its own population. All its growth has been
fueled by tourism, but the tourists haven't spoiled the "real" city; there is no
real city. Las Vegas doesn't have fascinating little-known neighborhoods, and
it's not a place where visitors can go off the beaten track to have more
authentic experiences. Instead, the whole thing is completely self-referential;
the reason Las Vegas boasts the vast majority of the world's largest hotels is
that around thirty-seven million tourists each year come to see the hotels
themselves
Each of these monsters is much more than a mere hotel, and more too than the
casino that invariably lies at its core. They're extraordinary places,
self-contained fantasylands of high camp and genuine excitement that can stretch
as much as a mile from end to end. Each holds its own flamboyant permutation of
showrooms and swimming pools, luxurious guest quarters and restaurants,
high-tech rides and attractions.
The casinos want you to gamble, and they'll do almost anything to lure you in;
thus the huge moving walkways that pluck you from the Strip sidewalk, almost
against your will, and sweep you into places like Caesars Palace.
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Once you're inside, on the other hand, the last thing they want is for you to
leave. Whatever you came in for, you won't be able to do it without
crisscrossing the casino floor innumerable times; as for finding your way out,
that can be virtually impossible. The action keeps going day and night, and in
this windowless - and clock-free - environment you rapidly lose track of which
is which.
"Little emphasis is placed on the gambling clubs No cheap and easily parodied
slogans have been adopted to publicize Las Vegas, no attempt has been made to
introduce pseudo-romantic architectural themes or to give artificial glamour or
gaiety."
- WPA Guidebook to Nevada, 1940
Las Vegas never dares to rest on its laurels, so the basic concept of the Strip
casino has been endlessly refined since the Western-themed resorts and ranches
of the 1940s. In the 1950s and 1960s, when most visitors arrived by car , the
casinos presented themselves as lush tropical oases at the end of the long
desert drive. Once air travel took over, Las Vegas opted for Disneyesque
fantasy, a process that started in the late 1960s with Caesars Palace and
culminated with Excalibur and Luxor in the early 1990s.
These days, after six decades of capitalism run riot, the Strip is locked into a
hyperactive craving for thrills and glamour. First-time visitors tend to expect
Las Vegas to be a repository of kitsch , but the casino owners are far too canny
to be sentimental about the old days. more...
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