Las Vegas: Still crazy after all these years

Take off your tie, maybe your pants, too

LAS VEGAS, N.F.S. (RWN) - So you're looking for action and excitement, a little adventure, maybe a little bit of spice?

Vegas, baby.

The capital of the Nevada Free State has had the reputation of a freewheeling fun spot since the 1950s when the Mafia opened its second casino there. But since the former United States of America split into different factions, Vegas has become the place to sin in secret.

"This goes back to pre-transition times," said Maureen Schmidlin, the city's advertising director. "We came up with a 'Whatever happens here, stays here' campaign and it was wildly successful. We wanted to position the city as an anything-goes playground, and we did. Then the transition came and that role became even more important."

Visit Vegas these days and you can see a melting pot of cultures. It's got huge convention business and a huge tourist trade that adds to the flavor. Walk down the legendary Strip and you'll see any number of cultures: Muslims, many taking a break from wearing full-face chadors, Chinese on sin trips, Bible Belt kids gone wild.

"That's why I'm here," said Eddie Gillespie, a 22-year-old college student from the University of the Mississippi. "You can't go too wild back home, but here, I'm looking to taste the dark side, maybe meet a Muslim chick who wants a little piece of the Bible Belt."

If your tastes run a little more, er, refined, than Gillespie's, keep in mind that Las Vegas has taken the place of New York's Broadway as the place for original theatre. Vegas businessmen have built five new theaters in the last three years for such plays as The Ritalin Diaries, Abu's Brother and the smash hit Wolfie.

Las Vegas was well on its way to being a second Broadway - large plays were setting up permanent second productions there - before the nuclear bomb took out New York in 2015. Now, it's become a center for theater, both major productions and otherwise.

"We've got a pretty good TV industry that's here, too," said Benjamin Walleye, a screenwriter who moved to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. "The creative atmosphere in the Bible Belt and the Islamic States is pretty repressive, so it's nice to be able to come here and do some really interesting stuff."


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