Fabulous one-day itineraries designed exclusively for SilverKris readers.
Paris
Milan
Find flights or check-in online at www.singaporeair.com
Content accurate at time of publication
01 Feb 2012
True Las Vegas champion – ex-mayor and now flamboyant entrepreneur – Oscar Goodman speaks to SHANDANA A. DURRANI on one of his pet projects, The Mob Museum.
Let it not be said that Las Vegas is boring. People head there to enjoy world-class shows, dine in five-star hotspots, try their luck at the tables and take hedonism to the next level – all among glamorous celebs. So, why is the city building something so staid as a museum? Ex-Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman (right) tells you that his latest heritage project, dubbed The Mob Museum, makes perfect sense.
The three-storey attraction, to be launched on February 14, will enlighten visitors on a unique aspect of early 20th century American culture – the history of organised crime and its imprint on America.
“Las Vegas’ past is part of the mystique that makes it the fabulous city it is today, one of the top tourism destinations in the world,” says Goodman. After all, mobster Bugsy Siegel helped develop Las Vegas in the 1940s before it became the entertainment capital it is today.
Housed in the former federal courthouse on Stewart Street – somewhat ironically – the museum, which cost US$42 million to build, has nearly 17,000 sq ft of exhibition space. The building was once the site of many mob trials and holds a special place in Goodman’s heart as it was where he started his career as a young lawyer more than 30 years ago.
Visitors to the attraction can look forward to, among others, a recreation of an early 1950s courtroom in which the Kefauver Committee hearings on organised crime were held. Artefacts on display will include the brick wall from Chicago’s St Valentine’s Day Massacre (the 1929 murder of seven members of Bugs Moran’s Irish gang by Al Capone’s associates) and the barber chair in which Gambino family crime boss Albert Anastasia was executed in 1957. Exhibits will run the gamut from The Skim, a display about the illegal skimming of casino profits, to the interactive Bringing Down the Mob, which deals with the history of wiretapping and lets visitors listen in on mob conversations and interpret coded messages.
“I think people will get a sense of Las Vegas’ and American history from a very unique perspective. We estimate more than 250,000 people a year will visit,” Goodman, who was mayor from 1999 to 2011, says.
On a personal note, Goodman has opened a steakhouse and speakeasy – at the Plaza Hotel and Casino, no less – in his new role as a food and beverage entrepreneur.
Las Vegas’ hold on some never lets go.
PHOTO GETTY IMAGES
leave a comment