Vintage Vegas walking tour? Vegas Mob tour?

[Hoss_Lass]

I'm not having a lot of luck finding out info on these two tours in town. I would really like to hear reviews of folks who have gone to these tours, the Vintage Vegas Walking Tour (starts at downtown somewhere and some one takes you walking around narrarating historical facts??? from what little I've been able to find out about...) and then the Vegas Mob tour (starts at the Greek Isles and you load up on a bus for a couple of hours while your driver takes you to known mob places and tells history/stories).

My upcoming trip is for my sister and I told her I would do whatever she wanted to see or go to. And these are two of the things she wanted to do but I need info for her. We're probably going to do the Haunted Vegas tour, I've been able to find several reviews of that and I think I would be able to humor her through it. Not my type of thing but I made a promise to a sister........

But I do have her excited about trying to go to Grand Canyon West and take a walk on the new Skywalk, even if she does have a fear of heights........

Thanks all!!

[Jacqui, Duskette8]

Here is a link to the Vegas Mob Tour

http://www.vegasmobtour.com/html/faqs.htm

And here is a link to a discount coupon for it! :

http://www.vegas4locals.com/couponvegasmobtour.html

The Haunted tour is a lot of fun .... Here is a pic of me on the tour with the main tourguide last year (he claims to have been an undertaker before becoming a tourguide!) http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...auntedTour.jpg

Here is another link to a thread on this site re: the Haunted Tour : http://www.everythinglv.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=3929

[GREGRIO]

...you're so good.

[Steve]

Actually the person that runs the Vegas Mob Tour is Denny Griffen who is a forum member. He is a noted author of Vegas mob history books. Perhaps he will respond to this post?

Steve

[Denny]

Hoss Lass,

My name is Denny Griffin. I live in Vegas and write about Vegas mob history. Last April my book The Battle for Las Vegas - The Law vs. the Mob, was published. Shortly afterward I was contacted by Robert Allen, operator of the Haunted Las Vegas Tour. Mr. Allen wanted to start a Mob Tour based on the incidents in my book. Eventually I and two of my associates became technical consultants to the Tour. Our role is to assure the accuracy of how events relating to the Tony Spilotro era in Las Vegas are reported. One of my associates is Dennis Arnoldy, retired Las Vegas FBI case agent for the Spilotro investigations. The other is Frank Cullotta, Spilotro's former lieutenant-turned-government witness. Frank was a technical advisor to the 1995 movie Casino and appeared in several scenes as a hit man. In one instance he recreated a murder that he actually committed in Vegas. Dennis Arnoldy and I go along on the Tour every so often to add commentary and make sure the description of Spilotro-related events remains accurate.

In addition to the Spilotro stuff, Mr. Allen and his guides offer story after story about other characters/incidents that impacted Vegas over the years.

If I can answer any other questions for you please let me know.

Denny

[JMVegas5866]

I'm a vintage Vegas fanatic also. I spend a portion of my free time researching Vegas history online when I can. Thanks for starting this thread. Perhaps I can also gain more knowledge from Denny Griffin.

Downtown is a good place to start with for vintage Vegas. There's alot more left up North. Fremont Streets name alone has alot of history, named after John C. Fremont who was a US Military officer, explorer, and candidate for the President of the United States. He was also a map maker and his maps made Las Vegas become and important stop on the way West. That alone is one of my favorite Vegas history facts.

I can go on in depth about alot of other things, but to keep it short some other historic tidbits and fyi's for Downtown which are my favorites are: The location of The Plaza, and Main Street Station which used to be where the first railroads through Vegas ran. The West wing of the Horseshoe (tower with the rooftop swimming pool). That tower was part of the old Mint Casino built in the 60s. The Fremont Casino, that was built by a famous architect by the name of Wayne McAllister who was famous for his unique Googie Style architecture. Built in 1956, 14 stories tall it was the tallest building in the state of Nevada. McAllisters other famous architectural works include Bob's Big Boy in California. He also drew up the plans for the El Rancho Casino (once located to the empty lot to the right of Circus Circus), The Desert Inn, and the Sands. Unfortunatley there's nothing much origional left to the Fremont that I can see except for its exterior shape Up North you can go even back further to when the Mormons first settled in town and get all that historic info. There are also some historic places still around. Forts, railroad houses, etc.

The Strip there's not too much 'vintage' left anymore. You can go to the Riviera. It's still got it's 2 original hotel towers from the 50s. It also still has the origional pool tiled beautifully with the old Riviera logo (still kept in great condition!). Circus Circus has a little history. It is the biggest permanent big top in the world. It was built by Jay Sarno who also built Caesars Palace. The Hilton has history besides being that Elvis Performed there. Built in 69' it was the largest hotel in the WORLD. It's creator Kirk Kerkorian then went on to built MGM Grand (now Bally's)which then became the largest hotel in the WORLD. Besides those tidbids he has an outstanding career history record that is very interesting. Tropicana still contains a portion of its original low rise structure from the 50s. The Frontier was a Howard Huges resort. Oh yeah I forgot, go back up North strip to that Korean BBQ joint (next to Peppermill). Believe it or not that was a casino called the El Morocco.

There's still a good portion of impressive history to sight see. UNLV has a great historical archive aswell that you can spend hours looking through and loose track of time.

Thanks again for starting this thread. I'm glad to see people in here that appreciate the towns history. Maybe if there were tons more people like yourself around that there would be more of it to see today.

If anyone knows about any more 'vintage Vegas' original sights around to see please do fill me in

[Jacqui, Duskette8]

I can't imagine why on Earth anyone would want to put themselves through the experience of that Grand Canyon Skywalk! ha ha!!! Sheer madness!!

[Hoss_Lass]

Wow, anyone ever tell you all how helpful you all are!!! (Be sure you say that with a bit of Texas/Southern lady twang Thank you so much for the replys!

Jacqui, thanks for the links and the pic. You look like you have a lot of fun, and good thing the driver was looking up at the camera instead of "elsewhere"! I will pass on your review about the Haunted Vegas tour to my sis. I know the Grand Canyon West Skywalk looks crazy, but I'm an outdoor gal and this has a big appeal to me for some reason! Thank you again!


JMVegas: Thank you, for your nice in-depth reply. You and my sister could talk for hours about old Vegas, I think she would match your passion. Every time we go to Vegas together over the past several years she just about cries over the loss of all the old casinos and the old slots esp the mechanical three wheel (penny demonination no less) as we go up and down the strip. So we usually spend some time downtown. I too have some sadness for the loss of the Vintage Vegas buildings (I esp. struggled with Stardust, that was the first hotel in Vegas we stayed in when we started our annual sister trips). But I seem to be able to adapt with the changing Vegas scene better than she over these last few years, not to say I really like it, but I'll adapt and have fun none the less.

Denny: Thank you so much for responding here!! I think we would be interested in doing this. The mob history of Vegas is really fascinating, unlike anywhere else I think!! Thank you again and I will probably pm you with questions!

This is great, keep the replys coming.!!

[Denny]

Hoss Lass, Jacqui, and fans of the movie Casino,

There has been a new development regarding my associate in the Vegas Mob Tour and co-author, Frank Cullotta. If you follow the link below it will take you to an article that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal yesterday.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/6842292.html

Also, I mentioned some time ago that National Geographic had done a four-part documentary about organized crime in America. The first episode of that series will air on the NGC this Sunday evening and is about the "Philly Mob." The Vegas segment will follow at some point, but I'm not sure of the exact timing yet. I'll post the air date here as soon as I have it.

Denny

[Jacqui, Duskette8]

Thanks for the link Denny.. very interesting!

I am really looking forward to seeing the documentary... I will watch out for it over here on National Geographic, hopefully the UK will get it too!