Sex
and Lies in Las Vegas - Page 2
ROXIE'S
Las Vegas's era of centralized and destigmatized prostitution was
officially eulogized, but another 30 years would pass before it
would become unquestionably illegal. In fact, many Las Vegans opposed
the Block's demise. A petition was submitted to city officials,
with 395 signatures; to reopen it-not only to satisfy clients' needs
and enhance the community's economic health, but also to keep the
single men away from married women and high school girls. The brief
movement failed, however. Some of the pros relocated to Skid Row
on First Street, a block away, while others settled at the Little
and Kit-Kat clubs out on Boulder Highway.
After the war, a few of the old proprietors attempted to revive
the Block, which had gone to seed with cheap rooming houses, but
the city condemned most of the buildings in 1946. Another nail in
the coffin of brothel prostitution in Las Vegas was hammered into
place in 1949, only two years after Bugsy's untimely demise. State
Senator A. v: Tallman ofWinnemucca introduced legislation totally
legalizing brothels in Nevada. The measure passed both houses, but
Governor Vail Pittman vetoed it after powerful prodding by the increasingly
influential hotel- casino owners. The veto fell short of being overturned
by only a few votes.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas brothels refused to be laid to rest. Organized
prostitution expanded beyond the city limits. The Kassabian Ranch
and C-Bar-C were located in Paradise Valley a little off the Strip,
while Roxie's squatted on Boulder Highway (near the intersection
of today's Sahara Avenue) in a section known as Formyle. The Kassabian
was shutdown by the county vice squad in 1946, and the C-Bar-C burned
to the ground in a mysterious fire shortly thereafter. But Roxie's
survived well into the 1950s. The owners, Eddie and Roxie Clippinger,
surrounded them- selves with strong juice by paying off, year after
year, the county sheriff, two county commissioners, and a law firm,
one of whose partners was the state lieutenant governor.
The FBI finally
raided Roxie's in April 1954, charging the Clippingers with violation
of the Mann Act (transporting women across state lines for immoral
purposes). Disclosures during the trial in Los Angeles, combined
with a sting operation contrived by local crime reporter Ed: Reid
(covered in detail in Green Felt Jungle), produced indictments against
the sheriff and a county commissioner, disgraced the lieutenant
governor, contributed to the governor's subsequent defeat, and revealed
Jake Lansky's hidden ownership in the Thunderbird, which led to
the revocation of its license by the Tax Commission a year later.
Among other revelations about Roxie's were payoffs to the county
vice squad to discourage prostitution on the Strip and eliminate
competition, a dollar-a-head kickback to cabbies who delivered tricks
to Roxie's (members of Teamsters Local 631, the cab drivers once
officially petitioned Eddie Clippinger for $2 ahead), and the presence
of TV cameras in the cribs. When Roxie's was finally driven under,
it was one more nail in the old coffin. But it was by no means the
last.
Because
meanwhile, anew system of cash and carry was evolving as Las Vegas
developed into the city with the most hotel rooms-all those beds!-in
the world. And it all started, naturally enough, in the feverish
dreams of that prominent pioneer and private pimp, Benjamin "Bugsy"
Siegel.
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