Boys, boys, boys!! 

    Investigative reporter George Knapp, and multi book author/columnist Jack Sheehan sat down for a couple of beers recently and came up with a list of what they call ”truly iconic figures in the history of Las Vegas”

    It appears they came up with their list of “four individual names, and one generic symbol that qualified” before they defined “iconic.”

   With their names in hand the boys went looking for a definition of “iconic” that fit their pre determined list.

   You can read Sheehan’s column in the Sunday’s Las Vegas Sun to find their definition of iconic, which appears to include just about anyone between a scared religious leader and Sadam Hussein.

    I do not want to steal their thunder, so I will only list the first names of their selection; Howard, Frank, Elvis, Show, and Bugsy.

   How these two giants of the media could fall into the mire of prolonging the bogus contributions of Bugsy is beyond me.

   Bugsy did zilch, jack, nothing, nada, zero, for Las Vegas except for getting killed.  He didn’t like Las Vegas, he was sent to Las Vegas by Meyer Lansky, he had no idea how to create, build or run a casino, and Hollywood had found Las Vegas long before and after Siegel opened and closed the Flamingo.

  Bugsy is a creation of the media perpetuated by those caught up in their own frame of reference.

   Now if Jack and George labeled their list as ”truly iconic figures of southern Nevada south of Sahara and north of Sunset road, along Las Vegas Blvd,” it would have had some validity.

    

    We should give them their dues, Jack and George, did label Bugsy the “least iconic” of their list.   “Least Iconic?” o.k.

    To help the boys, we should come up with list of who you think are the “truly iconic figures in Las Vegas history.”    I’ll start.  Helen Stewart.

  Submitted by:  Bob Stoldal, Current member of the American Air Mail Society and former member of the Magic Lantern Society of the United States and Canada.

Posted by:  Bob Stoldal

Categories: Las Vegas History