What Really Happens in Vegas: True Stories of the People Who Make Vegas, Vegas

by James Patterson, Mark Seal

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The real story of modern Las Vegas, captured by one of the premier authors of our time. James Patterson unveils what Las Vegas is really made of, and who makes it. It's a captivating adventure riddled with fascination.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas—until now. James Patterson shows the real Vegas in a dazzling journey through “lively tales of those who labor and dream in Sin City" (Kirkus).

“Wild and wonderful…The magic of Sin City doesn’t just happen. Patterson and Seal tell its secrets in beautifully presented snippets that often overlap not just surprisingly, but charmingly too.” —Telegraph (UK)
 

• Las Vegas is on Luxury Standard Time: every clock in the airport is a Rolex.
• No dream is too big, no wish is too small—the VIP hosts in Vegas fulfill guests’ every (legal) desire.
• Jackpots hit when least expected. The Nevada Gaming Control Board has days to find a man who unknowingly won over $200,000 at the slots.
• “I love love”: the inventor of the Elvis impersonator wedding and the drive-thru wedding has performed hundreds of marriages—and believes in them all.
• Glamorous yogis take a helicopter across the desert to the Valley of Fire, where they perform sun salutations to the glory of Las Vegas.
• A gambling VIP “whale” loses $1 million at the casinos, yet still leaves saying, "Had a great time. I'll be back."

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In What Really Happens in Vegas, full of surprises for both newcomers and Las Vegas regulars, James Patterson and Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark Seal transport readers from the thrill of adrenaline-fueled vice to the glitter of A-list celebrity and entertainment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316406901
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	12/04/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	270,971
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author. Among his creations are Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Michael Bennett, and Maximum Ride. He has collaborated on novels with Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton and has won an Edgar Award, nine Emmy Awards, and the National Humanities Medal.

Mark Seal is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, where his piece on Gerhartsreiter was a finalist for a 2010 National Magazine Award. He is the author of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit and Wildflower. He lives in Aspen, Colorado.

Hometown:

Palm Beach, Florida

Date of Birth:

March 22, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newburgh, New York

Education:

B.A., Manhattan College, 1969; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1971

Website:

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Editorial Reviews

10/16/2023

In this splashy group portrait, Patterson (Obsessed) and Seal (Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli), a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, spotlight the “unseen toiling armies of personnel” who make Sin City run. Among the profile subjects are Raymond Torres, who served 18 years in prison before becoming one of Las Vegas’s most trusted chauffeurs to the stars, and “high-end sex worker” Dixie, whose clients are high rollers often seeking “companionship disguised as sex.” Elsewhere, Patterson and Seal recount how interior designer Roger Thomas helped elevate Vegas from scruffy gambling outpost to dazzling fantasyland when he designed the Bellagio for casino owner Steve Wynn in 1998, and chronicle “Wedding Queen of the West” Charolette Richards’s journey from lonely wife and mother who arrived in Las Vegas in 1959 to pioneer of the drive-through wedding and the Elvis Presley Pink Cadillac ceremony. Focusing primarily on Horatio Alger–like rags-to-riches stories, the authors downplay the city’s dark side but keep things uptempo, vivid, and fun. Vegas fans are in for an entertaining ride. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2023

Patterson (The 23rd Midnight) takes a break from fiction to uncover unusual facts and tales about Las Vegas in this breezy book coauthored by Seal (Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli). Readers who are curious about high rollers at Caesars Palace or have ever wondered what it's like to cater to millionaire poker players or work as an Elvis Presley impersonator will enjoy this light history of the so-called Entertainment Capital of the World. Patterson and Seal offer the inside scoop on casinos, shows, wedding chapels, and more. It starts with a group of underground divers who burrow under the city to fix the hydraulic system for the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, and readers will discover that Las Vegas sits on several fault lines. The book also looks at the inner workings of those who live and work in Las Vegas and those who make the city come alive. It reads like a novel, which probably won't surprise Patterson fans. VERDICT The combined popularity of the authors and topic should find an eager audiences.—Lupita Garza Grande

Library Journal

2023-09-05
Las Vegas, behind the scenes.

Patterson and Seal bring us inside tales of those who have made the nation’s entertainment capital their home, focusing on the “endless battalions who build, service, and maintain the perpetually expanding facilities; the dealers and croupiers who run the games; the international superchefs, cocktail wizards, and servers who fortify the multitudes; the dazzling superstars of stage, screen, nightclub, and stripper pole; the pilots, limo drivers, and cabbies who keep the city on the move.” This is a book full of zippy profiles of success and struggle on a variety of socioeconomic levels, as the authors introduce us to a host of interesting characters: Charolette Richards, a plucky entrepreneur who opened the first drive-through wedding chapel; Chundrea Gardner, an elite yoga instructor who flies his clients by helicopter for open-air classes in the Mojave Desert; Kaitlyn, a 21-year-old nursing student who made a small fortune as an exotic dancer; and Shin Lim, a former concert pianist who rose from obscurity to score a residency position as a magician at the Mirage. There is nothing that feels especially insightful or surprising about these biographical sketches, but they make for energetic reading. The writing moves along briskly to create a pleasant—if blinkered and sentimental—panorama of the city’s vitality and its potential for fulfilling the most outlandish fantasies. Readers will gain a dynamic sense of how the city channels extraordinary flows of money and hope through its complex infrastructure, nourishing seductive promises amid sparkling eclecticism. This is a book about positive outcomes—or gambles that paid off—and the authors offer very little commentary about Vegas’ role in generating misery through excess and, often, exploitation. For those intrigued by such a viewpoint, the entertainment value is high.

Lively tales of those who labor and dream in Sin City.

Kirkus Reviews

Lively tales of those who labor and dream in Sin City…the entertainment value is high.”—Kirkus

“Up tempo, vivid, and fun … an entertaining ride.”—Publishers Weekly

"Unusual facts and tales about Las Vegas... the inner workings of those who live and work in Las Vegas and those who make the city come alive... reads like a novel."—Library Journal

“A breezy, nonstop narrative capturing the essence of a crazy, wide-open town … a dazzling and fun account of America’s entertainment capital.”—New York Journal of Books

“Especially entertaining…What Really Happens in Vegas is a must-read for anyone wondering what really happens in the city Hunter S. Thompson once dubbed ‘the savage heart of the American Dream.’”—Air Mail

From the Publisher