Viva Las Vegas, Dammit!

By Toni L.P. Kelner / Leigh Perry

I have a new book coming out next Tuesday, and I just got my author copies in the mail yesterday. Were this any other day I would likely be posting a photo of the book alongside one of the many skeletons in my house. I'd probably tell a story about what inspired me to write that book, or the writing challenges it presented, or something like that. It would have been entertaining enough to almost make you forget I was trying to sell you something.

But this week, fifty-nine people died in Las Vegas and hundreds more were wounded.

I can't write anything meaningful about the terror of those moments, the heroism of the first-responders, or the sorrow I feel. What I can do is write about Las Vegas.

I've been to Las Vegas twice. The first time was back before I was even allowed into a casino. For years, my grandparents had been regular Vegas visitors. They spent so much there that they were comped their hotel rooms, plane tickets, food, and shows. In fact, they were comped so generously that they could take my mother along. (Though Mama had to buy her own plane ticket.) Each time Mama would spend weeks getting her clothes ready, and come back happy and tired and with t-shirts and other souvenirs for my sisters and me. After a while, my grandparents were getting a suite at the hotel, and we decided the whole family should go: my grandparents, my parents, my sister Brenda and her husband, my sister Robin, and me. My cousin-once-removed Howard Junior came with his girlfriend, Hazel, too.

What a week we had! We stayed at the MGM Grand, and had a two-bedroom suite that was more than big enough for us all. There was a balcony where we could go out and see the desert scenery, though we kids had to wait until Granddaddy was gone before venturing out--he was afraid of heights and thought we should be, too. We went to the pool, which was the biggest we'd ever seen, and wandered the actual shopping mall in the basement of the hotel. The most exciting spot was the photo op with the MGM lion. It was a real lion, mind you, not a backdrop.We sampled the entertainment at the hotel: games of Jai-Lai and a dinner show with Shecky Greene and Florence Henderson. (Yes, I know, Mrs. Brady, but she was a fabulous performer!) My sister Robin and I weren't allowed in the big show, Hallelujah Hollywood, because they had topless showgirls, and we were under 21. (Even my very staid mother said it was tastefully done, so I still regret that. They had "new" magicians Siegfried and Roy, who would make the MGM lion disappear.) We ventured out to see acts at Circus, Circus and Daddy won a stuffed animal for me. We went shopping for turquoise necklaces, visited the Hoover Dam, and drove to the California border just so we could say that we'd been to California. For the grand finale to the trip, Howard Junior married Hazel at an actual Vegas wedding chapel!

It was so fancy. There was a phone in our suite's bathroom! We got maid service and room service breakfast! How much fancier can you get?

My second trip was in 2003, when my husband Steve and I went to Bouchercon. Most of the wonders were to do with the convention itself, but we did venture out onto the strip. We watched the dancing fountain at the Bellagio, admired the reproduction of St. Mark's Square at the Venetian, watched part of the pirate ship show at Treasure Island, and laughed at the talking statues at the shopping mall at Caesar's Palace. I was a particular fan of the Toys R Us at Caesar's Palace--the muses on the columns were played by Barbie dolls and a Liberace-style bear played a glittering piano. It was overwhelming sensory overload, and maybe tacky in spots, but glorious just the same.

That's how I want to remember Las Vegas. Not that I would ever dishonor those 59 people or their families by forgetting them, not that I ever could forget the stories of grief and horror and people risking their own lives to save strangers. But I want to remember the happy times, knowing that more happy times will come. Joy should always defeat sadness, just as in the long run, goodness will always prevail over evil.

Comments

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Thank you, dear Toni.

[Karen Maslowski]

My husband and I were also married in Las Vegas, at the Candlelight Wedding Chapel, which at the time was across from Circus Circus. Which is where we stayed. We had celebratory drinks (Brandy Alexander for me, my favorite in 1982) ringside while the motorcycle act went on in the giant metal globe in Circus Circus.

One aunt and her family, and my sister and hers, actually lived there, and for quite a long time. Most of them worked in casinos, mostly far off the glittery Strip. Vegas has always had two sides, including the one unseen by tourists. The city works hard to keep it that way, up to using fake grass around hotels.

Now, it's as if the veil has been torn open, to show the gritty inside. I wonder if that wound will ever close completely.

[Elaine Viets]

Congratulations on your new book, Toni. Like everyone else, I'm horrified by the 59 deaths and nearly 500 injuries in Las Vegas. Prayers will help them. So will outlawing the "bump stocks" that permitted that creep to continuously spray the crowd. We're looking at more massacres as long as those are legal.

[Las Vegas Websites]

Congrats on your new book. The horror we experienced is truly hard to bear but I loved what you said in this article: "I want to remember the happy times, knowing that more happy times will come."

Cheers Toni