UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2002 Lights, audience, profit: The ve olution of the Las Vegas spectacle Jaime Lee Rana Koran University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Koran, Jaime Lee Rana, "Lights, audience, profit: The ve olution of the Las Vegas spectacle" (2002). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1372. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/krmp-md5j This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. 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Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI’ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIGHTS. AUDIENCE, PROMT: THE EVOLUTION OF THE LAS VEGAS SPECTACLE by Jaime Lee Rana Koran Bachelor of Arts Graceiand College 1999 Master of Arts University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2002 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree Department of Theatre College of Fine Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1411190 UMI UMI Microform 1411190 Copyright 2003 by ProQuest information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17. United States Code. ProQuest Information and beaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Jaime Lee Rana Koran 2002 All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thesis Approval UNB The Graduate College Lni\ ersity of Nevada, Las Vegas April 3rd .20 02 The Thesis prepared bv Jaime Lee Koran Entitled Lights, Audience, Profit: The evolution of the Las Vegas Spectacle is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of __________________ Master of Arts in Theatre_______________ / Examination CommitteeJEitaii ÏMm of the Graduate College V Examination Committee Member Examinatiorm^mmittee M embef -Ù/lU<ç Graduate Ç^leg^F^i/lty Representative Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Lights, Audience, Profit: The Evolution of the Las Vegas Spectacle by Jaime Lee Rana Koran Ellis Pryce-Jones. Examination Committee Chair Professor of Theatre University of Nevada, Las Vegas Las Vegas is known as a post-modern city: its development in the later half of the twenty-first century is an explosion of tourism, spectacle and gambling. Especially with the transitions of the past two years and the great variety in the new shows, no one has asked the question how did Las Vegas get fi’om the showgirl toBlue Man Group? If we are to visualize a Las Vegas in the future, it is essential that we understand the whys of and the forces that impel change in the Las Vegas entertainment industry. As there are no chronologies of the Las Vegas spectacle this paper is an effort to delineate the evolution of the spectacle as a beginning step to understanding the forces that change Las Vegas. What follows is a piecing together of myths, opinions, visual accounts, personal memories, and some documented chronologies of the development of the current shows in Las Vegas. ui Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................üi LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS..................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.....................................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 THE DEFINITION OF SPECTACLE....................................................... 7 CHAPTER 2 THE HOLLYWOOD PITSTOP............................................................... 14 CHAPTER 3 THE BIG SPENDER’S EXPECTATIONS............................................31 CHAPTER 4 THE FAMILY’S DINSEY VEGAS........................................................42 CHPATER 5 THE INTERNATIONAL PLAYGROUND...........................................51 Blue Man and Beyond................................................................................55 APPENDIX LETTER OF RELEASE............................................................................ 57 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................................59 VITA.........................................................................................................................................61 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTO 1 : The Arizona Club....................................................................................... 15 PHOTO 2: Chorus Line, The Flamingo........................................................................18 PHOTO 3: Chorus Line, The Frontier...........................................................................18 PHOTO 4; Chorus Line, The Thunderbird....................................................................18 PHOTO 5 : Atomic Test, 1951....................................................................................... 25 PHOTO 6: Frank Sinatra .....................................................................................................26 PHOTO 7: The Rat Pack .....................................................................................................29 PHOTO 8: The Stardust, 1958 ............................................................................................31 PHOTO 9: The Lido Girls, 1958.........................................................................................32 PHOTO 10: Louis Prima, 1956.............................................................................................35 PHOTO 11: Ariel Photo o f The Strip, 1952........................................................................ 37 PHOTO 12: Freemont Street................................................................................................ 38 PHOTO 13: Mackie’s Jubilee Designs .................................................................................40 PHOTO 14: The Bellagio, 2000...........................................................................................51 PHOTO 15: Showgirl.............................................................................................................53 PHOTO 16: The Paris, 2000 ................................................................................................. 54 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’d like to acknowledge Ellis Pryce-Jones, Davey Marlin-Jones. Robert Brewer and Evelyn Gajowski for being a wonderful committee. I’d also like to thank Shannon Sumpter for her insight and invaluable help - along with sitting through my orals, and Georgia Richardson and Shahnaz Khan, without whom this paper would have never even begun. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Las Vegas. Translated to mean ‘The Meadows” in Spanish, the name of the fastest growing urban metropolis in the United States has a different connotation than any other American city. Las Vegas is an internationally