BONUS: Gems of Vegas - Where to Find Fun Beyond the Bright Lights

Liam Heffernan: 00:00:16

Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of America A History recorded straight after our recently published episode, who Put the Fabulous in Las Vegas. I'm joined now by the guest from that episode, Professor Michael Green from unlv, to discuss this a little bit more.

Michael, thank you for hanging on.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:00:33

Thank you. I enjoyed it.

Liam Heffernan: 00:00:35

Yeah, I had a really great chat with you about Vegas and yeah, it's. Do you know what it was. This whole episode was entirely selfish on my part because I love Vegas and I just wanted to talk about it more.

And in that vein, we normally have a slightly more in depth chat on a couple of the points from the main episode. But I'm just going to be completely selfish here.

And in the interest of maybe visiting Vegas again one day, I'd really just love to know what your kind of favorite local hidden gems are in the city.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:01:08

Well, I don't know how hidden they are, to be honest, but okay. I'm a history person, so I did refer to museums and I do advocate going to them.

There is also one pretty far out toward Boulder City, the Clark County Museum, which has some remnants of the theme park I mentioned, the Old Frontier.

Liam Heffernan: 00:01:29

Oh, no way.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:01:30

Some old houses. It's a lot of fun. Boulder City is not a long drive and it's a small town. Gambling's illegal. Boulder Dam Hotel is where I got married.

But also old buildings, nice place to tour. And then we have a wetlands park. We have the Springs Preserve in the middle of the city.

These are just great places to visit and to learn and have a good time doing it. And so those are among my hidden gems.

Liam Heffernan: 00:02:00

Do you know what? I can absolutely attest to the fact that going off Strip can be so rewarding.

One of the times that I visited, we went to this chocolate factory and I forget what.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:02:13

I know where you went.

Liam Heffernan: 00:02:15

Yeah, it was, it's a fairly small place. And actually it was, it was, it was a tad underwhelming in the factory itself, but, you know, it was fine.

But as we were searching for a place to get a cab back to the Strip, we stumbled upon this, this little casino and sort of motel. And it was such a great little place. We got a whole like keg of beer essentially for like $2. It was a wonderful place.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:02:45

You can still find some of those bargains around town.

And then what you also find is that some of the chefs who worked on the Strip like to open their own places and they tend to be in shopping centers or small street corners. So in terms of food, there's a lot downtown. There's a place called Zenaida's Cafe, opened by a guy who was an executive chef for Wynn.

It's in a little strip mall. And so you kind of have to hunt for the jewels here. But the jewels are here.

Liam Heffernan: 00:03:20

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's. That's definitely noted for when I. I'm next there. Because I think, like most tourists, I kind of.

I stick to either the strip or to Fremont street and don't really venture much beyond that, which is understandable. Yeah, I think, because that's really the only things that we're told about.

And I wonder actually what the Vegas residents themselves, like, you think about all the tourists because, you know, you must get tired of us very quickly.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:03:55

Well, we welcome you, I think, because you are so crucial to our existence. And at the same time, I can say this.

My dad was a casino dealer for 30 years, and he would talk about both the nice tourists and the ugly tourists overseas, the ugly American. But the people who come in and think, well, I can do whatever I want. Well, life isn't that simple.

So I think there are some of us who will look and say, well, we hope you behave, if not behave in terms of your dissipation while you're here, your dealings with people. We are very good at being a resort economy and community. I think we also. This is interesting, tend to be a little less excited about celebrity.

The idea that you. You see this big name. They were in the supermarket last week, big deal or whatever. So there's a bit of.

I wouldn't say the word jaded about it, but I do think that we tend to take it a little less seriously or excitedly.

Liam Heffernan: 00:05:09

I guess you're kind of like Los Angeles in that respect. In that, you know, you're kind of. You are an entertainment city, and you.

But you're kind of also, you know, you're running the business of entertainment. So actually, you see the less glamorous side that us tourists are not supposed to see.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:05:26

That's true. And it's like the movie Casino. Robert De Niro's character looked nothing like the person in real life.

And the person in real life fired my father from his job. My dad has opinions about him, and I can look at that and say, well, wait a minute. That doesn't quite square with how I see things.

So that's part of being a Las Vegan, too.

We look at all of these accounts of what goes on here, whether it's journalism or history or movies and tv, and we'll say, well, you know, that isn't quite how it happened.

Liam Heffernan: 00:06:05

Yeah, I. I guess, though, as well, you know, thinking about just the economy that kind of underpins Vegas everywhere, really. Just because you're a tourist city, you must be so much more affected by things like, you know, the global financial crisis that happens.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:06:26

Oh, yes.

Liam Heffernan: 00:06:27

And like Covid, for instance, which kind of shut everything down. I mean, how. How do you cope with stuff like that?

Prof. Michael Green: 00:06:34

Unfortunately, we don't. We don't cope well. And we then, unfortunately, go back to our old habits.

And after the global financial crisis, there were people who said, we really need to have a talk as a community and think about what we do differently. No, nothing that different. Covid should have taught us something. And I can remember during COVID my wife and I drove across town to see some friends.

We sat socially distanced outside. Then we were driving home, and we drove across the strip, and the light changed, and we looked up and down the strip, and it was dark, no lights.

And I think that's when the enormity of it hit me. And I think then to say, oh, we bounced back right away. Not everybody does. And, oh, we got through it just fine.

No, a lot of social services suffered, and I think we are still seeing the effects, not just in Las Vegas, but nationally and internationally. But I think we tend to think, no, it will always be saved by tourism.

And granting that we have had a long boom or a lot of boom time, there's been some bust, just as there is with mining, which originally led to the creation of the state of Nevada. And the state thought, well, gambling, divorce, federal projects. That'll ameliorate any problem there.

Well, now we may need to look for the next big thing.

Liam Heffernan: 00:08:12

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's always so easy for us, certainly, as outsiders, to look at Vegas and think it's all just, like, flashy lights and just almost too.

Too big and, like, spectacular to fail. And I guess that's just. That's not the case. Right.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:08:27

Well, we are where you go to spend discretionary income.

Liam Heffernan: 00:08:31

Yeah.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:08:32

And if you don't have discretionary income, ooh, we're in trouble.

Liam Heffernan: 00:08:37

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Well, luckily, it seems like Vegas is bouncing back and more construction work than ever is being done, which is. Which is awesome for us.

But you know what?

I think anyone that lives in Vegas must, like yourself, must get quite sick of talking about Vegas, because it must be all that people like me talk to you about. So before we wrap up this bonus episode, I'm really interested in just knowing what your favorite cities in the U.S. are.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:09:03

Oh, favorite cities in the U.S. oh, my. Well, I went to graduate school in New York City and fell in love with it. Not to live. I don't want to live in New York, but I love visiting.

I love Washington, D.C. well, I'm a historian. That makes sense. But we also spend a good deal of time in Pasadena, which made some recent events pretty painful to watch unfold.

But there you get kind of the combination of the big city and the small town and a lot of things for you to do. A lot of nice places to eat, you can walk around. That's all very appealing.

So maybe the idea that I mentioned three places where I can park the car or not even have the car and walk around, since I live in an area where you pretty much drive everywhere. Maybe that's part of it. I don't know.

Liam Heffernan: 00:10:01

Yeah, that's. Obviously, that must be the novelty when you live somewhere that we need to drive all the time. But that's great recommendations, Michael.

And although I have to say, next time I go to the US I'll probably be going to Vegas.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:10:18

We'll look for you.

Liam Heffernan: 00:10:19

Thank you. Yeah, I'll come and say hi, spend money.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:10:25

I'm a state employee. It's important.

Liam Heffernan: 00:10:30

Michael, thank you so much for joining me for this and for the main episode as well. Anyone listening to this? Of course. Go and check out the main episode if you haven't already. It's just a couple of episodes below us on this feed.

As always, anything that we've referenced or talked about we'll link to in the show notes. And if you like what you hear, you can support the show from as little as $1. So go and check out all the info. It's in the show notes right now.

Before we go, quickly, Michael, remind people where they can get hold of you.

Prof. Michael Green: 00:11:00

Well, if you look up my name, Michael Green, normal spellings, unlv, you can get biography and that sort of thing and email. Simple. Michael greenenlv. Edu.

Liam Heffernan: 00:11:12

Wonderful. Thank you, Michael, and thanks to everyone listening to this. And goodbye.