i made a few million dollars in las vegas. mcbride: las vegas always sold the illusion that you can indulge in any way you like, and the only way you find out what you can t do is if you do it. in the 70s, you start to sense the old days are over. you could just see that las vegas lost its mojo. reporter: howard hughes asked for permission to buy another gambling casino, this one in reno. charles: when howard hughes came in, corporate mentality took over. elvis: i like to get there and fool with an audience. if you can do that, it works. elvis was caught in a trap, and he couldn t get out. luck be a lady tonight luck be a lady tonight tonight luck, if you ever were a lady to begin with luck be a lady tonight luck be a ladyyyyy tonight [ jazz music playing ] binkley: the purpose of las vegas was to forget what was happening in the rest of the country and leave it behind. people in las vegas were certainly aware of what was going on in the
announcer: friends, viewers, countrymen, lend me your eyeballs. las vegas has always been able to grab you by the lapels and pull you in. little: it s glitz and glamour, entertainment, gambling. it s a place that s like no other. announcer: with time on your hands and money to spend, your thoughts may turn to las vegas. anka: by the late 60s, vegas started to figure out, what else can we bring here? woman: love you, elvis! thank you, dear. elvis was, like, an alien-like thing. he was so unique, so charming, and so hot. they saw that sex and debauchery sells, so let s do sex and debauchery. [ chuckles ] luck, be a lady tonight luck, be a lady tonight tonight luck, if you ever were a lady to begin with luck, be a lady tonight luck, be a ladyyyyyy toniiiiiight the stars of the las vegas shows may be frank sinatra, dean martin, and wayne newton, but for years, the fantasy and the razzle dazzle came from the famous long-legged showgirls.
of getting older and being relevant, and then it got out of hand. narrator: with nothing more than a few miners and railroad men trying to scratch out a living on this harsh, unyielding nevada desert. but even amid the hardship, there were glimmers of what this city would one day become. the ultimate place to work las vegas, nevada. vegas has always marketed itself on its naughtiness. of course, within legal constraints. well, sometimes illegal. man: no one knows gambling better than organized crime. white: eventually, vegas became the entertainment capital of the world. say, as long as we re all here together, why don t we have a drink? [ laughter ] anka: the content of that town, what it has to offer you can t beat that. dion: every song would become a visual show. every song would be like an adventure, like an experience. to be a headliner in las vegas, that s what i want to do. luck, be a lady tonight luck, be a lady tonight tonight luck, if you
tapper: for a country that bills itself as the world s oldest democracy, we sure do love a strongman, and from teddy roosevelt all the way up to our reality tv president, nowhere produces more of them than the empire state. and i get it. in an age where congress approval rating hovers somewhere around sewer rats, we wanna vote for the politician who can finally just get things done. that was eliot spitzer to a t. but when new yorkers sent the sheriff of wall street to the governor s mansion, we all learned the hard way that white knights can have dark secrets. spitzer was caught breaking his own sex work laws, a level of hypocrisy we could never forget. eliot spitzer blazed a trail through new york that had him in spitting distance of the white house, right up until the moment he set himself on fire. this will sound like a setup for a bad joke, but bear with me. [cheering] the change you seek, the new york you dream of begins tonight. [cheering] so there s this honest po
every day in every state across the country, our political system is bankrolled by an army of fund-raisers, pulling in millions of dollars a race. sometimes it looks like you might imagine knocking on doors, calling every name in the phone book, and emails so many emails. but for all those little fish throwing $100 to their local race, it s the whales those campaign fund-raisers really need powerful, rich individuals and companies. and when they donate $25,000, $100,000, a million dollars, they want a favor.or 10. it should be obvious that s corrupt, but with a wink and a nod, political deals toe the bribery line every single day. and we may never have noticed that if a certain illinois governor hadn t flung back the curtain with an unrepentant ego, a political corruption crime spree, and a set of unprecedented audio recordings that shined a bright light on the inner workings of american political power. ladies and gentlemen, meet rod blagojevich. it was early morning,