Sheehan - Skin city: behind the scenes of the Las Vegas sex industry

The question Ive been asked most often by friends who inquire about this project, other than Do you need any help with your research? is How did your wife allow a guy like you to write this book? The answer, pure and simple, is that she trusts me. And I trust her. And for that and a thousand other reasons, I dedicate this book to Carol Carpenter Sheehan, my wife, lover, best friend, and mother of our two amazing children.

P.S. Carol even talked several of her friends into enrolling in the Strippers 101 class for housewives with her. The class is taught by one of the subjects of this book. Think of the money that might save me! J. S.

contents

The Scarlet Brick Road to Skin City

The Oscars of Porn

B Student in an X-Rated World

A World Away from Minnesota

Gidget Goes Porn

Schwing! The Etiquette of Mate Swapping

Loss of Virginity Blues

The Mother Hen

Ill Be Watching You

The Gold Dust Twins

Where the Boys Are

Its All About the Benjamins

Clearing My Conscience

THE SCARLET
BRICK ROAD
TO SKIN CITY

T he program was full of luscious color pictures of real naked women prancing around onstage in front of an audience. I not only had never seen such a thing; I couldnt imagine that moments such as these could even exist in the cloistered world in which I was raised. I was not yet at the point where the nuns at my school were talking to us about family matters. The closest I had gotten to sexual awareness was noticing that Pam Connors, the girl in the row next to me, was beginning to stretch the fibers of her school-issued cotton blouses.

My parents had brought the program home to Spokane, Washington, after attending a dental convention in Las Vegas. The year was 1960. I was but 11 years old, and when I found the publication in a sack full of goodies and souvenirs, which included a set of plastic false teeth that chattered when placed on a flat surface, I snuck it downstairs and hid it behind a basement bookshelf. It was, I would discover weeks later when I got beyond the pictures to the words, the official souvenir program of Les Folies Bergere at the Tropicana Hotel.

The trip south from Spokane had a dual purpose: for my father to attend a one-day dental seminar, and for my parents to watch the Tournament of Champions at the Desert Inn with a group of dentists and their wives. I suppose every family with a working dad has perks that go with his profession. Mine was that I got my cavities filled for free. Also, having a low pain threshold, I could always talk my father into injecting me with more Novocain, the preferred numbing agent of the day.

I dont know whether abscessed teeth or crooked bicuspids were discussed much on that trip to Vegas. I do know that my parents also brought home a dice clock that hung on our kitchen wall until my mother rightly decided that it didnt represent anything of value to parochial school children like my older sister and myself. Weeks later it was taken down and replaced with a plaque of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Having never at that point seen a copy of Playboy magazine, and being a full two years short of the onset of puberty, my only exposure to the unfettered female form was pictures of tribal maidens in National Geographic . And the breasts of these no-doubt noble creatures, which hung down like tennis ball canisters, didnt exactly accelerate my race toward manhood. But the showgirls of the Folies were a different matter entirely. There was one brunette in particular whose picture I studied by the hour. I would learn decades later that her name was Felicia Atkins. She had a stunning face, reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor or Joan Collins in their primes, with full lips, hypnotic blue eyes, and amazing breasts, large and firm years before cosmetic surgery would make those attributes available to any woman of means.

As luck would have it, I would interview Ms. Atkins for a magazine article some 25 years later, long after her career in the footlights had come to an end. At the time of our meeting, she was a bartender in Las Vegas. I admitted to her in our conversation that she had formed my first indelible image of Sin City, and she politely thanked me. I would learn that I was not alone in my admiration of her attributes. Through the 1960s and 1970s Felicia and her bookend partner from the Folies , Joyce Grayson, were major celebrities in Las Vegas, and their buxom images were plastered all over magazines and billboards around the world in the days when the Las Vegas showgirl was considered an American icon. Felicia had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show , had dated numerous celebrities including Elvis Presley, had had speaking roles in several motion pictures, and had even appeared in April 1958, as Playboy s Playmate of the Month.

Somewhere in my prepubescent consciousness registered the notion that women who looked like Felicia Atkins were prancing around without clothes for hundreds of people to ogle, and that, when I was old enough, I had better shag my tail from Spokane to Las Vegas and view the real thing for myself. Years later, following the completion of graduate school and a short stint as a newspaper reporter, I determined that writing professionally was my best chance of making a reasonable living. Although my only visit to Las Vegas had been a one-week trip a couple of years prior, I had experienced enough communal energy in that seven-day stay, and met so many interesting characters, that I knew I had to give the city a longer look.

Planning Ahead

Top Las Vegas Websites

Looking for extensive reviews of Vegas strip clubs? Interested in inviting an escort whos just your type to your hotel room? Thinking about diving headfirst into the swingers scene? Before you hop on an airplane bound for Sin City, do some research by visiting the following websites.

• www.stripclubreview.com/vegas.html: Though it hasnt been updated in some time, this comprehensive site still features detailed reviews of more than two dozen gentlemens clubs, pictures of various dancers, links to dancers websites, a helpful FAQ page, and even lodging information. Interested in becoming a stripper? Theres a page that provides everything, including contact phone numbers for interviews to the fees girls must pay to dance in clubs.
• www.eros-lasvegas.com: A slick site that includes information on, pictures of, and contact information for a variety of Las Vegas escorts, as well as a calendar of sex-related events in Las Vegas.
• www.vegas.com/nightlife/stripclubs/: Offers details on several of Las Vegas most popular strip clubs, including reviews, phone numbers, prices, and a section on strip-club etiquette. Theres also information on swingers clubs.
• www.cityvibe.com/lasvegas/: Quality pictures, detailed information, and even a few short video clips of Las Vegas escorts.
• eroticmassage.blogs.com/las_vegas_massage_parlors/: One mans take on the Asian massage-parlor industry in Las Vegas, including addresses and phone numbers, as well as a posting forum.
• www.vegasredrooster.com: Learn all you need to know about Las Vegas oldest swingers club, check out pictures from past events, and get details on upcoming parties.