True glitz

This has happened to me twice now, once in the Tropicana and once in the Flamingo. In both cases, I was strolling idly across the casino floor when I was stopped in my tracks by a showgirl.

The Tropicana is home to the Folies Bergere, an old-school showgirls production. The closest thing the Flamingo has is X Burlesque, but their parent company, Harrah's, also owns Bally's, and there you can see Jubilee!, another classic.

Anyway, it was probably an advertising stunt to sell tickets, but on those two nights striking young women strutted across the casino wearing heels, fishnets, tiny sequined bikinis and feathered headdresses. Heads turned, naturally, but the images have stuck with me for months, and I think I've figured out why.

You hear nostalgia for "Old Vegas" from time to time — that it was more glamorous then, that the Mob actually let people win money, that it was a classier town, geared toward stars, high rollers and beautiful people. Maybe all that's true. Maybe opening up the town to the masses punctured the bubble of what had been a true fantasy playscape open only to those who truly belonged.

That's why the sequined beauties were so striking. For a moment, a piece of that dream world was sharing the casino floor, strutting by so close you could touch her (as long as you didn't mind being tackled by casino security) ... they were visiting shades of high roller heaven, so different from us mortal schlubs in our tennis shoes and baggy T-shirts who were risking tiny piles of money in increments of $5 or less.

And then — like our money — the showgirls disappeared without a trace.