April 3, 2008
Gaffe Factory: Noted WSJ writer nearly sinks book on Las Vegas
through factual errors
By STEVE FRIESS
A few days ago, USA
Today published my review of the new book by Wall Street
Journal columnist Christina Binkley on Vegas moguls. In it,
I explained why I enjoyed reading Winner Takes All despite its
enormous flaws, that Binkley almost despite her own sloppiness
managed to render an intriguing and entertaining inside look
at the past two decades of Vegas development.
In the context of a book review, though, it isn’t possible
to delve into the really important factual problems presented
in this effort. Longtime Las Vegans might be interested in the
laundry list of mistakes I’ve been accumulating ever since I
obtained a preview copy back in December.
But first, why be so intense about analyzing one of a zillion
books due to appear about Las Vegas this year? Because Christina
Binkley isn’t any ol’ author. She is arguably the most important
national journalist ever to pay serious attention to Las Vegas.
Before she took on the gaming beat in the late 1990s, the topic
was—and still is at most national publications—viewed as an
adjunct to the hospitality beat. That’s progress; for a long,
long time it was just part of the Mafia beat.
So this book is her doctoral dissertation now that she’s moved
on to become a columnist. And yet it’s rife with factual mistakes.
The accuracy problems begin with her clichéd title. One of
the things we all know about Vegas is that there is never one
winner who takes all. There’s always more, or else there would
be no Elad, Station, Maloof, Landry’s, Tamares, Marnell.
But that may be seen as a subjective complaint. The following
aren’t. Binkley ...
• ... refers to Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace as
“the most expensive restaurant in the world.” It’s not even
the most expensive restaurant in Las Vegas. Both Alex at Wynn
and Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand cost $50+ more for the prix fixe
meal.
• ... calls the 1980 MGM Grand fire a “tragic grease fire.”
The official cause: electrical.
• ... says it took 27 seconds for the Dunes to implode. Watch
for yourself on YouTube: The building fell in less than 10 seconds.
• ... writes twice that the Wynns flew the Mirage Resorts’
MD-87 plane to Sun Valley, Idaho, for vacations. Such a plane
is too large and heavy to land at the Friedman Memorial Airport
there, airport manager Rick Baird says, adding that the nearest
airport capable of handling such a large aircraft is in Twin
Falls, Idaho, more than 80 miles away. That seems unlikely.
• ... writes that Starlight Express at the Las Vegas Hilton
“died an ugly death.” The show lasted longer than any other
Broadway show in Vegas history until the current Mamma Mia!
run.
• ... misspells the name of the entertainer with the largest
marquee on the Strip as “Danny Ganz.”
• ... indicates that the Las Vegas Art Museum is in Summerlin.
It is not.
• ... says Jan Jones was Vegas mayor for eight years “prior
to a failed run for Nevada governor.” Jones made two failed
runs and both were during, not after, her mayoral tenure.
• ... cites that hackneyed slogan as “What happens in Las
Vegas stays in Las Vegas” even though in actuality, the words
“Las Vegas” never appear in the official phrase.
• ... implies that the Venetian was a reaction to the Bellagio’s
opulence when, in fact, the two resorts were built at essentially
the same time.
• ... implies that Wynn optioned Spamalot to come to Vegas
after Avenue Q failed. Spamalot was announced before Q opened.
Wynn planned to build a third theater to offer both shows and
Le Reve.
• ... makes it sound as though Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman was
involved in the negotiations to land Bette Midler at the Colosseum.
Every source I know tells me that AEG, which operates the theater,
handled that, and that there is no formal Midler-Harrah’s relationship.
• ... refers to Gillian Wynn as “the eldest daughter” of Elaine
and Steve when, in fact, she’s the younger one.
Why does all this matter? For one thing, we expect an exacting
level of accuracy from any WSJ scribe and an even more exacting
level from any book by one. Instead, we get some surprisingly
shoddy fact-checking and a disappointingly casual familiarity
by Binkley with important details of the city she covered for
so long. That casts a pall over some of the other terrific material
in the book, notably her in-depth reconstructions of meetings
leading to three important corporate buyouts.
It also made me dubious of one especially hard-to-believe
passage. Binkley, writing about how Harrah’s preys on the weak-willed,
desperate and poor, introduces us to Shirley Cotton, a sexagenarian
from Hobart, Indiana, found in a Harrah’s casino in East Chicago,
Indiana. Cotton, who spent all day hoping to win some promotional
prize, was diabetic. And overweight. And had ulcers on her feet.
And lived off a $967-a-month pension in a $300-a-month home.
And canceled her phone service to pay for eye-disease treatment.
And drove an old Caddy with a busted headlight. And had lost
her dentures.
That’s a lot for one character, so I checked it out. My partner,
Miles, dug up Binkley’s 2004 WSJ piece in which Cotton first
appeared to find precious little of this amazing detail reported
then. I thought we were on to something when sources at Harrah’s
said there was nobody by the name “Shirley Cotton” in their
Total Rewards database.
But after a lot of effort, I located Cotton’s sister and read
the passage to her.
It’s all true. Every last detail. Poor old Shirley is in some
sort of nursing facility now. But the sister was astonished
at the level of accuracy.
So was I.
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