Episode transcript:
This BONUS EPISODE of An Offer You Can’t Refuse is the last installment of the Las Vegas miniseries. In it, Pettengill tackles a central, albeit seedy, element of the Mafia’s involvement in the city’s economy – the sex industry. Pettengill begins the analysis with an overview of American burlesque and chronicles its development to Las Vegas in the early 1950s. He then moves on to discuss the sometimes blurry line between sex workers and Vegas hustlers. Of course, all of this is not without its proper historical context. Pettengill notes that the mid-twentieth century “culture of conformity,” an adherence to notions of middle-class values and respectability, was a key feature in the allure Las Vegas’ sex industry had for American consumers.