What a $500 book about Las Vegas tells us about the Strip
Light reading takes a vacation this holiday season with “The Vegas Book.”
Written by historian, frequent Las Vegas visitor and accomplished poker player Joris Dekkers, this chronicle of several of Las Vegas’ founding legends weighs in at 18 pounds. Its 450 pages are dedicated to nearly 30 extensive interviews of Las Vegas experts.
You don’t read “The Vegas Book” during a workout. It is a workout. The coffee-table tome’s splendor is evident with every turn of its thick pages, which are loaded with vintage photos — we never tire of Elvis firing up the formally attired audience at the Las Vegas Hilton, the Stardust starburst marquee (trumpeting “Lido de Paris”) or the Rat Pack hacking it up at the Sands.
The effort comes at cost, with “The Las Vegas Book” retailing at $500 (or, about $28 a pound). A single copy went for $1,100 at Grant A Gift Autism Foundation’s annual gala in November at Allegiant Stadium.
From the book’s formal description:
“Each copy of The Las Vegas Book is crafted with elegance, handmade in Northern Italy and presented in a velvet-lined leather case with gold foil embossing, a fitting tribute to Las Vegas’s timeless allure.”
In Dekkers’ canvassing of the decades, Steve Wynn, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley are the city’s central architects. The book is carved out in five parts, chronologically from “The Age of the Desert and Railroads (1844-1940)” to “The Age of Opulence and The Wynn Dominion and Consolidation Boom (2000-2025).”
Every era of Las Vegas’s evolution is addressed. Caesars Palace founder Jay Sarno (whose son Jay Sarno Jr. is among the editors) is written of in “Part II, The Age of The Mob and Frank Sinatra (1940-1968).” Kirk Kerkorian leads “Part IV: The Age of Mega Resorts and Disneylandization (1989-1999).”
Dekkers resides on the Strip in this book and sidesteps the history of Fremont Street and downtown Las Vegas — or anywhere else in the Vegas metropolitan area. Even his forward notes, “It is certainly not my intention to offer, in this book, a full history of Las Vegas nor to answer all questions.”
Dekkers says stayed away from downtown “for practical reasons.”
“This is very important for me to address — in no way is my not mentioning downtown intended to neglect its imperative role in the history of Las Vegas,” Dekkers says in a separate interview. “I mean, it’s where it started. But this book is written for an international audience, and I’ve chosen the Strip to be the focal point.”
Dekkers has found kindred spirits and backers in Roger Thomas, the former executive vice president of design for Wynn Resorts; and former Circus Circus Enterprises President and CFO Glenn Schaeffer. The officials are advisers on the book. Thomas, especially, steered Dekkers to such authoritative interview subjects as Elaine Wynn and consulted with the author from the start.
The list of editors is extensively educated, led by longtime Las Vegas author Jack Sheehan and The Mob Museum Vice President of Exhibits and Programs Geoff Schumacher, himself an author who has chronicled the city for decades.
Originally from the Netherlands, Dekkers is an entrepreneur, published author and card player (he’s written an e-book on poker). Over the past two decades, he has become fascinated by Las Vegas and its history. His first trip to the city was just after he turned 21, nearly 20 years ago. His passion for Vegas grew with his professional success, and he began frequenting such resorts as Wynn/Encore and The Venetian/Palazzo.
“I can’t even recall the first hotel I stayed at the Vegas, but I think it was the Imperial Palace, the best budget option on the Strip at the time” Dekkers says. “So it was quite a difference from Wynn Las Vegas. Obviously, Wynn has made a lasting impression on me. This was more than a hotel. It was a destination.”
Dekkers’ dedicates a full page to a single quote from Steve Wynn: “The only way to win in a casino is to own one.”
The book will certainly catch attention for Las Vegas residents, especially locals and those with their own education of the city’s evolution. Dekkers finds room for superstar DJ Calvin Harris, but such Las Vegas architects as Hank Greenspun are not in its pages.
The author says that this is just one man’s view. Harris has been a Strip headliner for many of the years Dekkers has visited Las Vegas, and examining the DJ culture brings in younger readership.
“Everybody that so far has read the book says, ‘Why didn’t you put this person in the book? Or why did you choose that one?’” Dekkers says. “It’s a good question. Part of it is, I guess it’s a subjective process. Part of it is me trying to figure out, who is the most famous person I can find? Who has been involved in my own personal experiences?”
Dekkers is not anticipating a follow-up. “The Las Vegas Book” is the quintessential labor of love. The author’s sendoff in his author’s note articulates his passion:
“These selections come down to the selective taste of the author — and taste can never be challenged.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.