18 Comments
Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Sun File Photo
Mobster Tony “The Ant” Spilotro and attorney Oscar Goodman walk side by side after a session of the Spilotro trial in 1986. Goodmam defends Spilotro against state and federal charges throughout Spilotro’s life.
Published Sunday, April 25, 2010 | 11:53 a.m.
Updated Monday, April 26, 2010 | 1:38 p.m.
Antoinette Giancana, daughter of Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, during an interview at the Las Vegas Sun offices Jan. 25, 2010.
Defense lawyer Oscar Goodman, left, in court in with Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, the Chicago mob's feared overseer in Las Vegas. Spilotro controls the crime family's rackets empire here for more than a decade.
Dennis Barrie, creative director of the new Mob Museum, talks to reporters this morning at Las Vegas City Hall about three new exhibits that are being designed for the museum, which will have a spring opening in 2011 at the former federal post office/courthouse at 300 Stewart Avenue. Mayor Oscar Goodman, left, said the museum could bring as many as 600,000 to 800,000 visitors a year to the downtown.
Sun Coverage
- Downtown Mob Museum set up to be self-supporting (4-21-2010)
- Downtown museum to tell story of mob in Las Vegas, elsewhere (3-25-2010)
- Las Vegas mob museum continues to move forward (11-18-2008)
- Not yet built, mob museum may get rival (9-11-2009)
- Goodman marks Mob Museum progress (8-4-2009)
- Mob museum contractor at odds with city (8-8-2009)
- Oh, the irony: The former mob lawyer gets FBI support for mob museum (8-17-2008)
Tony Spilotro, the reputed mafia overlord who oversaw Las Vegas hotel-casinos for the Chicago mob, is forever known as "The Ant."
But to his family, Tony Spilotro was not "The Ant." During the holidays, he was Tony the Santa.
The Las Vegas Mob Experience at the Tropicana depicts both Tony Spilotros: The reputed crime boss depicted by Joe Pesci in "Casino," and the man who donned a Santa Claus costume for his family during the holiday season.
"Some of the home movies his wife and son provided us are fantastic," said Jay Bloom, managing member of the Mob Experience planned to be in place by the end of this year at the Trop. "We have Tony as Santa Claus, with his family."
There is footage, too, of Tony the Ant with Donald Duck.
"We have him with his family on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland," Bloom said during a phone interview Saturday afternoon. "We have some amazing, amazing artifacts."
It is not known if the Disney employee portraying Donald Duck actually was aware he or she was interacting with one of history's more famous reputed mobsters.
Spilotro's widow, Nancy, and son Vincent have been signed on as paid consultants for the Tropicana projects and sold their personal collection of Spilotro-related artifacts to Bloom and his investment partners. The Spilotros' involvement is an ironic twist in the intensifying rivalry between the mob project planned for the Trop and the city's $42 million Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (the Mob Museum) in downtown Las Vegas. One of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's most famous clients during his career as a defense attorney who took on reputed mob figures was, as fate would have it, Tony the Ant.
Through that relationship, Goodman actually appears — in a business-transaction vein — in the Mob Experience. Checks written to him by Spilotro for Goodman's work as his defense attorney are to be displayed at the Trop.
"It has nothing to do with Oscar Goodman," Bloom stresses, "but getting the Spilotros' collection was a big plum. It was very important in telling the story as to who these people really were."
As Bloom reiterates, the Mob Experience is not a museum, nor is it a Mafia Disneyland, either. He describes the attraction as, "more about entertainment, an experiential environment, where we take this artifact collection and use the technology you see in theme parks for an interactive experience. So, instead of just seeing a gun under a piece of glass, you will see a hologram apparition of the gangster who used the gun describing it."
Also on board as a hired gun, as it were, is Antoinette Giancana, known as "Mafia Princess" (the title of her autobiography) and daughter of longtime mob head Sam Giancana. She and the Spilotros will be joined by other yet-to-be named family members of reputed mob figures in audio and video clips and will make recurring appearances at the Mob Experience to tell the stories of those depicted in the attraction. (The Las Vegas Sun is involved in the project at the level of assisting in research of the subjects displayed and recording video interviews with family members partnered in the project.)
Bloom said the Mob Experience will be set up at the Tropicana's pavilion area, near the back of the hotel. Planning for the attraction dates at least 18 months. Bloom and his associates in Murder Inc., a subsidiary of his Eagle Group Holdings, the umbrella company for Murder Inc., the company financing the project, began purchasing the collections owned by Giancana and the Spilotros (among others) at that time. Partners in the project include Louis Ventre, a New York stockbroker and associate of Bloom's for 14 years, and longtime Las Vegas resort executive Michael Unger.
Upon securing the collections to be used in the Mob Experience, officials sought a major auction firm to appraise the artifacts so they could be insured. They were told that an unsolicited bid was made for the entire collection: $10 million.
"We weren't selling, but it was good to know what the value actually was if we were to sell it," Bloom said.
In describing how those items would be used, Bloom says that from the outset the concept was not to simply build a museum.
"Basically, you'll walk into a movie set," Bloom, a former New York investment banker, said. "You'll be pulled into a story, where you're in an immersive environment that lives and breathes."
As visitors move through the interactive displays, they will be taken on a journey in which the outcome will be that you are either "whacked" or "made" in an exhibit called "Final Fate." It is to be a walking tour. There are no rides, no "Mr. Tony's Wild Ride"-style attractions.
In addressing concerns that this attraction might serve as a happy celebration of mobsters and their legacy, Bloom has stressed that it will inform visitors about the mob culture in a highly entertaining fashion.
"It's like any other cultural account of that subject," Bloom said. "You don't see people screaming about 'The Sopranos,' or 'The Godfather,' or 'Goodfellas.' We can keep this in proper context."
Nonetheless, the project should be aesthetically compelling, especially for those dazzled by virtual entertainment. Assisting in the technical development and production of the Mob Experience are Plain Joe Studios of Corona, Calif., which specializes in interactive displays and "virtual" design, and Visioneering Studios of Irvine, Calif., whose long list of projects includes Downtown Disney and Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, Calif.
Bloom said the price scale should be in line with resort-housed attractions on the Strip. "CSI: The Experience," for instance, charges $30 for adults, $23 for children ages 12 and under.
Without offering a full layout of the project, specific plans for which will be announced in late May or early June as the Tropicana unrolls details of its $165 million expansion, Bloom speaks of fog-screen projection and three-dimensional, lifelike figures appearing to narrate the tour.
Mobster Anthony Spilotro, left, and his brother, Michael, leave the federal building in Chicago after a bond hearing in 1986. In June of that year the bodies of the Spilotro brothers were found buried in an Indiana cornfield. Sand inside of the lungs of the bodies lead investigators to conclude that the pair had been buried alive.
Bloom says it is not out of the question to expect up to 1 million visitors to enter the Mob Experience annually.
"We have a Strip location, we'll have an extensive marketing and PR strategy, we are at a property that I feel is going to again be a major resort in Las Vegas," Bloom said. "I would not be surprised at 1 million."
By comparison, officials with the downtown Mob Museum, located on 300 Stewart Ave. in what was once the city's federal courthouse, has said that project would bring in 600,000 to 800,000 annually. The downtown exhibit similarly is laden with mob-themed attractions. Its artistic director is Dennis Barrie, co-creator of the Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
With Goodman as the political and public relations force behind the downtown Mob Museum, the Mob Experience can expect a lively competition. In a New York Times story that was posted online Saturday and ran in the newspaper's print edition Sunday, Goodman said, "They are no competition because we are the real thing. Forget about it."
That story closed with Goodman saying, "My whole life has been competitive. And I don't lose."
In addressing the inevitable comparison between the two attractions, Bloom said they are alike only in their themes.
"It's not as if you're looking at two museums. Ours is an entertainment attraction primarily," Bloom said. "They are a municipal undertaking with public money. We are a private attraction. They are totally different. Mayor Goodman says they are the real thing, but we've got the real people who were actually part of that history supporting us."
That includes the family of Tony the Ant, who seems to live forever in Las Vegas lore.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
In the Star Trek Experience, I got to be beamed aboard the Enterprise. With this new "experience," do I get to be shot? Or just have my leg broken?
Comment removed by moderator. Referenced deleted comment that violated posting agreement.
Similar to the Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola rivalry the Mob Museum and the Mob Experience will likely both see a lot of business as a result of the competition. In the end I think the Las Vegas Mob Experience will have a significant edge (similar to Coca-Cola over Pepsi)... Here are a few reasons why... they have the cooperation of the real mob families and their family estates, location on the strip vs. downtown, will likely be first to the market, and will be more movie studio like vs museum like.
Mr. Bloom's claims are so over the top that they undermine the project before it starts. 1 million visitors a year calculates to 2740 per day, an astronomical amount. If they draw 300,000 the first year, it will be seen as a failure. The $10 million value claim for their collection means that the most common thing heard from people leaving the exhibit is going to be "Pretty good, but I don't see any $10 million worth".
Couple those outrageous claims with the pathetic "Murder, Inc." name, and I picture a New Yorker who spent too much time watching "The Godfather" and "The Apprentice".
JLOKC - I think you're right. Unless Al Capone's head is mounted on a wall someplace, 2,740 people a day seems unrealistic. Unless there are TOUR BUSSES full of Japanese and German tourists. Or people off Facebook that like playing "Mafia Wars."
I think both these attractions will pull - but not like that.
Are they going to have a mob gift shop? You know, Gotti suits and ties, that sort of thing? Black shirts and white ties? We can all look like snappy dressers when we leave the Trop!
How about a T-shirt that reads, "My friend Tony got whacked and Vinnie got made and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!" (You know - but some bullet holes in it.) Bada bing...!
Murder is not entertainment. Stroll through Floyd Lamb park and visit the stones in remembrance of victims of violent crime. Do you think those families want to be entertained about their loved one's deaths? Imagine if someone announced an "entertaining" version of the holocaust museum. After all, didn't the Nazis give us Hugo Boss and Volkswagon? Maybe we should re-examine all mass murderers and find that entertaining, make a buck, silver lining.
i think you answered my question.
JLOKC, what do you think people are going to say after walking through a $42 million museum paid for with taxpayer money?
I thought the Mayor was going to secure Tony the Ant for the 42 MILLION DOLLAR TAXPAYER FUNDED MOB MUSEUM while he threatens to lay off employees and reduce services to the citizens of Las Vegas.
Not another line by the Mayor, we've been had again!!!
Since when is a comparison between the Mob and the Nazi's warranted- that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!!! So what are you saying... its okay for Hollywood to make millions of dollars telling stories about bad things that have happened, but a Mob Exhibit is glorifying murder... wake-up! As far as the people in Floyd Lamb park... RIP... but we've all lost people to senseless crimes and the world keeps spinning. -JLOKC- All I can say is 42 million???!!! Good Luck! :)
Who cares! It is a bust before it begins.
"what do you think people are going to say after walking through a $42 million museum paid for with taxpayer money?"
--------------------
They're going to say, "Oh, look, Oscar Goodman was once mayor here. Let us now rush to the new city hall and prostrate ourselves in memory."
I think the mayor is out of his mind,no one is going downtown when they can see it on the strip.HE Should be more concerned with the layoffs and not a museum!
Well, following the "authenticity" thoughts, LV's shows feature celebrity impersonators. Fake Beatles, Elvis, Diamond, La cage, fake "Rat Pack", fake building facades at NYNY, Venetian, Luxor, a wax museum with fake people, etc., etc.
This is more of an "impulse" thing then looking for the "real" thing such as the downtown exhibit in its own building and is something you plan on going to - not stumble into.
But hey - if Bloom is doing a little three card monty himself, what better place to go to then an actual gyp joint set up by a con guy? I mean, you can't get more immersive than that!
As far as authenticity goes, the article states that the Mob Experience is getting their artifacts from the family members (Giancana, Spilotro, and other). Where is the mayor getting his artifacts?
The mayor's favorite artifact to talk about is the wall from the St. Valentine's Day massacre. The wall was torn down years ago and sold off brick by brick. Am I to believe that the city of Las Vegas tracked down people from all over the world and bought the bricks back to reassemble the wall?
And on the subject of the wall, talk about a symbol of violence....
Waste of money, waste of time. There are much better ways to spend your time and money in Las Vegas..