Thursday, May 22, 2003 | 8:20 a.m.
Las Vegas has a split personality.
One is hedonistic, seeking to gratify the sensual desires of adults only: gambling, drinking, sexually oriented shows and businesses.
The other is straight-laced: family shows, arcades and churches.
If you believe the hype, hedonism seems to be dominating these days, overshadowing the family atmosphere once touted by some venues in the '90s, such as the MGM Grand when it built an amusement park that closed in 2000.
Among the more recent adult-oriented shows in the city where schizophrenia seems to be the norm are "X: An Erotic Adventure" at the Aladdin, "La Femme" at the MGM Grand, "Skintight" at Harrah's, "Showgirls" at The Rio and "Zumanity," which is scheduled to unveil at New York - New York in August.
They join the ranks of long-running topless revues "Folies Bergere" at the Tropicana, "Jubilee" at Bally's and "Splash" and "Crazy Girls" at the Riviera. All of these coexist with such family attractions as Circus Circus, which features circus acts and a theme park, and Excalibur, which looks like part of Disneyland's set scenery and offers G-rated jousting matches.
Sometimes overlooked by those focused on the issue of the growth of adult entertainment are the almost endless number of activities still available for families in so-called Sin City.
Families can tour the surrounding desert, boat on Lake Mead, raft the Colorado River, ride horses, fly in helicopters, experience a space ride at the Hilton's "Star Trek: The Experience," visit Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden at The Mirage, check out the sharks at Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef or spend a day in the summer at Wet 'n Wild.
Or they can see almost any show in town.
Veteran producer David Saxe estimates there are approximately 80 productions in town, and only about 20 percent of the shows are for adults only.
Magician Lance Burton has one of the most popular family friendly shows in town.
The native of Louisville, Ky., arrived in Vegas in 1982, where he became an instant success as a featured performer with the adult-oriented "Folies Bergere" at the Tropicana before striking out on his own at the Hacienda in 1991.
In 1996 Burton began a 13-year contract with the Monte Carlo. He was one of the first to switch to an all-family show.
"I've been here 21 years," he noted. "I was here when the change to more family oriented entertainment took place. When I first came to town you had the adult shows and headlines. All of the production shows, like 'Folies Bergere,' were adult shows. It had been that way since the '50s. In those days, you just hardly ever saw any kids in Las Vegas."
Convention wisdom
Things began to change, in part because of increased convention business, which sometimes brought families to town.
"It started to change right around '91, when I opened my own show at the Hacienda," Burton said. "The hotel wanted me to do an adult show, so when we opened it was topless. The problem was, I would look out in the audience and see kids. I thought, 'This isn't right.' So I went to the hotel and said, 'Let me cover the first show as a family show.' "
Burton said the change began in the early '90s and continued through the decade.
"The changes, I think, were prompted by the audiences," he said. "Their demands began to change when Las Vegas became a resort destination, where families could come on vacation. Families were showing up with children, but the problem was they couldn't take the kids to see a show.
"There was a need for family entertainment."
Burton says he has no problem with having a mix of family and adult shows.
"I prefer doing the family show," he said. "But when I go out to see a show, that's a different story. I've seen 'La Femme' four times, but I'm not taking small children with me."
Burton points out that in the early days of Vegas 30 million people weren't coming here each year. With the growth in the number of tourists comes a growth in the number of children as well.
"The word that best describes Vegas is 'eclectic,' " Burton said. "You can come with the children and have a wonderful time and see great entertainment. Or, if you're a college student on spring break and want to get wild, you can get that too."
Saxe appeal
Saxe produces "V, the Ultimate Variety Show" at The Venetian, a revue popular with families. He also produces "Showgirls of Magic," a topless show at San Remo.
Until last month the magic show featured an early performance for families and a late one for adults only. But Saxe decided to follow the latest trend toward more racy entertainment and cut the family show.
"I'm anxious to see what's going to happen," he said.
Saxe says interest in topless shows ebbs and flows. "The only thing constant is change," he said.
Saxe says when the market reaches the saturation point for adult entertainment, interest will go in the opposite direction.
"Only a finite number of people are interested in topless," he said.
Perhaps surprisingly, many of those who are most interested in adult shows are women.
"The women definitely decide what shows to see," Saxe said. "The weird thing about sex selling today is it's the women picking it. Women are curious about what the heck is going on. They are buying the tickets, or telling their husbands what to buy."
Saxe says he has seen every trend imaginable in Vegas over the years.
"I've watched it all," he said. "Showrooms are ripped out and turned into bingo rooms and then the bingo rooms are ripped out and showrooms are put back in. Or slot rooms are put in and taken out."
But sex is always there, he said.
"It's always going to succeed," Saxe said.
Not for kiddies
Rob Powers, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, says Las Vegas has never been marketed as a family destination.
"I think through the '90s stories about las Vegas trying to become more of a Disneyland were off the mark," he said. "We are the entity that markets the whole Las Vegas destination.
"You could go through every marketing plan for the last 10 years and not find a sentence that would lead anybody to believe we were trying to increase the number of tourists under the age of 21."
The message, Powers said, has been that Vegas is a diverse resort destination. It has something for everyone, not just for gamblers.
Powers reminds that the high-profile adult shows now on the Strip are not new.
"We have always been a sexy, glamorous adult destination," he said.
Two of those responsible for reminding the world that Las Vegas is for adults are Bobby Boling and his wife, Angela Sampras, who was a dancer with "Crazy Girls" for 10 years.
The couple produce "X: An Erotic Adventure," one of the edgiest adult shows in town, which includes such scenes as females kissing.
"X: An Erotic Adventure" has proven so successful that Boling and Sampras are beginning to franchise the erotic production.
Boling recently talked to the Sun by phone from Miami, where he was meeting with people interested in bringing a version of the show to Florida.
He credits the success of "X: An Erotic Adventure," at least in part, on the growing influence of Europeans on American audiences.
"We're catching up to Europe," Boling said. "The other continents are not prudes, like us. No one bats an eyelash at nude beaches over there."
He noted that the United States has become more sexually oriented.
"It's just the time and age we live in," Boling said. "You can't turn on TV or open a magazine and not see girls kissing."
Boling said his show was created to appeal to both men and women adults of all ages.
"Not just the young, hip crowd," Boling said. "With 'X,' we wanted to take the sensuality and the eroticism of topless shows to another level."
Boling says he isn't in competition with topless or nude strip clubs.
"That's a whole other medium," he said. "They have their thing, we have ours. We simply have a show, one that we made an experience. It draws you in and takes you on an erotic journey."
What's old is new
The trip isn't a new one.
Las Vegas' conflicting image has been part of the city's persona since the now-defunct El Rancho opened its doors in 1941 on a dusty stretch of two-lane Highway 91 a couple of miles south of downtown, the first resort on what would become the Strip.
El Rancho was a western-themed hotel, complete with riding stables, that catered to families. But it also became the entertainment home of stripper Lili St. Cyr, who performed there in the early '50s.
"Minsky's Follies," a series of burlesque shows, is credited with being the first revue on the Strip to feature topless dancers. It debuted at the now-defunct Dunes in January 1957.
One of the headliners of "Minsky Goes to Paris," the second show in the "Follies" series in 1958, was another legendary stripper, Tempest Storm.
Just as there seems to be a surge today in adult entertainment in Las Vegas, the current rush for exotica is reminiscent of the days following "Minsky."
On "Minsky's" heels, the Stardust introduced its new show -- the classic "Le Lido de Paris Revue" -- on June 23, 1959. The entire cast and crew came from the Lido Club on the Champs Elysees in Paris. The show, which closed in 1991, was staged by the late Donn Arden, who died in 1994.
Arden also produced "Jubilee," which has been running for 23 years at Bally's.
"Lido" is considered to have set the standards for most of the exotic topless productions that followed.
Six months after "Lido" made its debut, Tropicana unveiled "Folies Bergere" on Dec. 24, 1959, now the longest-running revue in the United States.
There were many other titillating productions in the '50s, '60s and '70s, among them "La Parisienne," "Casino de Paris" and "Viva les Girls."
Las Vegas is famous for copycatting hits, so it isn't too surprising that a successful topless production with a French title would be a catalyst for similar shows.
Moore memories
Bill Moore, 68, and his late partner George Arnold, may have produced more topless shows during their Las Vegas career than anyone else, most of them on ice.
Among their credits are "Nudes on Ice," "Playgirls on Ice," "Ecstasy on Ice," "Rhythm on Ice," "Spice on Ice," "Topless Showgirls," "Razzle Dazzle," "Moulin Rouge" (featuring Suzanne Somers) and "City Lites."
Moore also helped produce "Rome Swings" for Caesars Palace when it opened in 1966. "Rome" featured squeaky-clean Andy Williams in a family oriented production that lasted six months at a time when Williams' career was at its peak.
"At the same time we did the Andy Williams show," reminisced Moore, a native of England, "we opened a show in Nero's Nook called 'Follies on Ice.' It was topless."
Most of Moore's productions were in the '60s and '70s. All were lavish and exotic, which are trademarks for most topless shows in Vegas.
He explained why he produced topless shows on ice.
"We had already been to Paris and London looking at shows," the former dancer says. "There were so many topless cabarets, we thought, 'Why not on ice?' We were famous for ice shows at that time."
He said Arnold produced the first ice show in Vegas, "Ice Quakes," at the Last Frontier in the late '50s. It wasn't topless.
Moore chuckles when he hears people talk about the sudden explosion in adult shows, as if it's a recent phenomenon.
"It made us a very good living," he said.
Moore notes that topless cabarets and topless acts in burlesque shows were around for years before Las Vegas became a major destination point.
"But they were never in real big places, like the big hotels in Vegas," he said.
Until "Minsky's" and "Lido" ignited the interest.
"It exploded," Moore said. "People were intrigued by topless shows. But our shows were never vulgar. We did them with class. The showgirls were so beautiful. The costumes were gorgeous. The topless thing was just icing on the cake."
Still going strong
Although adult shows have not always been in the spotlight, as they are now, they have never gone away.
"For a while they said the topless thing was finished," Moore said.
That was during a period in the '90s when the MGM Grand built an amusement park for kids and Treasure Island produced a pirate show on the Strip that intrigued children.
Even as recently as two years ago, Moore said topless was a little "iffy."
"We were going to produce 'Spice on Ice' in Laughlin, with the intention of opening topless at the River Palms," Moore said. "It would have been the first topless hotel (show) on the river. But the owners were very conservative and they got cold feet three days before we opened, so we covered the girls."
Las Vegas has a different attitude.
He says one of the reasons hotels have begun reaching out to adults with racier shows is competition from such topless dance clubs as Sapphire, Jaguars and Olympic Garden.
"Convention people are famous for not attending shows," Moore said. "But a lot of them were going to the gentlemen's clubs away from hotels, and the hotels hate it. So they have gone for sexy nightclubs and shows."
Moore says Las Vegas has always been a place for adult entertainment. It's not a recent discovery.
"What's old is new," said Moore, who is shopping around his "Nudes on Ice."
He sees nothing wrong with the latest entertainment fad.
"Good luck to them all," Moore said.
But he's curious about the future.
"Who knows what the hell's going to happen?" Moore said.
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