Bruce Spotleson: Stu Michaels, employed by the famous, has quite a story to tell

Monday, Aug. 22, 2011 | 3 a.m.

My introduction to Stu Michaels was in the ’hood—although, to be perfectly honest, it was our relatively tranquil suburban Henderson neighborhood.

We were just a couple of working stiffs commuting to daily jobs in the city. Like our other modern neighbors, we’d usually only see each other on the way to the mailbox or the car, or while picking up the paper. And like so many other modern neighbors, we knew first names, but not a whole lot else about each other.

Over the course of the next 15 years, though, I began to see Stu off in the background of some of the casino openings and special events I got invited to, though he was never the center of attention and always seemed to stay under the radar. That’s the way things worked best in his chosen profession. Stu was the guy assigned to shadow the rich and famous who come here for work and pleasure, a protector, guide and confidante all rolled into one.

The anecdotes, experiences and encounters of Stu’s career as a Las Vegas security specialist are memorialized in You Can’t Make This Up!—the paperback book he’s authored. It’s a compilation of memories from his childhood, his work on the New York police force, and of course his Las Vegas security assignments. Working in the local gaming industry in the past couple decades, he managed to meet and greet a fair number of celebrities, political leaders and high rollers, while protecting them against who knows what.

Being an occasional writer myself, and wanting to keep up with my neighbors, I had to give Stu a call and inquire about this book thing. He retired in 2008.

“That’s when I started hanging around in cigar shops,” Stu said. “I wrote the entire book at the Las Vegas Cigar Shop.”

The book is a fun read, literally. Those looking for nasty reports on celebrities or former presidents will have to look elsewhere. But if you want to hear brief tales about a cross-section of famous people, like Elizabeth Taylor or Mikhail Gorbachev or Dustin Hoffman or Presidents Nixon, Clinton or both Bushes, look no further. Stu Michaels has stuff to tell you—and it’s all good.

“People ask me where the dirt is. But I have nothing bad to say,” he said. “And everything that’s in the book, I witnessed with my own eyes.”

Stu often transcended the stiff relationships security people and bodyguards sometimes have with the people they’re assigned to. He also declined the occasional gratuities that were offered.

“It was my job to take care of them and to be nice to them,” he said. “I was happy to be with them. I really didn’t want tips.”

Dustin Hoffman tried to tip him once, but Stu turned the tables by thanking him for making such great films over the years.

“No one has ever said that to me before,” the Academy Award winner replied.

He was assigned to protect other people whose faces weren’t nearly as recognizable. Like the keno player who was the nation’s largest manufacturer of coffins. Or even the late high-stakes gambler Kerry Packer, at one time the wealthiest man in Australia and a guy renowned for random generosity when he came here to Vegas.

Over the years, the security business changed, and Stu adapted as well, preaching the importance of sound fundamentals in training sessions. He pointed out the special role security people play, the presence they must maintain to be effective—and the importance of being customer-oriented.

“Your body language is so important,” he said. “You’re the most visible person in the casino—so you’ve got to smile, be polite. You can’t just stand there with your arms folded. There’s nothing more important than customer service.”

On the topic of customer service, Stu learned a lot from one particular former boss.

“Nobody knows customer service like Steve Wynn,” he said. “People who were not high rollers would be amazed to hear the way he trained us. He feels everybody is a high roller. He always told us he would get people to come into the hotel, but how we treated them would determine whether they came back.”

Next up for Stu is an audio book. He’ll do it himself, of course, which will allow him to impart his New York accent on the work.

He told me he wasn’t mourning the loss of Borders, although its demise certainly removes one more sales outlet for local authors.

“You can buy it on the Barnes & Noble website,” he said, or at youcantmakethisupbook.com.