and that might be why this story's so chilling. former president trump was a steamroller in the white house, and it landed an insurrection on the steps of the capitol. if we can't shake our addiction to strongmen, to those utterly convinced of their own greatness, there will be many more like spitzer in positions of power posing even bigger threats to our fragile democracy-- crusaders wanting their portraits on the walls of history. every governor of new york has the chance to be immortalized in a painting that hangs in the new york state capitol, a self-directed monument to his or her own illustrious legacy. all of them are there-- all but two. the first served in the early 19th century and left no likenesses behind. the second...is eliot spitzer. ♪ ♪

announcer: friends, viewers, countrymen, lend me your eyeballs. las vegas has always been able to grab you by the lapels and pull you in. little: it's glitz and glamour, entertainment, gambling. it's a place that's like no other. announcer: with time on your hands and money to spend, your thoughts may turn to las vegas. anka: by the late '60s, vegas started to figure out, "what else can we bring here?" woman: love you, elvis! thank you, dear. ♪ elvis was, like, an alien-like thing. he was so unique, so charming, and so hot. they saw that sex and debauchery sells, so let's do sex and debauchery. [ chuckles ] ♪

♪ ♪ luck, be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ ♪ luck, be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ tonight ♪ ♪ luck, if you ever were a lady to begin with ♪ ♪ luck, be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ ♪ luck, be a ladyyyyyy ♪ ♪ toniiiiiight ♪ the stars of the las vegas shows may be frank sinatra, dean martin, and wayne newton, but for years, the fantasy and the razzle dazzle came from the famous long-legged showgirls. ♪

the las vegas showgirl was a unique specimen. she was very tall, minimum of 5'9", and to be hired, your body had to be, i mean, perfect. schwartz: a lot of things went into being a showgirl. it wasn't just about being able to dance. it was being able to wear the costumes. they were incredibly elaborate affairs -- lots of feathers, lots of sequins. mckee: i had some headpieces that would be about 20 pounds. i wore headdresses that it took two people to carry backstage to put on me. little: that was a way to open up a show -- having a bunch of girls come out in skimpy little costumes and get everybody excited and then bring out the headliner. woman: in this business, you have to make it while you can, because once you reach the age of 30, they automatically bring somebody younger in. weatherford: las vegas probably hung onto its sexism longer than a lot of places,

and definitely longer than it should have. reporter: these women are outraged at the clichés and stereotypes that hold women to be creatures of inferior intellect. they resent the way women are portrayed as sexual playthings, conditioned to believe that their sole reason for existence is to snare and service men. ♪ green: in the early '60s, you are seeing women fighting for their rights, but that's leading people to look at las vegas and say, "well, the only women you get to see in las vegas, if they aren't showroom stars, are showgirls showing most or all of themselves." what does this say about las vegas? schumacher: you look at the cultural movements of the 1960s in america, las vegas was not a leader because whatever was good for the economy was good for las vegas. culturally, las vegas missed the boat.

when i was 16, i was working in paris in the moulin rouge, and then i got a contract for the casino de paris at the dunes. we landed in vegas. it was 3:00 in the morning, december 7th, freezing cold, and we had to get into our costumes and do a dance on the tarmac. i thought they were crazy. i said, "this is vegas?" schwartz: some of the showgirls wore all the sequins, some of them wore fewer sequins. at the time, most american entertainment was still fairly conservative. in your town, women don't walk around on the stage topless, but here, they do. so it had this kind of countercultural appeal. mckee: we had a lot of power. i could get whatever i wanted whenever i wanted because of how i looked and the position that i had in vegas. you were kind of on a pedestal. it was such an honor to be a showgirl. do you know how few showgirls there were?

i mean come on, to be a showgirl? ugh. ♪ gill: it could have been very exploitative if you couldn't stand your ground and say no. i did a strip in the show. i said, "look, i want to make it classy, sophisticated, and elegant." i took the stockings off and took my shoes off, but i said, "i don't want to wind up with just a g-string on." i said, "i don't mind taking these things off, but i'm gonna put my shoes back on 'cause it made you finished and elegant." it wasn't the whole, "oh, well, let's see boobs." it all was glamour and sophistication, done with class. binkley: i think that when we hear former showgirls saying that they felt empowered, that you have to hear that in the context at the time that they experienced that. i don't think there's a doubt that that era of showgirls in las vegas was exploitative. but that doesn't mean that they weren't being exploited better there

than they might have been exploited someplace else. ♪ mckee: whenever i would go out to the casino, there were always men that wanted me to come over and bring 'em luck. and then if they'd win, they'd give you chips, they'd give you money. i was making more money than my father was making working his whole life in detroit. without the women, i don't think you would have had the money in vegas. the richest men in the world were in that audience. we got to a point where the long stem roses would come in, never met the guy, and if the box did not rattle with jewelry, we didn't open it. binkley: they were paid really well, but i don't think that in the post "metoo" era that we look at that kind of experience as empowered. ♪

♪ hey, young man, if you want an autograph, would you stand in the back there? but i'm -- i don't care who you are. everybody want -- i'm -- i'm -- i'm -- i'm elvis presley. elvis presley! [ women screaming ] from '56 to '58, elvis was the hottest thing in show biz. he changed show business. he changed rock 'n' roll. and then, at the height of his stardom, he gets drafted. announcer: the king of rock 'n' roll no longer has that rock 'n' roll beat.

the tempo is, "hut, two, three, four" for private presley. he's at camp chaffee, arkansas, beginning his two-year army hitch courtesy of the memphis draft board. schilling: but even though elvis wasn't performing the whole time he was in the army, he was still on the charts, and elvis came back to a career. and he came back in a big way. he was on the frank sinatra special. man: there he is, folks! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ we work in the same way, only in different areas. [ laughter ] weatherford: it adds an extra layer of irony for vegas buffs with this special that welcomed him back. you had the outgoing and the future kings of vegas there on the same tv show. ♪ i love you ♪ man, that's pretty. [ laughter ] ♪ and i always will ♪

[ women screaming ] zoglin: vegas became elvis' retreat, his place to go for rest and relaxation. elvis and his friends from memphis would travel around the town at night going from show to show, and some smart newspaper columnist dubbed them the "memphis mafia." vegas was perfect. it was a place where elvis could have freedom as a star amongst stars that he could not have even in hollywood. if we wanted to go to see a lounge act at 2:00 in the morning, we did that. it was our kind of life. zoglin: after 1960, colonel tom parker, his manager, didn't think that rock 'n' roll was gonna last, so he decided that elvis would do no more live performing. he would just do recording and make movies. one of his best films from the '60s was "viva las vegas."

can you help me, please? can we help you? yes, ma'am. well, then, i'd like you to check my motor. it whistles. i don't blame it. what did you say? ♪ zook: in "viva las vegas," you have elvis presley and ann-margret together. they have this incredible chemistry. ann-margret turned the tables on the traditional vegas chanteuse that was always a secondary role or window dressing. hold on for a second. you can't do that to me! zook: in "viva las vegas," she speaks her mind. she doesn't take a lot of guff from elvis. she's a very strong female character. that was appealing to a lot of the female audience back in the mid-'60s. ♪ it was a film that probably gives you the best picture of las vegas in that era.

vegas was always indebted to elvis for putting it on the map. schumacher: it made it look fun. it made it look sexy. it glamorized the place. ♪ viva las vegas ♪ ♪ viva las vegas ♪ ♪ viva, viva las vegas ♪ schumacher: who didn't want to come to las vegas after seeing that movie? announcer: this rock 'n' roll group has taken over as the kingpins of musical appreciation among the younger element. you guessed it -- the beatles. ♪ the beatles actually made a stop in las vegas on their first us tour. zook: the beatles had come in 1964. they wanted to see las vegas. when the beatles came here, they played the convention center. of course, it was a mob scene. ♪ but it was a whirlwind.

they came through one day, and left. [ cheering ] schumacher: the beatles were a bit of an anomaly because las vegas wanted to capitalize financially on whatever was going on, but when you look deeper, las vegas was resistant to rock 'n' roll. it was resistant to the counterculture that was happening all over the country. reporter: how would you compare this beatlemania to the idol worship around frank sinatra and elvis presley? to my mind, those of us who are an older generation, of course, think the beatles, you know, they don't appeal to us at all. >> lastly, to my mind, those of us who are older generation, of course think the beatles, you know, they don't appear to last at all. as the 60s went >> on, the counterculture revolution was happening. >> vietnam, the whole rock and roll revolution and, vegas was old-fashioned. vegas was your parents entertainment? >> they didn't want to party people they wanting gamblers. they wanted people who were adult and successful enough to spend

a lot of money on the tables. >> taizu worried man here's sanger takes her worries. my hand. you sell a whole a whole lead. who would i howls, worry >> we newton was sort of the cultural bridge between elvis and frank sinatra. he was doing a sinatra type show. what that veneer of class delicate thank you. >> i was comfortable in the kind of music that frank did love the ballads, love to be

able to sing that way. >> wayne newton started out performing in the lounge at the fremont hotel in downtown los vegas he'd have to go sit in the coffee shop and drink a coke in-between shows because he was way too young to be anywhere in the hotel other than the stage or the coffee shop >> the gentleman who was auditioning us listened to two songs and he got up to leave i thought, well back to school and he should your breathing gets you work permit. her, you for two weeks. the two week engagements turned into a five-year contract i think the >> time has come and gone that a singer can just stand and sing, but you have to do more things than just saying you have to be a performer it's a

little easier to achieve some kind of longevity i can >> tell you, learned anything about show business. it came from those five years in the lounges, the discipline that it taught me, the report with the audience, that it taught me. i couldn't even begin to to articulate all the things that that five years has meant my life i was just calling the trap any couldn't get out. >> vegas was having an identity crisis that was the beginning of the downfall. but degas, at a different idea, vegas, the story of sensitive. next sunday

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369369. today, rafael romo at the georgia state capitol in atlanta. this is cnn closed captioning brought to you by mesobook.com >> mesothelial mom, it's all we do with local offices throughout the country and does help you get the compensation you deserve eight to eight to 44, 44 las vegas has its own strange aristocracy. many people in gambling here have criminal backgrounds elsewhere. but that's forgiven. >> for the mafia. las vegas is an open city >> in the '60s. a mob >> still involved in a number of casinos on the las vegas strip. but in the state government and nevada, there was this feeling that this is a way for this state and for this city to grow the casinos. we're going to be good for the economy >> they were running a great

business and they knew how to do it. they knew how to kane of people. and it was a great place to work >> frank sinatra definitely had connections with the mafia going back into the 40 exactly how close it is, is always a little bit of a question >> strike sinatra was a jazz corona, right? and all these nightclubs were owned by the mob so he had this inevitable interaction with mobsters all over the country frank sinatra is trying to fit into many different worlds at once. one, he always liked to pal around with a mob guys from his youth to he's trying to make it as a political figure with jfk so imagine you're going to see frank sinatra and dean and sammy at the copa and you're sitting there and all of a sudden the middle of the show, sinatra gets up and says, hey, wait, we have somebody in the audience the brightest man and the political world in this country or any other companies today. john kennedy from the great state of you set up a

gun, you got the jewish vote >> originally sinatra jfk got along very well. sinatra had been one of his biggest supporters the mob guys that's been alleged were also his supporters >> the mob really was excited about john kennedy becoming president because they thought he was one of them. what they didn't anticipate was that he was going to appoint his brother bobby to be the attorney general i was seriously concerned with organized crime before i took office. i am become even more aware of how far racketeering as infiltrated our society the mafia thought they were pretty much protected with helping jfk get elected. but when bobby kennedy came in, things started to evolve where the heat was

too intense where we have seen legal gambling operate. it has not been a very happy picture so far. >> have you found them that legalized gambling actually attracts this element of society into its mixed, it does >> so bobby kennedy gets it and it was head that the mob is using las vegas basically to wash all their money he wants to come and shut down all the casinos and kick them about. >> it is my firm belief that new laws are needed to give the federal bureau of investigation increased jurisdiction to assist local authorities in the common battle against the racquets >> the state of nevada was constantly vigilant about doing whatever it took to keep the feds out one of the ways they could do that is to show that they in fact, we're regulating the casino's here and doing a

good job of keeping organized crime out the state of nevada decided to create the list of excluded persons who became nicknamed the black book >> the black book was created in 1960 and it's called the black book because believe it or not, it was a black binder. they could have been more creative they made a listen let's give people who could not set foot in a casino >> it really was a facade to say, you know what, we're really doing something. you don't need to bother with nevada right now. >> when the boys ran las vegas, you'd see them sitting at ringside and have that spotlight. when off the performer and went in to the front rows guys were jumping undertake they didn't want to be fan back, please. please standby. we just have to replace

>> when frank sinatra started investing in casinos here and in northern nevada and that's when things got a little bit screwy >> sorry. when we get to what are you carrying on >> in the apical work and nightclub work in concerts and restaurants, you meet all kinds of people then came the ridiculous accusations and statements that i was concerning with march doesn't gangsters, the fact that i used to be invalid was a legitimate business >> he entertained sam giancana, who allegedly was the boss, the chicago mob had his lake tahoe casino, the cow naveh >> when this was discovered he was forced to relinquish his ownership of that casino >> at the end of the day. bobby kennedy didn't succeed in clearing out the las vegas mom

but he made them nervous he put las vegas more squarely in the sights of law enforcement generally but critics said the mob will find a way around it they were right when we look back 100 years from now and we're going to say this is where everything came >> like we are talking about the revolution music could make a difference. >> the world fundamentally changed undermined himself. america fell, your in just ten i said in communities ag one works by making foundation on nutrition easier combining vitamins probiotics, and whole foods stores nutrients into one

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>> follow me ladies and gentlemen. >> the dynamic checkmate >> as a kid. >> '50s, watching television. they would have all of these las vegas acts those are the people i grew up idolizing. and in 1963, i got a chance to play here we ended up getting a job at a place called a pussycat, a go-go it was five of us, three black guys, two white guys one of the first integrated bands to play the city as a matter of fact they call themselves the checkmate and everybody says they're gonna be a big stars and if versatility has any

criteria, they will make it >> the check mates word what i call the backbone of the business the worlds that are always there, working, working we've had started midnight and we'd finished at eight in the morning. elvis frank sinatra and sammy davis and all of people would come over in a place would be packed the whole time we'd heard the whole thing about the mob involvement here and you didn't want to make those guys angry they sat us down in. they said, these are the rules. >> you do your shows and then you go to your dressing room and your weight to your next show. you don't go out and mingle with the audience and we said what we got to wait that doesn't get you in >> black people really want welcomed. even though the laws had changed. people's attitudes hadn't changed one

saturday night, it was raining and we had black people waiting in line and there were open seats in the white area and we said, wait a minute, these people are standing in the rain is open seats. we're not going on to bring it in. >> the greatest group that you've ever heard, that checkmate, let's you get to the point that you can make those demands so it changed once the bosses saw that we weren't going to run away business by mixing, then they just relaxed a >> little bit and let it happen that's when they had the article in a paper saying checkmate, integrate the strip which you cannot find that article anywhere in >> witness a memorable moment that is about to take place in

this luxury of roman architecture. a battalion marble roman statue in >> 1966, caesar's palace, open with two black cocktail waitresses and a black bar tender working in those hi paying front of the house jobs in so many ways caesar's palace is just a bit ahead of the game. >> his name is jay sono. he dines alone as his often his custom in the back room of his caesars palace hotel in las vegas the wind girls were hand-picked by him there are a necessary part of his life and his image >> oh, my god >> jay sono >> changed las vegas and he had ideas that matched nobody else's sourdough comes on and it's, let's get imitate ancient rome let's run around

and togas in the '60s, vegas starting to get a lot bigger and really you needed more than just the entertainment to draw people. so now the hotel becomes the main attraction. >> the timing was so perfect for a mega resort. and everything about it. from the bellman to the bus boy to the entertainment we're simply the best there was >> when phasors, we're really going seasons here and the rest of us with all down here, they've never been a place like caesars >> caesar's palace was the first thing hotel it was literally an o but to hedonism sono brought to las vegas this idea of bringing you into the fantasy by having characters throughout the casino in las

vegas, now there is yet another new gambling casino, the gambler is in under i'm surrounded by a circus. circus. circus gambling in circus acts 24 hours a day, one on top of the other. at least 10,000 people daily actually pay admission in a town where admission to practice particularly anything is unheard of >> sar knows next project was circus, circus and circus circus was as thoroughly themed as caesar's palace. it was a wild place >> the trapeze and they had that wonderful elephant, tanya, and she had no qualms about going up to the craft table and sticking trunk out there and throwing the nice i mean, it was ulus jsr was a playful person who can pull together a lot of money and pull these things off he saw something you could do there really didn't

exist in las vegas so he was both ahead of his time and setting a model for things would follow >> what happened to the golden

♪ [ cheers and applause ]

liberace: you've been a beautiful audience. bless you. [ bell dinging ] but now, i must fly. [ cheers and applause continue ] ♪ [ crowd exclaims ] mary poppins, eat your heart out. ♪ liberace was an embodiment of this crazy, glitzy loveliness that las vegas wanted to be. mcbride: he recognized that the audience he was playing to were people who came from small towns around the country to las vegas. he wanted to be sure that he gave them a show. [ playing piano ] [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪

the saying was that what mattered in the showroom was whether you attracted the whales, the big gamblers. sinatra did. liberace really didn't, but he attracted their wives. hi! so the joke was that he was the best of both worlds. the wives went to see liberace while the gamblers went to gamble. yeah, i love yours. it's gorgeous. that's a big stone. i love it. my stones aren't large, but i didn't have to do anything to get mine. [ laughter ] woman: yes, you did! [ laughs ] [ applause ] nicholson: do you think that being a bachelor has kept you free to express yourself as you wanted to? well, i think my career has been, uh... perhaps the most interrupting thing, because most of the people i've gotten involved with romantically don't want to play second fiddle to a piano. gillis: i worked at the riviera with liberace, and we all knew.

he was gay. nobody spoke of it, but we all knew. that was 1955, by the way. mcbride: it was like this elaborate game. i know you're gay, you know i know you're gay, but i'm not going to say anything about it and you're not going to say anything about it. he was absolutely deep, deep in the closet. ♪ binkley: that was the way it worked then. they didn't tell you and you didn't discuss it. mcbride: nevada had always been a state pretty much behind the times. because of religious influence from the mormons and conventional sexuality from the mob, being gay was tantamount to a death sentence. if liberace had come out and said "i'm gay,"

it was a felony, you could be thrown in jail. his career would have been over. certainly tragic on one hand, ridiculous on another. and so liberace managed to stay deeply in the closet while being absolutely busting out of the closet his whole life of entertainment. [ cheers and applause ] the great misconception about las vegas is that it was a live-and-let-live, party-and-let-party place to be. and that might be true... if you were a straight, white guy. man: ladies and gentlemen, tonight, live from caesars palace in las vegas, this is tom jones. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ zook: tom jones arrived in las vegas in 1968. ♪ 'til the moon deserts the sky ♪

it was like a breath of fresh air on the las vegas strip. ♪ weatherford: tom jones brought the male sex appeal to las vegas. brought the sweat and the unbuttoned shirt and the chest hair to vegas. the women adored him, they were throwing their intimate apparel at him on stage. ♪ mcbride: he wore those really, really, really tight polyester pants with his basket sticking right out there and swiveling in a way that even elvis presley never did. you have loud music, outlandish clothes, and a more raw kind of sexuality than you ever had in the 1950s or in the early 1960s. geran: the fact that he was from wales, we thought of him as having an international appeal, but that wooly hair used to always get us. we used to go "is he black or is he white?" you know?

he started bringing a crossover appeal. ♪ well, well, well, well ♪ ♪ i couldn't stop for a million bucks ♪ ♪ ooh, no ♪ ♪ i love you so ♪ ♪ hold me tight and don't let go ♪ ♪ schwartz: you really do have this generational shift in vegas where you go from sinatra to tom jones. singers are getting a little bit more dangerous. it's just a much different vibe. anka: that was a real sensational change because sexuality became the key ingredient to success. ♪ ann-margret is another case in point. she was perfect. with her dancing, with her films, and her popularity, vegas started to realize they could broaden the base of entertainment. zoglin: ann-margret became a pretty big vegas star.

she did a show in the late '60s that caught the counterculture, hip, psychedelic feeling. it was very visual and fast. one more time, big time. ♪ i'm gonna make the scene ♪ ♪ make the scene ♪ zook: she rode a harley out on stage. she was just this very flamboyant, sexual performer. ♪ it was like, "that can't be ann-margret." ♪ yeah, it can be ann-margret. ♪ mcbride: and that's when you started getting ann-margret almost in a g-string with ropes and ropes of rhinestones and lots and lots more bare skin. that was a total change. and in las vegas, you began to see more and more of that kind of thing on the stage. [ cheers and applause ] ♪

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zook: in the 1960s, elvis was making a string of musicals basically playing the same character over and over and over. ♪ ♪ sidney: elvis made a lot of bad movies. not bad, but just stupid -- boy finds girl, girl finds boy -- stupid movies. zoglin: imagine that -- the entire 1960s go on, and everything that's happening in rock music, the beatles, rolling stones, and poor elvis is just doing movies and recording. he's not doing any live performing. his career really needed a reboot. quiet, please. roll sound. [ bell dings ] take one. elvis went to see tom jones' first vegas show in 1968. he went backstage, and he told tom,

"this is really exciting me, and i've really got to get back to live performing." so he signed a deal with nbc to do a special event. man: welcome to nbc and the elvis presley special! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ well, since my baby left me ♪ ♪ well, i found a new place to dwell ♪ ♪ well, it's down at the end of lonely street ♪ ♪ at heartbreak hotel ♪ ♪ where i'll be, i'll be so lonely... ♪ zook: he looked incredibly handsome, and the audience was seated around him, and suddenly, people remembered why they liked elvis presley. ♪ my black cat comes a-runnin' ♪ ♪ and the hound dogs, they get way back ♪ ♪ way back, way back, way back ♪ there ain't no end to this song, baby. [ women scream ] most of elvis presley's early music contemporaries are now merely footnotes in the history of rock 'n' roll. that's because they didn't have the one thing that elvis presley had -- colonel tom parker. zoglin: after the success of the elvis comeback special,

the colonel decided, "okay, now is the time for elvis to come back to live performing." and the colonel decided that to make a splash, las vegas was the place to do it. ♪ schumacher: and when that was announced, the country was excited, and the notion that he was going to perform in las vegas gave a lot of people that did not come to las vegas on a regular basis a new excuse to come. zoglin: it so happened that the international hotel was just being completed. it had 2,000 seats, twice as large as any showroom in las vegas, and they were looking for a suitably big star to open the hotel, and they wanted elvis. but the colonel said, "elvis will play your hotel, but he doesn't want to be first." the hotel was still being completed, he wanted to make sure that all the sound system was right, there weren't any glitches. he said "let somebody else be first, we'll come in second." so the hotel went to their second choice.

barbra streisand opened the hotel in july 1969. ♪ colonel parker had in mind a traditional kind of vegas show with dancing girls and stuff. elvis said, "i'm doing it my way or i'm not doing it." man: i think you're aware that this is called elvis' summer festival. i feel that we, as members of the international hotel, should put forth our efforts in making sure that this is the greatest engagement of elvis' career. ♪ the entire town was just elvis, elvis everywhere. there were balloons, there were posters. you went in the grocery market, "elvis is coming." ♪ man: i know he hasn't been on the stage in 10 years, and everybody's waiting to see it. it's like a championship fight, but i know he's going to be the winner.

mckee: every movie star, every celebrity you could think of. your heart's pounding, and you're getting this buildup. schilling: before the show, it's kind of quiet, and people are getting stuff ready, and it's a little tension. [ cheers and applause ] mckee: when he walked out on that stage, wearing that white jumpsuit, and you saw him, and this was the first time i had seen him live, i get goose bumps just thinking about it. zook: my dad saved all his money and took my mother and myself to see elvis presley, and he knew how to play to the crowd. he was at the top of his game again. ♪ ♪ we're caught in a trap ♪

♪ i can't walk out ♪ ♪ because i love you too much, baby ♪ ♪ zoglin: the climax of that vegas show was one big seven-minute number that nobody had heard before -- he had recorded it but hadn't released it yet -- "suspicious minds." ♪ we can't go on together ♪ ♪ with suspicious minds ♪ ♪ suspicious minds ♪ rolling stone called the shows his own resurrection. it was an amazing endorsement by all the rock critics and the audiences, too. gill: i must've seen him close to 200 times, and i loved it every time. i would come out exhilarated and on cloud nine. ♪ because i love you too much ♪ ♪ zoglin: in the late '60s, vegas was trying to get hip. what elvis proved was that

vegas could be welcoming to rock 'n' roll, that rock 'n' roll wasn't just a little sideline in the lounge, but it could be big, big entertainment on the main vegas stage. and that was something new. ♪ howard hughes was the starting point for the corporatization of las vegas. he was helping to build modern las vegas as we know it. reporter: a federal grand jury looking into the links between organized crime and las vegas casinos handed down an indictment. when elvis was in vegas, the city was on fire. i noticed a decline in elvis' appreciation of being on stage. i think he had this fear of getting older and being relevant, and then it got out of hand. ♪