Coming to Las Vegas: A true tale of sex, drugs & Sin City in the '70s

Carolyn V. Hamilton arrives in Las Vegas in 1973 to join a circus. When that job doesn’t work out, she opens the new MGM Grand Hotel/Casino as a cocktail waitress. This turns out to be more involved than a nice Lutheran girl from Seattle would think: parties, stealing, sex, drinking and drugs are the main entertainment for a bored crew of casino employees. Some waitresses date culinary union bosses, who have their own high drama of payoffs, fights for control, fire bombings and an 18-day culinary union strike. Each story told in this memoir—of the Martin Scorsese “Casino” era of Las Vegas—is true, and many are humorous as well as outrageous. “Carolyn V. Hamilton's memoir of her time as a Las Vegas cocktail waitress is told with uncommon candor, humor, and insight. Her stint at the world's largest hotel-casino, in a city on the verge of explosive growth and unending controversy, is a blend of Hollywood casting couch, 2 Broke Girls, and Fear and Loathing. It reads as fast as the characters she profiles.” Jack Sheehan, author of "Skin City: Uncovering the Las Vegas Sex Industry," and five other non-fiction books on modern Las Vegas history.