Title
The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America s Forgotten Capital of Vice
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A 2020 New York Times notable book One of the Chicago Tribune s best nonfiction books of 2020 Complex, turbulent, as haunting as a pedal steel solo Jonathan Miles, The New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice) One of 21 books we can t wait to read in 2020 Thrillist A New York Times Book Review summer reading pick A GQ best book of 2020 Named one of the 10 best July books by The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor A Kirkus Reviews hottest summer read A Publishers Weekly summer reads staff pickThe incredible true story of America s originaland forgottencapital of viceBack in the days before Vegas was big, when the Mob was at its peak and neon lights were but a glimmer on the horizon, a little Southern town styled itself as a premier destination for the American leisure class. Hot Springs, Arkansas was home to healing waters, Art Deco splendor, and Americas original national parkas well as horse racing, nearly a dozen illegal casinos, countless backrooms and brothels, and some of the countrys most baldfaced criminals.Gangsters, gamblers, and gamines: all once flocked to Americas forgotten capital of vice, a place where smalltown hustlers and bigtime highrollers could make their fortunes, and hide from the law. The Vapors is the extraordinary story of three individualsspanning the golden decades of Hot Springs, from the 1930s through the 1960sand the lavish casino whose spectacular rise and fall would bring them together before blowing them apart.Hazel Hill was still a young girl when legendary mobster Owney Madden rolled into town in his convertible, fresh off a crime spree in New York. He quickly established himself as the gentleman Godfather of Hot Springs, cutting barroom deals and buying stakes in the clubs at which Hazel made her livingand drank away her sorrows. Owneys protg was Dane Harris, the son of a Cherokee bootlegger who rose through the towns ranks to become Boss Gambler. It was his idea to build The Vapors, a pleasure palace more spectacular than any the town had ever seen, and an establishment to rival anything on the Vegas Strip or Broadway in sophistication and supercharged glamour.In this riveting work of forgotten history, native Arkansan David Hill plots the trajectory of everything from organized crime to Americas fraught racial past, examining how a town synonymous with white gangsters supported a burgeoning black middle class. He reveals how the louche underbelly of the South was also home to veterans hospitals and baseballs spring training grounds, giving rise to everyone from Babe Ruth to President Bill Clinton. Infused with the sights and sounds of Americas entertainment heydayjazz orchestras and auctioneers, slot machines and suited comediansThe Vapors is an arresting glimpse into a bygone era of American vice.
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