Jonathan Warren

A true Las Vegas story, told in episodes.

I had come to call them "The Guns of August." The thunderstorms that came to the Las Vegas valley at in last of the hot months, each year. Summer never leaves quietly, in desert.

In 1958, the first convention came to the Las Vegas Convention Center. It was a Mercedes Benz dealers' conference. It was also harbinger of things to come in the desert town, where conventions would prove to elevate what was then seen as a a mere gambling town.

"You have to know someone." "It's not open to the public, you have to be invited." "They send a car, they won't let you drive there." "They are more Covid careful than the CDC."