Skin City: Uncovering the Las Vegas Sex Industry by Jack Sheehan

From the Publisher

After a decade in which it was perceived that Las Vegas had evolved into a family destination -- a place where visitors were encouraged to bring the kids -- the dawn of the 21st century brought the desert Mecca back to its adult oriented roots, with a splash. Now, for the first time, a writer who has lived in Las Vegas for 30 years and has written three acclaimed books about the city, pulls back the curtain of the adult industry and examines the lives of the people who give Sin City its naughty reputation. Author Jack Sheehan was able to get XXX-rated film stars, the top madam in town, beautiful young call girls who command $1000 an hour and up, and the most alluring exotic dancers on the Strip to tell him everything about themselves, both on and off the job. He visited the largest adult video convention in the world, accompanied an adult actress who's appeared in over 300 sex films to the Adult Video News Awards -- the so-called Oscars of Porn -- and looked into the lives of Las Vegas swingers, couples who believe that nearly anything goes in the arena of sexual expression.

He talked to Oscar Goodman, the popular mayor of Las Vegas and a famed criminal defense attorney who used to represent reputed Mafia members; current Las Vegas Sheriff Bill Young, who spent 12 years as the top vice cop in the city; and Steve Wynn, the maverick genius who built The Mirage, Treasure Island, and Bellagio, and is about to complete his grandest project ever, a resort self-named Wynn Las Vegas. All spoke at length about the city they control and its future. You'll meet the author's former student from his teaching days at UNLV, a woman who as a young girl dreamed of film stardom but had to travel back roads to find it; a couple who parlayed their swinging lifestyle into a lucrative business; and a beautiful Southern California college girl who turned nude dancing into a multifaceted industry.

Sheehan says, "There's something about making their living without clothes on that strips these people of all pretension. In my 30 years of interviewing politicians, celebrities, newsmakers, and ordinary folks, I've never met a more candid or open group of people than those who make their living in the sex industry." Skin City is a story that's never been told, about a place that lurks in the dreams and fantasies of all of us. It's not about Wayne Newton or Celine Dion or Elvis impersonators. Its focus is on those whose names will never be on hotel marquees, but who are as responsible as the headliners for creating the legend of Las Vegas.

Publishers Weekly

Sheehan (Above Las Vegas) migrated to "Skin City" in 1976 in pursuit of "adult fun," and asserts that Vegas is where America goes to be legally licentious. Yet despite sweet little dice imprints throughout this work, the only gambling he describes is the gambling men (and sometimes women) do with their bank accounts: Vegas's nubile beauties don't come cheap. An hour in a strip club's VIP room costs no less than $400; a hotel room "escort" starts at $500 and ranges upward. In chapters that read like snappy magazine pieces, Sheehan tours the Strip as well as the strip clubs, swingers clubs, massage parlors and porn conventions. He interviews porn stars turned soccer moms, soccer moms turned dominatrixes and young couples funding their futures with for-profit swinging sessions. Interpolated throughout are tips for sex-driven travelers: how to choose a strip club, what to expect in a lap dance, what to look for in a swinger's club, how to avoid being arrested and even where to go for a good meal. This often tame and oddly old-fashioned erotic travelogue affects an "oh, my gosh!" attitude that's both endearing and perplexing, given Sheehan's lengthy tenure in the town, but it's an engaging and occasionally shocking voyage. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Like travel guides, these sex tourism guides deliver for armchair wannabes as well as visitors. According to deMontmollin, a Las Vegas marketing manager, too many guys drop big bucks and waste countless fur-brained hours ad libbing Vegas. Better, he says, they should tag a type-A friend to pre-plan and pre-book, using these excellent and comprehensive instructions regarding accommodations, dining, gambling, bars, ladies peer and pro, plus male fun like golf, roller coasters, shooting ranges, and 1930s-style barber spas. Checklists, mini-maps, sample itineraries, and charts are plentiful, and numerous sidebars describe "classic Vegas mistakes," like taking advice from cab drivers-usually paid for by hotels and clubs to procure customers. Sheehan, author and screenwriter, takes a slightly different tack: he interviews porn actresses, prostitutes, strippers, a madam, swing club hosts, and vice cops for his entertaining, behind-the-scenes tour of Vegas adult industries interspersed with customer tips. He also covers the porn Oscars and pro-sex service for women and gay men. This is not a scholarly work or "balanced" journalism. Contrary to the "sex workers are messed up" style of rhetoric, Sheehan portrays almost all the people he talks to as savvy, more or less likable, and enjoying their work. His tips are more sex-specific and sometimes more detailed than in A Guy's Guide. Although both could have used indexes, deMontmollin is recommended for travel collections where appropriate and Sheehan for larger sex collections. For broader-scope sex customer advice, the most detailed and frank-if repetitive-resource is Paying for It, written by sex workers themselves.-Martha Cornog, Philadelphia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

With an impressive roster of strippers, swingers, porn stars and prostitutes, Sheehan explores the very adult side of Vegas entertainment. Journalist Sheehan, who moved to Vegas when he was in his early 20s, is as close to a local as one can get in a town of transplants. As such, he knew where to look when it was time to expose the city's seamier side-although the various activities he discusses are so widely accepted in Las Vegas and, indeed, crucial to the city's municipal coffers, that they hardly qualify as illicit. In general, the author presents a decidedly sunny portrait of the sex industry. The strippers that Sheehan interviews find that they've never felt so strong and liberated as when they're onstage with their clothes off, and his porn-star sources love sex and are pleased to be getting paid to engage in it onscreen (sex is "the funnest thing there is to do," one explains). Prostitutes are delighted by how much they can rake in from just a few hours of work, and swingers are amazed by their ability to find nightly parties where they can be as randy as they please. Yes, Sheehan elaborates on prejudices within the culture: Strippers would never get in bed with a man for money, while some prostitutes find it demeaning to dance in front of a room full of strangers. He gives a nod to pimps who exploit hookers, to deadbeat boyfriends who sponge off stripper girlfriends, and he points out that every once in a while, a working girl will be a bit introspective or depressed. But for the most part, this is a valentine to the industry. Bonus for those with plans to visit: Sheehan provides a number of sidebars with explicit instructions on how to behave in the underworld. If you'd like toknow more about massage parlors and gentlemen's clubs, or learn the "etiquette of mate swapping," here's one for you. Anything but subtle.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents