Vegas, the new show starring Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, premieres on Tuesday night, Sept. 25th, at 10:00 pm on CBS. It has both NCIS and NCIS: LA as lead-ins and Tuesday night is one of CBS' most succesful nights, ratings wise, so this bodes well for this period piece set in 1960s Las Vegas. Quaid plays real-life Las Vegas Sheriff Ralph Lamb while Chiklis plays mob boss Vincent Savino- a fictiional character that has some traits of real life mobsters from that era

While I don't expect the show to strictly to history, I do hope that they get the layout of the Strip and Fremont Street right and I do hope they remember that people did live here and were raising their families here.

Guess we will all find out on September 25th.

In the meantime, here's a behind-the-scenes promo:

Vegas has a new promo. We are really looking forward to the debut in September:

As the summer begins to wind down and the fall television season (and the premiere of Vegas) looms on the horizon, we thought it would be nice to look back at 1960s Las Vegas. This is the Las Vegas that Sheriff Ralph Lamb presided over and kept safe.

The Boulevard Mall opened which changed the way Las Vegans shopped. No longer did we have to go downtown for our shopping needs. Developed by Irwin Molasky (who also developed the neighborhood around the mall including the mid-century modern residential area known as Paradise Palms.) with partners that included Moe Dalitz.

Our beloved "flying saucer" Convention Center. At night, the rim of the Convention Center glowed neon green. With the empty Landmark Hotel (in all it's Space Needle glory) located across the street, this corner of Paradise Road and Desert Inn was filled with space age enthusiasm. Anything was possible in those days. The Convention Center hosted boxing (Cassius Clay, Floyd Patterson, etc), the Beatles, Martin Luther King, holiday events and numerous high school graduations.

 Our Cinerama Theater, located just south of the Convention Center. It was one of the popular movie theaters located outside of downtown (along with the Huntridge and the Fox at the Charleston Plaza Mall). I saw Gone With the Wind there during its reissue run in 1967.

Aerial shot of the Alarmco building near Las Vegas Blvd South and St. Louis. The building was owned by Desert Inn one-time owner, Wilbur Clark.

Caesars Palace which opened in August, 1966. Built by Jay Sarno, Caesars was a direct departure from other hotels on the famed Las Vegas Strip.

Fremont Street in the early 1960s.

Denny's Restaurant. There were various locations - including on the famed Strip (one still stands) and this one just north of Fremont Street.

Here's a promo for the new show, Vegas, starring Dennis Quaid as Sheriff Ralph Lamb and Michael Chiklis as gangster Vincent Savino. (Here's hoping that is just a highway sign for the Stardust and they don't have the Stardust and the Sahara on the same side of the street, next to one another.)

Just in time for the new show, Vegas, a dramatic series on CBS this fall, the LA Times profiles Sheriff (he will always be sheriff to us though he hasn't worn the badge in over thirty five years) Ralph Lamb. In the new series, Ralph will be portrayed by Dennis Quaid and the series will focus on the fictional battle between Lamb and Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis) while exploring the oasis in the desert as it was in the 1960s (at least we hope they do).

Back then, Las Vegas and Sheriff Lamb didn't rate high enough to be profiled by the LA Times but fifty years later, it's a whole different story:

From the LA Times:

LAS VEGAS — The first thing you notice about Sheriff Ralph Lamb is that voice — the low, gravelly growl of a former five-pack-a-day Marlboro man. Even at age 85, Lamb still uses the plain-spoken utterances of an old-school lawman.

On his disdain of firearms: "Sometimes we had to use our guns, but sparingly. If a guy shot at me, I'd shoot back."

And on his public image: "The church-goin' people in town, the good people, they liked my brand of law and order — keepin' things cleaned up."

He was known as the Cowboy Sheriff and once was considered the most powerful man in Nevada. In the 1960s and '70s, the longtime rancher and rodeo rider served as the sheriff of Clark County — which back then was about the closest thing America had to the Old West, with gangsters substituting for gunslinging cowboys.

For more:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vegas-sheriff-20120720,0,7911575.story

The Aladdin sign in 1971 with Jethro Tull in concert at the Performing Arts Center

The Alpine Village- they had the best chicken soup

The Blue Angel motel in 1957- bet that pool looks inviting when the heat hits triple digits

The brochure promoting Caesars Palace in 1966

Brochure promoting Downtown- 1960s

Dunes Hotel matchbook