I watched "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project" on HBO earlier this month and I was amused at Bob Newhart's recollections of Las Vegas in the 1960's. He reminisced about how different Las Vegas was before the large, corporate-owned hotel became the norm. He referred to that era as a time "when the boys had Las Vegas." I got a kick out of that when I heard him say it...I know he's from Chicago and that phrase, "the boys," has always been one of my dad's favorite euphemism for, well, the boys...

tony b.

"Your wife, even without the hump, is a lovely woman."

I heard that reference, too. Comics and other entertainers who worked Vegas regularly often like to make chummy remarks about mobsters. I tend to take their reminiscences with a grain of salt. Mob guys were semi-legitimate presences in Nevada until 1958-59, when the new Gaming Commission took over regulation of the casinos. Their "Black Book" drove the mob guys underground. Even before that, they generally maintained a low public profile. Sure, they might have seen Sam Giancana, Frank Costello, Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno, Johnny Roselli, etc., in their audiences in the Fifties, but not after that.

Who is Don Rickles?

He was a famous standup comedian best known for making fun of people in the audience. He was really big in the 60's/70's when he was a regular on the "Tonight Show" and a headliner in his own acts.

He played Robert DeNiro's assistant in "Casino".

Ah right thanks SC,i recognise hime know,he played a great part in casino

I can't help but laugh when I see him trying to be serious (in "Casino").

Oddly enough, he played some serious roles (albeit they were small) early on in his career.

How did he manage to get the role in casino then?


as normally comics stick to that type of role.


i think im right he sayin he was tryin to portay Bobby Stella from Chicago? who was one of the outfits guys in vegas?

Dunno.

Stella was a real-life casino manager; I don't know if Rickles was portraying him, though.

I assume so though as he was rosenthals/aces (movie) right hand man

I agree, TB. However, I do recall one interview with Buddy Hackett, where he went into some detail about resenting the wiseguys, especially in Vegas. He claimed he couldn't retire because, even though he was no longer under contract, he was still a big draw right into the 80's, and therefore, a big moneymaker for them. I must admit, it had a ring of truth to it.

Scorsese has a genius for casting the right people in the right roles. Rickles was perfect in that role. So was comic/folksinger Tommy Smothers as a crooked Gaming Commissioner. So was Oscar Goodman, Rosenthal's and the Ant's real-life lawyer, as himself (he's now the mayor of Vegas). So was James Woods, the Sultan of Smarm, as that cheesy ex-boyfriend of Sharon Stone. In "Goodfellas," James Eppolito, the crooked NYC cop who did hits for the mob, was "Fat Andy." "Johnny Dio," the guy cooking steaks in prison, was the guy who owns Raio's, a famous East Harlem Italian restaurant favored by the mob.