One of my top 5 favorite movies of all time is Casino. Guess Marty Scorsese and I go way back. Most people know the true back story behind Goodfellas and the fictional similarities to real life characters in The Godfather but most know little about the real people in Casino. I thought I would add a bit from the internet on the real players in CASINO. This Slots LV casino review will help you learn all you need about playing slots and testing your luck at an online casino.
Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal (Ace Rothstein Robert DeNiro part)
Read the great book Casino by Nicolas Pileggi who also wrote Wiseguy.
Franks's Very Cool Website is HERE
For much of his professional life, the Chicago-born and casino-bred, Rosenthal has been the country's top handicapper. He was one of a handful of men who literally set the line for thousands of bookmakers from coast to coast.
During the 1970s and early eighties, Rosenthal ran four Las Vegas casinos simultaneously, including the world-famous Stardust Hotel and Casino. Rosenthal is also credited with creating the first Race & Sportsbook (Parlor) in Las Vegas.
Frank and Geri (GInger) Rosenthal
Geri Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro
Anthony Spilotro, Protégé of Mad Sam DeStefano made his bones in 1962 when he put small time burglar Billy McCarthy's head in a vise and cranked it tighter and tighter until one of his eyes popped out. “The Ant” Later became the outfits man in Vegas and Basis for the Nicky Santurro character played by Joe Pesci in the movie Casino he would also eventually whack Mad Sam.
Wife of Las Vegas sports handicapper, Frank Rosenthal. Born Geraldine "Geri" McGee, she met Anthony Spilotro, the best friend of Frank Rosenthal, at a gambling convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where she began an affair with him. She made her living as a "chip girl" (a good looking woman who hustled gamblers for a chip or two in exchange for temporary companionship) and as a part time topless dancer and occasional prostitute, hanging around the high rolling gamblers in the casinos, where she would move from gambler to gambler. Anthony Spilotro, who introduced Frank to Geri, and soon they were were a couple.
Geri and Ace
Though Ant and his brother died a horrible beating death and Geri died young from a suspected hot dose of heroin. Frank died at age 79 while living in south Florida.
Frank states on his website that the torture scene in the movie was accurate. Yuck! Read more on his website. How exciting Frank had the great promoter sense to build a fabulous website before he died.
7 comments:
What a sweet entry, and even more sweet that it was for me! :)
I loved "Casino," and was fascinated when I found that much of it was based on fact. I was even more fascinated when I found Lefty's website a couple of years ago, and realized that he was still alive and kicking, and doing sports booking. The Stardust is gone now, and most recently, the Moulin Rouge is also gone due to a fire. My favorite place to go in Vegas is the old downtown, where some of the original Vegas casinos survive (the Golden Gate, the El Cortez). The glitz and glam of the Strip is impressive, but I prefer the grit of the old casinos!
Incidentally, I sort of dated a minor actor in "Casino." My brush with fame, I guess!
Great entry! XO Beth
Nice post. i like the images black & white combination. it's an old school retro.. i like it
One of the editions of the Casino dvd includes, in its special features, the History Channel's one-hour documentary on the film's real cast of characters.
Well for people's background, it is not corporations that "took over" Vegas, it is the larger "shell game" that contains those corporations;
And you know what globalist intelligence operation is generically implied, the feds are in their shell as well;
That is why the mafia are script consultants now and puppeted locals, the bigger dogs showed them the door or the big hole out in the desert;
These "big dogs" even went back to Italy and killed their friends and family, dug up their great grandfather's grave to get the point across who runs American criminal enterprises;
That is what "happened" to the mafia; A demotion, not a complete removal; (That is what is going on in Mexico as well in other enterprises, btw)
That is the real story behind the top of all vice pyramids in America, Russia or China, etc, etc; the same group of powers at different locations of the tier or tiers are the top dogs with the best science, weapons and intelligence that allows this type of authority to depose the mob as if it were a novice high school drug ring;
Frank Rosenthal knew the kind of mathematics that were at work in this power equation as well; He was ahead of his time also in his mathematical secrets that inspired the "value" in his farsighted innovations;
Now you know who he ended up REALLY working with; Get it?
Anonymous, can you be more specific with what larger shell game you are referring too?
Nice blog
@Diane M Lux and @Miranda thank you ladies, very much appreciated!
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