Welcome to Litsy!

Carolyn V. Hamilton tells how she arrived in Las Vegas in 1973 to join a circus, and opened the new MGM Grand Hotel/Casino as a cocktail waitress.In 1973 Carolyn Hamilton arrives in Las Vegas with boyfriend Del to join the business side of the newly-formed Las Vegas International Circus. When they run out of money Carolyn gets a job as a cocktail waitress in soon-to-open MGM Grand Hotel/Casino. Through nefarious means, Del gets the position as bailiff for District Court Judge Paul Goldman. Carolyn and Del marry, but Dale's ex-wife surfaces, and he is revealed as a bigamist. Working cocktails at the MGM turns out to be more involved than nice Lutheran girl from Seattle would think: rumors, parties, stealing, sex, drinking and drugs are the main entertainment for a bored crew of cocktail waitresses, bartenders, dealers and floormen. Some waitresses date culinary union bosses, who have their own high drama of payoffs, fights for control, fire bombings and an 18-day culinary union strike. After a ménage a quatre with two other waitresses and a casino floorman, Carolyn decides this is not the kind of life she wants for herself. After three years she leaves the MGM to rediscover her personal values and commitment to her marriage to Del. Each story told in this memoir--of the Martin Scorsese "Casino" era of Las Vegas--is true, and many of them are humorous as well as outrageous.