A 2020 New York Times notable book One of the Chicago Tribune's
best nonfiction books of 2020
**
Complex, turbulent, as haunting as a pedal steel solo** --Jonathan
Miles, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
One of 21 books we can't wait to read in 2020 --Thrillist A
New York Times Book Review summer reading pick A GQ best book of
2020 Named one of the 10 best July books by The Washington Post
and The Christian Science Monitor A Kirkus Reviews hottest
summer read A Publishers Weekly summer reads staff pick
**
The incredible true story of America's original--and forgotten--capital
of vice
**
Back in the days before Vegas was big, when the Mob was at its peak and
neon lights were but a glimmer on the horizon, a little Southern town
styled itself as a premier destination for the American leisure class.
Hot Springs, Arkansas was home to healing waters, Art Deco splendor, and
America's original national park--as well as horse racing, nearly a
dozen illegal casinos, countless backrooms and brothels, and some of the
country's most bald-faced criminals.
Gangsters, gamblers, and gamines: all once flocked to America's
forgotten capital of vice, a place where small-town hustlers and bigtime
high-rollers could make their fortunes, and hide from the law. The
Vapors is the extraordinary story of three individuals--spanning the
golden decades of Hot Springs, from the 1930s through the 1960s--and the
lavish casino whose spectacular rise and fall would bring them together
before blowing them apart.
Hazel Hill was still a young girl when legendary mobster Owney Madden
rolled into town in his convertible, fresh off a crime spree in New
York. He quickly established himself as the gentleman Godfather of Hot
Springs, cutting barroom deals and buying stakes in the clubs at which
Hazel made her living--and drank away her sorrows. Owney's protégé was
Dane Harris, the son of a Cherokee bootlegger who rose through the
town's ranks to become Boss Gambler. It was his idea to build The
Vapors, a pleasure palace more spectacular than any the town had ever
seen, and an establishment to rival anything on the Vegas Strip or
Broadway in sophistication and supercharged glamour.
In this riveting work of forgotten history, native Arkansan David Hill
plots the trajectory of everything from organized crime to America's
fraught racial past, examining how a town synonymous with white
gangsters supported a burgeoning black middle class. He reveals how the
louche underbelly of the South was also home to veterans hospitals and
baseball's spring training grounds, giving rise to everyone from Babe
Ruth to President Bill Clinton. Infused with the sights and sounds of
America's entertainment heyday--jazz orchestras and auctioneers, slot
machines and suited comedians--The Vapors is an arresting glimpse into
a bygone era of American vice.
