The seven deadly sins of Hollywood (1957)

GENIUSES AT LARGE guarded. I don't suppose it would be easy to change a million-dollar note. Down-town Las Vegas is a shabby place which looks like a derelict film set from some old Western. In the saloons the plush upholstery has become worn and the Naughty Nineties decor has faded. Marble-topped bars and gas lanterns and bar-tenders with large mustachios, who look as though they might at any moment burst into the strains of Old Man River, seem about as genuine as the average Negro minstrel (they may be genuine: but they don't look it). In the cheaper gambling rooms sullen-faced women, with shopping baskets in one hand and a fist full of dimes in the other, stand in front of the slot machines automatically dropping coins into the slots and tugging at the levers. When the machines, from time to time, spit out their small winnings, not a flicker of satisfaction registers on their faces. They look like bored factoryhands working on some assembly-line. Much ingenuity has been exercised by the proprietors of the smaller establishments in devising new gambling contraptions. Wherever you look coloured balls are skimming over green baize, dice are rolling, cards are being dealt, roulette wheels are spinning, results are being chalked up on blackboards. . . . Being an inveterate non-gambler, I managed to lose only twelve dollars before becoming too bored to go on. Most of my losses were sustained at the slot machines. I was not able to penetrate the mystique of craps. All I was able to deduce was that it involved throwing dice and getting the right combination of numbers. You can lose more money at this, I gathered, than at almost anything else. What Blackjack, 21 and Bingo involve or entail I have not the remotest idea, except that I am sure they entail losing money. The slot machines also known as onearmed bandits are for tyros like myself. They are part 131