The Las Vegas Oasis

Spoiler Alert: This is a very dark post. Sometimes things in Las Vegas get a little weird and lugubrious. Read at your own risk!

This isn’t your typical oasis—a garden in the middle of the desert—this is the Oasis Motel located on Las Vegas Boulevard in the neighborhood referred to as Naked City*.

In my last book, The Outlaw Shuffle, my main character becomes a Gin Rummy wizard and eventually competes in a Las Vegas tournament. In my research into the world of Gin Rummy, I stumbled upon this extraordinary character, Stu Ungar. Stu is best known for winning the World Series of Poker twice, one of two people to reach that feat. But before becoming the hot-shot poker player, Stu played gin rummy. He grew up in the Lower East Side of New York City to a bookmaker father through whom he was introduced to the mafia underworld of Manhattan and gambling. At age ten, he became a Gin Rummy savant, playing games all over New York and winning gads money. By the time Stu was twenty, very few people would take him on. He had a photographic memory for the cards played, could figure out odds instantly, but above all that, could read his opponents.

Stu was a card-savant but also a funny-looking guy. He stood about five-three, skinny, with a pageboy haircut. Despite his stature, once in Vegas and playing seven card stud, Stu was kind of a jerk, taunting opponents and then ruthlessly shaming others when they’d lose. He won hundreds of thousands of dollars playing poker but then turned around and played the horses, losing everything he won on a game more reliant on chance than the skills he developed playing poker. Then, whatever money Stu had left over from the ponies was spent on cocaine. He snorted so much coke that the nose on his already funny-looking face collapsed. The last photos of him show the pageboy haircut, then round sunglasses perched on what was left of his nose, now little more than a dainty prune with two wormholes. His drug habit got the better of him, and Stu ended his days in the Oasis Motel, a flop with daily, weekly, and monthly rates. He died in room #6 after a coke-induced heart attack.

Then there was David Strickland, who starred in the sitcom Suddenly Susan with Brook Shields. David also had a complicated relationship with cocaine and, in 1999, rolled into Las Vegas with funny, crazy Andy Dick. Wikipedia notes that Andy went through drug rehabilitation 20 times. Andy was apparently between rehabs when he went Vegas-wild with David. They checked into room #4 of the Oasis. After the two visited the Glitter Gulch strip club, David got his own room, #20. There, he hung himself using the bed sheets.

Of course, I wanted a tour of the Oasis and the infamous rooms.

I entered the motel office and offered a twenty to the woman behind the desk if she’d show me rooms #6 and #20. The clerk was extremely pleasant and knew just what I was after. She actually declined my bribe and just took me to the rooms. Both were vacant. Room #6 was barely large enough for the one full-sized bed—not even a chair. Behind and beside the bed loomed large mirrors for one’s exotic pleasure. The TV was the old tube kind. This was where the gin rummy and poker champion lived his final days. Then to room #20. This one was only slightly larger and had an exposed support beam that ran just under the ceiling and held up roof joists. As I left the room, I asked the clerk, “Is that where he tied the bedsheet?” She nodded her head in confirmation.

I decided the Oasis would be the setting for my next Las Vegas book. I knew the overall plot had to do with uncut diamonds stolen in Chicago and then fenced through the jewelry store owner, Emilio Nuzzarello, aka Nuts, aka Emmy, who I’d established in my first book, Las Vegas Turnaround. But then I needed a guy to be living at the Oasis. My character, Skinny, developed from there—a kid, often homeless, with a heroin addiction, who’s a snatch-and-dash street thief. When he finds enough money, he stays at the motel. This new book is tentatively entitled Rough Diamonds.

I know you can’t wait for the release.

*The name Naked City came about because of the showgirls who lived in the neighborhood’s inexpensive apartments. The girls couldn’t show tan lines in their elaborate costumes, so they sunbathed naked. Unfortunately, I did not see one naked showgirl during my tour. In fact, Jubilee!, the last showgirl show, closed in 2016 after a 35-year run. Yes, I’ve seen the show many times.

Enjoy the videos!