Vegas Trends, part 2

As part of my ongoing effort to promote my services as a professional corporate bloviator, I present this second installment in my kurttrue.com series on trends in the gaming industry.

I am available for speaking engagements at all corporate events, including management seminars, executive golf retreats, grocery store openings and Tupperware parties.

Death Cars:
I grew up in Houston, so I know a thing or two about Bonnie and Clyde, and I'll tell you something. You know that movie? The one with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway? It takes some liberties.

I mean, I love the movie, but it takes some liberties. For instance, the C. W. Moss character, played by J. Michael Pollard, that's a composite. The real C. W. Moss ran away from Bonnie and Clyde, who later took on another youngster to serve their gang in a more or less support staff role, driving the getaway car, acting as a lookout, running errands.

This second youngster was Henry Methvin, whose father, Iverson Methvin, cut a deal with the authorities to lure Bonnie and Clyde into an ambush in exchange for a lenient sentence for Henry.

Not that Arthur Penn, who directed the movie, was the first guy who tried a turn a quick buck playing fast and loose with the Bonnie and Clyde legend. Within a few years of Bonnie's and Clyde's gruesome end outside Arcadia, Louisiana, there were at least half a dozen bullet riddled sedans making the county fair circuit as the Genuine Bonnie and Clyde Death Car!

But the rise of fascism in Europe apparently distracted the American public from death-car-related entertainment, and by the end of the Second World War just about all those Swiss cheese mobiles were in mothballs.

Then the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" hit the screens in 1967 to much popular and critical acclaim, and that long forgotten death car percolated once again to the upper reaches of American pop culture consciousness.

But is the hastily ventilated coach now on display at the Primm Valley Casino and Resort the genuine article? Or merely one of many imposters?

The kurttrue.com team went on a fact-finding trip to Primm, Nevada (on Highway 15 at the California/Nevada state line), to answer that important question.

Our conclusion? The Primm Death Car is the real McCoy!

How can I tell? Well, for one thing, I compared the positions of the bullet holes to contemporary photos of the death car, which was towed, after the ambush, to a funeral home in Arcadia (with Bonnie and Clyde still in it) and photographed extensively by journalists, law enforcement personnel and curious passersby.

Also, there's the fender to consider. The front fender. Another liberty that the movie takes is that it places Clyde Barrow outside the vehicle at the time the posse opens fire. He was actually behind the driver's seat with his foot on the clutch. The car rolled forward and either landed in a ditch, or hit a log, depending on whose story you're reading. If you look at the front fender of the Primm Death Car you'll see a dent in the front fender consistent with such an impact.

Will a death car bring business to your casino? Hey, does Wayne Newton know the words to "Poke Salad Annie"? You should see the way people flock to that thing! It reminds me of when they first put up that volcano outside the Mirage.

And there's so many death cars to choose from. There's the James Dean death car, the Isadora Duncan death car, the Paul Castellano death car. It's really a buyer's market.

But how do you know the death car you're considering is the right fit for your venue? Or that it's a even a real death car and not a cheap knockoff that some grifter picked up at a used car lot in Pocatello and plugged with a .38 at a rest stop outside Phoenix.

Well, look no further than your helpful kurttrue.com representative, who can provide an on site evaluation and Certificate of Authenticity as part of a complete package of corporate death car services.

For a small additional charge, Jeffrey and I will dress up like Siegfried and Roy and try to get a white tiger to catch a Frisbee.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE:
I am indebted to crimelibrary.com for refreshing my memory with regard to Bonnie and Clyde history.

Kurt "big daddy" True
18 september 2005