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Mob Museum changes identity
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Nothing personal, Las Vegas. It's just business.
The Mob Museum is now known as the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement -- swapping its original Las Vegas title for one more reflective of its content, museum officials said.
The museum, which is scheduled to open Feb. 14, 2012, to coincide with the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, will tell the story of organized crime as it affected the entire country, not just Las Vegas.
That isn't to say Sin City's mob stories are lessened in any way, said Jonathan Ullman, the museum's executive director. Prominent mob figures had a higher profile in other cities nationwide, including Chicago and New York.
"You really cannot tell this story without addressing larger national content," Ullman said. "We cover Prohibition, immigration and the evolution of the criminal justice system. We believe our name should reflect our status as a world-class museum and a foremost venue for an informal education on this subject matter."
The name change is showcased on the museum's website, themobmuseum.org. The decision was finalized in August and "embraced by representatives at the city, the museum board and other key stakeholders," Ullman added.
"We hope it's not perceived as a slight on anyone in the local community," he said. "There's a great deal of community pride in this venue."
Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who used to work as an attorney representing reputed organized crime figures and was involved in bringing the museum to the area, said he welcomed the change.
"It should be more expansive," Goodman said. "I think it should be called the international museum. As we got into this whole project, we saw this is an international story of folks coming from foreign lands into the United States as immigrants and becoming a part of what was referred to as organized crime."
Goodman added that no one should consider the change negatively.
"This is a great thing," he said.
On Wednesday night, Goodman's appearance on the television show "CSI," which showcases the Mob Museum's opening in its plot, will be aired at a viewing party at the Plaza.
Goodman takes a bullet at the museum, which "CSI" re-created on its own because the actual location won't open until next year. The event starts at 8:30 p.m. with a 10 p.m. screening.
The $42 million Mob Museum will be dedicated to the history of organized crime and the law enforcement that hunted mobsters for decades. It is expected to draw 600,000 visitors annually once it opens at 300 Stewart Ave.
The Depression-era building is a historic former federal courthouse and post office included on both the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places.
Contact reporter Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.
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@lvfacts 101,,,Actually for decades manufacturing, factory work even car sales and many industries offered less educated citizens a decent wage with benefits and a good middle class life. Many of these were private business and corporations. I also have worked in several corporations and my father made a very good living working in a huge international corporation. I have worked for private and coprorate, both in and out of gaming. The problems have developed when corporations have monopolized every part of industries and micro-manage with most CEO’s or heads having no experience in the industry. If you believe today’s corporations are as efficient or run as properly, as lets say corporations of the past like Del Webb or even Hughes corporations or Castaways, Sliver Slipper, I’d say you are hugely ignorant. There has been a major change in corporate mentality, especially monopolizing. Also I was generalizing and realize there are some very good responsible corporations but certainly the monopolizing and overbuilding in Vegas hasn’t been good for employees or the public. Plus benefits, 401k’s etc have all been cut drastically for workers, unlike upper management, that continually will blame workers when business is slow or fails rather than accept their failures. The corporate head mentality has changed thru the years, not for the better and this is a fact. Unfortunately it would be impossible to post how all this has changed on a newspaper board.
Joe C: how many other towns offer unskilled jobs that pay more than 15 bucks an hour with fully paid health insurance, no employee contribution pensions, free meals, free parking, paid vacations and on and on? You may bad mouth "corporations' for lots of things but underpaying their employees isn't one of them. If you think the "corporations" are taking advantage of their employees, quit flapping your mouth - invest your money, start a business and treat your employees better. The odds of that actually happening? Zero!
Maybe if they put the the terminal for the desert express there they could count on 600 visitors a year?
Thanks for responding.
@WebWiseWoman,,,Possibly one reason some casino workers felt life with the mob in the casinos was better. Was the fact the mob understood happy people didn’t ask questions and if you did, you would end up very unhappy. Certainly if the mob could have rapped up local government and the federal government the way the giant gaming corporation have today. Life working in a mob house might have been much different. With the corporations it is just a more painful and slow agonizing death for workers. A lot of phony concerns about how are the workers feeling today, at least the mob death was quicker but still agonizing if you crossed them. The problem with the mob is they really didn’t understand how corruptible and greedy the government really was. The corporations wasted no time understanding that fact. There isn’t a lot of difference between the mob mentality and a corporate mentality. Many corporations are just as uncaring and are responsible for many deaths; just things are settled in court, which gives the appearance of more civility.
What a shame lots of folks still don't get that Las Vegas was much better off with "mob" running it that the current aholes like Loveman.
@MR.LV.."Shall we have a National Latino Durg Cartel Museum for the dirtbags crossing the border?"
LOVE IT, LMAO!!!
May I add "Gangland Bloods n Crips n da Hood" Museum.
The b=names were changed to protect the innocent....
will the museum finally reveal who clean face is?????? harry
Alvin, I'm not picking a fight, either! We had material on her, and I think she should be in there when we talk about Glick, but there are word limits and the like with exhibit writing--we haven't gotten the material on the later years yet, so I don't want to say she definitely is or isn't there. I am going to encourage it and hope she IS in there, since--my opinion, and I'm not alone, of course--is that Glick was a lot more than a front man.