Soaring in neon exuberance over the hostile Southwestern desert, Las Vegas represents a fantasy of gambling, glamour and license to more than 30 million tourists annually Jobs created by this fantasy in turn, have made it one of America’s fastest growing cities, reaching an estimated population of 404,288 in 1998, a 56 percent increase over 1990.

The spectacle city of the Strip, Elvis, slot machines, cheap buffets and wedding chapels faces new demands for civic identity.

Las Vegas emerged from obscurity through water (artesian wells), power (Hoover Dam, 1928) and gambling, which Nevada legalized in 1931. By 1940 this 10,000–citizen resort had a Western flavor; northern Reno, the state capital, was more famous for gambling and divorce. Vegas’ creation myth (recrafted in the 1991 movie Bugsy) cites mobster Bugsy Siegel as the genius who synthesized Los Angeles modernism and motels in the rebuilt Flamingo before his “untimely” death in 1947. Underworld connections, a continual concern of the Nevada gaming commission, were largely purged by the 1960s.

Las Vegas’ subsequent development has challenged boundaries of neon, architecture, spectacle and taste. In the 1960s, Howard Hughes shaped the city as both ownerdeveloper and reclusive billionaire. In 1966 Caesar’s Palace established theme-park models, later followed by MGM Grand, Excalibur (medieval), Luxor (Ancient Egypt), Bellagio (artistic Italian) and Caesar’s own archeological invention, complete with talking statues. In Circus Circus, another 1960s creation, high-wire acts flew over slot machines, prefiguring a shift to “family” entertainment in the 1990s. The late 1960s also saw the beginning of corporate Las Vegas, with ever-larger and more complicated casino-resorts, traded as joint-stock corporations by entrepreneurs like Steve Wynn and William Bennett.

Alongside neon cascades, erupting volcanoes and pirate battles, Las Vegas also meant show business. Frank Sinatra and his “rat pack,” Elvis Presley, Liberace (who left his museum behind) and Barbra Streisand are identified with the city as are bejeweled and befeathered chorus lines, lounge singers, magicians, call girls and animal trainers.

Celebrities, in turn, use the city as a backdrop for films, television, marriages and divorces.

Beyond the glitter, Las Vegas faces the complexities of other American cities, including 1992 riots (after Rodney King) that underscored the dilemmas of its African American population. A significant Mormon population and growing families place demands on schools and other resources. New civic buildings, including a library/performing-arts center by Michael Graves and the University of Nevada, have created a city beyond the Strip. Even casinos are adding “reality”—Wynn’s touted collection of European art—to glitter.

Yet for millions who know the city through media and visits, Las Vegas remains a city of dreams (Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas, 1966; the James Bond thriller Diamonds are Forever, 1969; Sister Act, 1981) and nightmares (Show Girl, 1996; Leaving Las Vegas, 1997).