Joan Rivers: The Entertainer - Peggy Noonan's Blog - WSJ:
Her eye was original. Twenty years ago, when everyone was talking about
how wonderful it was that Vegas had been cleaned up and the mob had
been thrown out, Joan said no, no, no, they are ruining the mystique.
First of all, she said, those mobsters knew how to care for a lady,
those guys with bent noses were respectful and gentlemen, except when
they were killing you. Second, she said, organized crime is better than
disorganized crime, which will replace it. Third, the mobsters had a
patina of class, they dressed well and saw that everyone else did, so
Vegas wasn’t a slobocracy, which is what it is becoming with men in
shorts playing the slots in the lobby of the hotel. The old Vegas had
dignity. She hated the bluenoses who’d clean up what wasn’t mean to be
clean. No one wanted Sin City cleaned up, she said, they wanted to go
there and visit sin and then go home.