One of the items on my to-do list for this past trip was to visit the new Mob Museum downtown. The museum is located on East Stewart Street downtown, a couple short blocks from the Fremont Street Experience. Walking from the Fremont / Golden Nugget intersection took 5 minutes at most. The building for the museum stands on its own and is visible and well marked. When you come inside, you buy your tickets and they direct you to the elevators. The museum is three floors, so they start you on the third floor, and the exhibits wind their way back through to downstairs. You begin with a similated "lineup" where you stand in front of mirrored glass, and a voiceover has some of you step forward, etc. This is pretty gimmicky, and maybe when the place is busy has an attendant, but when I visited you press the button for it yourself, etc. It could make for a fun photo if you have a friend to take the picture, but other than that, not too handy. From there, you get more into the museum itself, and there is a wealth of information. But for a topic as broad as the mob, it tends to be a little shizophrenic. There are lots of films on various topics that play on a continuous loop. These films are interesting, but it can make the experience awkward as you come to the display mid-film, and either try to ignore it until it starts over, or catch the ending then wait for the start again. The range of topics covered is impressive. Exhibits talk about the early days of the mob, its emergence during prohibition, its history in Vegas, etc. They have a long presentation and many exhibits focusing on the Kefauver hearings, as those are tied into the museum location (one video presentation takes place in a room where the Vegas hearings were held). Other exhibits are interactive, with video sequences and choose your own adventure style prompts. It will take you about two to three hours to go through, assuming you check out all the exhibits and watch all the videos. All in all it was a decent experience, and there is a wealth of information there, but I was not really that much of a fan of how things were presented. I'm not quite sure how they could make it better ... maybe directed tours and then letting you back through later ... maybe a slightly more chronological progression of the exhibits ... maybe just less video, or video launching on demand a bit better. But while the material was good, my overriding impression was that the presentation was a bit clunky. If you're into mob stuff, you'll probably get your money's worth out of it, but if you drag along a less involved friend, its probably going to make them less interested, not more. Attached are pics of the museum building, and the group before me in the 'lineup" that starts things off. I took a bunch more, but don't want to actually one up the exhibits.
I enjoyed the heck out of the mob museum. I've always had a thing for the Mob (even though I'm retired law enforcement) and found it fascinating. The setting is perfect. The only thing I did not like was the Oscar Goodman stuff (which he personally had installed) as it glorifies him. In actuality, he was one of the sleaziest lawyers around. Bill
Glad you enjoyed it. As I said, i enjoyed the displays and the content. I just felt the presentation left something to be desired.
We went to the Mob Museum as well when we were there back in June. It was one of the things I really wanted to do downtown. I really enjoyed it as did my wife. Learned a lot about mob. I love history and especially the history of las Vegas and the mob. I highly recommend it to anyone who visits LV.
I too enjoyed my visit to the Mob Museum, but don't think it is suitable for children as there's plenty of graphic images of mob killings.