A trip to the world's most famous monument to reckless abandon and unbridled excess.

With its well-heeled mobsters and glamorous showgirls, fantastical mega-casinos and dazzling displays of neon, Las Vegas is the world's most famous monument to reckless abandon and unbridled excess. This AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film traces the often surprising, endlessly entertaining history of the country's most outrageous playground: from its beginnings as a remote frontier way station to its Depression-era incarnation as the "Gateway to the Hoover Dam"; from its mid-century heyday as the gangster metropolis known as "Sin City" to its recent renaissance as the fastest growing city in the United States. The program features interviews with well-known Las Vegas insiders - Steve and Elaine Wynn, Brian Greenspun - as well as everyday citizens in search of the American dream in this corporately financed desert fantasyland. Michael Murphy narrates.