When it comes to influential figures in the development of Las Vegas, Meyer Lansky could have had his own wing of the Mob Museum.
Childhood friends with Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Lansky invested heavily in the Flamingo, as well as other Las Vegas casinos. But he was also prominent among the gaming establishments of Florida and Cuba.
His grandson, Meyer Lansky II, has co-written “The Lansky Legacy: The Life and Letters of Meyer Lansky,” which will be released by Kensington Publishing on July 28.
Neon: What’s your connection to Las Vegas?
Meyer Lansky: As the grandson and namesake of Meyer Lansky, who, with his best friend, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, built the casino resort The Flamingo in 1946, I’ve always known I would make my home here. Meyer and his partners also owned the El Cortez, along with The Thunderbird, which my uncle Jack Lansky managed for many years. Meyer also had investments in resorts downtown and what is now the Strip. My father, Paul Lansky, who visited in the 1940s and 50s, had great stories from that era as Meyer, a man of industry, created the business model for the glamour that put Las Vegas on the map by including the Rat Pack and bona fide A-list entertainers of the day. Living here, I get to see his vision continue. When I moved to Las Vegas from Lake Tahoe in the 1990s, I met up with Susie Berman, the daughter of Davie Berman, who Meyer had worked with. Susie gave me a soft landing, introducing me around town.
What made you want to write “The Lansky Legacy”?
I’ve spent a lifetime reading books, watching films, and, now, seeing posts and podcasts about Meyer that are totally inaccurate. Over the past several years, I’ve spotted misinformation from self-purported experts on Meyer, his businesses, family, and those claiming to be family, and felt it was time to write his story, my father, Paul’s, and my own, as I was 26 when Meyer passed. Only the insiders to Meyer’s life have the facts, and it’s time to shut down what my grandfather referred to as “the writers of fiction.” My sister and I have also had impostors and fraudsters going back decades, and I finally get to clear that up.
What would you like people to know about your grandfather?
I’d like people to know Meyer was an early resort entrepreneur, worked closely with world leaders, took risks with his own money and investments, and created and managed the first casinos in the 1930s in South Florida and Havana, Cuba. Meyer ran fair and clean casinos since he knew the house always wins, and made his resorts fresher for a place where guests had everything they needed to enjoy longer stays. As a businessman with morals, he discouraged the locals in Florida from coming in, as he felt gambling could harm families and the neighborhoods where he did business. In Cuba, he had Dino Cellini train the games dealers in Havana, and when the island had its slow season, Meyer brought games staff to Las Vegas to live and work.
Did you learn anything surprising while writing this?
While I didn’t discover anything new since I had nearly 400 letters (with postmarks), photos, postcards and telegrams, along with close personal sources including my father, Uncle Buddy, family and friends, his inner circle and their descendants to compare notes with, I can now see a comprehensive timeline of his life’s work and how brilliant, organized and efficient he truly was. He could also separate work from family time and vacations with ease. During research of primary sources, I was able to verify a story my aunt Sandra Lansky Lombardo shared with me in 2010 about my grandfather’s girlfriend, whom he had met at the Hotel Dan in Israel in 1970, and later moved to Miami, having a close relationship with her for more than 10 years. Sandra described the young woman as “pretty and petite with short, dark hair.” When I discovered Zali De Toledo through her book, “They Called Him a Gangster,” I saw an immediate resemblance, read the letters Meyer wrote to her, and reached out. Zali lives in Israel, and we keep in touch. She forwards photos and stories about Meyer to me regularly.
What do you hope readers take away from this?
I hope readers of “The Lansky Legacy,” and my next book with S.J. Peddie, “Bugsy and Flamingo: The Love Affair of Benjamin Siegel and Virginia Hill, Their Hollywood Dreams and the Making of Las Vegas,” learn that Meyer wasn’t just a mobster but a visionary businessman who built a global gambling empire and worked with world leaders, leaving his mark on American culture from business to fashion and film. I hope casino resorts with sophistication, his signature style, and Lee Strasberg’s portrayal as Hyman Roth in “The Godfather Part II” will live on.
Meyer Lansky II will sign copies of his book, “The Lansky Legacy: The Life and Letters of Meyer Lansky,” at noon Aug. 1 at Barnes & Noble, 2191 N. Rainbow Blvd.