Loading ...Herb’s Bio
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1937 was a momentous year. Gypsy Rose Lee who performed as America’s most famous striptease artist retired from burlesque. New York Mayor Fiorello la Guardia closed down his city’s strip joints. He called their public nudity “incorporated filth”…and I was born. Even in May, 1938 I was a dapper guy |
| The 1940’s featured LiLi St. Cyr, Blaze Star and Candy Barr during this golden era of burlesque. And my family offered me up as the court jester, a gun-totin’ cowboy and a ridiculously scary skeleton |  |
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In between costume appearances, and even at age ten, I knew how to enjoy myself. A farm fresh apple and a swingin’ hammock is all anyone needs to sail through life. |
| Striptease becomes more explicit in the 1950’s Tempest Storm was the super star of burlesque stages and Bettie Page became the Queen of Pinups in men’s barbershop magazines and stag movies. My parent’s family grew to six. Mom, Dad, my younger sister Gail, younger brother Denny and youngest Sid. |  |
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In 1954 Mom, Dad and my brother Denny drove me up to East Lansing, Michigan where I entered Michigan State University. Here I am, over 50 years later, standing in front the same dormitory that housed me in my freshman year. |
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Rita Hayworth performs the Dance of the Seven Veils as biblical stripper Salome but it’s still back alley peep shows and traveling troupes of carnival strippers that stimulate the sexual libido of America’s young men. I, in turn, graduate from MSU to become a construction laborer. |
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One can’t tell from this straight-laced photo of me working at my new advertising agency in the center of Hollywood. In the early 1960’s I’m smack dab in the midst of the sexual revolution promoting the free love concept for my favorite client, Ed Lange of the Elysium Insitute – a nudist colony based in the bohemia section of the Topanga Hills- on the outskirts of Los Angeles. |
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Sure this is a 1980 photo caricature of me as a riverboat gambler – the mid 19th century card sharp who plied his skill on innocent travelers of the Mississippi. Things haven’t changed all that much. Now, 20th century riverboats offer first class casino action to the descendants of those 19th century suckers. |
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It’s 1981 and I’m gifted with symbolic keys to the City of Las Vegas. I own and operate the Coin Castle Casino in downtown Las Vegas-the site of Nevada’s first licensed gambling establishment in 1931. I shared the stage of this 50th Anniversary celebration with the City of Las Vegas Mayor Bill Briare, Nevada Governor Bob List and Gaming Commission Chairman, Harry Reid, now a United States Senator from Nevada and the Senate Majority Leader of the US Senate. |
| The old Coin Castle Casino was demolished to make room for my newer enterprise, LaBayou , a Louisiana swamp cabin themed casino which opened for business in 1996. The casino is filled with original pillars and posts from the farms, barns and hideaways of the bayou. |  |
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Marketing my casinos is all pleasure. It’s the early 1980’s and I’m attempting to win one of the free gifts guaranteed to my casino visitors. At the same time, the strip club industry is undergoing major upgrades. Gentlemen’s clubs replace strip joints. Carpeting and plush seating replaces scruffy linoleum and wood bar stools…more importantly, gorgeous young girls push aside the mature ladies of the evening. Strip clubs in major cities are now popular adult entertainment venues. |
| You don’t have to tell me twice. I can see the handwriting on the wall. I convert my Golden Goose Casino to what immediately becomes a world famous strip club—The Topless Girls of Glitter Gulch. |  |
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The world’s foremost blackjack player and famous gambler of the 1980’s,Ken Uston, is invited to teach my players how to beat me at my own game. We share the spotlight on a “$50,000 Winner Take All” TV show hosted by The Price is Right host Bob Barker. It’s the worst of all possible outcomes…I win-proving, I suppose that if the best blackjack player in the world can’t win at my casino-the average player doesn’t have a chance. Yet Ken and I stay close friends til’ his untimely death in 1987. |
| I had my hands full in the early1980’s with four casinos in my personal bailiwick. The smile notwithstanding, those were tough years for me since my personal life was also demanding. |  |
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My Sassy Sally’s Casino on the major corner of Fremont and First Street inside the Fremont Street Experience served millions of customers in nearly 20 years of operation beginning in 1983.
I trashed my old joint in 2000 and created Mermaids…a totally new casino with a Caribbean theme.
You can still see remnants of my old Sassy Sally’s sign at the Vegas Boneyard…a quite resting place for out of date neon. |
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Bob Stupak, left, and I were good friends for many years. Bob’s the creator of the Stratosphere Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas. We traveled the world together. We’re in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1994. The strip clubs in Moscow opened my eyes to new possibilities. What we saw on a Russian stage left nothing to our imagination. |
| Playing the slots in a dingy warehouse somewhere in Russia didn’t give me a lot of confidence that I’d be paid should I hit the jackpot. No worry though…I didn’t win a single ruble. |  |
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Yuri, my Russian bodyguard never left my side and always carried two weapons – one inside a shoulder holster plus another weapon inside the ankle holster, which he’s fussing with here. Yuri surprised me when he stole away to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, as you’ll read in my book Yuri never returns to Russia…not even his ashes. |
| It’s the 1990’s and strip clubs pop up everywhere. Communities which thought they were immune from nude entertainment watch adult entertainment centers promulgate and profit from their male citizenry. I took full advantage of the new tastes for sexual fantasy by opening a sparkling strip club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter. |  |
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An old New Orleans statute requires that all French Quarter architecture remain exactly as it was in the early days of New Orleans history – more than 200 years ago. My Maiden Voyage Gentlemen’s Club appeared to be a modest business enterprise on it’s exterior but inside those four walls was – “Oh my, I can’t believe my eyes.” |
| It’s 1998 and my Bourbon Street bars are flourishing because I get down and dirty with my employees. Here, I’m demonstrating how my bartenders show adopt a “show-stopping” style to entertain customers. |  |
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Even for a workaholic like me, I can take time off to enjoy myself. That’s me on a Krew of Endymion float parading on Mardi Gras Day. Traditionally, the ladies of New Orleans display their bare breasts to the bead throwers to acquire the cheap plastic necklaces. My fellow Krew members loved the nudity on the street but I see so many naked girls in my normal business life that I beg the women to keep their tops on.
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One wouldn’t even think about traveling the Yangtze River through the heart of China for three long days and nights without the proper guide to assist in every way. In addition to being a pleasure to share my time, Wan Li was an expert travel guide who extended the days and shortened the nights. |
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To my surprise I learned that, centuries ago, one of my ancestors was an Emperor of China. The resemblance is remarkable. Maybe that’s why pretty Han was attracted to me and guided me through the City of Beijing and the Imperial Palace otherwise known as the Forbidden City. |
| After drifting thru much of SE Asia including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, I made a short stop in Thailand. The welcome mat was out when I spotted a Go-Go bar to my liking. Their two blatant signs let me know –real quick- what was offered inside. | 
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And if I didn’t catch on – well, the small hotel next door offered an easy in and out routine…except if you wanted to use the bathroom. There’s an extra thirty cent charge for “cleaning up. |
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Visitors to Thailand don’t have to exert too much to avail themselves of some “company”. Just a stroll down any popular street will provide more than enough welcome sights. Yet, one is best advised to skip over the “sleeping beauties.” |
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I appreciate the calm, kind and beautiful Buddhist culture. So, wherever my Asian travels bring me, I try to make a pit stop in a Temple. Just a few moments with a Buddhist Monk can do wonders for my psyche. Of course, I pay my respects in a financial way as well. |
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