Jean Brady, the first female blackjack dealer on the Las Vegas Strip, appears on a 1970 episode of the TV quiz show “To Tell The Truth.” (Image: YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBrady, 47, was hired by casino manager Jack Piper to deal blackjack at the Silver Slipper, which was never a property controlled by Frank Rosenthal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not fighting for any rights for women,\u201d Brady told the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> in a story published on Aug. 13, 1970. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to take the best job opportunity available to me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Strip wasn\u2019t a very progressive place back then. Only a month before Brady’s hire, State Labor Commissioner Stanley Jones had to order the Desert Inn to stop discriminating against female dealers who were applying for jobs there.<\/p>\n
It was this ruling that prompted the Slipper to promote Brady, who had been working as a slot machine cashier.<\/p>\nRosenthal is photographed following his March 19, 1971, Vegas arrest for illegal gambling. (Image: thegoodgamblingguide.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOne Thing Lefty Did Right<\/h2>\n Rosenthal was the first to bring sports betting to a Las Vegas Strip casino, the Stardust, in 1976. For this, he deserves some recognition — though casino owner Jackie Gaughan opened the first sportsbook inside a casino in Las Vegas proper a year earlier — at his Union Plaza downtown.<\/p>\n
As far as his being a key figure in the struggle for equal opportunity in employment, Rosenthal most certainly hired female dealers in his casinos. But he was following a trend, not setting or bucking one.<\/p>\n
The sole barrier he broke was hiring the Strip\u2019s first female baccarat<\/em> dealer, Shirley Brancucci, about five years after Brady’s hire, and even that accomplishment isn’t so ironclad.<\/p>\nAl Sachs, who was then running the Stardust prior to its purchase by Argent, appears to have had more to do with her hiring than Rosenthal did,\u201d Michael Green, a history professor at UNLV, told Casino.org.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u201cI am not aware of any rights barriers broken by Frank Rosenthal,\u201d Goodwin added.<\/p>\n
So How Did this Myth Get Started?<\/h2>\n Crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 book, “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas,” states that Rosenthal was “the first to allow women blackjack dealers on the Strip.” This “fact” was also repeated on Rosenthal’s official website, frankleftyrosenthal.com, for which Pileggi wrote the bio.<\/p>\n
Since nearly every other subject of Pileggi’s book was dead, Rosenthal served as its main source of information. This book was also the basis for Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-nominated movie, “Casino,” whose screenplay was co-written by Pileggi and Scorsese.<\/p>\nRobert De Niro stars as Sam “Ace” Rothstein in the 1995 film, Casino.<\/em> (Image: YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn the 1995 film, Robert De Niro stars as Sam \u201cAce\u201d Rothstein, a reasonable, likable, and highly fictional version of Rosenthal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs one of the last ones left standing, Lefty was able to influence media portrayals of him,\u201d Green said, \u201cso it was understandable that Ace Rothstein would look a bit better on the screen than Lefty Rosenthal did in real life.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nRosenthal enjoyed a longer and happier life than most other people in his line of work. Despite a 1982 attempt to hasten the eventuality with a car bomb in the parking lot of a Las Vegas Tony Roma\u2019s, he didn’t die until 2008 — of a heart attack at age 79 in Miami.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until after his death that Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> columnist Jane Ann Morrison disclosed a bombshell secret about Rosenthal that he had been hiding since at least his departure from Las Vegas 26 years earlier …<\/p>\nFrank “Lefty” Rosenthal was an FBI informant.<\/a><\/p>\nHad this secret gotten out earlier, Rosenthal would probably have ended up just another silenced footnote in Las Vegas history.<\/p>\n
Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday at <\/strong>Casino.org.\u00a0<\/b><\/em>Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email\u00a0 corey@casino.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on July 17, 2023. Sure, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago branch of the mafia from 1974 to 1978. That’s without even possessing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":280749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,81886,88494,1074],"tags":[87054,13766,87056,87053,87073,23,86040,13765,82255,80968,84796,87055],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Lefty Rosenthal, Who Inspired De Niro's 'Casino' Character, Hired the Strip's First Female Dealers - Casino.org<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n