Central Library Hosts Author Talk About Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Casinos on U.S.-Mexico Border

The San Diego Public Library announces an author talk featuring local writer Paul J. Vanderwood and his book Satan’s Playground: Mobsters and Movie Stars at America’s Greatest Gaming Resorts on Monday, October 11, 2010  in the 3rd floor Auditorium of the Central Library.

Satan’s Playground chronicles the rise and fall of the tumultuous and lucrative gambling industry that developed just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in the early twentieth century. As prohibitions against liquor, horse racing, gambling, and prostitution swept the United States, the vice industry flourished in and around Tijuana, to the extent that reformers came to call the town “Satan’s Playground,” unintentionally increasing its licentious allure. Tijuana’s notorious gambling resorts would ultimately become mobster, Bugsy Siegel’s inspiration for the first casino on what is now known as the Las Vegas strip.

Paul J. Vanderwood is professor emeritus of Mexican history at San Diego State University. He is the author of several books including Juan Soldado: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint, and The Power of God Against the Guns of Government: Religious Upheaval in Mexico at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century.

The author talk featuring Paul J. Vanderwood is Monday, October 11, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the 3rd floor Auditorium of the Central Library, 820 E Street, San Diego, 92101. This event is free to the public.

Learn about other events at the San Diego Public Library’s Central Library and 35 branches, find links to numerous additional resources, or search for materials in the Library’s catalog online.

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