About this item
The incredible true story of America's original -- and forgotten -- capital of viceBack in the days before Vegas was big, when the Mob was at its peak and neon lights were but a glimmer on the horizon, a little Southern town styled itself as a premier destination for the American leisure class. Hot Springs, Arkansas was home to healing waters, Art Deco splendor, and America's original national park -- as well as horse racing, nearly a dozen illegal casinos, countless backrooms and brothels, and some of the country's most bald-faced criminals.Gangsters, gamblers, and gamines: all once flocked to America's forgotten capital of vice, a place where small-town hustlers and bigtime high-rollers could make their fortunes, and hide from the law. The Vapors is the extraordinary story of three individuals -- spanning the golden decades of Hot Springs, from the 1930s through the 1960s -- and the lavish casino whose spectacular rise and fall would bring them together before blowing them apart.
About the Author
David Hill is a writer from Hot Springs, Arkansas. His work has appeared regularly in Grantland and The Ringer, and has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, and New York magazine, as well as on This American Life. He lives in Nyack, New York, with his wife and three children, where he serves as the vice president of the National Writers Union.
