Despite shortcomings, interaction makes Mob Experience fun

Every experience is more profound when you share it with the right person. I knew I was visiting the Mob Experience at the Tropicana with the right person when I went with Jan Tanno.

First, her husband, Nick Tanno, had been general manager of the Tropicana during late 1970s, when the outfit had its tentacles in the property, courtesy of Sicilian mobster Joe Agosto.

Second, she knew many of the local mobsters from the ’70s and ’80s featured in the Mob Experience exhibits. She had been to a birthday party for Tony Spilotro and dined a few times with the steely-eyed Frank Rosenthal and his wife, Geri.

The clincher: When asked to choose one of five actors typecast as mobsters to be our electronic guides, she picked Frank Vincent, because she knew him through Joe Pesci, who also found a niche playing wiseguys.

Tanno describes herself and her husband as "white hats, who knew the bad hats." Her husband spent six months behind bars because of his association with black hats, but Tanno said it would be wrong to call her a mob wife, even though some may think that.

But when it came to the real players in the mob in Las Vegas, Jan Tanno knew them, even though she admits that the wives were never privy to what was really going on underneath the veil.

Like me, she wanted to see the Mob Experience, the first reason for her to enter the Trop in 20 years. Would it capture the real mob days of the ’70s when her husband ran the hotel? Would she learn anything she didn’t already know? Was it a real history of the mob in Vegas? Her answers: No, no, and no.

Did she have fun? Oh yes, yes and yes.

Both of us definitely quibble with the huge historical gaps in the exhibits. Not one photo of Agosto, and the Spilotro/Rosenthal room was lightweight, to say the least.

But when "Doves" and "Bottles" (our new monikers) interacted with playful actors, that was a riot.

"I don’t know nuttin’ about nuttin’ " was the phrase we were taught to answer as we took money from Little G to deliver to Big Leo.

Later, Joey "Broken Batts" Ciccone, bat in hand, showed us what happened to folks who steal 37 large from the mob. Not a pretty sight from the guy who recently played Spilotro for a Travel Channel piece.

The Mob Experience uses the materials it collected primarily from various mobsters’ families, but it’s not a complete history of the mob. Baby shoes, clothes, jewelry and furniture "just show they were normal people," Tanno says. "The interactive part was more fun."

Tanno’s take at the end?

"This didn’t tell the story of that era, how it went from mob to corporate to publicly traded, or the role of the Strike Force to make that happen. There’s a lot missing here."

But she enjoyed it and, since she had 2-for-1 discounts, we felt the cost at $20 a head was a fair price for the 75 minutes it took us to experience the experience. But it wasn’t $40 of fun, the regular price without any discounts.

We only saw one photo of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a noticeable omission.

"Oscar was a very big part of this," Tanno says.

The Mob Museum, under way downtown with Goodman’s blessing, will be interactive, too, but should be a more comprehensive look at the mob and the law enforcement side. Goodman will have a higher profile there, and the entrance fee is expected to be $20 or less.

When the Mob Museum opens early next year, will it be as much fun as the Mob Experience at half the price of admission?

I’ll let you know. Definitely. You have Bottles’ word on it.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.