{"id":1257,"date":"2024-12-02T15:17:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/vegas-myths-re-busted-fear-and-loathing-really-happened\/"},"modified":"2024-12-02T15:17:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:17:06","slug":"vegas-myths-re-busted-fear-and-loathing-really-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/vegas-myths-re-busted-fear-and-loathing-really-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: \u2018Fear and Loathing\u2019 Really Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_34 counter-flat ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">\u76ee\u6b21<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1'><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/vegas-myths-re-busted-fear-and-loathing-really-happened\/#The_75_That_Didnt_Happen\" title=\"The 75% That Didn\u2019t Happen\">The 75% That Didn\u2019t Happen<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/vegas-myths-re-busted-fear-and-loathing-really-happened\/#The_25_That_Did_Happen\" title=\"The 25% That Did Happen\">The 25% That Did Happen<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: <\/strong>\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0<\/em><em>Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on March 3, 2023.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Hunter S. Thompson, who died by suicide 18 years ago last Monday, is famous for being a gonzo journalist. So, many of his fans regard his book, <em>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, <\/em>as a journal of events that actually occurred.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-261799\" data-style=\"width: 1196px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-261799 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-1.jpg\" alt=\"Hunter S. Thompson, Oscar Acosta\" width=\"1196\" height=\"894\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-1.jpg 1196w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-1-142x106.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-1-1024x765.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-1-768x574.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1196px) 100vw, 1196px\" title=\"\"><figcaption class=\"text-description\">Hunter S. Thompson (left) and Oscar Acosta pose in the Baccarat Lounge at Caesars Palace in April 1971. (Image: \u2018Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas\u2019 book cover)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-wp-editing=\"1\">Actually, that\u2019s not so much their fault, since Random House published the author\u2019s 1972 masterwork under the category of general nonfiction. But Thompson never claimed any of the events described in it were true.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that neither of his main characters was a real person should have been the first clue. The story is narrated by one Raoul Duke, whose traveling companion\/attorney is Dr. Gonzo.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>In real life, Thompson was assigned by <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> magazine to write an expos\u00e9 on civil rights activist and <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> columnist Ruben Salazar, whom LA County Sheriff\u2019s officers \u201caccidentally\u201d shot and killed with a tear gas grenade fired at close range during a Vietnam War protest in 1970. After a week or so of asking tough questions around L.A., Thompson grew scared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Figuring he might be next, he whisked his main source for the story, attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta, off to Las Vegas to interview him there. <em>Sports Illustrated<\/em> had hired Thompson to cover the Mint 400, an off-road vehicle race around undeveloped parts of North Las Vegas from March 21-23, 1971.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sports Illustrated<\/em> \u201caggressively rejected\u201d (Thompson\u2019s words) what he submitted as his race coverage. What was supposed to be a 250-word caption instead became a 2,500-word screed on the death of the American dream. So, Thompson instead offered it to <em>Rolling<\/em> Stone, whose editor, Jann Wenner, scheduled it to run in two parts in future issues.<\/p>\n<p>More than a month later, Thompson and Acosta returned to Las Vegas. They were there to cover the National District Attorneys Association\u2019s Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs for the second half of his <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> assignment. With only a few minor edits and the addition of the grotesquely hallucinogenic illustrations of Ralph Steadman, the magazine series became the book that would forever entwine Thompson\u2019s name with Las Vegas. He wrote most of it in a hotel room in Arcadia, Calif., while completing <em>Strange Rumblings in Aztlan<\/em>, his Salazar article for <em>Rolling Stone.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So how much really happened in <em>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream?<\/em>\u00a0Based on interviews with witnesses and participants, somewhere around 25%.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-261480\" data-style=\"width: 387px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-261480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"387\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book.jpg 888w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-103x142.jpg 103w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-745x1024.jpg 745w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-book-768x1055.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px\" title=\"\"><figcaption class=\"text-description\">Since the release of Terry Gilliam\u2019s phantasmagoric 1998 film adaptation of <em>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas<\/em>,\u00a0 the cover of the paperback edition has further blurred fact from fiction. It prominently features the face of actor Johnny Depp, who played Raoul Duke in the movie. (Image: eBay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_75_That_Didnt_Happen\"><\/span><b>The 75% That Didn\u2019t Happen<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the legendary contents of Thompson and Acosta\u2019s rental car trunk. In the book, it included \u201cseventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers, \u2026 a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls,\u201d all gathered during one feverish night in L.A.<\/p>\n<p>This was supposedly the fuel for all the book\u2019s misadventures.<\/p>\n<p>However, in a letter to his Random House editor, published in the 1997 book, <em>Fear and Loathing in America,<\/em>\u00a0Thompson admitted there was no actual drug use. The novel \u201cwas a very conscious attempt to simulate drug freakout,\u201d he wrote, though he did \u201cat times, bring situations &#038; feelings I remember from other scenes to the reality at hand.\u201d He later wrote to the same editor: \u201dI have never had much respect or affection for journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A good chunk of the book\u2019s action took place in Room 1850 of The Mint\u2019s tower (one of 365 rooms that new owner Binion\u2019s Horseshoe permanently closed in 2009). According to Duke\u2019s narration, he and Dr. Gonzo ran up an unpaid room service bill of $29 to $36 an hour for 48 consecutive hours before trashing their room and swiping 600 bars of Neutrogena soap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is something I would have been immediately informed of, but I never heard that,\u201d K.J. Howe, a publicity executive with the Mint at the time, told the <em>Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> in 2010. According to Howe, there was no \u201cMr. Heem\u201d or any other hotel executive looking for Thompson, Acosta couldn\u2019t have ordered a set of luggage from room service without paying, and no soap was reported stolen.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p><strong>His concept of what was going on and what was really going on was two different things,\u201d<\/strong> Howe said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>However, Thompson did get the brand of allegedly stolen soap right. (Millionaire real-estate developer Del Webb, who owned the Mint, also sat on the company\u2019s board that made Neutrogena.) Thompson\u2019s eye for detail could imbue an air of believability into the most obvious fantasy.<\/p>\n<p>Another event that never happened is the Debbie Reynolds show at the Desert Inn, at least in the way Thompson reported it. In the book, Duke and Dr. Gonzo witness the opening number (a cover of the Beatles\u2019 <em>Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em>) before getting bounced for having conned their way in for free.<\/p>\n<p>While Reynolds did play the Desert Inn in March 1971, the singer said she was never informed of any incident resembling this. However, she was sure of one detail that casts suspicion over the entire account: never, she told the <em>R-J, <\/em>did she perform <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Other embellishments require no witnesses to identify. For instance, the district attorneys\u2019 conference Thompson was assigned to cover by <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> convened in late April, more than a month after the Mint 400. Yet the book places the events a week apart, joining them through an aborted trip to L.A. punctuated by a traffic stop conducted by a California Highway Patrol officer who supposedly let Thompson go after the author led him on an off-road chase, at 100 mph, with a Budweiser in hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know,\u201d Thompson quoted the officer, \u201cI get the feeling you could use a nap.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-261482\" data-style=\"width: 401px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-261482\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-rolling-stone.jpg\" alt=\"Hunter S. Thompson\" width=\"401\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-rolling-stone.jpg 1130w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-rolling-stone-142x127.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-rolling-stone-1024x919.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/hunter-rolling-stone-768x689.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px\" title=\"\"><figcaption class=\"text-description\">Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting invented by Hunter S. Thompson, is based in part on fellow author William Faulkner\u2019s premise that \u2018the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism.\u2019 (Image: <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_25_That_Did_Happen\"><\/span><b>The 25% That Did Happen<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In the 2008 documentary, <em>Gonzo,<\/em>\u00a0Thompson and Acosta can actually be heard living out Chapter 9 as they pull into a Boulder City, Nev. taco stand during their second trip to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re looking for the American dream,\u201d Acosta tells a waitress, \u201cand we were told it was somewhere in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The waitress turns to the cook, thinking she has just been asked directions to a nightclub.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHey Lou,\u201d she says, \u201cyou know where the American Dream is?\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>That whole chapter is a transcription of that audiotape,\u201d \u201cGonzo\u201d director Alex Gibney told the <em>R-J<\/em>\u00a0 in 2010<em>.<\/em> \u201cSo it leads you to believe that <em>some<\/em> of this stuff is real.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>For the final say, we\u2019ll go to the horse\u2019s mouth. Here\u2019s a blurb from Thompson that was published <em>on the book\u2019s original jacket cover\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy idea was to buy a fat notebook and record the whole thing, as it happened, then send in the notebook for publication \u2014 without editing,\u201d Thompson wrote. \u201cBut this is a hard thing to do, and in the end, I found myself imposing an essentially fictional framework on what began as a piece of straight\/crazy journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"inner-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content__content\">\n<div class=\"inner-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content__content\">\n<p><strong>Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday on\u00a0<\/strong><em><strong>Casino.org. <\/strong><\/em><strong>Visit <\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-myths\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VegasMythsBusted.com<\/a>\u00a0to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-fear-and-loathing-happened\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: \u2018Fear and Loathing\u2019 Really Happened<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on March 3, 2023.\u00a0 Hunter S. Thompson, who died by suicide 18 years ago last Monday, is famous for being a gonzo journalist. So, many of his fans regard his book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, as a journal of events that actually occurred. Hunter S. Thompson (left) and Oscar Acosta pose in the Baccarat Lounge at Caesars Palace in April 1971. (Image: \u2018Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas\u2019 book cover) Actually, that\u2019s not so much their fault, since Random House published the author\u2019s 1972 masterwork <a href=\"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/vegas-myths-re-busted-fear-and-loathing-really-happened\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xxbet-company.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}