Love him or hate him, Goodman and his girls defined Las Vegas

Now that Tuesday's primary is history, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is one step closer to leaving office after three very loud terms.

His critics can argue he didn't do enough for the city, although he pegged the redevelopment meter and helped save downtown from collapsing in on itself, but no one can argue with the fact Goodman had more fun on the job than all his predecessors combined.

Any guy who finds a way to get paid for spending part of his work day checking his sports bets and drinking oversized gin martinis in the company of two stunning showgirls dressed in full feather is someone special. Love him or hate him, you haven't been able to ignore Goodman from the moment he first decided to run in 1999.

Goodman's larger-than-life persona grates on some people, who apparently would prefer the mayor of Las Vegas to be somber and statesman-like. But even his harshest detractors had better hope his replacement has even half the appreciation of the image-making power of the office that Goodman possesses.

In a recent conversation with former mayors Jan Jones and Ron Lurie, Goodman acknowledged his role in promoting Las Vegas to unprecedented degrees. In the history of the office, only Jones came anywhere close.

"I don't know whether I became the character," Goodman said. "I became the brand. And I was encouraged to be the brand by the folks over at the convention authority. It was synonymous. When people saw me with the showgirls, they thought 'Las Vegas.' And we used it as a marketing tool, and of course it was fun. And it's remarkable how it does work that way."

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and R&R Partners spend countless creative hours and millions of dollars exploring the alchemy of branding this crazy place. Their efforts most often result in television and print advertising and the sponsorship of major events.

It all makes some sense. But those who have watched the marketing of Las Vegas through the years will tell you Goodman and the showgirls did more to attract attention to the city than many of those bright ideas combined.

If Goodman and his girls tell you they stopped traffic, they're not overstating the matter.

"My favorite story is, we went over to London for the inaugural flight of British Airways from Heathrow to Las Vegas," Goodman recalled. "We were going down to see Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, and going down to his city hall. And I was with two showgirls in a London cab that was wrapped with Las Vegas images.

"They drive on the wrong side of the street there. We're going down, and here's a fire engine, and I see the lights going. The fire engine's coming right towards us, and the driver looks down and he sees the showgirls in the cab with me. He stops it. They take out their cameras and start taking pictures of us. And there's a fire, which is burning right behind us."

Fortunately for London, the cabdriver hit the accelerator and kept the vehicle moving before half the city burned. Goodman knows it wasn't his unmistakable profile that caused the firefighters to drop their hoses and whip out their Polaroids.

"It is the image of Las Vegas," Goodman said. "I could have walked down the street with the two showgirls, and the queen could have been on the other side. And everybody would have been taking pictures of the showgirls."

No matter who takes over the big office at City Hall, a generation of locals and tourists from here to Piccadilly Circus will still call that wild guy with the showgirls Mr. Mayor.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.