The First 100: Portraits of the Men and Women Who Shaped Las Vegas

Meet the explorers, builders, outlaws, gamblers, and 14-karat characters who transformed Las Vegas from a desert waterhole to the extraordinary city it is today.

A.D. Hopkins and K.J. Evans of the Las Vegas Review-Journal have compiled one hundred in-depth profiles of the remarkable men and women who ushered Las Vegas to the forefront of popular culture. This far reaching roundup of notable Southern Nevadans includes explorer John C. Fremont, pioneers O.D. Gass and Helen J. Stewart, mob boss, Bugsy Siegel, cowboy gambler Benny Binion, millionaire eccentric Howard Hughes, Rat Pack crooner Frank Sinatra, and flamboyant Liberace, as well as contemporary movers and shakers E. Parry Thomas, Kirk Kerkorian, Irwin Molasky, Jerry Tarkanian, Bob Stupak, and Steve Wynn. Illustrated with hundred of black-and-white photographs culled from the private collections of dozens individuals, the files of state and city agencies, and the vast archives of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, this classic collection of condensed biographies brings the history of Las Vegas alive in a way that no other book has before.

A.D. Hopkins, co-editor of The First 100, is a 30-year resident of Las Vegas and for 12 years edited Nevadan the Sunday magazine formerly published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. As special projects editor for the Las Vegas-Review Journal, Hopkins directed the newspaper's original First 100 project, which was the forerunner of this book. He was a runner-up in the 2008 Nevada Press Association Better Newspaper Contest in the category of Best Explanatory Journalism.

Kenneth J. Evans was a lifelong Nevadan who made his career as a reporter and editor for several Nevada newspapers, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, before being appointed media relations manager for the Nevada Commission on Tourism in 1992. He returned to the Review-Journal in 1998 to work on The First 100 project.