Las Vegas with Trevor McDonald s01e02 EN SUB WEBRIP [MPup]

Las.Vegas.with.Trevor.McDonald.s01e02.EN.SUB.WEBRIP.[MPup]

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Episode 2 - Trevor meets a former mobster, an ex-showgirl and one of the world's best poker players.



In episode two Trevor meets Vegas’ first nude showgirl, Lisa Medford, who regales him with stories from the city’s golden years at the legendary Riviera Hotel and Casino and her relationship with Cary Grant. Trevor also meets Andrew Di Dinato, a former mob member who came to Vegas to hide out after a deal with the FBI made him a marked man. And finally, Trevor meets Antonio Esfandiari who won the biggest prize in poker history a few years ago. Trevor is invited to his multi-million dollar apartment as Antonio prepares to host a high stake poker game later that night.

Drawn to Las Vegas because it was 2500 miles away from the police who were looking for him, Andrew Di Dinato freely admits the city is a place where people don’t ask questions and where there were criminals who could help him.

But after 14 months on the run, Andrew reveals he was burnt out and exhausted. When Trevor asks if it was a relief to be caught he says: “Yes it was a relief. At the time I was burnt out, I had law enforcement looking for me, I had a few crime families looking for me and the stress level in my life was really at its apex. I remember coming out of my house and I seen a van screeching down the block. I see two guys running down my driveway and my first instinct was that I’m dead. But meanwhile I seen the badge coming out and I threw my hands in the air and said ‘FBI, you guys I can handle’. It was a relief because I finally knew that I’m going to get my first night’s rest in fourteen months.”

The mob created Vegas and Trevor takes a trip to where it all began. The Riviera Hotel and Casino became the first high rise on the strip in 1955 and hosted some of the biggest names in show business including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Barbra Streisand. Now the hotel is selling up and preparing for demolition. Trevor meets Vegas’s first ever nude showgirl, Lisa Medford, who has returned to the Riviera for one last look.

Lisa says: “It doesn’t look the same and it hasn’t for a long time but there are still ghosts in here of great times. I came here in 1957 with Harry Belafonte. He was the star, and I was the first nude showgirl.”

Speaking about performing nude in the 1950’s, Lisa says: “It was frightening. I came out of catholic school and I wouldn’t even change bathing suit in front of my sisters. The first time was scary, I threw up after. They had to carry me down ‘cause I was shaking so bad. Second show, boom, I was ready.”

Lisa remembers a world where the Rat Park performed, everybody dressed in tuxedos and furs and the mob ran Vegas.

She recalls: “When the mob ran Vegas the bosses would come out, they’d move the blackjack dealer out the way and turn the cards over, so that everybody could win at the table. They killed Gus Greenbaum who ran this hotel. And Bugsy Seigel went back to LA and pow they got him too. I came into a hotel one time, in the back entrance. They were breaking a guy’s fingers. You just pretend you don’t see but it was somebody stealing. They just broke his finger and said, ‘Don’t come in here and steal anymore. Go have a nice dinner, the buffet is on us.’”

Vegas gave Lisa her chance of romance with Hollywood’s most famous actor, Cary Grant. Reminiscing, she says: “Living in Las Vegas, you can look out over that strip and all the memories come back. I dated him for almost two years and Cary Grant wanted a child and I didn’t want children, even with Cary Grant. Cary Grant was Cary Grant and one day I asked him, ‘How do you act? What’s your secret?’ He said, ‘They either buy you or they don’t buy you. If they like me they like me, I’m not an actor’. And he wasn’t, he was Cary Grant.”

Next, Trevor meets one of the biggest winners in Vegas’s history. Antonio Esfandiari became the winner of the biggest cash prize in poker history when he scooped $18.3 million in 2012. Trevor visits his multi-million dollar penthouse apartment, where Antonio is hosting a high stakes poker game.

Antonio tells Trevor: “It’s completely normal for a game to go on for two, three, four days sometimes. Certain people quit, certain people sit down, one guy might be here from beginning to end, you never know. I can’t play for more than a day and half, but if the game is really good and people are giving away their money I will not quit. I’ll just stay there until it’s over.”

Antonio admits that the games he currently plays could win or lose him more than $100,000 and that his biggest loss has been in excess of a few hundred thousand dollars.

He says: “I’m a huge believer in surrendering to what is happening in the current moment, so I can’t live my life in the past. If I have a big loss there is nothing I can do about it, you just go on with your life.”

Trevor asks if Antonio ever fears that he could lose it all and he replies: “There is no fear that I could lose it all, it’s not possible, I wouldn’t jeopardise my life for one game, so it would take an incredible amount of bad luck and a very long period of time for me to lose it all. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen.”

Back with Andrew Di Donato, Trevor discovers he now works as a used car salesman. As a member of one of New York’s biggest crime families, Andrew has a criminal record which could have put him away for the rest of his life. His deal with the FBI kept him out of prison but breaking the mafia code of silence has made him a marked man ever since. Trevor asks if the Mafia still have a presence in Vegas.

Andrew says: “Oh yeah, they still do. Not as big a presence as they did years ago but there’s definitely organised crime members walking around in the town. Guys come out here for all different types of reasons. They come out here to stay out of the line of fire.”

When asked how violent he was required to be in his former life, Andrew replies: “I needed to be proficient at my threats and everything else I did in the street. In other words I’ve shot people, hit people with baseball bats, did things that I’m not proud of. We were always guys who were successful because we were willing to go a step beyond the normal person. ‘You wanna take out a baseball bat, I’m gonna shoot you. You wanna take out a gun, I’m gonna wait in the bushes at night and ambush you.’”

Andrew is now settled in a new relationship with Daniella, a schoolteacher who knew nothing of his former life when she first met him. She admits concerns for her daughters after finding out the truth: “I was more concerned about my daughters and what could take place. There are a lot of enemies, a lot of people that don’t like him. When I’m alone I’m fine. It’s whenever I’m with him. You know, constantly looking over my shoulder, watching the cars that are behind us. If we’re going somewhere, I’m always looking around.”

Andrew says the day will come when the couple must leave Vegas: “Making a living here is very hard Trevor, it’s geared to failure for a guy like me. If you have a criminal record, especially me with an organised crime past, they would hold that over your head. There is no question I’ll have to leave here. I have some good opportunities with people I really care about, who are in the car business. I will go see them very shortly and hopefully I can make a life in that location.”

Finally, Trevor says goodbye to Las Vegas. A brutal but enthralling city, he concludes that no other place can tell us more about the kind of creatures we truly are.