"Nobody in the last half century had more of an impact on the growth of modern Las Vegas as Parry Thomas"

What can you tell us about Mr. Thomas, the "Kingmaker" as you named him in you book?

I would make the argument that nobody in the last half century had more of an impact on the growth of modern Las Vegas as Parry Thomas. He came to Las Vegas in 1955 to oversee the Bank of Las Vegas and report back to the owners of the bank in Salt Lake City, Utah. After six months, he had to tell them whether in his opinion the bank could be succesfull or whether they should close the bank because it wasn't going to be successful.

When Parry Thomas arrived in Las Vegas there were no other banks that would loan money to gambling institutions and he saw that as the future of Las Vegas - which obsviously has become, gambling and tourim being our major industries.

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Using his contacts with large insurance companies and other lending institutions he became the one person that casino owners could go to and find financing to either build casinos or to expand their current operations

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That is how he really got his start in Las Vegas. He was a highly intelligent man, good looking, always well dressed, considered as the classiest man in town. His reputation just grew from there.

It was not an easy time in Las Vegas. Mr. Thomas had to deal with people from the mob and operators that were not the operators we could think about now, right?

That is very true. One of the delicate parts of Parry Thomas's job was dealing with men who maybe had been thrown out from other states in the Union for illegal activities. Nevada was the one state in the country that had legalized gambling so he dealt with all sort of characters: cowboys, guys with criminal records and other guys that had better reputations.

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He became so respected in the Las Vegas community that nobody would ever back out on a loan or break their word with Parry because they knew if they did they would be probably done growing their business in Las Vegas

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It was a matter of his intelligence, his respect that he had in the community, his willingness to work with men who had shaddy reputations, sometimes the deals remained on a hand shake. Las Vegas was tiny compared to what it is today. Today, our population is 2.1 million. In 1955, the population of the city was maybe 40,000. It was just a fraction of what it has become today.

But he had the foresight and the talent to make arrangements with a variety of characters and many of them became hughly successfull and, of course, they were more than happy to give him the respect that he deserved for helping them when no one else would.

When he passed on Friday, Steve Wynn said that wherever you go in Las Vegas, Mr. Thomas' “fingerprints” were all around...

Steve has oftern referred to Parry as his second father. Steve's own faher passed away suddenly when Steve was 21 years old. Within a year or two, Steve met Parry Thomas, I believe on a visit to Las Vegas, and he recognized right away that Parry was the brightest guy in town and the one that everybody wanted to meet. And conversely, Parry recognized in Steve and his then wife Elaine Wyn that this was a dynamic, charismatic, highly intelligent couple and so Parry did everything he could to foster Steve's career early on and that led to the Las Vegas we know today. Parry was helpful and helping Steve build up his own financial portfolio, he helped him inmensely in purchasing the liquor company later on, buying more stock in the Golden Nugget, helping arrange financing to build The Mirage, which was a real game changer in Las Vegas when it opened in 1989.

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No one knew Parry Thomas better that Steve Wynn

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In fact, there is gonna be a memorial service for Parry on Tuesday at the Wynn Hotel and Steve Wynn I am sure will give the primary eulogy.

What do you think Mr. Thomas would have told Steve Wynn about his investments in Macau considering the gambling industry there has not been showing the best numbers lately?

Both Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, MGM, major companies have done extremelly well in Macau. Obviously, the gaming regulations have changed there. There has been a crackdown on some of the betting and the high rollers, smoking has been banned. A lot of things have been done there that have discouraged Las Vegas casino owners. I can't say what Parry would tell Steve today other than probably "Be patient, things should turn around." Steve has made too many mistakes in his gambling decisions through the years and he seems to be optimistic that the regulations are gradually softening in Macau. I would guess that Parry would just probably tell Steve “Be patient, it will turn around.”

Speaking about the casino industry, how do you see Las Vegas right now?

I think it is making a slow and steady recovery. We got hit as hard as any place in the United States during the recession, the downturn. I think the two cities that suffered the most from everything I have read are Detroit and Las Vegas. There was a lot of re-arranging of ownership; some companies went bankrupt, some hung on and done better. The July gaming figures were the best they have been in 18 months. I would say that the current status of the economy in Las Vegas is slowly and steadly improving.

Why did you decid to write a book about Parris Thomas?

I have lived in Las Vegas for 41 years. Ive been a professional writer that entire time. Mr. Thomas' name would come up time and time agian. Eearlier in my career, when I owned a magazine, I wrote a lot of articles for that magazine, I freelanced for newspapers around the country, so I paid close attention to the city and its growth for 40 years. Parry Thomas' name was always coming up but I knew he didn't give interviews. He was very tight-lipped about the business he would do with the bank. He felt that the relationship that a banker had with a client was every bit a privelege and sacred as an attorney would have with his client. He even said to me one time: It should be as sacred as a priest with a confessor. He was very careful about giving interviews or divulging any information.

I served on a board of a charity that helped disabled people and on that board is Tom Thomas, who is Thomas' son. And it was through my friendship with Tom Thomas that Tom suggested to his dad in his 80's that it was time for Parry to do a book, that it was time for him to get these stories on the record, pieces of Las Vegas history that he knew that no one else did, and I guess Tom told his dad “You can trust Jack, he will do a good job, he will accept your input, he will debate you on certain topics but you can trust him.”

The first time I met Mr. Thomas, one of the first things he said was “Jack, this is a horrible idea.” And I said “Why is it a horrible idea?” He said, “Well, because I made my reputation by being quitet and you are asking me to blab and tell all these stories.” I said: “Well, Mr. Thomas, I would like to discuss things that may be unpleasant and difficult because I want it to be a balanced biography and not look like it is a public relations ploy.” And he understood that.

That first day he softened up, we talked about two and a half hours that day, he knew I ve done my homework on his career and when we were done he said: “Hey, I rather enjoy this, when can we meet again?”

You said that you told Mr. Thomas that you would probably debate hom on some issues. What were those issues?

Unsavory characters he dealt with over the years. Moe Dalitz who owned the Desert Inn and then sold it to Howard Hughes; Jimmy Hoffa, who was the head of the teamsters union and then ended up going to prison for financial fraud and irregularities. He ended up disappearing: Jimmy Hoffa was undoubtedly murdered but they never found his body.

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Characters like Dalitz, Hoffa wanted to discuss with him

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One delicate issue that his sons both suggested that I should bring up with him and that he might talk about was that Parry battled a problem with alcohol at one point of his career. He certainly did not discuss that openly, it certainly was not a comfortable thing for him to talk about but I explaiend to him that because he had conquered his struggle with alcohol, the story could be inspiratonal for other people who might be battling alcoholism and depression and he agreed with me and he opened up with about that.

What I found is that, with older people that I interviewed, is that when they get in their 80's they are more honest than they ever would have been in their 50's or 60's. They get to the point when they say “I dont give a damn, I will talk about it.” 
Thet gey a kind of a carefree attitude, they realize the book has been done with good intentions and they also realize, important people realize, “If I dont tell this story, somebody else is and they wont get it right.”

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In the ineterest of accuracy, older people that have had long, basically successfull careers, recognize the best defense against somebody telling their lifestory wrong is to tell it themselves.Parry understood that and he was extremelly forthcoming through out the entire experience of the interviews

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Would you say Parry Thomas had a good life?

He had a remarkable life. In the big spectrum, he had good health up until the last year of his life. How many of us would like to live to 94 years if we could be healthy the whole time. It is all about quality of life. He essentially retired about 25 years ago, he had plenty of money. His wife loved horses and so did Parry and they ended up living their retirement on a gorgeous ranch in Hailey, up in Idaho, where they trained world-class dressage horses, several of them they have purchased themselves and other horses that people broght there for riders to train on them. Parry saw his horses perform in world championships and the Olympic Games. One of his horses, Brentina, was name the horse of the year in the world about ten years ago.

By any measure, he had a successfull life, a respectable life, he made a ton of money, he had a loving family with him when he died. He lived into his mid 90's; I don' t know how you can do a lot better than that.

Was the "Quiet Kingmaker of Las Vegas" a successful book?

It did well. It was printed by a regional publisher. When I wrote it, it was something that I thought would be a good piece of Las Vegas history, that it would be appreciated certainly in Las Vegas and other places where gambling is either part of the economy or intriguing people. I don't know the exact number of books it sold but for a regionally published book it sold very well. 

People who really understood his impact on Las Vegas and gambling as a whole have become aware of Parry in the last week or so. I enjoyed him so much and he was very generous with me that I feel an obligation to talk about him with anybody that has interest because he was a humble man, because his work behind the scenes, now that he is gone, I think his story is worth telling.