All language subtitles for The.Booze.Bets.and.Sex.That.Built.America.S01E03.Sin.Cities.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-MaBa

By the
early 20th century,

the battle between the
entrepreneurs of excess

and the forces of abstinence
has reached a fever pitch.

This is America,
we like our vices.

You've got the industrial
revolution happening,

yet the third richest
man in the world

owns a cigarette
manufacturing company.

Anti-vice crusaders

have made Prohibition
the law of the land.

But now the
underground is fighting

to push its way
into the mainstream.

Al Capone is so
easily recognized,

but more so than presidents
and captains of industry.

As the
mob fuels the spread

of illegal gambling,

one man will completely
reinvent the gaming experience.

You're over the limit.

I said deal me in.

And rewrite
the laws that govern it.

By 1910, all casinos were
the illegal in America.

Horse racing was basically
outlawed by 1919.

While
another fights against

sexual repression.

We make a
magazine, full nudes.

Paving the
way for a new definition

of the luxury lifestyle.

We call him the Marlboro Man.

And
it all culminates

in a new city in the desert

that offers every
indulgence under the sun.

It's gonna be spectacular.

♪ Hey, hey, I did
it and hey, hey ♪

♪ I proved it and hey, hey ♪

♪ I finished, I came, and
I saw, I gave it my all ♪

♪ I changed the game I
made it a boss, yeah ♪

Reformers
spent years fighting

to ban the sale of alcohol.

And it looked like they'd won
when the 18th Amendment went

into effect in 1920,

but after more than a
decade of Prohibition,

things aren't
going as they planned.

One thing that
Prohibition doesn't do

is eliminate alcohol.

Makes it a little
bit harder to get it,

makes it a little
bit more expensive,

but anytime, something that
people want is made illegal,

it immediately
creates a black market

where people who
are bold enough,

daring enough, can
capitalize on it.

Because you've now
pushed it underground.

You have organized
crime, mafia bosses.

Saw it as an opportunity.

They wanna go full blast
in it, and they do,

and they make millions.

At the
height of Prohibition,

Al Capone's criminal
syndicate alone generates

the modern equivalent

of nearly one and a
half billion dollars.

And in the depths of
the Great Depression,

Americans have never been
more desperate to indulge.

America's in the worst
economic depression

in its history.

Unemployment,
nationally, is 25%.

In industrial cities
like Detroit, it's 40%,

and public mood
switches, to a degree,

in the 1930s as people realize

how much they miss
having alcohol around

and how unsuccessful Prohibition

is in keeping alcohol
away from people.

Another thing that
people don't realize is

that marijuana was legal then

and became much more
popular during Prohibition.

There were so called tea pads,

more than 500 of them
all over New York City,

where it was legal to go
in there and get stoned.

♪ Da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da ♪

Finally,
on December 5th, 1933,

Prohibition is repealed.

♪ Da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, yeah, the beat comes ♪

When Franklin
Roosevelt was elected,

he was elected in part
because he promised

to bring beer back.

The idea was, the country
really needed tax revenues.

♪ It's the time of my life ♪

There was just this
common sense realization

that we killed off one

of the most thriving industries

in America, let's revive it.

And also let's tax it.

By that time,

less than 8% of what
we're once 1300 breweries

are still alive.

One of them is August
Busch's Budweiser

and the brewery
roars back to life.

We got two bids in
from potential vendors

if you wanna take a look.

Let's go with this one.

In the first
year after Prohibition,

the government rakes in
over 250 million dollars

from taxes on alcohol.

Funding new roads and
highways, public buildings,

and bringing electricity
to every corner of America.

Alcohol has been illegal,
it's been legal, illegal, legal.

It's crazy how many
times, back and forth,

they've been changing
the laws on alcohol.

But at the end of the day,

it makes a lot of money
for the government.

Finally,
Budweiser is back on its feet.

There you go.

Prohibition translated
into the closure of thousands

of saloons and the
shutting down of hundreds,

and hundreds, and
hundreds of breweries.

No one's been allowed to look

at the financial
records of the company,

but it seems as
though August Busch

was looking at possibly
having to close the doors.

When Prohibition ended,
they're back in business.

While
Prohibition has been repealed,

some states opt to stay dry.

And in Tennessee,

alcohol is still
illegal in the county

where Jack Daniels is made.

So company president,
Lem Motlow,

spends years lobbying
the local government

to let him operate.

Bouncing back
after Prohibition

was especially difficult
for Jack Daniel

because Tennessee
extended their Prohibition

another five years passed
the federal mandate.

Lem had to fight a long
way to get out of it.

It took him a long time
after Prohibition ended

to convince Tennessee to
allow manufacture of alcohol.

Yeah.

Then
after a five year wait,

Motlow finally gets the news

that the Jack Daniels distillery
can legally operate again.

You, you're kidding.

Thank, thank you.

When they reopen,

of more than a thousand
registered distilleries

in the state before Prohibition,

they're the only one left.

Motlow rushes his whiskey
back to the market,

introducing a one
year aged version.

But it isn't until
the company is sold

to Brown Forman in 1956,

for the modern equivalent of
nearly 113 million dollars,

that it rises again to
national prominence.

♪ You can't stop now ♪

Today, it's illegal

to buy booze in the county
where Jack Daniels is made,

but it's the number one
selling whiskey in the world

with more than a hundred
million liters sold annually.

Part of a US alcohol
industry worth

over 222 billion dollars a year.

Jack Daniel, if he saw
where the alcohol industry

was today, I think
he'd be impressed

by what has happened to it.

And he would probably
be happy to see

that he'd stayed relevant
and stayed strong

through the fifties,
and the sixties,

and the seventies, to this
giant brand it is today.

♪ Hell can't stop now ♪

Alcohol's
now legal for good.

And brewers, distillers,

and drinkers across
the country, rejoice.

But for one small group,

the end of Prohibition
is a disaster.

After Prohibition, the mob,

they lost this big booze empire.

Those bootleggers who
made millions of dollars off

of selling illegal alcohol

have to look for other
streams of income.

The former
so-called Beer Baron of New York

has lost his primary
revenue stream,

and he's looking
for a replacement.

His name is Arthur Flegenheimer,

but he's better known
as Dutch Schultz.

Dutch Schultz
doesn't stand out

because he sets
up some elaborate

and clever operation, like
Dutch Schultz is a goon,

Dutch Schultz is a hoodlum.

Broadly in the history
of organized crime,

Dutch Schultz is among
the kind of clumsier,

really sort of brutish
organized crime figure.

The reason why he is successful
in organized crime is not

because he's organized,
it's because he's violent.

At the time,

an illegal Harlem gambling
ring, called the numbers game,

serves as the underground
heartbeat of the local economy.

The numbers game is
a number guessing game

that is an attempt to
guess a randomly generated,

three digit number.

Your odds of guessing correctly
are one in a thousand,

and the payout is 600 to one.

In some ways, this is
both the stock market

and the banking
system of Harlem.

The game
generates vast fortunes

for the men who run it,
called the policy kings.

And for the only policy
queen, Stephanie St. Clair.

Stephanie St. Clair,
she was a strong woman.

Strong personality, loud,
boisterous, flamboyant,

and she knew how to find a
woman's place in a man's world.

Instead of being low key,
she would step out there,

she would take ads
out in the newspaper,

exposing cops that had
taken payoffs and such.

She was not afraid to
go against the grain.

Stephanie St.
Clair is one of the richest

and most famous women in Harlem,

but her publicity is
bringing attention

to the success of
the numbers game.

Your reputation
procedure, Mr. Schultz.

And Dutch
Schultz sees an opportunity.

Recently, one of the most
popular lucky numbers

in the policy game hit,

sending policy kings all
over Harlem into a tailspin.

And you have this big hit,
bankers are unable to pay out.

You have bankers that are
like $70,000 in the hole.

I might be willing to
give you the cash you need.

The mobsters, they were making

so much money during Prohibition
off the illegal alcohol,

but when Prohibition ended,

they turned their sites
to the policy racket.

Of course, you gotta
do what's best for you.

When more well established
crime figures take an interest

in the numbers games a lot

of those black numbers
operations find

themselves very vulnerable,

'cause they just don't have
that level of the experience.

Schultz begins
methodically muscling his way

into game after game,

determined to take
them all over,

and soon he's got his sight
set on Stephanie St. Clair.

While the battle for Harlem's
illegal numbers game heats up,

the same vice is bubbling up

from the underground
all across the nation,

despite every effort
to suppress it.

Americans have
always loved to gamble.

In the early colonial period,

colonists who are playing
dice games and card games.

George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson love to play poker

when it's illegal in virtually
every jurisdiction to gamble.

By the 1930s,

gambling is regulated
by a patchwork

of state and local guidelines,

and it's almost
uniformly illegal.

In California, the fastest
growing state in the union,

after a distant history
as a gambling mecca

during the gold rush,

it's once again against the law.

There are all of
these incentive programs

to have people
settle in the west.

There is economic
opportunity, there is land.

But, actually, one of the
conditions for statehood,

for some western states,

was that they had
to outlaw gambling.

In Los Angeles,

a failed movie producer
named Billy Wilkerson

has spent years building up

the most powerful
publication in Tinseltown.

"The Hollywood Reporter."

Fresh clothes for you, sir?

He's credited
with discovering Lana Turner

and launching the careers

of superstars like John
Wayne and Clark Gable.

How about an aspirin?

But he's also earned
himself a reputation

as an inveterate gambler,
losing money all over town.

All in.

I call.

Pair of jacks.

Three of a kind, you're out.

Deal me in.

You're over the limit.

I said, deal me in.

I got a call from
accounting this morning.

They said, we're, uh, falling
a little short on payroll.

While
he's doing all this,

It's evident that he's also
suffering from addictions.

He will smoke up to three
packs of cigarettes a day,

but worst of all, he was
losing, in the 1930s,

at least $150,000 a
year at the tables.

I was trying to double up,

give the team some bonuses.

It got so bad that he was
taking the payroll on Fridays

and going to the
track and blowing it.

There were no organizations
like Gamblers Anonymous

or anything that could help
somebody who had a problem.

The house always wins.

Wilkerson's addiction

is threatening
everything he's built.

His ideas will one day
rewrite gambling laws

from coast to coast and
give birth to a shining city

of sin that brings in over
8 billion dollars a year

in gambling revenue,

but he'll have to fight
the mob for the spoils.

And only one side will win.

Gambling was once
prevalent on Missouri

river boats and in New Orleans
French Quarter.

But by the 1930s,

it's illegal in nearly
every part of the country.

In America, we
see this tension

between the urge to
indulge and the urge

to quash those
indulgences by gambling,

that it's deemed
illicit by states

and municipalities all
across the country.

Which during the 20th century,

increasingly outlaw gambling.

More
and more Americans

are finding ways around the laws

with back room poker
games and sports books.

One of the reasons why
vices are attractive is

that they are vices and
that they are illicit

so there's a certain
thrill to know

that you're breaking the rules

or you are challenging
certain conventions

about proper behavior.

Drinking to excess, gambling.

There's a certain
kind of edge to it

that some people enjoy the fact
that they are being bad boys

and bad girls by
engaging in these things.

Recognizing
the money to be made,

one rising western state
recently sent shock waves

through the rest of the country.

In Nevada, you have cow
towns and mining towns.

What miners like to do once they

have done well in the mines,

and what cowboys
like to do at the end

of a long trail drive
is go lose their money.

They like to drink, they
like to find prostitutes,

and they love to gamble.

Nevada had the need to
develop their infrastructure.

They needed a tax base and
gambling was a great tax base.

Nevada realized that
you legalize it,

you regulate it, and you tax it.

You make a lot of money.

Rather
than fighting gambling,

the Nevada state
legislature legalizes it.

Reno quickly becomes the
gaming capital of the state,

but far from the
glitz and glamor

of today's luxury casinos.

Most establishments
are hot, cramped,

and closer to something out

of the old west than
to modern resorts.

Most of the gambling
joints in Nevada at that time

were sawdust-floored
gambling joints.

You'd walk into a
gambling center or a saloon,

and it did feel like Deadwood.

It had that dusty
gambling feel to it.

It didn't feel clean,

it was almost like
backroom gambling built

into the front room.

Billy Wilkerson
takes full advantage

of the legal gambling
in nearby Reno,

losing money at gambling
shacks night after night

before showing up to his day job

at "The Hollywood Reporter."

Looks like old
Billy wins.

His ability to create
business successes

was almost equally matched
by his gambling disasters.

He had no business gambling,

but that's what
adrenaline junkie does.

The headlines, George.

As Wilkerson was building

this very successful
trade paper,

"The Hollywood Reporter,"
he was a tough boss.

There were those on his
staff who liked him a lot,

but there were those who
resented the fact that he

was losing so much money
at the gambling tables.

The new Wilder flick?

I like it, run this one.

Okay.

After a string
of bad losses at the tables,

Wilkerson realizes no
matter what you do,

the house always wins.

This was really the turning
point in my dad's life.

It was basically formulated
in his mind, since my dad,

more than often lost,
if he owned a casino

and played at the casino,

the money was cleverly
recycled back to him.

Instead have owing the
house, own the house.

And that apparently was the
seed planted for Wilkerson

to begin developing this idea.

Wilkerson decides

to risk everything on a
gambling joint of his own.

He just needs the
perfect spot in Reno.

This along here
is all residential.

This whole area is
gambling shacks already.

Pool halls, few saloons here.

What about
all the way over here?

So Billy gets a vision to
go to the outskirts of town,

don't just be another
sawdust floor gambling joint.

Looks like little
airstrip without hotels.

Yeah but...

Look at the distance, an
hour and a half flight from LA.

Go to the outskirts and
build the mecca for gamblers.

They'll come from
all over the country,

even all over the world.

Las Vegas, what
does that even mean?

No idea.

Well, let's go take a look.

Gambling
is only legal in

this one tiny corner
of the country,

but there's another temptation
that's enjoyed by nearly half

of all Americans at
the time, smoking.

The cigarette
industry is, by far,

the most profitable branch

of American capitalism
in the 20th century.

Cigarettes are very
inexpensive to manufacturer,

they're easily distributed.

They don't need to be
refrigerated, they don't spoil,

and people who use
them use a lot of them.

Parks, restaurants,
bars, libraries, theaters,

cigarettes change how people
behave in these public spaces.

Smoke was ubiquitous.

The cigarette
has become the dominant form

of tobacco and Camel
owns 45% of the market

with Lucky Strike right
behind them at 38%.

One small tobacco
company is struggling

to stand out in a
sea of competition.

You wanted to see me, sir.

Come in, have a seat.

They're
Philip Morris

and they're already trailing

the four biggest tobacco
firms in the nation.

Now, an ambitious
low level executive,

and British expat,
named Alfred Lyon,

is about to inherit
the biggest problem

in its nearly 100 year history.

Smoker's cough, what the
hell is smoker's cough?

A public relations nightmare.

In the 1930s as more
Americans are smoking,

the cigarette manufacturers
are increasingly contending

with the fact that
smokers don't always

like the way it feels to smoke.

That people's throats
get irritated.

At that time, they didn't
have an understanding

of the causes of lung cancer.

They didn't have
an understanding

of the ways in which
smoking caused emphysema

or other diseases, but they
did focus on smoker's cough.

I'm promoting you to
Vice President of Sales.

This is your problem now.

I'll make it my top priority,
starting immediately.

Fix this or you'll
be out of a job.

We both will.

Understood.

Al Lyon's
visionary leadership

will eventually give
rise to an iconic brand

and transform Philip Morris

into the top tobacco
company in the nation.

The problem is he'll have
to fight a rising tide

of anti-smoking activists

and reinvent an entire
industry to do it.

Meanwhile, Stephanie St. Clair
and her chief lieutenant,

Bumpy Johnson, have watched

as their own illegal industry
is turned upside down.

Dutch Schultz has
taken over nearly

every other numbers
racket in Harlem.

I don't get why you just
won't let me go after him.

We can't afford
to start a war we

have no chance of winning.

But I'm tired
of doing nothing.

Stephanie St. Clair, she's
not ready to back down.

She's not intimidated
by Schultz.

Whereas a lot of other
people just folded.

If we can't hit him,

we'll hit him in
his bank account.

We get every single
black person in Harlem

to stop spending
money on his game.

Stephanie Sinclair tries

to organize black bankers
resistance against Schultz,

and white people in
general, in Harlem.

Not another penny at
any white owned business

where his policy slips are sold.

We're gonna shut 'em down.

She's kind of drawing off of

that already well established
African American campaigns

against white supremacy.

St. Clair is
riding a wave of activism led

by influential African American
leaders like Marcus Garvey

and W.E.B. Du Bois, who
advocate for the community

to buy black, or don't
buy where you can't work.

We're talking about
folks like Marcus Garvey,

who establishes the first

Universal Negro Improvement
Association chapter

in New York City.

These are all race reform
leaders and intellectuals.

They are some
of the most ferocious,

loud, civil rights activists

and they're very invested in
advancing civil rights in ways

that aren't violent, in ways
that for them make sense.

Stephanie St. Clair,

she pushes back through
community activism

as a kind of act of
racial solidarity, right?

So she's working
every angle, right?

Trying to protect her
corner of New York gambling.

St. Clair
rolls out her boycott

and the Harlem community
immediately backs her up.

Every single shop has
been short, every one.

It's the boycott.

♪ I see them all looking back ♪

Something needs to be done.

Why don't you see
what you can do?

Dutch Schultz
isn't going to back down.

And there's only
one way he knows how

to do business, with violence.

Billy
Wilkerson is planning

to build a luxury resort
and casino in a strip

of barren desert
called Las Vegas.

The term casino was
coined by Italians

in the mid 18th century,
taken from the word house.

It meant a house of
entertainment or gambling.

In Reno it means a dusty
old west gambling shack.

Oh no, no, no.

This is all wrong.

Now,
Wilkerson wants

to reinvent what a modern
casino is from the ground up.

Why would we make someone
walk to a different room

to get a damn cocktail?

Somebody who did not
have a gambling addiction,

would've made casinos
this wonderful place

full of aquariums
and bay windows

so you could look
out and see the pool.

Everything needs to be
designed to cater to the player.

The bar, here

or here.

I'll look into it.

My father was smart
enough to know that

if you were gonna keep
gamblers in one place,

it had to be rid of every
single possible distraction

that you could think of.

These bathrooms should
also be closer to the tables.

You get lost in gambling
where you don't even want

to think that you're
being irresponsible.

You make it very
easy to eat or drink,

and you make it for a gambler,

a place that they
never have to leave.

Wilkerson isn't
just building a casino.

His revolutionary vision will
cover more than 30 acres,

offering posh rooms, a
nightclub, fine dining,

a health club and spa,
even a golf course.

A lot of entrepreneurs,

they know what
customers want even

before the customers want it.

Think about Steve Jobs
and the touchscreen.

Think about Jeff Bezos and
Amazon, buying things online.

To see that innovation
is really critical.

This needs to be perfect.

But we are
already over budget.

We'll figure out
the costs later.

His architects and
decorators figure out

how much it's gonna cost and
it's 1.2 million dollars,

which is a very
pricey resort hotel.

Wilkerson takes
out loans to fuel his vision,

one he believes will create a
whole new gambling industry.

You can get food, and drink,

and everything you want without
having to leave the table.

And he brags about
it at a local back room game

to a gambling associate
named Johnny Roselli.

Is this in Reno?

Las Vegas.

Never heard of it.

Johnny Roselli is
attached to the Chicago mob.

And the Chicago mob sends
him out to California

to look after their interests.

The rake'll cover the
expenses for the first year,

and by year two, I'll have
mansions on both coasts.

Sounds like a good racket.

Johnny Roselli was the
mob boss for Hollywood,

which included the
entertainment industry.

He saw how great this
could be, financially,

in his underworld fashion.

I bid 500.

I call.

All right.

Wilkerson
doesn't know it yet.

Pair of aces, not
your night, Billy.

But his
innocent conversation

with Roselli come back
to haunt him, and soon.

Meanwhile,
Al Lyon's been tasked

with fighting back against
reports of smoker's cough,

and he's digging into every bit

of research Philip
Morris's internal lab has

to offer on the side
effects of cigarettes.

The goal is to come up with
a response on how to deal

with what Al Lyon considers
merely bad publicity.

Lyon wanted to deny that
cigarettes caused any disease,

to deny that cigarettes
were harmful,

and then to promise the public

that they would find the truth.

Have you found
anything I can use yet?

Yes, it turns out

when we add a compound called
diethylene glycol to tobacco,

it reduces irritation
by 35% in rats eyelids.

Rats eyelids.

Diethylene
glycol is a chemical

that helps materials,
including lung tissue,

retain moisture.

Today, it's better
known as antifreeze.

You understand we don't
sell cigarettes to rats, yes?

We've also done a human trial.

And?

Well, all 11 test subjects
we interviewed claimed

that they experienced
less coughing.

The whole idea was to
use the cache of science

to make a promise
that engineering

and technology could
take away whatever it

was that was bad in a cigarette.

Love it.

But like I said,
it isn't very-

Write it up and have it on
my desk by the end of the day.

Good work.

Thank you.

Now armed with
the results of a dubious study,

Al Lyon uses it to launch an
all out advertising blitz.

The Philip Morris
tobacco company,

at the behest of Alfred Lyon,

began to promote their
products in medical journals,

claiming that their
smoke was milder.

And that there would
be no throat irritation

if you smoked Philip
Morris cigarettes.

Philip Morris advertises
the fact that three out

of every four cases of
smoker's cough are cured

through the Philip Morris brand
used with diethylene glycol.

The campaign
advertises in newspapers,

magazines, and on the radio,

hoping to reach as many
people as possible.

Stephanie St. Clair
has launched a campaign

to boycott white numbers games.

And after just a few months,

it's costing mobster,
Dutch Schultz, millions.

Yeah, are you sure?

What is it?

You know, Jacob Bay.

The banker who runs the
game down near the park.

Shot in the head,
left out on the street.

While St. Clair is someone
who is obviously tough,

she also understands
the consequences

of some of her actions,
which could be,

you know, physical
violence, death.

We both know who did it.

Dutch Schultz is
employing intimidation,

they're kidnapping
numbers figures,

in some instances they're
engaging in beatings.

They're engaging in murder.

What do you want me to do.

Determined
to protect her turf,

Stephanie St. Clair
leaves nonviolence behind.

It's rumored St.
Clair herself would go

into the stores where
white banks were operating

and, you know, smash
their stuff in the store,

and threaten them physically.

As
violence escalates,

the newspapers start calling
the conflict, the Policy Wars,

and they'll eventually
leave over 40 bodies dead

in the streets.

And police are
forced to respond.

I just got a call from uptown.

Cops had a dawn raid of the
place, had to be a tip off.

There's violence
coming from the one end,

but then there are police
raids coming as well, right?

And there's a sort of stalemate

in who really controls
the numbers game.

I want her dead.

Notorious
gangster, Dutch Schultz,

and policy queen,
Stephanie St. Clair,

have been at each
other's throats.

Both trying to control
the illegal numbers racket

that's the heart of Harlem's
underground economy.

There are millions at stake

and as the so-called
Policy Wars drag on,

Schultz puts out a
hit on St. Clair.

You scared the hell outta me.

I'm sorry, it's
about Dutch Schultz.

He was gunned down
at dinner tonight.

I didn't authorize
a hit on Schultz.

It wasn't us, it
was his own people.

On
October 23rd, 1935,

Dutch Schultz is shot at
a restaurant in Newark.

Part of the fallout
from a court case

that has nothing to
do with St. Clair.

Dutch Schultz, he becomes
number one, FBI's most wanted.

Not for violence, not for
murder, but for tax evasion.

The governor of New York
State, during the early 1930s

was FDR, and he appoints
the special prosecutor,

Thomas Dewey, and
they go after Schultz.

And the rumor is that
Schultz threatened

to kill Dewey and other high
level political figures.

Concerned that
a hit on prominent officials

will bring too much
heat down on the mafia,

Schultz's own crime
syndicate decides

to take him out instead,

sending members of the
infamous Murder, Inc.

to gun him down.

He's in the hospital,
but the word is,

he's not gonna make it.

I need you to deliver a
message to him before he passes.

Take this down.

As ye sow,

so shall ye reap.

Sign it, Madam St. Clair,

Policy Queen.

The next morning, Schultz
dies from his wounds,

but not before he
gets St. Clair's note,

and she's once again, the
queen of the numbers game.

Stephanie St. Clair,

her numbers game is the basis
for the regulated state lottery.

There is so much money moving
around and the state wants

to divert that revenue
stream to the state treasury.

They talk about it
openly, it's not a secret.

Though the
process takes decades,

eventually, the
numbers game gives way

to the state sponsored lottery.

Today from scratchers, to
Mega Millions, to Powerball.

The average American spends
$285 a year on the Lotto,

bringing in more than 105
billion dollars in revenue.

The numbers game
was the lottery

before the lottery,
it is the lottery.

The government
says it's illegal,

and then they run it themselves.

Whether it's playing the
numbers in the old days

or playing the official state
lottery in more modern times,

that impulse has
always been there.

The desire for wealth
and respectability.

St. Clair
eventually leaves the numbers

game behind, and after
serving jail time

for shooting her husband,

a controversial community
leader and activist,

she spends the rest of her life

as a philanthropist
and advocate.

Stephanie St. Clair, she's
a hero, she's a anti-hero.

She is a complicated
woman, very self absorbed,

but someone who is
about her community,

advocating for the rights
of black New Yorkers.

Madam Stephanie St. Clair,

she'll go down in history
as a female gangster

and a legend in that right?

And not only did she have
a successful business,

although, be it illegal,

she ultimately took that
and supported civil rights,

especially in the latter
part of her career.

And she made a huge difference

for immigrants in
the black community.

And I think she should
be known just as much

for being a smart businesswoman.

Al Lyon launched
a massive ad campaign,

touting the health benefits

of glycol in Philip
Morris cigarettes.

And even though it's
a dangerous additive,

they claim that medical research

has proved it makes them milder.

These the latest numbers?

Yes.

This is good, this
is what I like to see.

So far,
his gamble is paying off

and by the mid 1930s,

Philip Morris is netting
the modern equivalent

of 31 and a half
million dollars a year,

putting them just outside the
four biggest tobacco companies

in the nation.

Behind the makers
of Lucky Strikes,

Camels, and Chesterfields.

In the 1930s, the
Philip Morris company,

it's nothing in comparison
to the big four firms,

but it is certainly
at the forefront

of deceptive advertising.

At the same time as Philip
Morris is making these claims

on behalf of its glyco casing,

there are many cases,
in the United States,

of people dying from
diethylene glycol poisoning.

Famous doctors telling the
health benefits of tobacco.

These were great
sales techniques.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

The next year,

Philip Morris sells
7.5 billion cigarettes

and overtakes Lorillard,

the maker of Newports
and Old Gold,

as the fourth biggest
tobacco company in the US.

Then, war breaks out in Europe.

And soon the United
States joins the fight.

Sending off millions
of young American men

to the front during World War II

is an incredible paradigm
shift for the nation.

And it's a huge opportunity
for savvy tobacco companies.

As the US dedicates
all her industrial might

to the war effort, Al
Lyon sees a unique chance

to jumpstart Morris's
growth all over again.

I don't mean to overstep, sir,

but it's just that
Philip Morris cigarettes

aren't like other cigarettes,
they're healthier.

The Second World War , there's
another upsurge in smoking

along the same lines that you
had in the First World War

for the same reason.

That's right, the number
one doctor recommended brand.

We gotta keep our boys relaxed

as they're going into combat.

You won't regret it, sir.

They order 10,000 cartons.

Within weeks,

Philip Morris is contributing
290 billion cigarettes

to the war effort, nearly
doubling the company's profits.

During World War II,

tobacco was treated as an
essential strategic product.

And so tobacco farmers were
not asked to join the military,

Their laborers was
needed to ensure

that enough tobacco was
grown in the country.

It was a strategic imperative

of the us war effort to ensure

that our soldiers had all the
cigarettes that they wanted.

Philip
Morris's cigarettes

are included in
soldiers rations,

a practice that will last
all the way until 1975.

Profits continue to soar
and Al Lyon is promoted

to president of the company.

A lot of people
say success came

from these giant leaps,

that people took this giant
risk and they were successful.

If you really look
at what happened,

it's a series of very,
very small things

that got them to where
they wanted to go.

That's really the truth.

He's got nowhere
to go but up, for now.

With the
war in Europe raging,

at home, more and more Americans
are enlisting to serve.

Excuse me.

One young
man is doing his part.

Excuse me, I'm
reporting for duty.

My name is Hugh Hefner.

Someday, he'll
leave behind a troubling legacy,

but also become a cultural icon

and divide the country between
those who believe in freedom

of expression and
freedom from smut.

over the
course of World War II,

more than 16 million
American soldiers will serve.

And when they're not fighting
many look for distraction

in pleasures of the flesh.

Many of the millions of
American men who serve in

this period are
actually introduced

to some illicit consumer
pleasures they're abroad.

Cigarettes, for example, are
issued to soldiers on the front

and they'll come home with
a taste for that tobacco.

Some of those soldiers
will take up drinking.

There's funny expression,

"How you gonna keep
'em down on the farm

after they've seen
New York City,"

and during World War II,

that expression
very well could be,

"How you gonna keep them
down anywhere in America

once they've been to Europe

and have experienced, unfettered,

every vice imaginable."

Far from the
front lines, 17 year old,

Hugh Hefner is stationed
at a field hospital

and training ground
called Camp Pickett.

He famously came from a
very repressed Methodist home.

They didn't discuss sex,

Not a lot of hugs were
handed out in the house.

He wanted to get in touch
with things that were

of sexual nature, of
a romantic nature,

that wasn't discussed at home.

Even though
he's far from the fighting,

he's found his own unique way

to contribute to the war effort.

He loved to draw,
he made cartoon strips

from the time he could
first put pen to paper

and he just updated
into the Army.

They sort of channeled him off

into becoming a clerk in
the personnel division.

We have a kind
of romantic idea

of this brotherhood that
was formed, you know,

on the front lines.

And that's true,

but there was also everything

that they did kind of off hours.

This was the era
of pinup magazines

and talking about the
latest Hollywood starlet

who they had on their wall.

At the time,
pornography does exist,

explicit pictures and
movies date all the way back

to the invention of the cameras

that capture them in the 1800s.

But even by the 1940s,

obscenity in the US
is still governed

by the Comstock Act of 1873,

which makes all
pornography illegal.

From nude images to books

that contain
titillating sequences

like James Joyce's "Ulysses."

Comstock once claimed that he

had destroyed 160 railroad
cars full of pornography.

He was obsessed with
nudity not being left

and lorded it over our morals,

and our erotica
pornography, everything.

He also, he would
break up these,

what were effectively body
building competitions,

where like Charles Atlas would
pose because he thought that

that was obscene to have
a man so scantily dressed.

Suggestive
drawings of pinup girls

are considered acceptable

and Hefner relishes drawing
them during his time

in the army and his
college newspaper.

And after that, he
wants to resurrect them

in his new job at
"Esquire" magazine.

What's this.

Pinup girls, used to be
the best part of "Esquire."

So I'm thinking-

No, I need 500 words by
end of day, not doodles.

Are we clear?

Crystal.

Hefner
believes he's destined

for something bigger,
but he doesn't know what.

For now, he's stuck
in a dead end job.

Now that World War II is over,

millions of veterans have
returned home with a taste

for cigarettes.

And thanks to their inclusion
in military rations,

Philip Morris's sales are
nearing $300 million a year.

Sharon, can we get
some coffees in here?

But after deftly
navigating smoker's cough,

Al Lyon is now facing
an even bigger threat.

How have we got
from smoker's cough

all the way to cancer.

In 1950 alone,

there are five important
epidemiological studies

linking cigarettes as
the cause of lung cancer.

"Reader's Digest" magazine
publishes an article called,

"Cancer by the Carton"

that reports on the
results of these findings.

As a result
of new clinical studies,

the us government
institutes a new policy

that makes Philip
Morris' strategy

illegal almost overnight.

In 1955, the Federal
Trade Commission mandated

that the tobacco industry stop
these explicit health claims.

They couldn't say that their
cigarettes were healthier

than others, unless they
had science to back that up.

Well, the cigarette
manufacturers didn't

have any science like that.

And if we even mention the
health benefits of glycol,

the government
will come after us.

So our lawyers seem to think.

Then what we need is
something that implies

how healthy they are
without actually saying it.

I want a dozen new campaign
options on my desk by tomorrow,

get moving.

Billy Wilkerson

has finally broken ground on
his luxury resort and casino.

We need to get rid
of all these windows

on the gambling floor.

I want every moment of
the day to feel the same.

But if he's going

to revolutionize the
gambling experience,

he knows he can't accept
anything but perfection.

We're already way
behind schedule,

this will set us back.

And these hallways
from the hotel,

they need to connect
to here, that way,

people have to walk past the
tables to get in and out.

From his own
gambling experience,

I think it was really
easy for him to say,

"I'm gonna start
something completely

from scratch that nobody's
ever seen before,"

to make the gambling experience
as comfortable as possible.

Plush chairs, padding
around the tables.

If we do that, we'll be outta
money in less than a month.

So he does secure a loan
for $600,000 from a bank.

His good friend, Howard Hughes,

is willing to give him $200,000.

How much more
money would you need?

Double.

Make the changes?

Well, the compulsive
gambler thinks,

"I can do it at the table."

To help
fund his opulent vision,

Billy Wilkerson finds a high
stakes poker game determined

to double his money, but he's
already off to a shaky start.

The thing about the gambler,
we often chase our losses.

So even if we're getting beat,

we think that eventually
we're gonna turn the corner.

I'm all in, 200 grand.

Okay.

Full house, fours over sevens.

Twos.

♪ Tell me what to do ♪

over twos.

♪ I see that life ♪

Dammit!

After less
than a year of work,

construction on Billy
Wilkerson's

game changing new casino

is on hold because he's
running out of money.

The construction site just
laid there in the desert,

like the skeleton
of a beach whale.

And there was a point
where my dad thought,

"I've gotta make a decision.

Whether I wanna
keep on with this

or just walk away from it."

And he was seriously considered
walking away from it.

So what brings you all
the way from New York.

Firm I represent heard
about your operation.

He and his architects are
wondering how to keep going,

and then a man he
never met before,

named Rothberg, shows up.

What's this?

It's an opportunity.

We'd like to invest.

What kind of
investment gives you 51%?

A million dollars.

Rothberg shows up with
an offer to Wilkerson.

There's enough money
to finish his dream,

but he has to turn over the
ownership of the project.

There's no way that I'm
giving you a controlling stake.

It's a one time offer.

Take it or leave it.

He absolutely can't refuse,
it's a million dollars.

Within a week,

Wilkerson's casino is
back under construction.

But at Philip Morris,

Al Lyon's strategy
is falling apart.

The government is cracking
down on health claims made

by cigarette companies
and new studies continue

to make things worse.

A team of researchers
at Wash U finds

that they can induce
cancer in mice

by painting tobacco
tar on their backs.

This is not just circulated
in the medical press,

but receives widespread
public attention.

By the 1950s,

an anti-smoking
crusader, named Roy Norr,

begins producing
educational movies

and publishing a
newsletter called,

"Norr's Newsletter About
Smoking and Health,"

warning Americans about
the hazards of cigarettes.

The problem that's
been identified,

it's not nicotine it's tar.

Well, one of the solutions is
put filters on the cigarettes.

It'll be lodged and then
caught in the filters

and, therefore, we
eliminate the tar.

Today, 90% of
all cigarettes are filtered,

but at the beginning
of the 1950s,

that number is less than 1%.

Al Lyon recognizes
the opportunity

and purchases a
struggling cigarette brand

first introduced back in 1931
and thought of as a gimmick

for their recessed
filter tips, Parliament.

They don't receive a lot of
attention from the cigarette

manufacturers or, crucially,
a lot of advertising.

Philip Morris purchases
the brand in order

to acquire know-how about how

to do filter technology,
such as it was.

Now privately,
behind the scenes,

the tobacco
manufacturers well knew

that essentially nothing
was being filtered out.

When a company sells
an unhealthy product,

is it someone's freedom
to buy whatever they want,

even if it's going to kill them?

Or should the American
government protect consumers

from themselves?

I think the American public
is still split on that.

As Lyon
strategizes a counter attack

against health reports.

In 1953, an Indiana University
zoologist, and founder of the

Institute for Research in
Sex, Gender, and Reproduction,

named Alfred Kinsey,

publishes one of two
books commonly referred to

as the "Kinsey Reports,"

it's called "Sexual Behavior
in the Human Female."

And it transforms the way
people think about sex.

He interviewed
about 18,000 people

and he talked candidly
about women who had orgasms.

And that was really
groundbreaking in many ways,

that focus on female sexuality
and to see it as something

that could be positive
rather than negative.

That is a bombshell because
it shows that there are lots

of people who have
had sexual relations

with people of their same sex.

It shows that people
have engaged in all kinds

of premarital sex, and that
really shakes things up.

Hugh Hefner
reads Kinsey's work.

And after losing his job
at "Esquire" magazine,

he meets with a long time
friend named Eldon Sellers,

to forge a new path
toward the future.

So, uh, what now?

Hefner add a number of
friends, and associates,

and professional connections

that he would draw
upon to get help.

Why don't we start
our own magazine?

One of them was
Eldon sellers who

was really a family friend.

We?

Yeah, I'm the idea
man, you're the money.

I'm listening.

We make a magazine
like no one's ever seen.

Cutting edge fiction,

world class journalism,

interviews.

It'll have humor, sophistication.

And instead of pinup girls,

full nudes.

Nudes?

Yup.

Have you lost your mind?

Back in college,

Hefner pioneered a
recurring feature

in the school paper called
"Coed of the Month."

How is this better than
your pin up sketches?

It's sexier, less clothing.

Because she's real.

There was not any nudity
of course, involved in this,

but they would pick a, sort
of, a pretty young girl

and they would feature
her in the magazine.

Her interests, her activities,
a picture or two of her.

So a little bit of a germ

of what would become
something quite famous

in "Playboy" some years later.

Now he wants to take
the idea one step further,

even though, at the time,

distributing nude imagery
is still against the law.

I'd buy that magazine.

You'd buy that magazine.

I think Hefner was able
to trust his instincts.

I think from a child,

he might have even had this
vision for the magazine.

And I think that that
nothing was gonna deter him

from doing what he set
out in his mind to do.

From what I know about Hefner,

I'm like, very not
sympathetic to him.

Like, "Oh, he was a real
feminist," like, whatever.

I think that's
like, kind of b.s.

I think it's really
important not

to confuse the sexual
openness that he espoused

and the particular way it
played out with some kind

of wonderfully
egalitarian, liberated,

sexually equal society because
it didn't function that way.

Well, either we get rich,
get arrested, or

both.

Does that mean you're in?

It means I'm
thinking about it.

I can work with that.

After
almost running out

of money on his
luxury casino project,

Billy Wilkerson is back
under construction.

Thanks to a million
dollar infusion

of cash from a mystery
investor from New York.

What the hell do you
think you're doing in here?

I'm just here to
check in on my casino.

It turns out
his investor is a front

for the New York mafia.

Recently infamous
gangster, Bugsy Siegel,

found out about the casino.

Millions of dollars in cash
flowing in every single day.

This could be the most
lucrative gambling operation

we've ever had.

And brought it
to my boss, Frank Costello.

Interesting, what's our in?

The guy who's
building, bankrupt,

whole project's
about to shut down.

Thanks to
Wilkerson's gambling buddy,

Johnny Roselli.

Card games, dice games,

we'll have everything
you could think of.

Plus, hotel, pool,

restaurants, bars.

Okay, but be discreet.

Now
Siegel's in Vegas

to make sure Wilkerson knows
who's really in charge.

Appreciate all the work
you've put in so far.

Love it if you stay on.

Bugsy is a very
assertive fella.

And while it was supposed

to be Billy Wilkerson's
vision all the way,

Bugsy gets on the
construction site.

I mean, Bugsy Siegel
wanted it all.

Right, so, partners then?

Sure, partners.

And he bragged
often, you know,

I've killed 16 men,
but don't worry.

Wilkerson's
dream in the desert

now hinges on the whim of
a professional murderer.

But in Virginia,

Al Lyons hopes rest on
filtered cigarettes,

which are considered a
gimmick marketed to women.

And he's looking

for the most masculine
brand Philip Morris has,

hoping he can appeal to men.

As you can imagine,
Chesterfield tested high.

Philip Morris wants to
get in on the filtered game.

Its brands had actually
been flagging in the 1940s

and it quite clearly sees
that filtered cigarettes

are the market of the future.

And so to do so,

it reaches into its arsenal
of already existing brands.

That was number one.

Actually it was number two.

The number one was Marlboro.

The women's cigarette?

Yes.

It was a different kind of
Marlboro than is sold today.

In the 1920s, the advertising
slogan was, "Mild as May."

And so it was a female brand.

This is either some kind of
joke or some kind of mistake,

which is it?

It's neither, Marlboro tested

as the most masculine
sounding brand.

You're telling me
that the manly brand

is currently marketed
to women, amazing.

If Al Lyon's
going to sell Marlboros to men,

he has to completely
reinvent its image,

starting with the look.

We have different types
of filter wrappings.

Which costs the
least to produce.

They're all the same, it's
just down in the preference.

The idea was that
by inserting a piece

of paper, or acetate, or
cork inside of a cigarette,

you could, somehow,
make it safer.

- I like this one.
- Mm.

Tragically,

some of the material that
was used as a filter

was actually more poisonous
than tobacco itself.

The best example of this is
the micronite filter produced

by Kent for a few years,

which actually use asbestos
fibers as a filter.

In addition
to the new filter,

Lyon wants to give
Marlboros new packaging.

Cigarettes at the time
are sold in soft packs

that are easy to fit in the
pocket, but also easily crushed.

Is this what we
have for packaging?

Well, we are working
on a new prototype,

but it's not ready yet.

He wants
something hardier,

that also makes a smoker look

at the branding every time he
or she pulls out a cigarette.

Show it to me.

When we think of advertising,

we think of billboards
and magazine ads,

but the cigarette pack

is the most important
cigarette advertisement

because that's the thing that
the person holds in their hand

when they take the
cigarette out to smoke it.

It's made out of a thin
cardboard to help protect the

cigarettes from when you
shove it in your pocket.

And the lid flips
open with one hand.

Cigarettes before
the flip top box

were packaged in
paper wrappings,

the 20 cigarettes would
be wrapped in foil.

Then the foil be wrapped
with a band of paper,

outside of the paper it would
be wrapped in clear plastic.

Fast-track this.

I want this in production
when we launch.

Evidently executives
at Philip Morris thought

that a harder edge, flip-top
box signaled something

more masculine than a soft pack,

but it also had the
advantage, for consumers,

of making cigarettes less likely

to get crushed in your
pocket or in your purse.

While Lyon
plans to relaunch Marlboro,

Hugh Hefner is working
on a new magazine

featuring fully
nude photographs,

even though distributing
them is against the law.

We're close, I know that.

How do you feel?

I still do think that we
should move the party jokes

ahead of "Tales From
the Decameron."

No, it's it's
classier this way.

The funny thing
about that first issue,

he threw a lot of everything
in the kitchen sink.

He was smart enough
to throw, you know,

articles and lifestyle features,

a touch of everything to
show the reader that this

was going to be something
a little different

and it was going to be
something for everybody.

Hefner
wants to give his

groundbreaking
magazine an iconic name.

And after painstaking
thought, he's finally got one.

Here it is.

This is the cover?

It's great, right?

What the hell's "Stag Party?"

Like, it's like
a bachelor party.

The last piece of the puzzle
is a featured cover model

who will make the entire
nation stop and stare.

Wait, that's not, is that?

No, it can't be.

I think it is.

I think you're right.

There were
photographers out there

that had material on different
superstars of that time,

because typically,

they would start out doing
modeling for the studios.

Hefner has just
stumbled upon nude photos

of one of the most famous
starlets in the country,

and one of the most
iconic of all time,

from before she was famous.

Sure enough, the
photographer that he went to,

he did have the images
of Marilyn Monroe.

It was just luck, I
think it was timing,

but Hef did not believe he

was gonna have enough
money to buy those images.

To bring his vision

for a modern men's
magazine to the world,

Hugh Hefner will have to
cash in on photos that one

of the biggest stars
in Hollywood

hoped would never be seen.

Hugh Hefner
has found nude photos

of Marilyn Monroe

from before she got famous
and he wants to use them

to launch his new
"Stag Party" magazine.

Hugh Hefner decides that these

will be the photographs that
will really mark his magazine

as a magazine that is distinct
from everything out there.

A magazine that is willing
to push the envelope.

He knows that this is explosive.

Marilyn Monroe

was born Norma Jean
Mortenson in 1926

and, under her stage name,

she's headlined films like
"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,"

and, "How to Marry
a Millionaire,"

making her one of the most
bankable stars in Hollywood.

And Hefner needs the rights

to her nudes if he's
going to publish them.

And this would be exclusive?

And how much for
publishing rights?

500?

At the end of the day,

the photographer
really had no idea

what he was holding on to.

I'll pay cash.

So Hef went in there
and got all the images.

No, no, no, no, of course
not through the mail.

We don't want any legal trouble.

Give me an address,
I'll meet you there.

Sending nude images

through the mail
is still illegal.

So Hefner plans to buy them in
person, for better or worse.

He knows that he's actually
cracking something wide open

and he decides to do it in a
way that is very controversial

because she did not want
these photos circulated.

In Virginia,
Al Lyon is ready

to introduce Philip Morris's
new Marlboro cigarette.

And for the first time since
becoming company president,

he's considering an advertising
agency to launch it.

May I see the product?

Of course.

Leo Burnett is
a legend in his own time,

credited with creating such
iconic marketing characters

as Toucan Sam, Tony the Tiger,
and the Jolly Green Giant,

but he has no experience
at the tobacco industry.

These stripes are
a design disaster.

And this lowercase M, it just
reeks of trying too hard.

Just make it a capital,
it's a proper noun.

How much time would you need

to put together a
campaign for us.

Couple weeks.

Done.

While
Lyon bets on Burnett,

Billy Wilkerson is trying

to build an unprecedented
luxury casino,

called the Flamingo,

but he's struggling to
coexist with his new partner,

notorious murderer,
Bugsy Siegel.

Everyone, out.

What's this.

Sign it, it says you're out.

Siegel's ego got in
the way to the degree

where he wanted to
be a one man band.

I'm not signing this.

Sign it.

And it's well documented

that he really
wanted my dad dead.

You're smarter
than you look, Billy.

When Siegel made
the death threat,

everybody then knew it was real.

So he wanted to be as far away
from this guy as possible.

Billy Wilkerson
hands over full control

of the Flamingo, the
first casino of its kind,

to the New York mafia

and escapes back to
LA with his life,

leaving the dream
of the Vegas strip

in the hands of Bugsy Siegel.

Bugsy
Siegel is now in charge

of construction on the
Flamingo luxury casino.

But the project was already
over budget when he took over.

Sit down.

He's
only made it worse.

And mob boss, Frank
Costello, is losing patience.

We just have to
finish construction.

Then the place will pay for
itself in the first month,

it's gonna be spectacular.

Spectacular, huh?

I don't need it
to be spectacular,

I need it to make me money.

Trust me, I got
it under control.

Tame the bill.

Get outta here.

Under pressure
from the mafia,

in December 1946,

Bugsy Siegel opens the Flamingo

before construction
is even finished.

The opening, which was the
day after Christmas, 1946,

which was horrific because

nobody in Hollywood
is gonna come

because the movie industry traditionally

stays home between

Christmas and New Year's.

So, basically, it was an
unmitigated catastrophe.

Gamblers
who do come find

that the hotel portion of
the Flamingo isn't complete

and there's nowhere to stay.

The casino is losing
money, hand over fist.

And after just
more than a month,

Siegel is forced to close until
he can finish construction.

Al Lyon brought in
legendary ad man, Leo Burnett

Gentelmen...

to help relaunch
Marlboro cigarettes

and Burnett is finally
ready to share his ideas.

Why would we remind
people that cigarettes

could be unhealthy when
we could remind them

how cigarettes make them feel?

How does that feel before
they even light up?

What does a Marlboro
smoker want to feel?

They wanna feel like a man.

Now, what kind of man does every
boy dream to grow up to be?

We call him the Marlboro Man.

Sell them a
lifestyle, gentlemen.

You have a customer for life.

It's brilliant.

In 1955,

the new filtered Marlboro
cigarette is launched

with the Marlboro Man
gracing billboards

and magazine pages
across the nation.

Marlboro had been
an insignificant brand

up until the 1950s,

but sales began to
skyrocket after that time.

Within two years,

Marlboro sales jumped by 300%,

bringing in 20 billion
dollars a year in profits.

Al Lyon, eventually retires.

And by the 1960s,

Marlboro is the most popular
cigarette on the planet,

and cigarettes have become
one of the highest selling

products in the history
of planet earth.

The reason that
Marlboro advertising

was so successful was
because it sold smokers

on a fantasy of
independence, virility.

Marlboro is one of
the first brands

to really pitch itself,
not as a product,

but as a way of life.

Today, more
than 6 trillion cigarettes

are sold each year.

And as of 2018, lung cancer
deaths still average,

nearly 150,000 annually.

The cigarette manufacturers
have worked hard

to position smoking as a choice,

freedom to smoke,
the right to smoke.

But in fact, smoking
is the opposite.

Smoking is ensnarement,
it's slavery.

Smoking is an addiction
that robs the smoker

of his ability to
choose to smoke.

Science is clear on that.

In Chicago,
Hugh Hefner is finally ready

to introduce his groundbreaking
new men's magazine

to the world.

This came for you.

Return address is
from a "Stag" magazine.

Hefner was about ready
to launch the magazine

under the title of "Stag Party."

What?

Cease and desist.

Let me see that.

And I think much
to his good luck,

because I don't think
that's a very good title,

"Stag" magazine apparently sent
Hefner a letter threatening

to sue him because they
thought "Stag Party"

was too close to infringing
on their title rights.

This is insane.

Damn.

So at the last moment,

Hefner's forced to change
the name of his magazine.

Hefner and
Eldon Sellers immediately

begin brainstorming, hoping
for last minute inspiration.

Smooth Operator.

Awful.

You're right.

Okay, um, "Top Hat," hmm?

It's classy, it's gentlemanly.

Yeah, you know,

my mother worked
for car manufacturer

and they sold
convertible sports cars,

but they went bankrupt

before they ever
brought them to market.

And?

They had a pretty
good name,

Playboy.

Playboy?

Playboy.

After being
muscled out of the Flamingo,

the first luxury resort
and casino of its kind,

Billy Wilkerson has
returned to Los Angeles

and his job running "The
Hollywood Reporter."

Then on June 20th, 1947.

My father opened the newspaper

and there was the headlines
that Siegel had been slain.

I think he was just
glad that it was over

and with Siegel's death,

he could completely walk away
and put a period

at the end of this terrible
episode in his life.

Bugsy Siegel dies

of two steel jacketed gunshots

to the torso, and
two to the head.

There was an
immediate guessing game,

who could have killed Bugsy?

Was it the New York mob?

Had they got tired
of losing money?

And were they after
Siegel for that?

Well, we still
don't know for sure.

It is still an open case.

Once all
construction is complete,

the Flamingo reopens as the
Fabulous Flamingo Resort

and within a year, it's
bringing $4 million in profit.

The modern equivalent
of nearly 52 million.

Billy Wilkerson doesn't
share in the success

and his contributions
are often overlooked,

but thanks to his
revolutionary vision,

he's the forgotten godfather
of the modern Las Vegas strip.

The founding father for
the Vegas strip is my dad.

You can't point to anybody else.

I would like him to
be remembered as it,

and I think he
deserves that credit.

One can still see the impact
of his ideas on Las Vegas.

An endless round of
resort complexes.

the Sands hotel,
which opened in 1952.

You can see that
with the Desert Inn

which opened it in 1950.

With the Sahara, also in 1952.

With the Riviera
that opened in 1955.

With the Tropicana
that opened in 1957.

Wilkerson
spends the rest

of his life successfully running
"The Hollywood Reporter,"

but his impact on America's
city of sin is undeniable.

In Chicago, even
though he knows he's asking

for legal trouble, Hugh
Hefner is finally ready

to launch the first edition

of his new men's
magazine, "Playboy."

Sign here?

Thank you.

Any magazine
collector or historian

of "Playboy" knows it didn't
bear a date on the cover.

And the reason it
didn't bear a date is

because Hugh Hefner
did not know if there

was going to be a second issue.

The first
issue of "Playboy"

sells all 70,000
copies within weeks

and earns Hefner $30,000
nearly overnight.

When that first issue
of "Playboy" came out,

America was a different place
than the place we see now.

These were the first
hormonal surges

of the sexual revolution.

He took that more
or less sterile,

sort of, suburban America
and made it cosmopolitan.

Out of that grew all sorts
of liberties and freedoms.

Almost immediately,

Hefner faces legal challenges

for distributing lewd content.

Very early in the
publication of "Playboy,"

Hefner, as he somewhat expected,

ran into problems of censorship.

There were laws in
Chicago, in various states,

and even the federal post
office got involved in this.

In 1955,

the Postmaster General refuses

to deliver "Playboy" magazine,

claiming the
contents are obscene.

Hefner sues the government
in response

and wins.

By the end of the 1950s,

Playboy is selling millions
of copies every month.

As much as I'm
no Hugh Hefner fan,

he certainly contributes to
breaking down those walls around

that kind of sexual silence,

which I think was so
limiting for so many people.

Hefner continues
to fight obscenity laws

for much of his life, but his
legacy is complicated at best.

Hugh Hefner is a controversial
figure, without question.

There was a time when

some feminists actually
celebrated Hugh Hefner

and they talked about how
he kind of allowed men,

and women alike,

to shed some of
these Victorian ideas

about sexual repression,
and to allow men and women

to enjoy sex, and to be
open, and to be sexual.

Fairly quickly, I think
another wave of feminist began

to show how Hugh Hefner
used the language

of sexual freedom almost
in order to coerce women

to participate and be
sexually available to men.

And I think that is becoming
a more dominant interpretation

of his legacy today.

Today,
though it's hard

to accurately track since

so many companies
are privately held,

It's estimated that
the adult industry

is worth nearly 15
billion dollars a year.

That's more than total
domestic box office receipts,

Major League
Baseball, or the NBA.

And the contraceptive industry
is worth another 5.8 billion.

American culture is defined by

at least one
fundamental tension,

and that is the freedom
to make decisions about

living your life and treating
your body, how you want.

And also a kind of
deep Protestant ethic

about not indulging,
especially around sex.

Is it American to say
my body, my business,

I can do whatever I want,

and what my money
can buy is A-okay?

Or, is it American to say I
resist all of this to be pure?

And that's been with us
for a really long time.

As people's
sexual mores change,

there were always those people

who were kind of pushing up
the boundaries against this

to deny is a normal
human behavior.

Thanks
in part to Sin City,

legalized gambling has spread
across the country and online.

Today, the gambling
industry is worth

more than 53 billion dollars
in the United States alone.

Gambling, listen,
there's no secret.

The odds are with the house.

You ever go to Las Vegas?

You know, you see they
have 5,000 room hotels

that they've built, right?

It's absolutely
incredible what's happened

in Las Vegas over
the last 50 years.

Well, it used to be
you had to find a bookie,

now in the Palm of your hand,

you can make a
bet with a iPhone.

You can do it on the subway,

you can do it from your home,
you can do it at the beach.

You can make a bet
anytime, anywhere, 24/7.

And I think given the
opportunity to practice vices,

we're gonna practice vices.

Despite
the inherent dangers,

the global tobacco market is
still worth $760 billion today.

And thanks to pioneers
like Adolphus Busch,

Jack Daniel, and Nearest Green,

in the United States
alone, the alcohol industry

is worth over $222 billion.

Whether it's 1890 or 2022,

it's incredibly difficult
to grow a business

into a national, let
alone global, entity.

Most businesses start small
and remain relatively small.

Jack Daniels, you know,

they were just making
whiskey down in the south

and they were able
to market themselves

and slowly grow,
and grow, and grow,

and now it's a brand that's
known all over the world.

It's impossible
to envision America

without Anheuser-Busch.

I mean, Budweiser, I mean,

that's the beer of America
forever, and ever, and ever.

So when you say
Anheuser-Busch,

I can see the Budweiser
can in my head.

I can see the eagle
spinning around like this.

Anheuser-Busch
put themselves out

there as the beer
version of Superman.

You know, we are
a truth, justice,

and the American way, and check
out these horses.

For more
than a hundred years,

those who believe in
the freedom to indulge

have battled those who seek
freedom from temptation.

When all these industries
began there were no regulations.

It was the wild, wild west.

And I think over time,
we've educated ourselves.

We realized the
good and the bad.

And, you know,
we've kind of turned

to a society where
we're in the middle.

The truth is,
the fight may never end.

I don't think vices are
inherently good or bad

and they move so fluidly
throughout history.

I mean, just one example,

it was illegal to go to a
baseball game, in New York City,

up until 1919.

It was illegal to play golf
in New York state until 1950.

Marijuana was this horrible drug

from the 1930s till
about a week ago

and now 20 states
have legalized it.

I mean, perceptions change.