♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon, coming to you from the Historic Fifth Street School in Las Vegas where, in November, the city unveiled a new statue of its former mayor, Oscar Goodman.

Las Vegans elected the criminal defense attorney, who represented some of the mob's most infamous, to the maximum limit of three 4-year terms.

Now considered by some as Las Vegas' number one ambassador, Mayor Oscar Goodman, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

(Oscar Goodman) Well, it's great being with you.

Of course, the best mayor we ever had is my wife.

-And we are going to be talking about her ahead.

-Okay.

-But first, your thoughts on the statue?

-Well, I think somebody went over there, and they drank my gin out of the glass.

[laughter] That's the only thing that bothers me.

We're trying to keep the homeless out of this area, but it's almost like a magnet that attracts them.

And it's not the beautiful face that the statue has, it's that martini glass.

-You are hardly seen without a martini, but it's morning, so-- -Well, that has never stopped me before.

Sometimes I don't know whether I'm winding up my day when I have a drink in my hand at 9 o'clock in the morning or whether I'm beginning my day, but whatever it is, I'm a happy camper.

-How many martinis do you drink in a day?

-Too many.

Too many, but it's good because it helps my brain.

I have one of the biggest brains that maybe ever was, and I am convinced that it's as a result of drinking the gin that the brain cells are as big as they are.

-All right.

I'm not sure doctors would agree with that.

-Well, nobody's argued with me.

A couple of doctors even want to have a drink with me.

[laughter] -Okay, well, back when you were representing some of the members of the mafia, like "Lefty" Rosenthal-- -Alleged, alleged.

-Alleged.

You know, I'm glad you said that, because when I'm reading to study up on coverage of you, some choose to say alleged, but very few do not.

-Well, I sort of put them on notice that I've never considered my clients to be guilty.

And when they call and say that they're mobsters, they're alleged mobsters.

And as a matter of fact, whenever they appeared in court, the judge thought that "alleged" was part of their name because I insisted that the judge refer to them as an alleged defendant.

-Okay, so alleged mobsters like "Lefty" Rosenthal, Meyer Lansky, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, when you were representing them, back to martinis, the three-martini lunch was quite popular back then.

-It was popular, but I never drank during the daytime when I was actively practicing law.

I've seen too many lawyers hurt their clients by having that three-martini lunch and go back into court.

They're half asleep if they're not fully asleep, and they certainly don't perform the way a good lawyer should perform.

-How much did you socialize with those guys?

-I never socialized with them.

The only time I went out to dinner with them was after we won a case and then we had a party.

-Okay, and why did you choose not to socialize?

-Well, my wife.

She was my rudder and made sure that I stayed on the straight and narrow.

It's so easy for a young lawyer to get enamored with the Damon Runyonesque lifestyle that these fellas had-- always had a wad of money, always had beautiful women around them, fur coats, the whole works.

And to a young lawyer who didn't have two cents-- well, I had $87 between my wife and myself when we got here, but we really didn't have any money-- and my eyes popped out of my head.

And it's so easy to fall into a trap.

And she said, "Don't become your client."

And I followed that advice throughout my entire practice.

-Of all the alleged mobsters you represented, who made the biggest impression on you?

-Well, I liked them all, as I say.

I liked Tony Spilotro even though the government said he killed 27 people.

Never was convicted of anything.

So that's their problem, not my problem.

I mean, they're the ones who are supposed to convict them.

Lefty Rosenthal, or Frank Rosenthal, you didn't call him Lefty to his face.

He was a genius when it came to setting up the race and sportsbooks, which you are well familiar with, at the old Stardust Hotel.

He revolutionized the entire gambling industry in that respect, and he brought the Siegfried & Roy show over there and really made it into the place to be.

And now it's no longer there, of course, there's another facility, but he was a very good client.

-All right.

Well, let's move to your transition into politics.

There are plenty of attorneys who become politicians, but it's hard to find an example of a criminal defense attorney who goes into politics.

How do you rationalize that you were able to do that?

-I don't know.

There's no difference really in what you're supposed to do, both as an attorney and as a elected official.

I never thought of myself as a politician, because I never was in politics.

So when I ran, I ran with the idea that Las Vegas had been very good to me and my family, and I wanted to pay it back.

As cliche as that sounds, that's the reason that I ran.

Plus the fact that I tried every kind of case.

I represented our federal judge in an impeachment trial back in Washington before the Senate.

I represented Chagra in the murder trial of a judge.

The alpha and omega.

So I had done everything.

And one morning I woke up, not to this beautiful face-- [telephone rings] -Someone calling you?

-Can you believe it?

Somebody during this unbelievably great interview is-- -Well, you're-- -Wait.

I want to see who is doing this on your time.

-You're a popular man.

-Oh, it's Phoenix.

-Okay.

Yeah.

-They'll wait.

-My home city.

-That's correct.

[laughter] -I'm sorry.

Pardon me.

-Well, we can continue to record, right?

We're all good?

(Videographer Justin Grant) Yeah, we're still rolling.

We could go back to the last question and pick it up from there?

-Well, I think I'm just going to continue right now and see where we go.

-Good.

I'm sorry about that.

-Why was Phoenix calling you?

-Why?

They wanted to know who I had last night, whether I had Georgia or whether I had TCU.

-Talking about the National College Football Championship.

-Yes.

And after they hear who I had, they're not going to be asking me who I think is going to win the Super Bowl because I would not rely on me now.

-Could you have ever imagined that gambling, sports betting would be legal in Phoenix?

-No.

No.

I feel that I think the way David Stern, the Commissioner of the NBA, felt when I went to him to get the NBA here.

"Las Vegas will never have professional sports betting unless it's over my dead body."

I said, I could arrange that, Commissioner.

And after that, we had a nice friendship.

-Did you ever get a chance to speak with him-- -Yes.

- --and say-- Did you say, I told you so?

-I did.

You know, I'm a very bad winner.

I have to rub-- I have to rub "I wins" into the loser's face, and he was a loser-- a nice loser, a very curmudgeonly nice loser.

But I let him know, You were wrong, Commissioner.

Look, look at what this town has become.

-I'll say!

Okay, so back to when you were running for mayor the first time.

According to Vegas Legal Magazine , you-- -That's a great source.

- --embraced transparency in your campaign.

-Oh, I was telling you.

-You spoke openly in a debate about how you had never been to City Hall, about drinking too much, and even labeling yourself a degenerate gambler.

-Well, they were all true.

-Who told you to go about that way, that approach?

-Well, I guess it came naturally.

But what had happened is when I filed, the first thing my opponents did, they called for a debate.

And they had a straw man appear in the audience who was going to come forward and say, Isn't it a fact, Mr. Goodman, that you've never been to City Hall?

I said, Well, you got the fact right.

Let me tell you-- Oh, I said, Don't walk away from me.

You asked me a question.

Now come up to the microphone, and I'm going to answer your question.

Well, this was up at Sun City, and they had all these inveterate voters there.

They were shocked that somebody running for office would speak that way.

And you're supposed to-- I guess you're supposed to be nicer than that, but this guy called me out.

And I said, I'll tell you that.

I've never been in City Hall.

There was no reason for me to be; I had no cases in City Hall.

I drink.

Just don't call me after 5 o'clock because I won't remember a darn thing you told me, although I'll sound like I'm lucid.

And as far as gambling is concerned, you see that cockroach over there?

If that cockroach, I would bet it would go left or right if you wanted to put money on it.

[laughter] So I guess I am degenerate.

That's all right.

Nobody has as much fun as I have, though.

-How much do you think playing yourself in the Martin Scorsese film Casino helped you maybe have an edge in that election?

-Well, I don't know about having an edge there, but it's remarkable because here I had all those great cases and I'm traveling all over the country and I developed a reputation as a decent lawyer and I would go into an airport and you would say, Oh, well, there's Oscar Goodman, not the lawyer, he's the guy in Casino .

They still do it.

-Yeah.

-It's remarkable.

Even though I got a couple of more wrinkles than I had in those days.

-You and the current mayor are married.

According to the City of Las Vegas, the only example, known example in the United States of a spouse succeeding a spouse as mayor.

How special is that to you?

-Well, that was the highlight of my, my stay as the mayor, that I was able to swear Carolyn in.

She's-- The City doesn't realize how lucky they are.

She's not running again, because she's term limited.

-Right.

-So I don't have to say nice things about her, but she's a remarkable woman.

She is so different than me.

She-- she doesn't drink to excess.

She doesn't bet on games.

She doesn't run around.

She doesn't-- She's serious.

I mean, she actually works at City Hall.

-Do you run around?

-I run around the merry-go-round.

[laughter] -Okay.

And you know, unlike you, because of some changes at the state level, she will have served 13 years compared to your 12.

And I think she doesn't let you forget that, right?

-No.

That was the happiest day of her life.

I think she called a press conference.

She said, I finally beat him.

I finally beat him.

I'm gonna be the mayor 13 years, and he only did 12.

And she was so happy.

She, she was so happy.

I'm just happy for her because she loves the job.

She loves the city.

A lot of things have to be done here to make it a better place.

She has her little projects.

Right now she's banging the drum to widen the highway from here to Los Angeles, Southern California, to make the traffic of the trucks a lot smoother coming into town, and our visitors coming into town.

And she does it-- She met with Landrieu, Mitch Landrieu who had been the mayor of New Orleans, and he came up to her office-- and I happen to know him, and I went up there to see him-- and she pleaded with him because he's involved with Buttigieg as far as transportation is concerned.

And she's called all the politicians who have anything to do with transportation, and say it's to everybody's benefit.

It's to the benefit of the country to be able to have that highway open so the traffic could go back and forth.

And she has meeting after meeting, phone call after phone call.

I give her a lot of credit because she does not quit.

-And I just want to summarize.

So you had mentioned to Las Vegas Weekly that you hit the trifecta: culture, medicine, and sports.

Sports she was able to accomplish with getting the Vegas Golden Knights in as the first major league professional team.

But culture and medicine, you're responsible for helping get Lou Ruvo Center, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center.

-I'm not going to tell you I'm responsible, but Larry Ruvo, who built this phenomenal facility which addresses neurodegenerative diseases, is a friend of mine.

And he was going to have the Alzheimer's facility, the Brain Institute, out at 215 and Jones in that area where he had some property, and I went to him and I said, Larry, please, this could be the keystone or the cornerstone of what we're trying to do as far as our redevelopment of downtown.

And he did me a favor, and it worked out of course, because we have a beautiful Frank Gehry designed building.

They brought in the finest physicians.

-And the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

-Smith Center for Performing Arts.

We went all over the world basically looking at various centers, Don Schneider, Myra Martin, and myself, some other people who had been trying to get it on for years.

And we just gave them a piece of land, and now it's as fine a performing arts center as there is in the country.

-Oscar Goodman, thank you so much for joining-- -Is that all?

-That is all.

--Nevada Week In Person.

-You got me up early in the morning for this?

[laughter] -Hey, now.

You're hurting my feelings.

-Well, you took me away from my gin.

[laughter] -Okay.

Well, there are plenty hours left in the day.

-All right!

I knew I liked this Amber.

There's something about her.

-A bright side, okay.

For more Nevada Week In Person, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.