Thursday, August 06, 2009

James Bond Daily: Casino Architecture

In which 007 strolls through the gaming floor of The Tiara casino hotel, on pp.135-136 of Diamonds Are Forever:
The first thing he noticed was that Las Vegas seemed to have invented a new school of functional architecture, 'The Gilded Mousetrap School' he thought it might be called, whose main purpose was to channel the customer-mouse into the central gambling trap whether he wanted the cheese or not.

There were only two entrances, one from the street outside, and one from the bedroom buildings and the swimming pool. Once you had come in through either of these, whether you wanted to buy a paper or cigarettes and the news stand, have a drink or a meal in one of the two restaurants, get your hair cut or have a massage at the 'Health Club,' or just visit the lavatories, there was no way of reaching your objective without passing between the banks of slot machines and gambling tables. And when you were trapped in the vortex of the whirring machines, amongst which there sounded always, from somewhere, the intoxicating silvery cascade of coins into a metal cup, or occasionally the golden cry of 'Jackpot!' from one of the change-girls, you were lost. Besieged by the excited back-chat from the three big craps tables, the seductive whirl of the two roulette wheels, and the clank of silver dollars across the green pools of the blackjack tables, it would be a mouse of steel who could get through without a tentative nibble at this delicious chunk of lucky cheese.
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Listening to: The Arrogants - Nothing Good Will Ever Come of This (No Drums Version)
via FoxyTunes

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