Lounge Scenes from the movie Casino

Mickey, Jim Morris passed this week. Not sure if you know of him but he was a Jimmy Buffett singer from Montana. Google him, good guy who had a brain aneurism on his way to a show. Great music and a better person who I'm lucky to have met in Key West.

I know you would like the tunes.

 

The scene in this screenshot is supposed to be of the mob owned gas station in Chicago where the skimmed money from the Las Vegas casinos was dropped off. But this scene was actually filmed in Las Vegas. They used special effects to make it appear to be Chicago. Can you name the intersection in Las Vegas where this scene was shot?

 

The key to this scene is the red sign that says "Liquor Cocktails." Thats the sign that hung over the door of Atomic Liquors in the 900 block of Fremont. The scene was shot looking west from the corner of Tenth and Fremont. Joe and Stella Sobchik owned Atomic Liquors. I knew them well. They were great people. The Atomic was my dive bar watering hole when I was in Las Vegas. Joe and Stella owned the old gas station next door. It had been closed down for years but Scorsese used it in the movie.

 

I googled him up. He's pretty good. Jimmy Buffet has Montana history. His sister has owned a big ranch in the Musselshell for decades. Jimmy used to do gigs in Livingston before he got famous. He even has a Montana song called Ringling, Ringling. Ringing is a ghost town down south of White Sulphur Springs.

 

Mick, you wouldn't know the Atomic today. Once Joe died, it was sold and is now a hipster bar as part of Fremont East. Good craft beers, but the Atomic in name only. I went there years ago after playing at the Western and was deemed credible enough to be buzzed in. They did that in the last few years as the area got worse. Great memory of old Vegas for me.