Olaf
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Came across this on the net. Thought some of you might find it interesting.
________________________
From the January 18, 2001 Edition
The English Beat
As many as 30,000 Brits have moved to Sin City -- who are they and why are they here?
By Bryan Haraway (lasvegasweekly@lasvegasweekly.com)
It's hard to say how many Brits like me call Vegas their home. Estimates range from a conservative few thousand to 30,000, depending on whom you talk to. But the British presence is easily seen and heard. Vegas' premier English pub, the Crown and Anchor, for example, was voted the city's best bar by Rolling Stone magazine; and there are enough British stores in town to keep us in tea bags and baked beans for a long, long time.
All this despite the fact that it's no easy task for bona fide Brits like me and my boyfriend to live here as legal citizens. Without a Social Security number and the various required work cards, Vegas doesn't exactly take kindly to illegal aliens.
But for those entranced by the 24-hour razzle-dazzle of Sin City, the sacrifices necessary to live here are of minor consequence; some determined Britons spend cash on scams and lawyers, while others convince natives to marry them--if only temporarily. The British presence in Vegas, then, is strong, and growing all the time.
So why Vegas? If America as a whole seems like the land of opportunity to the British, then Las Vegas takes that to a whole different level. Vegas is a popular holiday destination for Brits, and, once bitten, many decide to make it their own. Nellis Air Force Base is home to many British women who fell in love with and married men once stationed in England. There is also a large percentage of British refugees from California, many brought over by the entertainment industry.
Actually, most reasons are the same as those that prompt so many Americans to move here and that have made Vegas the fastest-growing major city in the United States.
Explains Jon Carpenter, a London native whose local business helps out other companies in trouble: "I worked for IBM in the UK, making a lot of money. But you reach a certain level where if you're from the wrong side of the tracks, you get held back.
"I had the education and everything but couldn't progress. I came to the States in '77 on vacation, met a couple of business guys and realized I could make a lot more money here. So, three weeks after I got back, I sold my house and car and was back over here. I started in Los Angeles. The money I'd brought over here dwindled down and down, and I ended up working illegally as a waiter. I did jobs under the table until I met an attorney friend who sorted out my immigration. I finally got my green card and met Del, (Carpenter's wife) a month later. All that money spent and I ended up marrying an American!"
The belief that you can make something for yourself in Vegas also appealed to Bryan Myers, another Londoner, who decided he "didn't want to be a 50-year-old cabby" and set up several businesses here, including the British Grocery Store (Decatur and Desert Inn) and the online www.britishgrocers.com.
Bryan makes a good profit from the "several thousand" British people on his mailing list in Vegas. They'll pop by to stock up on the 50 or so staple products (baked beans, pies, tea bags, bacon) that expatriates just can't live without.
Also doing good business providing home comforts is Nick Jones, who does a great line in British bangers (sausages) and other meat products that American supermarkets do not stock.
Thriving British businesses in Vegas mean that we can get so many of the things we long for, but without the rain. You can get a pint of full-strength/full-taste beer at one of two British pubs in Las Vegas, the Crown and Anchor (1350 E. Tropicana Ave.) and Mad Dogs and Englishmen (515 S. Las Vegas Blvd.). Both may be owned by Americans, but they serve as meeting spots for many Brits, whether they're vacationing or living here. There also is a real, not just themed, Irish bar--J.C. Wooloughan's, in Summerlin.
Everything English
The Crown and Anchor is the home and sponsor of Vegas' very own rugby team, made up of Irish (center from Dublin, halfback from Belfast), Scottish, English, Aussies, Yanks, South Africans and New Zealanders. The Las Vegas Blackjacks play in league matches every Saturday from December through May at the UNLV rugby ground.
The guys train three nights a week, followed by a pint or two at the pub. Team manager Randy Lee Lionberger says his coaching style is, "attack, attack, attack; when in doubt, attack;" and Vegas is usually the favored team on dry ground. (Obviously, they've not had much practice in wet weather conditions.) Though the team is pretty full, they welcome fellow ex-pats with open arms and are always looking for good new players. You can call Randy at 796-3366 if you are interested in participating.
For a true taste of olde England, though, I'd recommend a visit to the Antique Cafe and Tea Room (on Trop and Jones, inside the Sampler Shoppes), which is owned by Caroline, originally from Portsmouth, and Kathleen, from Stoke on Trent. These two ladies are living their dreams in Las Vegas and creating a social hub where anyone British can grab a Ploughmans lunch and a cup of tea, and find a friendly ear. It's a friendly little place; time permitting, Kathleen will even sing music-hall-style at your table. She also hires herself out as Mary Poppins for children's parties.
Meanwhile, increasing numbers of British television programs are being bought by U.S. networks, which also makes us feel a little more at home. Though the English television seen here used to be the kind of rubbish that only gets shown back home on Saturday afternoons--"Last of the Summer Wine," "Keeping Up Appearances," and generally anything starring old folks--the times, they are a-changing.
Two excellent new British series are about to start on the Bravo Network on Friday nights. The first, Louis Theroux's "Weird Weekends," is an eye-opener for any American who wonders exactly what we think of you guys and some of the stranger cultural stuff you indulge in. The second new show, "Smack the Pony," is quite possibly the funniest show on British TV in years; it's an absurd female comedy-sketch show. There is a good chance that some Americans may not understand (or get turned on by) the humor; but, hey, most Brits don't get "Seinfeld," either. Our appreciation of comedic style is one of the major differences between us.
Python and the rest
A friend over here reckons that the differences in our humor goes like this: The British variety is more slapstick, pronounced, physical comedy--meaning that it is too heavy-handed for many Americans. Your comedy, however, is more slick and clever, more underhanded and behind your back. This, my friend reckons, makes it difficult for Americans to give new British shows a chance. While she adored Comedy Central's "Absolutely Fabulous," many Americans just couldn't get into it at all.
But so many shows do cross over. "The Simpsons" (as well as "Friends") is shown every day back home, too; and our Friday nights on English Channel 4 are dedicated purely to American comedies like "Frasier," "Cybil" and the like. Strangely enough, though, it has been a long time since anyone in the UK has heard of Benny Hill; but he seems to have a good following over here. It is certainly true that Monty Python managed to bridge any cultural comedic barriers, as well.
British kids, too, are brought up on American television, through "90210," "The Fresh Prince" and even "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." We are bottle-fed American culture; we envy the kind of life Americans lead from an early age--the facts, for example, that American kids don't have to wear school uniforms, that they have proms, and that, theoretically , they can grow up to be president.
The same thing happens the other way, of course. Americans think the British are cool, etc.; and this makes for a lot of interest in travel/habitation on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Our cultures are at many points similar, and that makes for easy transitions with plenty of excitement along the way.
There are groups and gatherings throughout Vegas that provide support to British expatriates, tying together national groups to preserve and celebrate their cultures. Most of these groups tend to be targeted at the older British population, considered by some to be stuffy. But the sheer size of these groups--the Saint Andrews Society of Southern Nevada, for example, has some 200 families as members--suggests that they are an integral part of the British community here.
These support networks are vital to those Brits who find themselves in Vegas because they followed their husbands or families, especially the Air Force wives stationed at Nellis. Las Vegas can be a lonely city, and, as Rita Kreeger, of the British Friendship Club, explains, there are "not such great links" at Nellis for wives--like there are at other U.S. Air Force bases with similar British female populations.
Way back when
Many members of groups like the Daughters of the British Empire were brought to Vegas as dancers and performers back in the days when they were needed to ride camels across the stage and hang out with the Mafia. This is not to say that performers are not brought over now; at least five performers here with the Cirque du Soleil are British, for example. Says Sonia Faulds-Kara, one of the original British showgirls, "I was working in Paris as a Bluebell, and I came over and worked the Stardust, then the Desert Inn, the Sahara." Sonia also will tell you that there were a lot of other English showgirls here in the old days. "Yes, especially at the Trop, The Dunes, The Desert Inn and The Stardust," she says. "It was wonderful, because there weren't many people in town then."
"Except the Mafia," adds Leslie Faulds, Sonia's sister, who has been living here for 23 years. She used to come to Vegas to stay on school holidays, and she never wanted to leave the sunshine. So she made the decision to make her life here. "I am an American citizen," she notes proudly. "I think that if you work here, you make money here, you're obligated to invest yourself. You have an allegiance."
Leslie sees Vegas as a town full of opportunity, and she is setting up a financial planning business with fellow Brit Christine DeCorte, who was brought to "the land of milk and honey" as a child.
A breed apart
What kind of British people relocate to Vegas? "The English people here are not like the English people back home," says Jon Carpenter. "They're adventuresome, gregarious; they're fun--everything that they aren't back home."
And you'd have to be pretty adventuresome to put yourself through the ordeal of achieving U.S. citizenship. The Brits I've encountered here embrace American culture and are so happy to call Vegas their home, but they don't want to forget about the culture they left behind.
If you pop into the British Grocery Store, Pauline, who works as cashier, still talks about the Royal Family; and we Brits still have our obsession with the weather. (You'd understand if your weather were as atrocious as ours.) We also love to gossip about this and that. People who have lived here for years still insist on Typhoo tea, and they love a good Sunday roast. The inner Brit, then, doesn't fade away, but rather adapts and moulds between the two cultures. People are proud of their accents and hang onto them despite having lived here for 20, 30 or 40 years.
Pretty much every British expatriate you talk to tells you of the struggle to get residence/citizenship in the United States, but few regret the decision, no matter how much money and heartache it cost them. But for those without the money to hire a hot immigration lawyer or the desire to marry for a green card, staying in Las Vegas is difficult, to say the least. Even with an employer sponsoring you, the fight is hard; and people must go to great lengths to prove that the jobs they've found could not be filled by an American, as is required for a visa. Even if this can be proved, the process can take years.
Sally, in her mid-20s, is from Manchester but wants desperately to live here permanently. After all, she already has a job as a club promoter and an apartment she loves. But, you cannot just file with the INS and ask them how you can stay legally. They will tell you that you can't, unless you marry a resident. So Sally has to leave the country every three months and re-enter; every time, it's a gamble as to whether she will be allowed re-entry.
The payoff?
Why here, and why go to all this hassle? "Back home, there are a hundred people with the same skills and qualifications, all going for the same jobs," Sally says. "But, here, it's different. They need people with skill and talent. Las Vegas is where you shine with those qualities. I love my standard of living out here; couldn't think about going back".
The standard of living is a major draw to Las Vegas for many Brits. Here, if you earn a modest income, you can get a nice house with plenty of land around it; and you can afford to drive something fairly stylish. Property prices in the UK, by contrast, verge on the ridiculous: You can expect to pay around $1,000 minimum per month to rent a one-bedroom in London; and there are very few new properties to buy--ours is a small, overcrowded island. As for a car, forget about it: Fuel is over $6 a gallon--leading to recent strike by drivers that brought Britain to a standstill.
What it comes down to, though, is that Brits simply love Las Vegas, as Jon Carpenter will attest: "I think Las Vegas is sensational, because it's got everything that I want. The golf is great; I'm a tennis player; I'm a poker player; and the weather is conducive to all those things. It's really a great place to be. Unlike London, where you are living on top of everyone, here you have space to breathe. You have a good lifestyle here; and it's relatively cheap; and everything is 24 hours a day.
There is nowhere in the UK, or even Europe, that you can compare to Las Vegas. The vast differences in our cultures are as appealing as the similarities. The British are brought up on Americana; we are as sold on the American dream as Americans are--maybe more. And we are willing to work hard to get our piece of the action.
So, yes, we Brits flock to Vegas for everything it offers, not just to escape the terrible weather back home.
________________________
From the January 18, 2001 Edition
The English Beat
As many as 30,000 Brits have moved to Sin City -- who are they and why are they here?
By Bryan Haraway (lasvegasweekly@lasvegasweekly.com)
It's hard to say how many Brits like me call Vegas their home. Estimates range from a conservative few thousand to 30,000, depending on whom you talk to. But the British presence is easily seen and heard. Vegas' premier English pub, the Crown and Anchor, for example, was voted the city's best bar by Rolling Stone magazine; and there are enough British stores in town to keep us in tea bags and baked beans for a long, long time.
All this despite the fact that it's no easy task for bona fide Brits like me and my boyfriend to live here as legal citizens. Without a Social Security number and the various required work cards, Vegas doesn't exactly take kindly to illegal aliens.
But for those entranced by the 24-hour razzle-dazzle of Sin City, the sacrifices necessary to live here are of minor consequence; some determined Britons spend cash on scams and lawyers, while others convince natives to marry them--if only temporarily. The British presence in Vegas, then, is strong, and growing all the time.
So why Vegas? If America as a whole seems like the land of opportunity to the British, then Las Vegas takes that to a whole different level. Vegas is a popular holiday destination for Brits, and, once bitten, many decide to make it their own. Nellis Air Force Base is home to many British women who fell in love with and married men once stationed in England. There is also a large percentage of British refugees from California, many brought over by the entertainment industry.
Actually, most reasons are the same as those that prompt so many Americans to move here and that have made Vegas the fastest-growing major city in the United States.
Explains Jon Carpenter, a London native whose local business helps out other companies in trouble: "I worked for IBM in the UK, making a lot of money. But you reach a certain level where if you're from the wrong side of the tracks, you get held back.
"I had the education and everything but couldn't progress. I came to the States in '77 on vacation, met a couple of business guys and realized I could make a lot more money here. So, three weeks after I got back, I sold my house and car and was back over here. I started in Los Angeles. The money I'd brought over here dwindled down and down, and I ended up working illegally as a waiter. I did jobs under the table until I met an attorney friend who sorted out my immigration. I finally got my green card and met Del, (Carpenter's wife) a month later. All that money spent and I ended up marrying an American!"
The belief that you can make something for yourself in Vegas also appealed to Bryan Myers, another Londoner, who decided he "didn't want to be a 50-year-old cabby" and set up several businesses here, including the British Grocery Store (Decatur and Desert Inn) and the online www.britishgrocers.com.
Bryan makes a good profit from the "several thousand" British people on his mailing list in Vegas. They'll pop by to stock up on the 50 or so staple products (baked beans, pies, tea bags, bacon) that expatriates just can't live without.
Also doing good business providing home comforts is Nick Jones, who does a great line in British bangers (sausages) and other meat products that American supermarkets do not stock.
Thriving British businesses in Vegas mean that we can get so many of the things we long for, but without the rain. You can get a pint of full-strength/full-taste beer at one of two British pubs in Las Vegas, the Crown and Anchor (1350 E. Tropicana Ave.) and Mad Dogs and Englishmen (515 S. Las Vegas Blvd.). Both may be owned by Americans, but they serve as meeting spots for many Brits, whether they're vacationing or living here. There also is a real, not just themed, Irish bar--J.C. Wooloughan's, in Summerlin.
Everything English
The Crown and Anchor is the home and sponsor of Vegas' very own rugby team, made up of Irish (center from Dublin, halfback from Belfast), Scottish, English, Aussies, Yanks, South Africans and New Zealanders. The Las Vegas Blackjacks play in league matches every Saturday from December through May at the UNLV rugby ground.
The guys train three nights a week, followed by a pint or two at the pub. Team manager Randy Lee Lionberger says his coaching style is, "attack, attack, attack; when in doubt, attack;" and Vegas is usually the favored team on dry ground. (Obviously, they've not had much practice in wet weather conditions.) Though the team is pretty full, they welcome fellow ex-pats with open arms and are always looking for good new players. You can call Randy at 796-3366 if you are interested in participating.
For a true taste of olde England, though, I'd recommend a visit to the Antique Cafe and Tea Room (on Trop and Jones, inside the Sampler Shoppes), which is owned by Caroline, originally from Portsmouth, and Kathleen, from Stoke on Trent. These two ladies are living their dreams in Las Vegas and creating a social hub where anyone British can grab a Ploughmans lunch and a cup of tea, and find a friendly ear. It's a friendly little place; time permitting, Kathleen will even sing music-hall-style at your table. She also hires herself out as Mary Poppins for children's parties.
Meanwhile, increasing numbers of British television programs are being bought by U.S. networks, which also makes us feel a little more at home. Though the English television seen here used to be the kind of rubbish that only gets shown back home on Saturday afternoons--"Last of the Summer Wine," "Keeping Up Appearances," and generally anything starring old folks--the times, they are a-changing.
Two excellent new British series are about to start on the Bravo Network on Friday nights. The first, Louis Theroux's "Weird Weekends," is an eye-opener for any American who wonders exactly what we think of you guys and some of the stranger cultural stuff you indulge in. The second new show, "Smack the Pony," is quite possibly the funniest show on British TV in years; it's an absurd female comedy-sketch show. There is a good chance that some Americans may not understand (or get turned on by) the humor; but, hey, most Brits don't get "Seinfeld," either. Our appreciation of comedic style is one of the major differences between us.
Python and the rest
A friend over here reckons that the differences in our humor goes like this: The British variety is more slapstick, pronounced, physical comedy--meaning that it is too heavy-handed for many Americans. Your comedy, however, is more slick and clever, more underhanded and behind your back. This, my friend reckons, makes it difficult for Americans to give new British shows a chance. While she adored Comedy Central's "Absolutely Fabulous," many Americans just couldn't get into it at all.
But so many shows do cross over. "The Simpsons" (as well as "Friends") is shown every day back home, too; and our Friday nights on English Channel 4 are dedicated purely to American comedies like "Frasier," "Cybil" and the like. Strangely enough, though, it has been a long time since anyone in the UK has heard of Benny Hill; but he seems to have a good following over here. It is certainly true that Monty Python managed to bridge any cultural comedic barriers, as well.
British kids, too, are brought up on American television, through "90210," "The Fresh Prince" and even "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." We are bottle-fed American culture; we envy the kind of life Americans lead from an early age--the facts, for example, that American kids don't have to wear school uniforms, that they have proms, and that, theoretically , they can grow up to be president.
The same thing happens the other way, of course. Americans think the British are cool, etc.; and this makes for a lot of interest in travel/habitation on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Our cultures are at many points similar, and that makes for easy transitions with plenty of excitement along the way.
There are groups and gatherings throughout Vegas that provide support to British expatriates, tying together national groups to preserve and celebrate their cultures. Most of these groups tend to be targeted at the older British population, considered by some to be stuffy. But the sheer size of these groups--the Saint Andrews Society of Southern Nevada, for example, has some 200 families as members--suggests that they are an integral part of the British community here.
These support networks are vital to those Brits who find themselves in Vegas because they followed their husbands or families, especially the Air Force wives stationed at Nellis. Las Vegas can be a lonely city, and, as Rita Kreeger, of the British Friendship Club, explains, there are "not such great links" at Nellis for wives--like there are at other U.S. Air Force bases with similar British female populations.
Way back when
Many members of groups like the Daughters of the British Empire were brought to Vegas as dancers and performers back in the days when they were needed to ride camels across the stage and hang out with the Mafia. This is not to say that performers are not brought over now; at least five performers here with the Cirque du Soleil are British, for example. Says Sonia Faulds-Kara, one of the original British showgirls, "I was working in Paris as a Bluebell, and I came over and worked the Stardust, then the Desert Inn, the Sahara." Sonia also will tell you that there were a lot of other English showgirls here in the old days. "Yes, especially at the Trop, The Dunes, The Desert Inn and The Stardust," she says. "It was wonderful, because there weren't many people in town then."
"Except the Mafia," adds Leslie Faulds, Sonia's sister, who has been living here for 23 years. She used to come to Vegas to stay on school holidays, and she never wanted to leave the sunshine. So she made the decision to make her life here. "I am an American citizen," she notes proudly. "I think that if you work here, you make money here, you're obligated to invest yourself. You have an allegiance."
Leslie sees Vegas as a town full of opportunity, and she is setting up a financial planning business with fellow Brit Christine DeCorte, who was brought to "the land of milk and honey" as a child.
A breed apart
What kind of British people relocate to Vegas? "The English people here are not like the English people back home," says Jon Carpenter. "They're adventuresome, gregarious; they're fun--everything that they aren't back home."
And you'd have to be pretty adventuresome to put yourself through the ordeal of achieving U.S. citizenship. The Brits I've encountered here embrace American culture and are so happy to call Vegas their home, but they don't want to forget about the culture they left behind.
If you pop into the British Grocery Store, Pauline, who works as cashier, still talks about the Royal Family; and we Brits still have our obsession with the weather. (You'd understand if your weather were as atrocious as ours.) We also love to gossip about this and that. People who have lived here for years still insist on Typhoo tea, and they love a good Sunday roast. The inner Brit, then, doesn't fade away, but rather adapts and moulds between the two cultures. People are proud of their accents and hang onto them despite having lived here for 20, 30 or 40 years.
Pretty much every British expatriate you talk to tells you of the struggle to get residence/citizenship in the United States, but few regret the decision, no matter how much money and heartache it cost them. But for those without the money to hire a hot immigration lawyer or the desire to marry for a green card, staying in Las Vegas is difficult, to say the least. Even with an employer sponsoring you, the fight is hard; and people must go to great lengths to prove that the jobs they've found could not be filled by an American, as is required for a visa. Even if this can be proved, the process can take years.
Sally, in her mid-20s, is from Manchester but wants desperately to live here permanently. After all, she already has a job as a club promoter and an apartment she loves. But, you cannot just file with the INS and ask them how you can stay legally. They will tell you that you can't, unless you marry a resident. So Sally has to leave the country every three months and re-enter; every time, it's a gamble as to whether she will be allowed re-entry.
The payoff?
Why here, and why go to all this hassle? "Back home, there are a hundred people with the same skills and qualifications, all going for the same jobs," Sally says. "But, here, it's different. They need people with skill and talent. Las Vegas is where you shine with those qualities. I love my standard of living out here; couldn't think about going back".
The standard of living is a major draw to Las Vegas for many Brits. Here, if you earn a modest income, you can get a nice house with plenty of land around it; and you can afford to drive something fairly stylish. Property prices in the UK, by contrast, verge on the ridiculous: You can expect to pay around $1,000 minimum per month to rent a one-bedroom in London; and there are very few new properties to buy--ours is a small, overcrowded island. As for a car, forget about it: Fuel is over $6 a gallon--leading to recent strike by drivers that brought Britain to a standstill.
What it comes down to, though, is that Brits simply love Las Vegas, as Jon Carpenter will attest: "I think Las Vegas is sensational, because it's got everything that I want. The golf is great; I'm a tennis player; I'm a poker player; and the weather is conducive to all those things. It's really a great place to be. Unlike London, where you are living on top of everyone, here you have space to breathe. You have a good lifestyle here; and it's relatively cheap; and everything is 24 hours a day.
There is nowhere in the UK, or even Europe, that you can compare to Las Vegas. The vast differences in our cultures are as appealing as the similarities. The British are brought up on Americana; we are as sold on the American dream as Americans are--maybe more. And we are willing to work hard to get our piece of the action.
So, yes, we Brits flock to Vegas for everything it offers, not just to escape the terrible weather back home.
