There’s nothing better than a good read, and first-time author Heidi Loeb Hegerich has turned out an explosive potboiler and page-turner packed with sex, violence, skullduggery, glamour and crime. She swears it is all true, having lived through it as an underage runaway Las Vegas showgirl who lived on the Strip in the swinging 1960s.
To protect the innocent, Heidi’s memoir “Love Target” is fictional but based entirely on her real-life exploits — and she names names. The book spans her life from 1958 through 1979. Her colorful cast of headliners and high rollers includes Elvis Presley and Harry Belafonte. The former New York model and self-described mistress to the rich and famous now lives a quieter entrepreneur’s life in Reno as a business executive and real estate developer.
In a candid, no-hold’s-barred interview, Heidi, now in her late 60s, spilled the beans of her innocence and then struggle to find independence and true love at the height of Las Vegas’ classically cool era. It’s a world of schemers and dreamers, crazy underworld characters and swinging nightclubs.
Why did you decide to write it and tell all in novel form?
It is the story of my life, but I made it a fiction. I needed to write it. I decided to three years ago. I’m from Munich, Germany, and I came to this country as a very young girl — 15 1/2 years old. I ran away from home at 16 1/2, and I went to Las Vegas to become a showgirl. My parents had moved to America, and I was extremely lonely for my friends in Munich.
I didn’t like school at all. I cried every night for the first year feeling so homesick. A neighbor suggested I go to Las Vegas. I knew how to ice skate. I was in the “Ecstasy on Ice” show in the 1960s at the Thunderbird at that time.
Did you lie about your age because you were only 16 1/2 when you got here?
Yes, I did, but the owner of the hotel at the time paid somebody off, I guess. The authorities came backstage and told me I wasn’t able to work; they found out. The immigration officers came because I didn’t have a green card.
So you were let go from the show?
Yes, but only between shows. The stage manager called me and said, “Heidi, come back to work for the second show.” And I did. After the show, I had to meet Major Riddle, the owner of the hotel who made sure I could come back to work.
I also worked in Harry Belafonte’s floor show at the Riviera, in “Folies Bergere” and “Minsky’s Follies.” That was topless. I was pre-Cirque du Soleil topless on a magic carpet on a lift flown over the theater seats. All I wore was a thong. I got so many notes asking me to have drinks with every man who saw that show.
I had narrow hips. I was very slender, but I always had big boobs — 36, 24 and maybe 33. I was a natural blond, but I added some color. I think I’ve been every color under the rainbow. I’m still young at heart.
What was Las Vegas like in the swinging ’60s?
I would say it was probably the most glamorous era of its time. We showgirls were considered royalty at that time — it was fantastic.
Your character in the novel goes from Las Vegas showgirl to New York model and then mistress with a comfortable financial arrangement based on what happened to you?
I guess you could say that, but I have never asked for anything. Whatever I’ve gotten my entire life, men gave it to me. In Las Vegas, the world was our oyster, and the showgirls got into every lounge without waiting in line. People cow towed; men bought the drinks; admirers lavished with gifts. It was amazing.
When I went to New York to get out of the showgirl life at the ripe old age of 20, not wanting to end up drug addicted or an alcoholic, I met an Italian businessman in the “construction” business named Armand, an older man. I never had the concept of mistress in my mind. I was 20, so I simply thought he was being generous and giving me jewels and envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.
I thought he was doing so well in the construction business when he set me up in an apartment. But I only found out when I broke up with him that he had three or four of us girls set up in apartments in Manhattan. Of course he was not in construction. He was a racketeer that the FBI was after.
Heidi, you look back on all of it and how do you describe it? Was it just a wonderful, wild-adventure, whipped-cream lifestyle? Or were there moments when you were frightened?
Not all of it was like that, but for most parts it was. It certainly was, yes. The highs and lows are all in the book, but there is a moral to it all because it is a love story.
Did you wind up marrying any of your admirers?
I was only married once in my life. There are two reasons behind the title of the book, “Love Target.” One refers to myself as Ingrid, the character as a love target — or lust target of all these men who pursued me, including Harry Belafonte.
I was a target of love, but the other meaning, the deeper meaning, is that I was always looking for one true love. You’ll have to read the book to see if there was true love in the end. My character was looking for one true lasting love like most women do. I didn’t want to be a serial lover.
One of your other admirers was Elvis Presley. Did he woo you? Did he wine and dine you?
Yes, he did. It was a phenomenal experience. I was very young and impressed at that time, you know, being with someone like him. He would serenade me, and he gifted me his white leather jacket and he did give me a teddy bear, as well.
It was unbelievable, but there’s also a sad part to it. You know I did get pregnant, and I opted to get an abortion, which he took care of — I was only 18 at the time.
Was he a gentle lover? Was he a passionate lover?
Yes, he certainly was. But his main fault was that he ate too much for sure. I had never seen anything like it the entire time I was living in Las Vegas. I was there the first time for 2 1/2 years.
I quit show business at 20 and moved back to New York, and then in 1978 when things were at their worst in New York, when it was the biggest exodus out of the Big Apple, some of my old girlfriends said, “You know the opportunities are great here in Las Vegas, and you’d be able to get a job very easily.” So I did, I did move back for another full year.
It was only a year because I met the man who I wound up marrying, and I moved to Los Angeles. He was a very wealthy mortgage banker and quite the gentlemen. But not when I met him.
Why did you write the book on your life as a work of fiction rather than nonfiction, as it was all real? Was it easier to write it as fiction? Did that allow you to embellish a little bit?
Some of the dialogue, I would say, was easier to make up. I think just to protect some of the innocent, as well, like changing the names, because some of the people are still alive. Readers will be able to play the guessing game as to which celebrities they are. But I do name Elvis and Belafonte in the book.
Are they the only ones named in the book? Can you give me a couple of other names?
Bobby Kennedy and Armand, who really was the No. 1. Last names have been changed where appropriate. There wasn’t a physical tryst with Robert Kennedy. He dined me, but that was along with bodyguards or Secret Service. He was the attorney general then, so he asked me a lot of questions about the mob. He was after people like Armand.
You look back at it, would you change any of it?
No. It was a very colorful life. A lot of lovely memories came back once I started writing the book. The happiest was remembering when Elvis serenaded me. He said he wrote “It’s Now Or Never” for me. There are several many happy memories to do with my husband. I live in Reno now, and as a hobby my husband and I built golf courses in Reno. Unfortunately, my husband became very ill and passed away more than 11 years ago.
The state that tried to throw you out when you were 16 1/2 you now call home?
Yes. And I often make it to Las Vegas. Keep an eye on what it became since I left. I’ll be there at the end of the month again. I do my hormone replacement therapy through a doctor in Las Vegas. So I go there every four or five months, and while I’m there I’m going to see an MMA fight.
I do kickboxing for exercise, so I work out with a lot of people who are in that business. I think it’s absolutely barbaric, but entertaining. I was in Las Vegas for the era of big fights. I also got to see Muhammad Ali in person.
It’s all in the book? Nothing held back?
Go to LoveTarget.com to find it. The book is a very quick read, even though it’s 500-plus pages. There is sex, there is violence, there is skullduggery, there is glamour, and there is crime. Young showgirls were quite conniving then.
I talk about the construction business in New York and being questioned by FBI agents. Women really dangled men on a string then. Sex has always been around, but it was different in my time.
Now everything is out in the public because of social media. There’s no more privacy. I had lots of publicity. The last fellow who I was with before I met my late husband, I sort of had to escape from him, as well, and I left my trunk behind with all of my memorabilia.
All my stuff that I had received from Elvis, including my green suede slacks that just like Monica Lewinsky’s dress with Mr. Clinton had the evidence!
Let’s leave it at that! I arrived in Las Vegas as an innocent and wound up stage center in an unforgettable decade in search of a Hollywood fairytale love story.
“Love Target” is available through Amazon, Kindle and in hardback and paperback from LoveTarget.com.
Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past 15 years giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.
