Las Vegas 1950s: What Was Las Vegas Like In The 1950's

we arrived my mother and I by train and there it was Fremont Street my first impression was seeing the Pioneer club's huge Cowboy sign saying howdy Parker there were people hustling and bustling around in the sidewalks Shaka seeing all this after coming from a place like Pueblo Colorado that's a bit overwhelming on the lights characters made my jaw drop at the dawn of its fifth decade the city of Las Vegas is Riding High but change is on the horizon in 1950 the United States is basically on top of the world and we've won World War II we've gotten through the depression men and women who fought the War have come home Las Vegas was smart at the end of the war because they realized that basic magnesium was closed the Army Air Base was closing all this Federal money that had been pumping into Las Vegas had gone away so what was it going to do Las Vegas has repeatedly made and remade itself but with every change it has been pushing forward looking for new opportunities if you're going to describe Las Vegas in the 1950s one word explosion searchlights calm the sky this explosion is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen by man it became part of our DNA this rapid development this growth this energy in the beginning we're going to become an agricultural community and that rapidly changed into the 30s where we became a Hospitality community and and then that rapidly changed to where in the 40s and 50s we became a defense industry community so there was always energy in Las Vegas always from the day I was born through the 1950s [Music] foreign [Music] in the 1940s the city almost tripled in population but the infrastructure hasn't kept pace this was a city on the Move there's a lot happening not only in the casino District but all over there was new developments there were new businesses coming to town by 1950 many of the roads are unpaved schools are crowded the electrical and phone systems are outdated water shortages are looming and the whole state is wrestling with the challenges of how to manage the gambling industry which is illegal almost everywhere outside Nevada how the people in Las Vegas tackle these challenges in the 1950s will determine what sort of a city it will become when one considers the decade of the 50s in Las Vegas what you see is without much argument the most consequential decade in the history of the city in 1950 the city of Las Vegas has grown to over 24 000 people making it the biggest city in southern Nevada and second only to Reno and the state but large parts of Las Vegas still look and feel like a small town Dorothy Lee's family buys five acres on the western edge of town in the late 1940s we all knew one another we walked or you rode your bicycle everywhere it was just a nice Town everybody kind of watched out for everybody else it seemed like we had five horses my mother got into a group called the frontier Riders and they rode in the hell Dorado parade and on weekends I can remember my mother making waffles for breakfast for everybody and they all come with their horses so I mean it was not a big thing to see people on horses around here in 1950 Don klinkner and his family moved to Ashby Avenue West of downtown my father built the house it was on a half acre and right across the street were other houses and then there was nothing there was the Mesquite forest in there so if we needed wood for the fireplace I'd just go out there and take the Chainsaw cut it down get firewood during the quail season we'd go out there and shoot quail and Dove most businesses are located downtown the center of town was Fremont Street off of Fremont Street downtown there were three movie theaters the Fremont the El Portal and the palace right across the street from the El Cortez is a two-story building that was Sears Roebuck and behind that was the lumber yard and there was grocery stores all around it was just that area the first 15 20 blocks of downtown as the population grows during the decade the city starts spreading out from downtown offering more entertainment for young people [Music] Dorothy Lee there were Sills Drive-In and there was the Roundup Drive-In and the blue onion blue onion was where the kids from Rancho went Sills was where the Las Vegas high school went those were the days when you sat in your cars and had a Coke [Music] when you're talking about growth in the 50s the city of Las Vegas is going east and west now they can't go north that's North Las Vegas unless they Annex it they can't go south because that's where paradise and Winchester Township are unless they Annex it so West Las Vegas is growing as the black population grows East Las Vegas is growing but as the city stretches out one looming crisis threatens to stunt its growth a lack of water [Music] during the 50s water as always is an issue without a bigger issue because Las Vegas is depleting The Underground Supply the city is using 16 million gallons of water a day by the summer of 1951. outpacing what its Wells can produce we live in the middle of the desert and water is at a premium for a city in the desert that depends on growth a water shortage poses a dire threat in 1951 the Las Vegas land and water company a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad threatens to Bar water access to new subdivisions they argue it has become obvious from engineering reports that the supply simply is not adequate for further development of Las Vegas so in 1952 the city institutes a plan to limit water use houses facing north and east could water their lawns only on even numbered days while houses facing south and west were restricted to odd days within a few weeks the community was in up in arms our Lawns are turning brown we need more water so the city of Las Vegas dropped its water conservation after the protests from the community about their lawns going brown the problem is there's still only so much water all this time the city has been dependent on Wells the fact that we've got Lake Mead out there and this wonderful source of water the city hasn't been accessing that thing at this point in time they can't grow so they have to do something to bring more water in at the beginning of the 1950s voters decide it's time for new leaders to take the reins [Music] in 1951 Charles Duncan Baker known as CD Baker challenges longtime city mayor Ernie Kragen Charles Duncan Baker is a trained engineer he comes to Las Vegas in the 20s and his first gig is teaching math and coaching basketball at the high school in the 1930s Baker works as the Las Vegas city engineer unlike many politicians he understands the city's critical infrastructure needs and in 1951 he runs for mayor it's a long shot but Baker defeats the incumbent Ernie Kragen while CD Baker gets into office and he wants to bring sort of the engineering mentality to the mayor's office we're going to plan we are going to do Public Works we are going to deal with the issues and he tends to bark orders a bit he's a tough old bird but at the same time he's a politician he knows how to maneuver Baker sets about modernizing the city's infrastructure top of the list it's water supply in 1947 the Nevada legislature had cleared the way for the city and county to transfer all Wells pumping stations and water producing land from a Union Pacific Railroad subsidiary to the Las Vegas Valley Water District the sale finally goes through in 1954 at a cost of 2.5 million dollars next Baker along with city and county leaders pushed to tap into the biggest water source in the region Lake Mead there's no pipe to Lake Mead as we think of it today the only group that's been accessing that has been basic magnesium a company that was created during World War II in 1954 the new water district begins laying pipe to run water from the BMI Facility in Henderson to Las Vegas it's a major infrastructure accomplishment and soon water is Flowing to Las Vegas at a rate of 14 million gallons a day during Baker's first term as mayor of the City Las Vegas nearly doubles the number of parks paved roads and sewage lines the city is laying the groundwork for further growth much of which will come from gambling [Music] the main part of town was like the main part of most communities restaurants where there are businesses were there five and dimes were there a downtown business district what made Las Vegas different and made other communities in the state different was in between those restaurants and those grocery stores were gambling clubs for locals gambling illegal in much of America is a respectable and sought after line of work in Las Vegas [Music] so I'd go to a classmates house and her mother had lunch for us and she was talking about Las Vegas and that it was the greatest city in the world and I asked her I said why do you say that she says well because we're from the East Coast and my husband was in the gambling business and when he went to work at night I didn't know if he was going to come home or be arrested or the place being raided or what but she says and I couldn't tell anybody what my husband did because they'd all looked down on us and on the kids when I came to Vegas my husband and I didn't have to worry about him because it was legal and I was somebody in the neighborhood because my husband was in the business and was a boss you know so through the early 1950s the tourists that love gambling and the reason they come to Las Vegas is not for the shows not for the great restaurants but just to gamble there's so many options downtown to stand out from the competition along Fremont gambling operations become more creative and more aggressive with marketing and promotion casinos build bigger and brighter signs including the iconic Vegas Vic in 1951. Vegas Vic it became the brand for Las Vegas it went on stationary it went on postcards it went on mass all of a sudden everything is howdy partnered because of Vegas Vic the bright neon lights along Fremont Street draw in tourists but they also attract some questionable characters Benny Binion a big time illegal gambling operator decides to call it quits in Texas and stake a claim in Las Vegas before arriving in Las Vegas Binion kills two men but never serves time in 1946 Benny Binion decides to move to Las Vegas why would he do that well what happened in in Dallas is that reform-minded politicians were elected over Benny Binion's politicians Binion saw the writing on the wall and he decided that he needed to move on he packed literally a million dollars in the trunk of his car and he drove to Las Vegas and Binion in 1951 opens the Horseshoe in the Apache Hotel and Binion is a really smart shrewd operator the Horseshoe offers free drinks and is one of the first to have carpeted floors one thing that's a big thing but the old idea of the sawdust floor or the wood floor he says no we're going to have carpeting he sends limos to the airport to pick up big gamblers it was instantly popular it became a place that had a reputation for gamblers this is the place to go if you were what you believed to be a skilled Gambler or a high roller but in 1953 Binion has to step away from Fremont Street in September he pleads guilty to tax evasion and is sentenced to five years in Leavenworth when Benny goes to prison he makes a decision that he's going to allow a friend of his name Joe W brown to buy the bulk of Benny's horseshoe it becomes Joe W Brown's horseshoe for a period of time while Benny's in prison Brown comes up with a marketing idea that will promote his Casino Nationwide one of the challenges that Las Vegas faced as far as it's gambling it was illegal to advertise you couldn't go on television you couldn't advertise gambling on the radio but they found a way to do that and that was through postcards Joe Brown he came up with this idea to build a giant horseshoe and put an actual million dollars in ten thousand dollar bills and you would be able to get your picture taken in front of a million dollars now behind the Horseshoe is the casino and so you see tables and you see slot machines and so forth so thousands and tens of thousands of those cards were sold all around the United States marketing the community up the street of the fortune Club A guy by the name of Robert Van satin he took a picture of you in front of your winning slot machine and they would give you the postcard in 15 minutes and you would send to your family and friends there was a side benefit your postcard will be ready in 15 minutes so during that time you're plucking back in you're winning it was a win-win for for Robert Van Satin but he was also king of free free coffee free meals free drinks free parking the properties made their money on gaming they didn't make their money on the food they didn't make their money on the entertainment the free stuff was just to give you something some tchotchke to take home with you so that not only did you have a souvenir but it was a souvenir that you're going to have on your coffee table and you're going to have a big snifter of those matchbooks and you're going to have all of this stuff out when you get home and you're going to continue to advertise Las Vegas long after you've gone home van santen also tried to take slot machines to a whole new level of entertainment instead of having the sort of wooden thing where the coins would drop in he put in a metal thing that would make the sound of the change hitting that and so you'd have this sound of money is would say there's a winner on pile four you brought a dramatic element to slot machine playing not just somebody sitting there pulling a handle and there was always energy going on at his facility because he had lights going off when people on the slot machine and and other clubs picked up on on his his tricks so slot machines were now the the Big Driver of Revenue instead of having 10 slot machines they now had 100 slot machines or they had 200 slot machines from pennies to silver dollars [Music] business is strong but the casinos and hotels along Fremont Street are often packed into the narrow original Lots sold in 1905. they're able to expand a little bit but they're hemmed in they're limited by simply put who owns the land how much land there is the bigger properties are going to be south of town where there is room to build in the early 1950s San Francisco Avenue which later becomes Sahara Avenue marks the city's southern boundary and Highway 91 serves as the main road connecting Southern California with the city of Las Vegas the stretch of highway 91 South of the city boundary becomes known as the strip [Music] the Las Vegas Strip at that time was a series of hotels with 5 10 15 Acres of desert in between each each hotel and a big hotel in those days was maybe 300 rooms in December of 1950 the city of Las Vegas moves to Annex the strip and absorb its tax revenues but the resorts push back and the Clark County Commission protects them by creating the unincorporated towns of paradise and Winchester the strip is never annexed and stays outside the Las Vegas city limits but like the gambling parlors downtown its casinos are about to get some unwanted attention [Music] [Music] a senate crime investigation committee shifts its operations to Washington in 1950 the U.S Senate's Keith offer committee begins to investigate organized crime in America gambling is a vicious evil it corrupts all Youth and blights the lives of our adults Justice kiefover was a U.S senator from Tennessee he was very ambitious he really wanted to run for president and in order to do that he needed to raise his profile one of the ways he saw to do that was to create a senate investigating committee that would look at organized crime around the country they held hearings in 14 cities what have you ever done to your country as a good citizen paid by tax es Keith offer calls the illegal gambling the lifeblood of organized crime and Promises to leave no Stones unturned No Holds Barred right down the middle of the road let the chips fall where they may Keith offer two other members of the committee and several staff come to Las Vegas on November 15 1950 Keith olver held a hearing at the Federal Building downtown they questioned Bill Moore who had been involved in the hotel Last Frontier the El Cortez he was on the State Tax Commission and key Potter's people are aghast that the commission that is supposed to regulate this industry has on it someone from the industry they talked to Cliff Jones Cliff Jones was the lieutenant governor he also was involved in the Thunderbird and the Pioneer Club and again they're aghast Cliff Jones he's the lieutenant governor he's a powerful Democrat and he's involved in this industry how can it be the Keith offer committee questions the Cozy relationship between the gambling industry and its regulators it also examines the close ties between the casinos and members of organized crime when people think about organized crime in Las Vegas in the 1950s they've their mind first goes to the strip that goes to you know the Flamingo and the Desert Inn and Tropicana and so forth but organized crime was also involved on Fremont Street guy McAfee a well-known gangster in LA in the 1920s and 30s and now owner of the Golden Nugget is subpoenaed but never questioned by the kief offer committee Las Vegas were were pretty open to accepting people who may have organized crime ties here because you know this is a place where a lot of those folks could try to go straight go legit right it was then as it is now you know gambling was the Golden Goose and whatever was good for the casinos was ultimately good for Las Vegas what came out of the hearing was that there were people who had illegal activities in their backgrounds who were now you know running the casinos in Las Vegas an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal tries to minimize the hearings the United States Senate's crime investigating committee blew into town yesterday like a desert Whirlwind and after stirring up a lot of old dust it vanished leaving only the rustling among prominent local citizens as evidence that it had paid its much publicized visit here Committee Member Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin fires off a parting shot in my estimate such activities are a sign that the public morality has sunk to a new low television broadcasts of Keith Harbor committee hearings in other cities in March of 1951 are watched by an estimated 30 million Americans Witnesses he urgently even four years later the investigation is still part of popular culture in movies like Las Vegas Shakedown elements of the story are Loosely based on the real life of Bill Moore well what do you know he didn't use an alias after all sarago isn't he the guy the cafaba committee nailed that's right he couldn't answer their questions maybe he couldn't afford to I could I have nothing to hide while many illegal gambling operations are pressured to shut down around the rest of the country no one in Las Vegas where gambling is legal it's nailed by the kiefhoffer committee in some ways the city benefits from the Nationwide Crackdown what ultimately came out of the hearings was a movement across the country to shut down illegal gambling operations as a result a lot of the individuals who are running these places moved to Las Vegas they brought their expertise with them they brought their investment money with them so the key fobber committee ultimately had the opposite effect of what was intended in that it actually bolstered the Las Vegas's or Nevada's Monopoly on gambling [Music] um [Applause] excuse me mister could you tell me where a fella goes to sign up for the rodeo search me mac I'm a turret here myself in the 1950s pitch of Las Vegas shifts away from a Rough and Ready Frontier Town and takes on a Sharper edgier Image turn on the lights one that's ideal for Hollywood films those young very special about Las Vegas in in the 50s it became the movie capital of Nevada so you had Las Vegas in the titles [Music] the Las Vegas story with Jane Russell and Victor Mature and Vincent Price didn't you used to sing here in Vegas well I used to sing all over never forget a face but man obviously has no eye for figures moment in the 50s and movies meet me in Las Vegas with the Glorious dancer Sid Charisse and Dan Daly [Music] oh hey what's the big idea I'll come along excuse me a minute are Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis my friend Irma Goes West this is their movie debut all the while the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce pushes the studios to depict a more family-friendly entertainment Capital they want Las Vegas to be seen as this sunny fun entertainment capital of the World Resort Locale Las Vegas is even featured in the highest grossing film of 1955. the documentary Cinerama holiday which uses a new widescreen technology to make audiences feel like a part of the Las Vegas action [Music] they also put on remarkable Premier celebrations meet me in Las Vegas and Joker Is Wild premiere on Fremont Street bringing the biggest celebrities into town and drawing crowds in 1954 Frank Sinatra adds to the buzz when he works the Fremont Theater box office at the premiere of his film suddenly and it brought the the Hollywood press in in not only do the films get promoted the community got promoted and in Las Vegas his name really grew Las Vegas is becoming more connected to the world and not just through the big screen a real television set we're really honest where you want me to put it up and down for you yeah I like to play with that you know I can't think of a more comfortable way to watch television one of the most exciting things about Las Vegas in the 1950s is the dramatic growth of the media from movies to local media in 1953 Las Vegas gets klas a CDS affiliate and the first television station in Nevada two years later the Las Vegas Review Journal launches a second station klrj and the third ksho follows and so all this news was coming out from the newspapers from television in in from radio it was a very exciting time for the community for with all this information coming in not just here locally but coming in nationally through television and through the radio station and there's one newcomer to the city who aims to be heard above all the others [Music] the Las Vegas Review Journal has been the leading Las Vegas newspaper for years and its general manager Al Kalin is a political King maker that changes with the arrival of a pugnacious New Yorker hm Hank Greenspun it was like a jungle cat who's always kind of bouncing on his feet always ready to strike he just had that I'm happy to talk to you I'm so pleased to be with you but I will pop you a World War II combat veteran Greenspun pled guilty to smuggling weapons to Jewish gorillas and what would become Israel after the war he moves to Las Vegas and in 1950 he buys a newspaper he renames the Las Vegas Sun Here Comes Hank Greenspun in 1950 Al Kalin is more tied to the establishment he's a bit more conservative about things well Kaelyn had a column on the editorial page called from where I sit and Greenspun decided to do a spoof and it became where I stand one of the key things Hank Greenspun did was provide an alternate voice the local newspapers were your source and your conduit and having that competition was beneficial to the city Greenspun ended up taking on two people in particular one was Joe McCarthy and the other was Pat McCarron Senator Joe McCarthy made his name by accusing members of the state department and Military of being communists a Nevada senator Pat McCarron had a hand in almost every important decision affecting Las Vegas from hugot gaming licenses to who should run for office it was very clear to my father that the editorial policy of the review journal was completely under the control of Pat McCarron it was a tool of the democratic machine here and uh and the people who didn't say anything were mobsters who depended on this machine for their existence so it's a very kind of powerful combination of forces to find yourself up against Greenspun grows the Las Vegas Sun into an alternate voice often championing the cause of the underdog and the overlooked he believed there can only be a free press when a competitive Spirit prevails stung by greenspun's criticism Senator McCarron wants to silence the Sun and organizes a boycott on March 24 1952 in the span of an hour seven casinos call the sun to cancel their advertising others follow suit but Greenspun Fights Back sues McCarron and the casinos and wins an eighty thousand dollar settlement all the advertisers return as a new loud voice in southern Nevada Greenspun puts the old boy Network on the defensive we made it an open Society down here where before it was a closed Society because at that time you couldn't get a Gambling License unless McCarran approved it or Al Kalin approved it or the Golden Nugget approved it they had a closed Monopoly and there's one theme the Greenspun frequently hammers the treatment of minorities I despise intolerance I loathe all forms of bigotry I'm against any attempt to segregate people into religious or racial groups all our citizens are human beings and there's no distinction among the breed it was a a clearly bigoted segregated town they didn't like foreigners of any kind but I just hated all that he had a profound um devotion probably to a notion of Justice particularly for what was termed in those days the little guy social justice that's that's what he grew up first and foremost believing in Greenspun often rails against segregation trying to change a city that many describe as the Mississippi of the West [Music] in 1940 there are roughly 175 Black residents of Las Vegas by 1950 close to 3 000 black residents live in the city and by 1960 the population will grow to almost ten thousand so we see the 1950s as transformational because the migration does not end with the 1940s a very vibrant migration continues because the word is out that if you want a good job making great money come to Las Vegas in many ways as blacks take on a bigger role in the city they face more discrimination those who knew Las Vegas in the 40s saw a hardening of racism so Pearl Bailey remembers gambling in some of the places downtown and then she comes back in the 1950s and she can't do that any longer Jim Crow is really alive and well in Las Vegas African Americans cannot go into the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip in downtown they can only work those jobs in the back of the house so you're thinking about well Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis and all of those people are entertaining here and they are but they also entered the back of the house of the casinos they cannot go into the front doors black entertainers like Josephine Baker Helen Scott and Lena horn are the exception who stay in the strip hotels but even in 1953 horn has to fight for her children to be allowed to use the pool black entertainers of their era are staying at boarding houses on the west side so we have people like Sammy Davis Jr Pearl Bailey Johnny Mathis and other entertainers coming here during that period these black entertainers become part of the community here the kids in the community walk up and down the sidewalk into Nat King Cole comes out to smoke a cigarette and they engage him in conversation [Music] Amy Davis has come to our house all the time and and he would tell us how they still had to go through the kitchen they thought the Vegas so backwards at that time you couldn't even go into the casino without somebody want to rub you on top of your head for good luck and stuff like that was ridiculous when we came here and that's really the truth you know a 1954 article in Ebony magazine by James Goodrich is a scathing indictment of segregation in the city stating that whenever a negro is spotted in a downtown Gambling Hall it is safe to wager that he is behind a broom mop or dishcloth they presently live across the tracks in a segregated unkempt area covering about 10 square blocks on the city's West flank called the West Side the area is separated from White communities by a yard of railroad tracks and a pedestrian Auto underpass which Negroes jokingly referred to as the Iron Curtain the west side is poor in public services but rich in Black Culture and entertainment well we had the Town Tavern [Music] and El Morocco [Music] and a lot of nice clubs Mom's Kitchen and they have great restaurants over there it was on Jackson Avenue we call it the Black Strap you know and we had to strip we had to strap yeah it was really very nice black entertainers and day workers begin to push for better treatment bringing in more people helps with housing with education and all of that leads into wanting a better life wanting more rights wanting equality we see all of that yearning happening in the 1950s we got the first black doctor first black dentist first newspaper black newspaper businesses in that business Corridor that developed in the 1940s Jackson Avenue D Street E Street C Street we see those businesses growing in the 1950s [Music] we've had entrepreneurs middle class professional class migrating here in the 1940s and we see more of that in the 1950s mayor CD Baker fulfills a campaign promise and paves three major roads in the west side and begins to run sewage lines into the area but he did little to stop segregation [Music] in 1955 Greenspun writes Las Vegas has long been a backward town in its attitude towards civil rights and race relations we see steps being taken steps that are very small at the time but they are breaking the barriers they are cracking the ceilings of segregation it would be a long painful struggle and the first real agreements to end segregation wouldn't come until the 1960s but the world is changing and the city of Las Vegas is changing along with it [Music] only in practice now a rehearsal of training exercise but tomorrow this siren May mean the real thing in the 1950s Las Vegas news front and center in the Cold War boys are graduating from Las Vegas high and shipping off to Korea the Marines name one of their combat outposts Vegas because as one officer reportedly says it's a gamble if we can hold them simmering conflict with Communism is also close to home Nellis Air Force Base becomes Nellis Air Force Base in 1950 and the base very quickly became a very integral part of pilot training in the United States so it just kept building up I mean even the Thunderbirds moved here in the mid-1950s the Thunderbirds Are The Air Force's Elite acrobatic Squadron performing at air shows around the world what that did for the city is you're also bringing in a lot of people people equate to money that brings in a lot of money into the City and as with anything else the economic impact is a very powerful one and a very positive one for the city Nellis an economic Powerhouse is employing thousands of people and the new Atomic testing site north of Las Vegas is adding to the workforce [Music] the atomic energy commission decided that the Las Vegas Gunnery Range at the time which was Air Force property was the best selection only 80 miles from the glamor city of Las Vegas it's an almost dead flat plane stubbed with Cactus and Sagebrush and Joshua trees it is known as a test site and on December 18 1950 Harry Truman signed the order for what became known as the Nevada test site in 1951 the atomic energy commission starts to build base camp Mercury funneling millions of dollars into the site 1500 people are hired just for the construction stage many of the contractors and government agencies also rent space downtown including offices in the El Cortez Las Vegas developed over the decades because of a labor force that was talented and skilled occurred in the early night 50s when the Nevada Proving Grounds has created 65 miles from Las Vegas another set of talented Engineers Carpenters plumbers pipefitters were required to build nuclear weapons [Music] on January 27 1951 the atomic energy commission conducts the first test in Nevada thank you test times are now posted and Spectators drive up to Mount Charleston to watch [Music] picnic ground up there so we went up there quite a few times because it was an excused absence didn't have to go to school I would go home and go to sleep and then people started to go on on top of roots when they announced that a test is coming National media would pour into Las Vegas then when a test is was delayed the national media was still cranking out stories so Las Vegas benefited from the Atomic Testing by the national media being in town and we were called the up in Adams City the atomic age has come to Las Vegas and the city greets it with open arms women's sport Atomic hairdos revelers dance to Atomic themed songs in Las Vegas the atomic age becomes all the rage there was a cafe in downtown Las Vegas it was called Virginia's Cafe and it was closed and reopened as the atomic Liquors popular culture and movies treat the atomic bomb lightly in the 1954 comedy Atomic kid Mickey Rooney plays a young man who stumbles into a mannequin field test site operator could you please tell me the correct time are you crazy we're ready to set the bomb off any second now he survives an explosion and the radio activity gives him superpowers including the ability to win the jackpot at every slot machine [Music] in the early 1950s many in Las Vegas see the atomic age as the future and as a marketing opportunity we use postcards as a wonderful advertising medium and they a lot of times they were free from the casinos and so they would use Atomic imagery you know nuclear imagery on these as a way of getting people to you know send them out and and it was a positive thing a division of the Chamber of Commerce called the Las Vegas news Bureau Works to place articles and images in the nation's media Outlet the Las Vegas news Bureau saw the Atomic Testing potentially another tool to attract people to visit Las Vegas and the best at this was their gifted photographer Don English He persuaded one of the Copa girls Sarah McCloskey to do a ballerina dance with the mushroom in the background and it's a striking collection of eight images that he takes that are printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal but picked up by the wire services and the Very prominent Sunday supplement Parade Magazine reprints these remarkable images [Music] between 1951 and 1962 the government conducts 100 atmospheric tests at the site [Music] while the atomic energy commission or aec minimizes the danger doubts grow about radioactive fallout and other hazards in the latter part of the 1950s the shine of atomic above ground testing started to get foggy and there was a real effort at that point to ban Atomic Testing and or put it underground so it went from we are the up in Adams City to where we're not sure one test called operation Q depicted in the civil defense Administration film focuses on how to best prepare for and survive a nuclear war I had to see operation Q through many eyes not only my own but as a reporter Through The Eyes of the average American man and woman so they were looking at how to build houses how to build shelters with steel and stone and Brake and mortar with precision and skill as though it were to last a thousand years how to harden electrical systems if there was an attack you would want to get these things back up as quickly as possible [Music] any supplied the mannequins for operation doorstep and queue local dealers also supplied cars so cars were there with mannequins sitting in the cars aside from the mannequins in the homes and mannequins wearing various clothes laid out so to see if clothes would protect skin [Music] foreign [Music] after the test series The mannequins were returned to JCPenney and the mannequins were displayed in the front windows also sent the mannequins on tour [Music] Las Vegas has grown from a Dusty railroad community in the middle of the desert to one of the most prosperous towns in the country according to the Las Vegas Sun by 1954 the average annual income is just over eight thousand dollars more than 50 percent above the national average Las Vegas sells itself as America's playground and tourism Grows by almost 1 million visitors each year foreign [Music] in 1956 the news Bureau produces the 13-minute film Las Vegas playground USA the importance of of the Las Vegas news Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce generally is to provide a narrative To America that is much more pleasing that narrative is one where come to Las Vegas and experience this beautiful Resort town that has best entertainers in the world Sunshine 98 of the time great natural wonders to go visit just a short drive from Las Vegas and oh by the way the hotels downtown and the hotels along the strip are inexpensive and the meals are inexpensive this is a wonderful place in fact to bring the family mmm sure is good optimism among many Casino developers on the strip and in the city of Las Vegas is so strong there's a flurry of construction one of the challenges Las Vegas faced in the 1950s was the philosophy buildeth and they will come yes bill that they will come but not enough people came there was this rapid growth that caught up with Las Vegas during the 50s in 1955 is a year when the dunes opens the Riviera opens the Royal Nevada opens and the Moulin Rouge opens and it's almost at the same time so Las Vegas is dramatically increasing the room capacity all at once in the city two of the founding Pioneers Delphine and Charles pop Squires help open the showboat in 1954 a far cry from the tent Hotel the squires once operated the showboat offers 100 rooms a casino pool and restaurant oh then on May 24 1955 the Moulin Rouge opens and in many ways it's the riskiest Venture of all the Moulin Rouge is the first major integrated Resort in both the city of Las Vegas and on the strip it's also the first to hire blacks to work the front of the house as waiters and dealers this isn't just the opening of a Las Vegas hotel its history the Moulin Rouge definitely affects integration it is the first integrated hotel casino that can rival any of those in the city but it is right there on Bonanza near H Street so it is part of the black community it is a place where Joe Lewis who's a two percent owner is your host inviting you in so they want this to be as high scale as possible dining can rival any restaurant in Las Vegas [Music] the centerpiece of the Moulin Rouge is a 500 seat showroom I was one of the dancers that came out from New York to appear at the Moulin Rouge it looked like like Paris everybody that worked there were a Parisian type uniform and you've never seen such service if somebody take out a cigarette 10 hands will go out to light to cigarette so it was really very elegant and very beautiful we did three shows a night which was a hard gig for Las Vegas because on the Strip they only did two shows nine and twelve so that means we emptied out the strip everybody came over there for the 2 30 show and we were still rehearsed between shows it was a hard job but the shower was good because I think I was making about 300 a week so I wanted to show the last forever the 2 30 a.m show at the Moulin Rouge becomes the place to be they began to pull patrons from other casinos in the city and that means that the high rollers are coming to the Moulin Rouge along with the entertainers that may be in town not just African-American entertainers but now you're pulling other entertainers over to the West Side well everybody was in the audience Harry Belafonte uh you know Frank Sinatra Sammy Davis uh Edward G Robinson on June 20th 1955 the hotel makes the cover of Life magazine with a picture of two Moulin Rouge showgirls the Watusi was all net and sequence we were never nude or anything like that but we're always covered up and then we did um above Gabriel blow so we were like Angels you know it was really a fun place to work the Moulin Rouge has a staff of 500 and is spending eighteen thousand dollars a day but the club opens at a challenging time by October of 1955 barely half of Moulin rouge's rooms are occupied and many of the other new casinos are also struggling the competition to fill rooms is fierce the Royal Nevada fails the management at the dunes and the Riviera have to be replaced [Music] on a clear October morning workers arrived to find the doors of the Moulin Rouge padlocked Las Vegas's only integrated Resort with blacks working in high-profile positions shutters after just four and a half months in operation [Music] there must have been 200 jobs as lost yet Porter's Maids yet dances yet entertainers yet kitchen help [Music] in contrast the gambling club's downtown along Fremont Street the Golden Nugget horseshoe Pioneer and Nevada clubs are all thriving and growing in the late 1950s the showboat changes direction to appeal to local customers in the city they managed to stay afloat by offering a 49 cent buffet and building the first major 24-lane bowling alley in the city other new Resorts focus on the local market as well in 1956 the Fremont Hotel throws an opening day party for all citizens of Las Vegas time to coincide with the first day of that Year's Eldorado Days event it's downtown's first high-rise Resort and the tallest building in Nevada at the time the Fremont offers fine dining and by the end of the decade Wayne Newton has a standing gig in the revolving Carnival Lounge downtown a busy Workforce keeps the doors open day and night but women dealers struggle to find work mail dealers want to Bar them from competing for jobs in early November 1958 there was an extraordinary City commission meeting and it had to do with the question should the city of Las Vegas permit women to be dealers in the casinos now up North Reno had been doing this for many many years but in Las Vegas there were only a handful of women who were dealing in the downtown casinos and others wanted to be hired but the men absolutely were opposed not all of them could fit into the city commission Chambers but the estimates by the Press was about 400 men showed up for this meeting and those who spoke in front of the commissioner said you can't let this happen because if you let women be hired as dealers they will work for a smaller income it will destroy a very nice income for our families the women who testified at the meeting said we have families that we need to provide for as well but every member of the city Commission was male and they voted with the men so there was a ban placed on women dealing in Las Vegas casinos that moved by the the mayor and the city commission reinforced the image that a woman's place is at home yeah you can sing and dance in the showroom but you can't be part of the administration of a gaming casino even with gambling as a core business Las Vegas can be a conservative town look past the gaming parlors and it has many of the same trappings of mid-sized mid-century American towns [Music] the goal for the era there seemed to be kids everywhere in the city the school age population is expanding by 20 percent a year by the mid-1950s all this youthful energy is transforming the city [Music] when Las Vegas started a decade in 1950 there was one high school and that was in downtown Las Vegas when I was in high school Friday Night Football games the committee would turn out maybe 7 000 people which observes very very well attended that was big Las Vegas high school was the Center of My Universe high school was the center of the world [Music] thank you May time is Hell Dorado time in Las Vegas every high school has its cheerleaders in Las Vegas we had the rhythmets they had a very professional dance teacher they became a national phenomenon appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show touring the country representing again Las Vegas Dorothy Lee it was a very big honor to be a rhythmat you try out in the spring there's like 300 girls to try out for it there were I think six or eight of us that were picked the rhythonets Go Global when they're featured in an Italian documentary World by night so we had practice for like an hour and a half every morning most every morning then we had one at night like Thursday night if we were going to perform on Friday just to have a run through many American teenagers are car crazy at this time and in car centered Las Vegas Don klinkner is no exception one of the main things we did in high school was crews around town we drive up Fremont to Maine take a left and head down Main Street to the Roundup Drive-In and then we go Fifth Street back up north and we'd go by Sills Drive-In until we got to Fremont Street and then we made that Circle that kind of triangle when you would come back down Fremont Street and there was a stoplight almost at every intersection so traffic moves slow so you'd have time to have conversation with your friends that were going the other way as they were going up somebody's coming back down they would jump from one car to the other we had a club in town that we formed it was called the Las Vegas gamblers and the the head of the Traffic Division he was our sponsor so we had our meetings at the police station in the courtroom there so we got to know all the police policemen they knew us and they were really great with us because at that time there was no drag strip here in town so we raced on the streets so what they did is from time to time like they blocked off part of the Boulder Highway they closed that off and we raced there so we had a real report with the police with Las Vegas high bursting at the seams Rancho High opens in 1955. a year later they consolidate 14 different County and city school systems into one District at the same time with now two high schools there's developing a need in energy we need a university we need a college we needed the second tier of an education Las Vegas begin lobbying for a university of Their Own in 1951 28 college students meet at Las Vegas high to take extension classes yeah I was in the first class it was called Nevada Southern at that time and it was in the auditorium of Las Vegas High School they had a Auditorium a stage and lots of rooms in the back and that's where they had the classes at they could not have classes if Las Vegas high school was doing something significant it might be a football game it might be a theater event and mod Frazier who had been the school superintendent here for two decades goes to the legislature and is pushing hard for higher education in southern Nevada so they're saying well okay if if you raise this money we'll provide this money on May 24th TV stations klas and klrj run a Telethon they collect thirteen thousand dollars in pledges which grows to fifty thousand dollars over the next month and they get some land south of the city limits and in 1957 opened their first building which as it should have been was named Fraser Hall on September 10 1957 the first classes are held in a new building the university will continue to expand and in the late 1960s Nevada Southern will become the University of Nevada Las Vegas [Music] yeah [Music] near the end of the 1950s the booming city of daytime sun and nighttime fun aims to keep on growing people were starting to think about the fact that at that point in time people came into town mainly on the weekends midweek that was a little bit of a problem we weren't getting as many people coming in and so there was a need how do you fill rooms and you've put heads in beds during the week one way is to shorten travel times more and more people will fly to Las Vegas but most visitors in the 50s come by car from Southern California [Music] Transportation you have to get here we're still in the middle of the desert and in the 1950s that becomes absolutely necessary the roads get improved and improved and improved you can make it from LA to here in a few hours and you can actually do that in the cars of that time there's also talk of building a Convention Center they started saying yeah we we need to have a Convention Center some place that you can have everybody come into you can have exhibits all of that because we've got all these hotel rooms we need to fill the hotel rooms that's why we need a Convention Center to compete the city of Las Vegas and Clark County go big and build a Convention Center that Rivals those on the east and west coasts the convention center is going to be a big change for Southern Nevada for Las Vegas for Clark County for everybody and the reason is that by building this convention center you can attract significant convention business Las Vegas in the county agree to build on the site of a bankrupt race track in the county just south of the City Line it will cost 4.5 million dollars to construct a new image on the horizon in April of 1959 the futuristic flying saucer-shaped Convention Center opens with 130 000 square feet of exhibit space and seating for more than nine thousand and it and it was like yes this will work and it put us on the convention map that started filling midweek bits in 1959 Las Vegas's McCarran Airport handles more than 950 000 passengers a staggering 27-fold increase from just 10 years earlier heading into the next decade there are two sets of numbers that reflect the city's success Las Vegas is now the largest town in Nevada almost tripling in population during the 50s and over the decade tourism has grown from 1 million to almost 10 million a year Las Vegas speeds ahead growing at a rapid Pace but its growing pains are not completely in the rear view mirror Las Vegas ended the 1950s with several questions still to be answered one how to deal with racism its attitude towards women in the casino Workforce and then what type of Resort is actually going to track visitors and tourists to Southern Nevada to Las Vegas in the 1950s Las Vegas grew out and in some ways grew up it had to confront some major issues growth Public Works civil rights Atomic Testing political change not everything showed a lot of maturity not at all times but it was an incredibly div decade things are happening [Music] when you think about how Las Vegas evolved over its first 50 years it's astonishing to to think about how much happened and and how much growth occurred and and how things changed [Music] Unthinkable in 1905. the place grew over the decades into you know this unlikeliest of Mecca's you're in the middle of the Mojave Desert the driest place in America but somehow we've figured out how to turn this unlikeliest of Resort destinations into something that everybody in the world knows [Music] everybody in the world knows the name Las Vegas [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: KCLV Channel 2

Views: 555,754

Keywords: las vegas the 1950s documentary, documentary on las vegas, documentaries on las vegas, what was las vegas like in the 1950s, highlights of las vegas in the 1950s, the las vegas test site, las vegas historic documentry, history of the nevada testing site, was nevada testing site a tourist attraction, las vegas post world war 2, las vegas weddings, las vegas wedding capital of the world, when could women work as dealers in las vegas, hollywood movies about las vegas in the 1950s

Id: 8uziSVTp-fo

Length: 74min 11sec (4451 seconds)

Published: Tue May 16 2023