The City of Las Vegas: The Forties

[Music] in May 1940 a short order cook from New York on a drive across the country stops in Las Vegas Nevada here's what struck me about Las Vegas everybody on the street when we walked up and down Fremont Street said good morning good afternoon how are you that's a fact everybody said hello I never saw these people before you know I came from New York where nobody pays any attention to you this was the most friendly place you ever saw in your life all the ways back the wife and I could only talk about one thing we just left Paradise well after 4 days we turned around and came back here at the beginning of the 1940s there's a growing sense that Las Vegas is a place that could become a destination for travelers but in essence it's still a Small Town Las Vegas was still trying to figure out his future trying to figure out what's tomorrow going to look like there is very much I think a sense that big things are coming in the not too distant future this is going to be the most dramatic decade in the history of Las Vegas to that point a new Las Vegas is coming the city at the end of the' 40s will be very different from the one at the [Music] start at the beginning of the 1940s fre mon Street that's still where most of the stores are that's where you go to shop for clothes that's where you go to shop for food it is still the center of town Fremont was where it all was in Las Vegas the gambling casinos were there and Retail was there the El protel theater was there a couple of jewelry stores a couple of drugstores JC Pennies there's something appealing about mon Street at this time with all the lights and and all the activity and all the people on the street at night at night when all the neon comes on people saw it as kind of a magical place some journalists who visited said it's like being in Time Square in New York City it's so bright and and so [Music] effervescent even glamorous Hollywood stars thought Las Vegas was fun Clark Gable who was the king of Hollywood in the late 30s through the 1940s he would often stop and stay overnight in Las Vegas and he always said positive things there were more films that were being shot in southern Nevada have you ever been in Las Vegas where we had 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 films that were [Music] shot Franks and atra is usually associ with Las Vegas from his 1950s years but actually his connection to Las Vegas begins in 1941 with his performance in Las Vegas Nights tears would F my eyes my heart would some members of the Chamber of Commerce said well if we had a film that would portray Las Vegas in this very friendly way it could probably do a lot for tourism Nevada with its miles and miles of colorful sand and Purple Sage Vivid sunsets and Brilliant moonlet nights and they persuaded Paramount Pictures to make a movie about Las Vegas no income tax no inheritance tax no sales tax in other words no taxes now you can't prove that the Chamber of Commerce fed this material to the uh screenwriter for Las Vegas nights you sound like a chamber of commerce pamphlet yeah that's where I read it but it it looks almost exactly what the Chamber of Commerce was sending out in brochures and in ads in newspapers but kidding aside you know what they call this place no one the friendliest little city in the world and it really is why even I know everyone in town by his first name that is uh almost [Music] everyone [Music] you but not everybody in Las Vegas is having fun as the 40s begin the city faces a political crisis there's a new mayor elected John Russell mayor Russell could be rather uh cic at times police captain George olum knew the mayor well Johnny Russell was a negative candidate for the mayor's job to just about anything that he thought was out of line he was going to say boy this is wrong and I'm going to fix it he immediately was in conflict with the commission members they were constantly fighting the city council hated the mayor and by late 1940 the entire city council had resigned well the mayor didn't care he just appointed a new city council the City attorney said oh who who no they're not legal you've got to have the old ones there so they come back and you've got now two City councils and they're meeting at the same time in the same room hating each other they can't work out anything you have one city Commission in one corner you got another city Commission in another corner and the poor city clerk is running back and forth it was not a good time you think politics can be bad today it was really bad then one of those things he just going what are you guys [Music] thinking and it can hardly happen at a worst time the world was was getting to be crazy there was a war inur it was clear that that the United States was heading towards involvement Nazi Germany is gobbling up Europe Japan overrunning China and the FDR Administration preparing for war Nazis are Marching ahead at the fastest speed a conquering Army has moved in all history an economic surge begins that will change the American West forever the federal government is spending money fast in places like Phoenix and Los [Music] Angeles in the 1930s the Army aircore began planning for a Gunnery school to be built somewhere in the West we had 360 plus days of sunshine a year we had huge areas that could be withdrawn from public use where you could fly over it you could dog fight over it and it didn't matter where the lead came down you could drop bombs over it it was ideal the Army Air was sold on Las Vegas so they're going to set up their Gunnery School well that meant a lot of men coming in here and even more so a lot of money coming in h there was a little problem though the airport here it was privately owned by Western Air Express so it needed to be taken over by the city of Las Vegas it's a vital moment for the city the city needs needs to buy the airport and reach an agreement with the Army but the City commissioners have walked out the city has no government or more exactly it has two and you've got now two City councils you know and they don't like each other you've got the Army coming in saying hey guys we we need you to get this worked out but they got it done and then they come up with an agreement to turn it over to the the Army Air corps two separate ones two agreements signed at the same time by two different city councils in the end the two opposing City commissions have managed to take a crucial step for the future of the city I wonder what happened with the Waring City councils well eventually it gets to the state supreme court they finally say mayor you're wrong City attorney you're correct new guys you're out old guys you're back in finally push the the mayor out of office this is in May of 41 and a few months later he goes up on Mount Charleston for a quick vacation has a heart attack and dies end of [Music] story in 1941 the Army aircore begins to transform the small Airfield field north of the city to an enormous Gunnery school it's a gigantic operation the Army builds new and expanded runways hangers fuel tanks storage facilities and Barracks they're training Gunners Navigators all kinds of people are going to go off and fight in the war and it's going to have some significant long-term effects here senator Pat McCaron pushes for another gigantic project just outside Las Vegas Pat McCarron has become the senior senator he has power to burn he's crucial to getting basic magnesium located southeast of town a factory will be built to produce magnesium a key element in manufacturing airplanes and [Music] firebombs thousands of young men and women will be working in the factory just outside the city and coming into Las Vegas for food supplies and [Music] entertainment in time gambling will become a vast Enterprise the economic backbone of the area gaming will form a large part of the identity of Las Vegas especially for people who don't live here gambling clubs that didn't have hotel rooms create business relationships with the motels and auto courts they offer free tickets for food drinks shows and parking to entice guests to stay downtown and visit their establishments since the beginning gambling has existed in Las Vegas in one form or another but it was in in 1931 that the state of Nevada became the only one to legalize almost all forms of gambling there were three fundamental licenses there was a license for slot machines if you just wanted to you were a grocery store a drug store or service station you'd get a slot machine Gambling License if you wanted to run a race book where you took bets on horse races that's a separate license and then there was the third one which was the Gambling License the table games roulette crafts and so forth those were Casino gaming wiing Fremont Street is the unmistakable Center of gambling in the early' 40s Las Vegas gambling was still a local Enterprise you were looking at people who often had a casino on Fremont Street but they might have some other businesses as well so they were local businessmen who had modest Visions about what they could do with gambling with a bar with a restaurant it was it was small time honestly the boulder Club is one of the biggest on Fremont but it has plenty of competition Fremont Street was dominated at the time by the northern Club the Las Vegas club the northern Club is one of the most recognized places in Las Vegas it's well established and this club was leased to the Sterns the Sterns Brothers they came here back in 1929 and were colorful characters Dave Sterns is an intriguing fellow in Las Vegas he was arrested in Minneapolis on an armed robbery charge and an attempted murder charge in in the 1920s he came to Las Vegas because Las Vegas seemed to be the place that was going to embrace gambling and and he was he was a gambler and Stern is very aggressive though most casinos are owned by locals Outsiders are beginning to get a foothold we're starting with Myer Lansky the mob's accountant from New York City we're talking about Benjamin Bugsy seagull who had grown up with my Lansky Bugsy seagull he had been a New York gangster tough guy he was involved with Murder Inc the hit squad he was close partner with Myer Lansky and involved in bootlegging and a variety of other rackets in New York Mo sedway was involved these were all names that became Legends they were notorious mob figures Mo sway started working with Bugsy on the Mean Streets of Manhattan's Lower East Side many years before seagull sent up his pal Mo sway to run the race book and oversee his gambling operation and within a couple of months he was able to take control of the race wire the race wire will become the means for East Coast organized crime to enter Las Vegas great day for the race wire was a really a a system of transmitting information about horse races around the country the favorite is airs what horses were running what the odds were uh history of the horse race the weather conditions right up to the second and then the results of the race as it came through without that information bookmakers were unable to operate you might have lots of gamblers at night and on the weekend but during the day few people wander into a Las Vegas gambling club unless you've got the opportunity for them to bet on a horse race it was illegal in in the in the rest of the country but legal in the that to take bets on horse races from around the United States in Mexico and in Nana but most edway was able to purchase legally with a contract the exclusive rights for the licenses in Las Vegas so now you have organized crime infiltrating Fremont Street through the race wire for Bugsy seagull the race wire is a foothold into the gaming World in Las [Music] Vegas but Fremont Street will also see an influx of entrepreneurs from Southern California what was a crime in Southern California was was in many ways legal in Las Vegas I'm talking about specifically gambling these are individuals in Los Angeles were considered to be underworld Kingpin they were doing horrible things they were immoral in Las Vegas they are Civic leaders they walk the streets as as equals with the man who owned the you know the grocery store and all these individuals who descend on Las Vegas in the early 40s build what we understand to be the casino industry [Music] today macafee was was certainly the most high-profile of these there was a police officer in Los Angeles in the 1920s he ascended to the role of commanding the vice squad what he really did was he used this as a platform for him to become involved in illegal gambling prostitution other forms of Vice to the point where McAfee was really the the biggest player in the underworld in Los Angeles in the 1930s he decides to pick up and move to Las Vegas uh in 1939 and get involved in legal gambling guy McAfee starts with a 91 Club out on Highway 91 then opens the frontier Club on Fremont Street in the late 30s the frontier is small and MCA has bigger dreams but he's not the only one another Californian decides to try his luck in 1940 Tommy Hull a successful Hotel developer comes to Las Vegas and also builds a resort on Highway 91 outside the city limits where land is cheap Hull builds the El Rancho Vegas a sprawling motel casino Marian Hicks also decides to build a club but his is inside City Limits Maran hix is really one of the I think one of the more interesting individuals who came to Las Vegas during the 1940s Maran Hicks ran a gambling boat off the coast of Long Beach California in the late 30s he could not operate any longer just as a lot of the gambling operators in Los Angeles were shut down Maran Hicks acquires property at 6th in Fremont and he builds the elcortez hotel along with John Grayson and this is kind of a funny place because keep in mind Las Vegas is still pretty small at this point the idea of building a casino at six and Fremont that was like building it way out in the suburbs like there's no way that's going to be successful it's way too far out of town this is not like the Northern or the boulder or the Las Vegas this is a hotel casino and it's bigger and it's more elaborate the El Cortez opens November 7th 1941 [Music] exactly 1 month later everything changes for Las Vegas and for the world on December 7th 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor I ask that the Congress declare a state of War has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire [Applause] [Music] the attack triggers shock and fury among Americans everywhere the war is on we don't know what's going to happen right that we could lose the War I me there's all kinds of things that are going through people's minds young men sign up to fight people buy investments called war bonds private citizens actually lending their savings to the government to finance the war the Red Cross steps in associations like the allom mosquite club work in the Elks Lodge basement sewing surgical gowns socks sweaters and more we came to Las Vegas in January of 42 my first memory is that we had blackout curtains the dam was the concern the dam generated the electricity to operate these incredible manufacturing plants in Southern California where all these PL planes were being manufactured for the war so that was critical and during the War years I remember going out to the dam you were escorted across the dam in your car cage wire is 8 years old in 1942 when you would go to the dam you would have to join a convoy you had to sit there and wait they'd search your car to make sure you didn't have cameras or anything where are you going one of the early tra IES of the war comes from Hollywood but it happens just outside Las Vegas Carol Lumbard is one of the brightest movie stars her marriage to Clark Gable is hailed as the perfect romance oh I think you're a lot of mean is not letting me win never mind unlucky at cards in early 1942 Lumbard goes out on tour to sell war bonds one January night her flight stops in Las Vegas then takes off again their plane crashed right in the mountain killing All Aboard instantly the federal government the FBI is looking at sabotage because many of the people on board were military and they were heading off to war why did this kind a clear night did this plane crash directly into the mountain so the rumors reports there were secret investigations all that brought the war directly home to Las Vegas now it's right here in Las Vegas is a Germans a Japanese what are the sabotage what's what's what's going on and so Carol Lumbard became sort of a hero to to many people in in Las Vegas she was one of the first victims the war will bring many rounds of war bond campaigns and scrap drives shortages and rationing Bess Rosenberg and her husband are new in the city I joined the Red Cross and many other things where I thought well I'd help you didn't have much social life going on there were things to do people were working hard and worried about their family and friends that were in the service I did more baking and packing boxes and making fruit cakes because people were very happy to get things like that sugar was rationed you had to save up for sugar so you could make these things this was not a py time at all cage wire recalls my sister Jackie worked at the local ration board she was responsible for Distributing stamps for The Many rationed Items everything was rationed you were only entitled to two pairs of shoes a year tires were rationed if your tires wore out and you didn't have stamps you put your car up on blocks we had rationing on all canned goods and On Meats even Staples like flour and sugar it just was a whole different way of life 10 cans grease was recycled even tinf foil was recycled everyone was encouraged to have a victory garden now Mikey Carroll my friend around the cor they dedicated their entire backyard we had a much smaller Victory guarden and uh we I grew vegetables uh I did I did pretty good with cucumbers my uh my carrots were were were kind of pathetic quite frankly people have putting in Victory Gardens buying war bonds and at the same time there's also tragedy sending the sons and daughters off to war and and getting reports back about uh your family member your son your daughter your brother your uncle your husband is no longer with us was killed in action the Supreme Commander General Eisenhower holds an early conference people were anxious for any news of the war movie theaters played an important role every movie that you went to there was a news reel it always featured you know uh where the Allied Forces were today they reached this destination or the landing here occurred you could really get a sense of seeing the war [Music] while the war raged overseas something very different was happening on the home [Music] front construction on the Magnesium plant goes at a feverish pace thousands of men are brought in to build the gargantuan basic magnesium Factory nearly 2 miles in length called BMI George Olam BMI said come on we'll give you a job and boom they all came up basic produces its first magnesium ingots in the fall of 1942 at the same time the Army Airbase trains hundreds of men to fire machine guns from bombers and on the weekends soldiers from the Gunnery school love going into Las Vegas on a Friday night or a Saturday night and the places are absolutely packed over a 3-year period more than 40,000 soldiers passed through town it's a boom in Las Vegas Helen Clark is 21 working as a casino cashier World War II came along and gas rationing and everybody says oh my gosh we're going to be wiped out because people can't drive cars they can't get over here but we never saw as much money they all came here to Vegas and the money just flowed like crazy George Olam you had basic magnesium going you had out of town visitors you had the Army everybody's in town all the clubs on free month Street you couldn't get in the doors hardly as a police captain George ullum was charged with keeping the peace fights would start with the soldiers and the people from BMI about one out of four would want to fight so we fought one out of four of them a man we fought more soldiers and Air Force than the German Army [Music] did despite gasoline rationing tourists are still driving in mostly from Southern California one journalist complains that you can't find a the parking space on Fremont Street at 5:30 in the morning you didn't have local people saying oh God this is awful let's put it like this it was amazing man business was [Music] great downtown while popular at night is also a hub of everyday life you walk past this club and then there's the ice cream parlor and you walk past this club and here's the Taylor shop or whatever and you've got a movie theater down around third in Fremont cage wire's father worked out at the Magnesium plant once a week we would travel to Las Vegas to do our grocery shopping we would usually have dinner at the Silver Cafe at Chinese restaurant sometimes we'd have dinner in the Apache Hotel sometimes family entertainment was parking on Fremont Street just watching people but War always creates change and World War II changes Las [Music] Vegas even the renowned area that is among the oldest parts of the city as Casino cashier Helen Clark recalls the red light district it was called block 16 they had the Arizona club and some other clubs and when I was a teenager kids would drive down the street and look over and see the girls out there right on the sidewalk trying to motion the customer in you know George Olam there were probably eight certainly no more than 10 houses of prostitution operating on block 16 literally thousands of of young men they would come into the city of Las Vegas for entertainment these young men looking for some some fun a relaxation the Army is not pleased they want block 16 closed Helen Clark remembers the merchants naturally wanted all that that Army payroll they wanted all these guys to come to town and spend their money but the military said you close it down or we won't let our boys come to your town we won't let them off base to Las Vegas but it wasn't just the military real estate developer Jr Lewis also had a hand in the closure of block 16 his intentions were clear he would buy up properties as they were closed George Olam the city commission then made a motion to close block 16 the following day we went down and informed them all and closed them up it's the end of an era a survivor of the early years of Las Vegas is gone pieces of the old Arizona Club its fancy front glass windows and its long mahogany bar from the city's early years are put into a new place on Highway 91 the Last Frontier the Last Frontier is the second big Motel Resort on that Highway south of town but bigger changes are transforming Las Vegas over the course of the war the City's population more than doubles so many people moved in here so quickly and Las Vegas didn't have very many hotel rooms what happened people would rent out rooms or or giveaway rooms in their homes this was almost like a tradition it was understood that you were going to make space available in your home for visitors and I just think about that today would we do that today absolutely not you are seeing an influx of human beings either military or or defense workers and they need housing they need food they need all the things that that the human beings need in in a very small town in the early 40s Federal officials authorized the construction for 800 homes in three new housing developments Mayfair builtmore and Huntridge with Huntridge you've got houses that today might seem a bit small that were big and luxurious to people in the 40s the houses are probably 1,000 square ft at best and you've got wood floors which back then uh that that's major stuff the three developments marked a shift into demography and lifestyle like the rest of America 1940s Las Vegas was becoming a little more Suburban we're beginning to see the whole idea that it's going to suburbanized if you're a kid growing up in Huntridge you can bicycle downtown pretty easily you go up and down Fremont Street isn't this fun Richard Brian grows up in Huntridge Huntridge was in retrospect an Eclectic neighborhood there were the doctor's kids a kid down the street his dad drove a dump truck another worked on the Railroad and uh there were a couple of other lawyers in our neighborhood but seemed like everybody had kids so it was just kind of a fun time Hi Neighbor Hi Neighbor what you know and in 44 a theater is opened right at the edge of called The Huntridge Theater High neighbor was the first movie shown at the hunt Ridge Theater that changed the theater industry in in Las Vegas now you had in essence what was a neighborhood movie theater and it catered to families and catered to kids and with the Disney films and all those those sorts of things we live two houses south and east of the Hun theater and we watched the construction and got we're very excited The Huntridge was a big part of our life I cannot imagine a a happier childhood in 1942 just beside the new builtmore development a Hollywood restaurant tour named Bob Brooks builds a hotel resort the Nevada builtmore it's a fancy place with a Polynesian theme an entertainment showroom and a large pool Brooks strategically built at the intersection of three key US Highways on the way to the air base the pool was in the front and there was dining room and there was you know they had you know entertainment has gaming it has a wonderful restaurant it is just like the other casinos that are coming along at the time but this one can't get traction it had a few good years but after the war the builtmore would struggle to stay afloat as the action began moving south of the city to what would be called The Strip the city's African-American population grows tremendously during the war basic magnesium recruits new workers for the factory south of the city those jobs bring an elevated number of people African afan American people to Las Vegas they want to work at BMI they want to work at any military installations around the city that are hiring people African-American men get some of the worst jobs at any facility the dirtiest jobs but they get jobs wored about factory jobs travel swiftly through black communities in the South basic magnesium recruits from two pressed Southern M towns in particular to Lula Louisiana and Fort ice Arkansas and so you have this diaspora you have this migration African-Americans come here for those jobs just like everyone else among them is the family of Shirley Edmund my mother's family came from Fort ice Arkansas they had an opportunity to get better jobs here my mother said she was tired of picking cotton so they came for a better way of life basic magnesium creates a company Town out of nothing a place that will soon be called Henderson but African-Americans do not want to live there most of them want to be in the west side where their churches where their restaurants are where the entertainment is the music the dance schools where other black children are attending it is an area without funding from the city so we don't have sewage we don't have sidewalks we don't have street lights and the houses are halfhazard a lot of houses are still shacks and Tents my mother said when they came they lived in tents so they had like a little Tent City and she said that she and uh several cousins and her brother mother and father they lived in one tent they took turns sleeping depending on which uh shift you [Music] work my dad only had a fifth grade education but he started shining shoes he ended up being a pastor but he was able to take care of there were six kids in the family he built five Apartments built a house for us he built a m shop on Jackson Street and I think he did pretty well the African-American Community is a unique Community the migrants coming in are from every social class not just the workers that are being paid an hourly wage we also have Merchants coming in we have business people coming in we have ministers coming here and we have more churches than any other place in the city so the Westside neighborhood becomes the core for the [Music] culture we had like our own little almost like Fremont Street this was on Jackson Street so we had night clubs we had barers shop beauty salons the Elks Lodge we had dances and concerts there was always some action going on so all of these amenities that make life worth living and African-Americans want to live together in this Westside [Music] neighborhood I thought it was a great time in the early' 40s the African-American population of the city Soares from 178 to 3,000 racial tensions Spike markedly the jump in numbers ushers in the beginning of official segregation in Las Vegas laira Johnson a young woman from Mississippi describes her arrival in Wartime Las Vegas I thought that's going to be perfect out there was I ever shocked the business places they they had a big sign up on the wall that said we do not Cater To Colored Police Captain George olum later recalled a black couldn't walk into a bar and get a drink in Las Vegas a black couldn't get served a black bar was a black bar whites could patronize those black bars or they did to a degree the West Side this is the only community in the town that is somewhat integrated doing business hours it is not un usual for a white person to come over and eat southern cooking in one of the restaurants in the west side now what the city does not like is the night life that also brings white people to the black neighborhood city leaders want to shut it down in May 1943 Ernie kraan is reelected mayor of the city he is not a supporter order of integration that July police chief Harry Miller closes The Star Bar on the West Side the review journal explained why the police moved in the bar has been playing to a mixed trade with Negroes and whites encouraged to congregate in the establishment promiscuously the next day the city commission revokes the bar's license in his movie theater the El portel African-Americans the black citizens had to be segregated and and were moved off to the side tension between craigan and the black community will continue and worsen by the end of the [Music] decade craigan is reelected at a critical juncture the wartime flood of humanity stretches the city government to the breaking point the war was good to Las Vegas but it was a near disaster for the the civil government because they couldn't maintain or expand the infrastructure needed for all these thousands of people coming in there was inadequate housing they had to build more schools they had to extend the streets and it was a stress on city government in the midst of it all the city went through 10 police Chiefs and transitioned from a volunteer to professional fire department in 1943 craigan and city manager Tom Hennessy call for an ambitious program of public improvements a new police station Street Pavements more Street lighting public swimming pools a new fire station and a new sewage treatment plant new businesses take hold in the early 40s Maxwell Kelch and his wife Laura Bell established Kino the city's first successful radio station by the end of the decade the city would have two more radio stations but just as the war starts to wind down it was Maxwell Kelch who is the first to see that Las Vegas has a problem America is winning the war like all other Americans Las Vegas Cheer each Victory but in Las Vegas the thrill of impending Victory leads to a sober realization the basic magnesium is shut down much of what this area was basing its economy on is gone and the entire area had to reink what it was going to do how the community was going to survive the city had faced a very similar dilemma when the dam workers left in the 1930s George Olam there was a general feeling by some of the shortsighted individuals that the town was going to hell there were people who said oh this is the end and to a degree I felt that way too with economic difficulties looming Las Vegas sets about tackling the future you can pinpoint the sophisticated development of the marketing of Las Vegas starting with one person Maxwell Kelch he became the president of the Chamber of Commerce and he proposed something called the Live Wire fund and the way it worked everybody was going to contribute to the chamber being able to Market Las Vegas the Live Wire fund is a great success per capita Las Vegas raises more money for publicity than any city in the United States it was a very conscious effort you know the whole idea of a business group consciously saying okay we're going to Pivot we're going to consciously make a change from who we were to who we're going to be to go from not spending a whole lot to spending more than any other community per capita in the United States to advertise itself so between 1944 and 1948 they hired they being the Chamber of Commerce four different firms to help them with this the ad agencies put up dozens of billboards take out ads in newspapers and National magazines like time the New Yorker and Esquire print up and give out brochures hundreds of thousands of them we'll just advertise the heck out of the valley why not you know we'll advertise it whatever way we need to to get people here so this was the approach let's sell Las Vegas as this charming Western Community where you can have an inexpensive Sun filled vacation and the rooms will be inexpensive we're also advertising the outdoors we're outo advertising Hoover Dam Grand Canyon Red Rock Canyon all of these outdoor activities that people can do here um not necessarily telling them it's like 110° in July but uh letting them know Lake me you know there's all these places you can things you can do around Las Vegas while you're here it was a sophistication first of saying we need to fix our image we need to establish an image we created a a new form of Las Vegas the small city of Las Vegas will become a household name all across America just as the city is really coming into its own the war ends August 1945 at 9:15 the bomb has dropped the US devastates Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons Japan [Music] surrenders like the rest of America Las Vegas goes wild servicemen sing in the streets Las Vegas [Music] Rejoice Las Vegas and in divorce Las Vegas hotel owners they had a potential market for those people who wanted a quick marriage in Las Vegas Vegas unlike almost anywhere else there was no waiting period to get married there was no medical test to get married you just show up at the license bureau sign pay the fee and you can get married what could we do to make some money from these people downtown Las Vegas now provides a handy wedding package it was all there the courthouse for the marriage license a handy justice of the peace and chapels devoted entirely to weddings big names come to town to tie the knot Oliver Hardy and then a year later his partner Stan Laurel both Judy Garland and Micki Rooney did it multiple times many more Follow by no means pleas Hollywood picked up on this clad didn't know you had friends in Las Vegas there were some movies made in the early 1940s and one of the themes was an airline developing a business to to take folks to Las Vegas and it becomes a constant theme in in movies that go through the mid-40s in into the the late 1940s this is right down your alley it's a wedding in Las Vegas and I'm going to be the best man not a chance I'm booked for the weekend and besides there's too many people getting married I heard what you said the Las Vegas wedding was well known but the city was equally equipped for the reverse ceremony World War II was extraordinarily stressful on marriages men were going into these combat zones and often times they'd met you know a young woman and uh they didn't really know each other but because you know he was going to be shipped out two weeks six weeks whatever they got married the war ended they came back and they found out really they really had nothing in common and so the divorce rate soared in America Nevada had a short residency period so someone could come for 6 weeks establish residence and get a divorce the grounds for divorce were quite liberal Richard Bryan's father was a young lawyer you could live on the divorce trade during those years my father had a number of divorces uh I remember one of his good friends who practiced law Louis weiner he said that I had 16 divorces in uh one week it was pretty easy money a lot of marriages happened during the war very quickly and ended during the war very quickly one of the ones that people often never think about was a lady named normagene dty normagene dty was just a war worker in Los Angeles she had started modeling over there and decided she didn't want to be married anymore so she came over here to Las Vegas took advantage of the Quicky divorce laws most people know her by her stage name it's Marilyn Monroe in Las Vegas Marilyn bumps into a Las Vegas institution she writes home to her mother saying Las Vegas is really a colorful time with the hel dado celebration and all it lasted about 5 days they had rodeos and parades every day this is certainly a wild Town helado started in the 30s by the mid 1940s it's an established and huge City tradition elado was in May of every year and they had the Old-Timers Day Parade my dad was an officer in the Elks Lodge dad knew how to ride and he would spin his Horse Around by 1946 the festival was so well known that Roy Rogers and Dale Evans filmed a movie in Las Vegas with helado days as the backdrop Marilyn Monroe recalls I was walking down the street and noticed they were shooting a movie I met Roy Rogers and rode his horse trigger cross my heart I did GE he is nice if you want to have a successful film in Las Vegas it has to be favorable to Las Vegas and probably the best example is a 1946 film called hel Dorado starring and Roy Rogers and and Dale Evans both the film and helado itself celebrate a version of Las Vegas as an Old West Town it's fictional but fun and it's this wonderful depiction of hel Dorado days in Las Vegas and there's a parade and there's a rodeo and my goodness Roy Rogers and the sons of the Pioneers are at the rodeo and they sing and you get to see what Helder is like because as the movie ends there's a real depiction of of the parade of hel Dorado what happens in the making of films in Las Vegas in the 1940s and forward is the the Chamber of Commerce has an expectation that if the production company wants cooperation from the city of Las Vegas or from the properties they share their script ahead of time so the Chamber of Commerce will review a script and if they see it as a positive script they'll help them they'll help them with their their location shooting and some Hotel will help offset the cost of of the making of the film but if they perceive that the film is going to be a negative portrayal of Las Vegas they will refuse to cooperate in any way both hel Dorado and the Hollywood films are meant to draw tourists by 1946 Americans are ready to let loose gas rationing is over the automobile driven suburbs emerge and people drive every everywhere postwar Fremont Street is ready for them so is downtown Kingpin guy mcavey with his new Golden Nugget Gambling Hall The Golden Nugget is his dream property with antique fixtures imported Victorian carved wood and marble from Italy eventually the Golden Nugget will have a giant neon sign over freem monsters Street mcavey invites 20,000 people to the grand opening in August 1946 K maa's Masterpiece was the Golden Nugget computed at the time to have the largest casino floor in Las Vegas probably did and it was very very popular locals and tourists alike were drawn to the Golden Nugget a group led by Bugsy seagull most edway and Myer Lansky are also on the Move in 1945 they by the El Cortez they were notorious mob figures and they all G banded together to buy the elcortez this was the really the turning point where the mob took an interest in Las Vegas in a big way the city commission adapts to the changing environment during the war they pass new rules one ordinance requires anyone convicted of recent felonies to register with the police anyone working at a gambling house must be fingerprinted and posed for a mug shot in 1945 the Nevada legislature creates the first state casino license and tax legal gambling is Growing [Music] Up seagull's group doesn't own the the El Cortez long they sell it in 1946 by then Bugsy seagull is obsessed with another project he's about to open the flamingo out on Highway 91 the flamingo marks a change of style most of the downtown gambling clubs and the early establishments on Route 91 Echo the theme of the old west but the flamingo goes for an art deco theme modern and flashy they're moving away from the the cowboy howdy partner era so you're starting to see a clear separation of the marketing efforts between outside the city limits and within the city limits until late 1946 there are two large Casino motels running on Highway 91 El Rancho Vegas and the Last Frontier both do big business but businesses outside City Limits pay no city taxes Las Vegas needs the money mayor Ernie craigan is running an ambitious program of Public Works that needs financing unsurprisingly the city looks to what is now called The Strip they're looking out toward the strip and saying wait a minute there are these hotels they generate revenue and make money we want that the city wants them to be in the city the city really wants to Annex this portion of the valley after all the strip needs the city the county doesn't have a fire department so for all the places that are on US Highway 91 the city of Los Vegas is taking charge of protecting the fire along the us991 us991 hotels there they didn't have a sewer system the county didn't have a sewer or water treatment system all that was being taken uh care of by the city of Las Vegas so it's during this time the city says okay we're doing the fire we're doing the sewer we're doing the water you should become part of Las Vegas the people who are running the casinos on the Strip have no interest in having the city take over and tax them and regulate them so there's a fight that ensues more than 90% of the residents in the Highway 91 area are opposed to an ation kraan has lost he will try again but it's a fight that Ernie kraan never does win the casino operators they go to the County Commission they go to the legislature and they know how to Lobby they know how to grease some palms and they get what they want which is that you can have an unincorporated Township which means that the Las Vegas Strip which was not in the city of Las Vegas in the first place ends up being in parad I [Music] Township in December 1946 The Flamingo opens on Highway 91 after an opening stumble the flamingo begins to do very well but one day in June 1947 seagull goes to Beverly Hills he sits down on a couch suddenly shots rang out nine shots are fired through the window pugy seagull is hit in the face and in the body and he is killed Mo sedway Gus green bomb Morris Rosen these individuals walked into the Flamingo and said we're in charge the flamingo becomes a big success but seagull's death has repercussions for Las [Music] Vegas after Bugsy seagull is murdered the national press has stories about seagull and every story has him linked to Las Vegas everyone is up in arms in 1948 the State Tax Commission charged with regulating gaming summons all 11 Las Vegas racebook operators to appear at a meeting downtown the commission even resends Mo sway's gaming license but not for long the trouble for the licensing boards was there was not clearcut guidance from State officials who do we reject and why do we reject them so it's it's an evolving way to try and control gambling licenses and trying to keep out organized crime figures but it's a struggle well through the 1980s Las Vegas adapts their big concern image throughout the late 40s the city Chamber of Commerce Works to counter its negative National image they hire several different firms but all the ad campaigns have one thing in common every single one of them said when you publicize your town when you advertise your town don't talk about gambling no income tax no inheritance tax no sales tax in other words no tax the Live Wire funds advertising is bringing in plenty of tourists but the money comes from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and some of those post-war tourists don't go to Las Vegas at all they go to the [Music] strip in 1948 the Thunderbird opens on Highway 91 it's the fourth big Resort out there now you're seeing a trend these Casino developments occurring outside the city limits so you have all these tourists spending time outside the city limits instead of down on Fremont Street where the city you know fathers believe they belong so there was this this challenge that was developing between the city and the county if you think about Fremont Street everything is sort of cheek by Jou every casino is tall and narrow and there's no swimming pool and there's no you know horses you can ride there's no Vistas it's it's very Urban experience this more Suburban style development becomes very appealing even some local people like Richard Brian and his family spend time on the Strip you could swim at the pool so I swam at the El Rancho and the Last Frontier many many days the summer so that was a special treat for us Casino operators on Fremont Street learned from the strip bringing in stars to draw customers to the gaming rooms Martha Ray The Mills Brothers and Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers all performed during the 40s at the builtmore some of those entertainers are African-Americans during the war the El Cortez was the first to break the color barrier but segregation has not lost its hold on Las Vegas SE Davis Jr is part of the will Masten Trio his father and his uncle and Samy Davis Jr are performing together a little Ro roll boy that's those Ro they have to stay at a boarding house on the West Side Sammy Davis Jr later recalls we were performing at the hotel but we couldn't stay there we couldn't eat there we couldn't gamble in the casino we couldn't walk in the front door the black and rainers they would do their job and come to the west side and that's where they would uh find rooms and eat cage wire's father now works for greyline a limousine service it's his job to find African-American entertainers places to stay my dad was told he had to find accommodations for a black entertainer in West Las Vegas I can remember him coming home and saying if these people are good enough to perform in the hotel they should be good enough to stay there the 1940s is a time of systemic racism systemic racism was the force that runs the country and it runs the city here in Las Vegas as well no matter how inclusive a leader wants to be that is not what happens mayor craigan is not a part of the solution as black activist leira Johnson later recalls we used to have some fights with Ernie Kagan he was just anti-negro period he talked down to us as if we were really stupid for thinking we should be treated like anybody else most people like to avoid showing that they are really prejudiced but kraan conducted himself as if racist Behavior was really the right thing to do the public swimming pools restaurants hotels and casinos downtown do not allow black people to use the facilities and the problem of segregation comes to a head in 1949 with the short life of the black builtmore the Nevada builtmore had opened downtown in 1942 near the train depot but also near the black community of the West Side for years the builtmore has been struggling but New Management now has an idea so finally 1949 they decide one last way to stay in business if I can open this hotel to the africanamerican community that's right down the street from here maybe I can make a go of it but it only lasts for about five weeks craigan immediately convenes a special meeting of the city commission City fathers decide that this cannot be this cannot happen we cannot have an africanamerican hotel casino at this location is too close it's too close to the city so all of a sudden all licenses alcohol gaming is snatched away losing licenses is a death sentence for the black builtmore woodro Wilson of the local NAACP tries to object he calls on the city to to respect minority rights in the builtmore matter so the NAACP begins a protest and they have as many as 200 people going to City Hall to protest and to try to have that place allow an African-American clientele it does not work the hotel builtmore casino restaurant and pool for a very short period of time was a place where African-Americans go to eat to play and and to swim Ernie craigan pulled their license for the gambling license and pulled their lecture license and the story segregation was so powerful such a powerful force for now Las Vegas has drawn the line meaningful integration in the city will have to [Music] wait integration is not the only impending change in this changing world in the late 1940s the world is divided in a cold war the Communist Soviet Union and Democratic United States face off in hotpots around the globe by the end of the decade the Soviet Union will conduct its first nuclear test they too will have the atomic bomb tensions had been ratcheting up since the end of the war and fear usually brings money the defense industry rises from the dead we had a very active Senator that kept pushing Southern Nevada as a place that was good for Aviation that was Patrick McCaron Pat McCarron today deservedly is viewed as this horrible anti-semite a communist witch hunter so even if his views had not been popular which unfortunately in some quarters they were he was going to be forgiven because if you talk pork barrel politics pork equals bacon and he brought home bacon the Gunnery school was deactivated and he starts pushing no no no we need to bring it back in 1947 the federal government created a new branch of the American Military the Air Force a year later the Air Force announces that it will take over the old army airfield the Air Force again opens a gunner school on the site and it's back and eventually named for Lieutenant William Nellis who was killed in a mission over Belgium during World War II graduate of Las Vegas High School eventually Nellis will become the largest combat Air Base in the world and in the next decade it is here with the nation's press looking on that this cloud is [Music] [Music] born it is an atomic cloud and because light travels faster than sound you see it before you hear it nuclear mushroom clouds will rise in the desert near Las [Music] Vegas the 40s have been a decade of tumult in development federal spending brought the city a wartime boom after the war the dollars came from tourists but the boom continues the ad campaign wrought by the Chamber of Commerce work wonders in 1949 Esquire magazine selects Los Vegas as the first choice for a top-notch vacation in the last half of the decade over 20 National magazines and newspapers publish positive stories about the city I think what amazes me about the 40s in Las Vegas is how things kind of come together for the future when one looks at the entire decade what you see is an almost Miracle story and it was done by Civic leaders who understood what would best serve their future and what best served their future was to put everything into tourism make Las Vegas truly America's playground and they pulled it off I I look at the' 40s as the transition that's when we went from what we were to what we were going to become you know this whole idea of we can do these things There's No Boundaries you can't dream big enough you can't dream weird enough you can do all kinds of things here and we did them and we created a new form of Las Vegas the 1950s will bring a national backlash against gambling and a local backlash against the evils of segregation organized crime has entered into the resort hotel industry in Las Vegas now the city will have to learn how to cope with it and with the promise and dangers of development itself something's been lost the small Dusty Town far off in the desert is gone forever but something's been gained Las Vegas will do more than survive it will become a pH phenomenon A Home of impossible Dreams unmistakable a one-of-a-kind city known throughout the world now in 1949 it's already on its [Music] way [Music] [Music]

Channel: KCLV Channel 2

Views: 767,871

Keywords: the history of las vegas, history of las vegas, the history of Las Vegas, the history of las vegas documentary, history of the mob in las vegas, vegas history, lasvegas mob, history of las vegas documentary, history of las vegas mob, history of las vegas casinos, history of las vegas mobsters, history of las vegas nevada, history of las vegas documenatry

Id: W7edD3d0ATw

Length: 74min 36sec (4476 seconds)

Published: Sun May 15 2022