The City of Las Vegas- The Thirties

it's january 1930 a snowstorm hits las vegas it's been years since this much snow has fallen on the desert city the unlikely storm is a glimmer of the future for the 30s will be a decade of extraordinary events an era that changes las vegas forever [Music] the transformation has already begun the united states is about to build the biggest dam in the world on the colorado river just southeast of the city it will be the largest building project the federal government has ever undertaken in the united states it will employ thousands of workers and attract hundreds of thousands of tourists it will be a decade of great change for the city of las vegas a city that has just over 5 000 people in 1930 while it was still small it was just on the cusp it was just on the edge of spreading its wings and there was a great sense of this great big thing is going to be happening pretty soon and what's that going to do to our quiet little bucolic town [Music] 1930s las vegas is a time of great change and i think las vegas knew they were in the middle of something big they were going to build a dam a colossal a massive dam of 30-40 miles from las vegas [Music] in the 1930s the tiny city in the desert will become successful on a scale few could have imagined it wasn't lady luck who first lures people to las vegas it's water water is the key to las vegas all the way back to the beginning of time the natural springs drew the paiute indians and later the railroad the city began as a railroad town in 1905 and was dominated by the railroad for decades even now in 1930 las vegas is still a railroad town but things are starting to change the railroad isn't the only way in and out of the city you could make it by car but it was still very difficult you could make it by air but it was very expensive in 1930 las vegas aviation was two flights a day it was exciting to fly but it was also very very noisy the 1930s were kind of like the beginning of the future for las vegas two nevada men will describe many of the changes that happen in las vegas in the 30s george ulum and john kalin the young george ulum will eventually become a powerful person in nevada politics chairman of the public service commission and city manager of las vegas i was born in las vegas nevada on the 100th block of south fifth street my mother was a housewife my father was killed in an automobile accident when he was 33. brothers al and john kalin will build the las vegas review journal into the state's largest newspaper al is the head honcho john is the prolific reporter john kalin i have known presidents and prostitutes congressmen and convicts governors and grub stakers mayors and murderers ministers and muggers ball players and bootleggers and assorted other citizens but in 1930 john kalin is new in town a 27 year old reporter come to help his brother al run a newspaper john kalin i told him sure i'd come to las vegas and stay for a year we had the smallest office of a newspaper that i've ever seen when i came down here i thought this was the least likely city to succeed of any in the united states in the wake of the stock market crash in late 1929 the nation begins to sink into the economic decline and despair of the great depression it didn't hit las vegas as hard as it did the rest of the country al khalen writes in the review journal that no matter what is going around the rest of the nation there is no depression in las vegas [Music] if you walk down fremont street in the early 30s there's a sense of optimism we know lots of jobs are coming we know this depression isn't going to hurt us the same way they knew that right around the corner was the boulder canyon project in hoover dam and that is what was going to save las vegas real estate values soar the population jumps construction skyrockets it's a full-fledged boom over the next few years the city commission pumps out a whole series of improvements impacting many parts of town ornamental street lights modern sanitation trucks new sewers they pave widen and extend the streets a modern hospital is coming and an impressive post office inside a large new federal building on fremont street the boom is visible in neon [Music] the street just changes constantly with neon signs going up but it got as close to a neon battle there was competition between the clubs and the restaurants to who had the biggest and who had the most intricate john kalin those days in las vegas were probably the most hectic that i have seen it was an incredibly optimistic time in las vegas it was a happening place [Applause] the city may be small but it's proud in 1931 the review journal describes its expansive features two banks two hospitals western air express airline service and a modern airport two telegraph lines long distance telephone service four public swimming pools ten miles of paved streets 1200 children in schools and churches of seven denominations the churches are downtown one day you'd have the methodist church doing something the next day the mormon church was doing something the next day the catholic church was doing something and everybody went to all of them it wasn't a question of which religion you belong to it was oh it's a town of about five six thousand people we're all getting together life was centered around fremont street fremont street was in many ways our main street usa there were shops stores restaurants everything you ever needed you relied on the traditional things your high school events people felt part of the community they knew their neighbors they knew one another helen cecil is a teenager living with her mother on south main street we knew everybody you could walk down the street and say hello hello hello which i miss very much it used to be that on christmas eve you know you'd walk down fremont and oh it was wonderful because you could just say merry christmas to everyone people took care of each other and it gave a sense that las vegas was your home it was still a small city but new things were turning up everywhere in the early 30s there were two daily newspapers the las vegas age and the review journal the phone company has finally instituted long-distance service so you can actually talk to people elsewhere [Music] for one person the new decade will bring the realization of an old dream juan fraser the word visionary has been used too often but i'm going to use the word visionary for want fraser maud fraser grows up on a farm in wisconsin moves to nevada in 1906 and spends over 50 years here mod frasier our schools turn out people who know the same things do the same things think the same way instead of trying to make people fit into a certain mold we should encourage them to furnish their own mold in 1927 she becomes the superintendent says we need a new high school she went for the idea of building at 7th and bridger and having room for 500 students the community initially felt that where she wanted to build a high school was way out of town and it was too big she pushes for a 350 000 bond to build a new school she has to push long and hard she was trusted by the community she was successful in getting the bond issue passed school was built in 1930 and within a couple years it was filled well ha ha bud frazier was right this high school is important for a sense of permanence and that's really what we're seeing in the early 30s this community really is here to stay it is growing and it is going to keep growing and she is a very important figure in our community's history she later became a state legislator and later lieutenant governor new ideas could change everything even the desert heat one of the most amazing things that came in at that point was the swamp cooler this was a wonderful new technology that was coming in here a new device brings relief from the heat using fans to blow air across water saturated pads people they had swamp coolers but if you've ever experienced a swamp cooler versus an air conditioner you know they're not really the same thing it was still hot and dusty in 1930 one man single-handedly brings in another modern innovation the influence of the moon upon the tides is no mystery to mankind john heaton was the station master for the union pacific railroad and john heaton didn't know anything about radio but he saw the future and so he decided to build las vegas first radio station kgix and it opened in in september of of 1930. the radio newscasts were readily on top of things when one of the airplanes would land out at the airport there would be somebody waiting a runner to get these rolls of wire service copy and run them to the radio station where john kalin would rip off the the stories and would read the stories also jazz musicians played live at the facility unfortunately after a couple years the station went off the air but but it stood there as the concept the idea let's try it if you want to try something do it las vegas is growing fast in one year the population goes from 5 000 to five hundred but the city is not just bustling it's overwhelmed [Music] in 1931 a newly created entity called six companies signs a contract with the government for nearly 50 million dollars they'll build a dam it's the largest building project in the entire nation they were going to build the dam and that's all that everybody was talking about it was in all the papers all over the united states the dream has come true there were nightmare aspects of that thousands of people unemployed without money descended on the city of las vegas looking for work at the dam john kalin the united states government put up an employment building it was just a one-room shack and all hiring had to come through that one building you'd have lines of men a block and a half long there was nowhere near enough jobs for everybody that showed up tommy nelson is a trumpet player like many others unemployed there was just no money to hire bands things were pretty rough back in that era people couldn't afford to dance my father was down in this area so he told me if you come on down i can get you a job so i did joe kind will become a high scaler working on the canyon walls i was out of a job so i bought a model t ford for ten dollars and drove it out everything was really buzzing thomas wilson arrives on the train to become a reporter for the las vegas age we got to las vegas in late afternoon i asked the driver is there going to be a parade or something he said why do you ask i said well the streets are just black with people standing on the sidewalk all these crowds he said oh these are men waiting for jobs on the dam george ulum everybody was coming they were living under the bushes there'd be 200 people sleeping either on the ground or on the benches some of the new arrivals stay in auto camps at times these were one-room cabins at times just a place to pitch a tent beside your car people lived wherever they could people living in ditches people living by the side of the road people living in their cars people building shanty towns john kalin many shack towns sprang up shacks are built out of most anything tin cans cardboard boxes anything men were bringing their families along with them so women and children as well as the workers who had no money nowhere to live no jobs just showing up hoping that something good would happen to them you had about 20 000 people show up in a town of i think we were about 5200 people at that point you have no kind of infrastructure to be able to handle that the red cross was here the salvation army was here they set up soup lines and bread lines reporter thomas wilson helped set up a soup line they'd line up before daybreak two or three blocks or more long they'd all get something to eat pretty simple whatever it was but at least it kept them alive newspaper publisher charles squires headlines one story a pitiful and pathetic site there was no light in the place no stove just a small bed a little curly-headed girl woke up at the sound of voices she must have been about three she wanted something to eat little children are actually and without any reservation starving to death it's a story of hunger cold and poverty las vegas age february 1931. to many the dam has become both a blessing and a curse it was this this yin yang sort of thing it was it was wonderful because this was going to happen but it was terrible because it was happening too fast crime went up tremendously las vegas had never had to contend with crime like that the small police force dealing with a very large influx of people the police force had to add officers to try to keep things under control in two years the city police force went from four to nine officers john kalin if you haven't lived through it you can't imagine what would happen to a little railroad community having thousands of people dumped on it all at one time you had to provide schools for the kids you had to provide facilities for the community we just didn't know what to do the city jail is also inadequate we have this old cockroach infested jail called the blue room it was the black hole of las vegas it was just a holding pen in the jail that wasn't very big it was made to hold a handful of men they'd cram them in there sometimes the authorities would round these guys up put them in the paddy wagon drive them out to state line of california dump them and say leave the state and here these men were just dumped in the middle of the desert for the lucky ones work in the canyon begins in the spring of 1931 but the conditions would soon turn hellish 16 workers die from heat stroke in a single month summer of 31 was one of the hardest that had ever been recorded here at the dam site the average daily high temperature soars to 119.9 degrees bureau of reclamation commissioner elwood mead the summer wind from the desert feels like a blast from a furnace the sun beats down on a broken surface of lava rocks at midday they cannot be touched with the naked hand bob parker was a damn worker we worked 14 hours a day seven days a week if we got a day off it was because we were sick they called us cliff dwellers down there because the workers dormitories were built on stilts at the side of the canyon the government has begun constructing a settlement to house workers near the canyon they built an entire new city boulder city only seven miles from the dam boulder city was built as a planned community this little oasis in the desert looked like mayberry no drinking no gambling no prostitution officially and it was quiet and it was genteel and it was reserved [Music] many of the working men have brought their families and lived quietly many send parts of their paychecks back home boulder city was not the most fun place to let off steam with one road in and out federal authorities did their best to keep a lid on boulder city reporter elton garrett the gate was manned day and night by federal rangers if you had a bottle in your car you swigged it and tossed it before you got to the gate the far side of the gate was lined with broken glass inevitably illegal saloons pop up on the road to las vegas you had railroad paths close by and some other places along boulder highway in that but if you really wanted to party it was las vegas the workers in boulder city on payday wanted to go out and blow everything off they wanted to spend their money it was hard work they wanted a night out they'd get into las vegas and they would get drunk they'd fight maybe they'd spend the night in the blue room and they'd have to be let go and they'd head back up the hill reporter thomas wilson the damn workers would all come down on payday evenings and i remember going down there to see what the action was and the whole street was just full sidewalk to sidewalk just a mass of humanity in theory prohibition is still in effect across the nation in las vegas there were maybe as many as 75 to 100 small little saloons and i don't want to say speakeasies because they were loud easies there was no quietness to these little little shacks with a bar for las vegas prohibition was something that was happening somewhere else federal agents in places like san francisco and los angeles and salt lake city and reno didn't come to las vegas that often but then in 1931 that's exactly what they do a lot of first took place in las vegas during the 1930s one of the first was the very first undercover operation by the federal government there was a prohibition agent in san francisco named wayne kane this agent comes to las vegas with a scheme he wants to set up a sting operation he gets a hold of a local real estate agent named ralph kelly and he says ralph what here's what i want you to do you're going to buy a building and you're going to open a speakeasy so they set up a bar called liberty's last stand sort of an ironic thing so uh he proceeds to open the bar it's quite popular he's buying cases of beer from this guy and he's buying quartz of liquor from this other guy and he is recording all of this very carefully and not only was it an undercover operation there was a piece of equipment a cumbersome piece of equipment it was a microphone that was sitting in a napkin holder a wire was run down the floor up the wall over to another building where there was a dictaphone machine one man reveals on the recording that he pays the chief of police a hundred bucks a month for protection then a u.s commissioner tries to shake down kelly for a payoff he's on tape too after only a few months they've built up a big enough case that agent kane says okay it's time he sends 55 agents to las vegas raided these places all the same time and arrested almost 100 men and women in one day kelly says the surprise was complete and action perfect this was by far the largest raid in nevada ralph kelly the real estate agent turned you know sting operator uh he ended up moving to san francisco he had to leave town because there was he there was going to be hell to pay if he uh stayed in las vegas but it didn't take long before las vegas was right back to business [Music] the beloved humorist will rogers writes when you feel that the people around you are taking too much care of your private business move to nevada it's freedom's last stand in america [Music] the state of nevada pride itself on being the true libertarian state and that made people in las vegas more accepting of things that would be completely unacceptable in other communities there were clubs on fremont street you could go in and play poker any number of card games were legal in 1930 a campaign to expand legal gambling begins in las vegas in time it will change the future of millions but it really begins with one man one of the key figures in the whole operation was a las vegas real estate developer named tom carroll he wants a better future for las vegas for the community but also for himself he decided that the future of las vegas depended on legalized gambling so he begins putting large ads in the las vegas papers in the spring the summer and the fall of 1930 and he he creates this narrative that if they would just do this las vegas will become the playground of the united states the population of las vegas will will triple it will quadruple it will make the future for las vegas nevada needed industry and being in the middle of the mojave desert or the great basin there weren't a lot of companies interested in building a you know an auto assembly plant or you know some of the things we we think about today as industry but not everyone thinks that legalizing gambling is a good idea george ulum of course las vegas had liquor being sold but the people who lived here were of a conservative nature both my grandmothers were absolutely opposed to gambling gambling was a sin you bet one local journalist writes we have enough laws to deal with in nevada as it is gambling a business in nevada i don't think so [Music] in march 1931 it happens nevada becomes the only state in the union where casino gambling is legal george ulum i give tom carroll more credit than anybody else for getting the damn thing passed he started that ball rolling and by many is considered the father of gambling the interesting thing with the legalized gaming is it wasn't that big a deal on the day the state senate approves the gambling bill the evening review's banner headline is about a new hospital the banner headline is about the new hospital opening at 8th and ogden gambling's below it las vegas decided it was going to be a little cautious to begin with they only allowed six gaming licenses in april getting a gaming license was not easy you had to get a license from clark county then appear before the city commission it was hard for organized crime to break in there was a small group of locals that were running gambling in las vegas they had the licenses and there were a limited amount of licenses one of the two names on the first gaming license issued by clark county is that of a woman maine stalker mame stalker first arrives in las vegas around 1911. anyone who lives here is out of his mind is her initial judgment by 1921 her family is entrenched in vegas you have oscar and meme stalker and their three sons they come to las vegas in 1920 and by the northern hotel northern club on the first floor maine takes care of the second floor and her colorful husband and colorful sons take care of of the first floor and that included gambling in theory the stalkers club sells only soft drinks but bootleg liquor is certainly available mame's son harold defends the family brand we made it in some natural caves made good whiskey gambling has also been a part of the club from the start mame's son lester is a professional gambler and harold worked as a casino dealer in mexico harold stalker my mother told me to come in and work because i knew how to deal from tijuana there was hardly anybody who knew how in those days harold quits the northern club in 1933. i never liked the business he says instead he becomes chairman of the nevada republican party the stalkers own the club through the 1940s but mame manages to remain respectable she builds an elegant home in hunt ridge her birthday parties are covered in the society pages and she lives to be 97 years old [Music] another county gaming license goes to one of the corner brothers the corneros have a certain reputation they were bringing booze from canada down to california and they were the biggest operation in the state when tony got busted finally and went to prison frank and lewis decided maybe there's a better way to make money maybe we should go to nevada so they built the meadows resort it was beautiful big mission style architecture with a big casino restaurants dance floor and a hotel that was the first resort in the sense that we think of today and all enclosed self-sufficient everything you need on may 3rd 1931 the las vegas age announces potent in its charm mysterious in its fascination the meadows america's most luxurious casino will open its doors tonight but one vip didn't make it to the opening [Music] tony isn't at the meadows when it opens in the spring of 31 he's actually still in prison reporter thomas wilson i used to go to the meadows and take a date the corneros were very pleasant i had a wonderful time all the scotch in the world all the champagne in the world all these crazy characters it was sort of like being on the set of a grade b gangster movie it was just the beginning of what later became the las vegas entertainment industry on a scale that no one could possibly imagine in the 1930s the meadows sets a couple of standards if you will one of them is the more elaborate operation not just the casino a really nice restaurant and the entertainment but it's also going to be run by people who've been involved in illegal activities just four months after its opening the hotel section of the meadows catches fire the all-volunteer fire department is not allowed to go outside city limits the hotel burns down the meadows was ahead of its time it didn't quite make it the meadows will open again close again and continue to deteriorate over the years so some of the first out-of-state crime figures who try to muscle their way into illegal operations in las vegas are failures the legalized gaming it didn't start out as the huge funding influx that it later became thousands come to las vegas to look for work and many come to let off steam after work but every year more and more people come for a very different reason hoover dam was a huge tourist attraction more and more people came every year as the decade progressed some 92 000 people visit the canyon in 1932. america's first streamlined train visits boulder dam as they will soon be under 700 feet of water even las vegas went high school student george vaughan toble remembers we'd drive out there and watch the construction it went on 24 hours a day and never stopped during high school that was our favorite necking spot humorist will rogers urges his huge national audience to go saying don't miss seeing the building of boulder dam it's the biggest thing that's ever been done with water since noah made the flood look foolish in the early 30s a huge sign arches over fremont street welcome to las vegas gateway to the boulder dam people traveling to or from the dam are likely to stop over in las vegas for a meal gamble a little bit have a hotel room and that's what helps propel the the economy of las vegas for visitors traveling by car auto courts begin popping up in downtown las vegas and they became what we thought of as motels and then you have the apache hotel [Music] in 1932 pietro silvani opens a hotel unlike any other pietro ottavio silvani was born in 1873 in italy valaba in sicily when he got here he had an epiphany or a vision seeing the opportunity that was lying before him this town did not have luxury accommodations and he hawked everything he had he wanted to build the best place the finest place the apache hotel is a three-story structure it is a hotel with las vegas first elevator it is a hotel with air conditioning he had high ceilings and private bathrooms in every room the doors your rooms had something very special when you shut the door and left your room it automatically locked state of the art and silvani decided to have a nightclub so he opens the kiva club in the basement those who can afford it love staying at the apache hotel charles squires las vegas was really pepped up when the new hotel was completed three stories and a basement with an elevator it was almost incredible that las vegas should have a building pretentious enough to boast an elevator but so it was the elite part of community would go to the apache hotel just to ride the elevator it was exciting the hotel apache was the biggest thing that ever happened to las vegas at that time i feel that he started the hospitality industry in this town i feel tied to my grandfather in the same way i feel tied to this town it's something that in your gut it's in your heart as the roulette wheels begin spinning in las vegas the great depression is getting worse in the rest of the nation there are food lines soup lines just this blanket of darkness over the entire country everything collapsed the worst days of the depression were in the early 1930s especially 32 and 33. las vegas absolutely sailed through it some of the credit goes to mayor ernie cragan ernie cragan is in the business world he's involved in the majestic theater and then he opens the el portal theater which is the biggest nicest movie theater in town craigan runs for mayor saying he will try to realize the dreams ambitions and hopes of a city which will take its place along with phoenix salt lake and denver as great inland population and industrial centers he's elected mayor and there's sort of a feeling that we're going to have a business oriented government that understands how to spend the money where to spend the money and how to find the money ultimately craigan will do this franklin d roosevelt takes office in early 1933 offering the nation what he calls the new deal prohibition soon ends and the building begins not least in las vegas you're looking at paving the streets you're looking at oiling the highways the city started doing things like curbs and gutters and replacing water lines and sewer lines and and basically upgrading the city the city is beginning in a sense to catch up with the population and the growth and cregan is crucial to that the new deal leading to so many programs and so many public works projects that turn las vegas into more of a modern city out at the damn site the damn building is in full swing at the height of dam construction there were more than 7 000 men working 24 hours seven days a week on the construction of the dam there were more jobs at higher pay than any old-timer ever had dreamed possible a lot of people are moving to southern nevada you do have more ethnic diversity there's certainly a faster growing black population in particular you also see the arrival i think of more hispanic and asian people diversity was not new after the railroad created the town a small group of blacks mexicans asians and paiute lived alongside people of western european descent the dam brought all kinds of job seekers to las vegas but the contractor was literally prohibited from hiring chinese workers and jobs were out of reach for many other ethnicities whenever employment is scarce then you find that racism hardens and that's what happened in the 1930s all of those great federal jobs black people want those jobs oh my god no none of the people hired in that first round of hiring were african-american the naacp got together and decided that we have to do something the african-american community has its own chapter of the naacp one of the five founders is clarence ray clarence ray became a resident of las vegas back in the 1920s i didn't have any trouble getting anybody to join almost every black in town was a member of the naacp but we didn't have anything that tested us until they started working on the boulder dam they wouldn't hire any negroes that always say we're filled up so they called the regional office in the san francisco area and they sent in william pickens and he came to las vegas pickens is the national field secretary for the naacp mr pickens made a speech in the majestic theta building mr pickens said i want to see how they can be employing 4 000 people and not one black this guy mr pickens is quite a talker so after pickens leaves the employment office set up to hire for the dam put a sign out saying that there would be another round of hiring and that if you're not black don't apply but we know that that was just for sure out of the 20 000 people hired over that four-year period of dam construction 44 black people worked there a few native americans are hired for high-risk jobs but less than one percent of the dam jobs are given to hispanics asians and blacks as far as race issue and jobs is concerned i'm kind of of the opinion that things weren't so bad clarence ray is not the only one who looks on the bright side george ulum black kids in high school would go to community events basketball games football games or graduate with us they wouldn't have been turned down at a dance john kalin there wasn't anybody in the whole negro population that wasn't liked and respected they were part of any celebration that we had in the community and everything was all right i'm not sure that it was as lovey-dovey and as cohesive as what some people would like for us to believe is standard practice in much of america george ollum if they went to the theater blacks had to sit in the back and they could not go into a restaurant nor a bar to be waited on it always was that way then a sales pitch for a new development just northeast of 9th and fremont stipulates lot owners are restricted to the white caucasian race like most blacks in las vegas clarence ray lives in a small part of downtown near fremont street the city of las vegas is growing downtown is becoming a commercial area so they didn't necessarily want people living in that downtown business corridor blacks who owned property in that area were given great prices to move out of there everybody lives downtown but now they're asking people to move out of that downtown core white people they ask blacks to move across the tracks to that old town site that was laid out back in 1904. and that's what blacks gradually began to do clarence ray in the 1930s the west side had quite a number of whites mexicans about a fifth of population was mexican and very few blacks the combination of economic development and racial restrictions downtown begin to push the african-american population toward the west side now you have to find a way to insert yourself in an area where you're not welcome it does work out in the end and today we call it the historic african-american community another non-white group has lived outside of downtown las vegas for decades many japanese americans worked the land around the city george ulum on the front 20 acres we had the japanese tenant family charlie and his wife aggie had two little children they had a little place 100 yards away from where we lived and charlie raised every kind of vegetable that there was daily he would load it into the carts and bring it into las vegas while charlie was out selling aggie was out with her hoe weeding one day my mother saw aggie out in the field early in the day the next day she didn't see aggie but later in the afternoon she saw aggie out working she went out and talked to her well aggie she said i didn't see you i had a baby aggie said she took that day off to have a baby that's true all the while the mammoth dam rises in the river canyon the last bucket of concrete is poured in may 1935 it's done millions of tons of concrete intake towers as high as 34 story buildings a thousand miles of steel pipe and behind the dam sits the largest reservoir on earth for the first time human beings control the wild colorado river in september 1935 the president of the united states travels to nevada he's come to dedicate the dam which is almost finished hazel allen president roosevelt came through in an open-air car and of course we waitresses all rushed to the windows to look at him he was waving his hat it was really something mary and alan was one of the men who worked on the dam he came down this road in this open car mrs roosevelt and him waving to everybody roosevelt of course he was next to god to me people could walk up to the car and they could look in and say hi frank hi eleanor it was really a sense of wow this amazing project is finished and now the president of the united states is coming out to dedicate it it's 102 degrees at the canyon but at least 10 000 people have gathered to watch people were just so packed on the top of that dam that you could hardly turn around and they were sitting on the top of the cars and they were climbing up the sides of the cliffs where they could sitting up there and climbing these poles and thousands of people just converged on the top of hoover dam just to hear this man dedicate this amazing structure the president's address is broadcast to a radio audience in the millions coast to coast this morning i came i saw and i was pondered as everyone would be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind ten years ago the place where we are gathered was an unpeopled forbidding desert and the transformation rod here in these years is a 20th century marvel people remember that for the rest of their lives and it gave the finish of the damn just that really big bang that it needed it started with a parade and celebrations and it ended with celebrations and parades and hoover dam was something successful and exciting in a time of depression in the united states it was one of the biggest events that had ever happened in southern nevada las vegas expects the finnish dam to be a direct source of prosperity the dedication of the dam reminds the world that soon the greatest power plant in the world will be producing hundreds of thousands of horsepower of cheap electrical energy but the electricity las vegas gets in 1935 does not yet come from the dam and some people are upset about the price of power leonard arnett writes at the present time the city of las vegas is forced to pay the local power company an average of twelve thousand per year the city's electricity has always been controlled by a private entity the southern nevada power company run by ed clark john kalin ed clark controlled most of the economy of the community through his banking facilities ed usually chose who he wanted as members of the city commission and county commission and all those powerful bodies the southern nevada power company had a monopoly a lot of people were unhappy with how the power company had operated many in las vegas feel that electric rates are too high in the mid 30s ed clark and his company are challenged for the first time leonard arnett las vegas must have the cheapest power in the world if we are to reap the benefit of the great resource that has been given to us we must safeguard this great asset for the people leonard arnett was a young businessman he had a couple of different enterprises going in las vegas in 1935 arnett runs for mayor craigan he says is too closely tied to the southern nevada power company our net's big platform plank is municipally owned power arnett wins essentially saying i want the city government to take over electricity and he fights about it and fights about it the city commission soon votes unanimously to acquire its own power system but ed clark and the power company file lawsuit after lawsuit delaying the process for years in 1937 power from the dam finally reaches the city clark says power rates will be cut by 50 but arnett continues to fight for municipal power the public battle is soon lost electric greats one paper reports are some of the cheapest in the country in 1938 the city commissioners desert arnett on the issue and the mayor has finally had enough arnett simply abandons the city government isn't an easy thing let's face it leonard arnett is eventually found in petaluma california where he's bought a chicken ranch he has no intention of ever coming back [Music] for now the plug had been pulled on the idea of a city-owned power company in the name of the people of the united states [Music] are a symbol of greater things in the future i call you to life [Music] at the touch of the president's hand an electrical impulse starts the first [Music] on february 10 1936 as thousands look on the canyon wall outlet works are tested the show is like a grand finale for five years of intense work [Music] after a decade of planning engineering studies and debate over legislation leading to another five years of intense construction the dam is finally done the eyes of the nation have truly seen the tiny city booming in the desert but a powerful problem now hovers over las vegas in the peak construction months in 1934 dam workers collectively earn 750 000 a month and spend a lot of it in las vegas but after the dam is finished how can las vegas replace that flow of incoming cash all of these men and their families who had come out here to work on the dam and who were spending their money were going to go away and so well then now what are we going to do about that in the mid-1930s a fairly small group of las vegas joined together to prepare the city for that future the people in charge the movers and shakers the nabobs casino owners the people who ran the churches and the chamber of commerce we're looking a little bit further ahead trying to sort out a way that we the locals can control our economic and civic destiny and that's going to be the struggle of the 1930s civic leaders entrepreneurs developed this clear sense that you could use tourism as a foundation to build a very vibrant economy las vegas soon devises a plan to market the city to tourists they focus upon really the natural wonders that surround las vegas they focus upon the wonderful weather in las vegas they focus upon how inexpensive it is to come to las vegas and then they begin to talk about how las vegas may be your last opportunity to experience the old west the chamber of commerce takes the lead the las vegas chamber of commerce was as powerful if not more powerful than the elected government they could have a chamber of commerce meeting all those in favor say aye those opposed motion carries and something would get done meanwhile the newspapers did the cheerleading folks like pop squires and al khalin they loved their community they were doing whatever they could do to try to make las vegas be that much more successful john kalin my brother took the attitude of don't ever sell las vegas short everybody associated with the review journal was interested in making las vegas grow they are of one mind that if you're going to run a newspaper in a city trying to grow you have to use this medium to boost the city john kalin anything favorable to las vegas we sent out over the wire anything unfavorable we kept it right in the newspaper office maybe we weren't doing the news justice but it was for the benefit of the city of las vegas in the mid-1930s the city promoters face a tricky obstacle image las vegas has to attract ever more tourists they've got to do something to change what we would call the brand [Music] the city's first effort at branding uses an iconic american myth oh the old west silent movies early talkies dime novels there people are very familiar with the west young cowboy americans in the 1930s fell in love with westerns they loved reading novels like zane gray's writers of the purple sage they loved reading the pulp magazines about western stories but mostly they love movies about western themes to many the old west is the most american version of america the chamber of commerce fell on the idea of we should become the old west we should become cowboys and indians because that's what will draw the eastern folks the old west or the frontier suggests the rules are being written as we're here there's opportunity everywhere the promoters in las vegas knew that they had a potential gold mine if they promoted this idea that there is still a place in america where you too can experience some elements of the frontier that place where there are cowboys there are prospectors there is a desert the frontier is a popular idea and it's one that they can sell and they sure do sell it it had nothing to do with our history there was no old west here the chamber of commerce and the powerful elks club pushed the slogans the last frontier town and still a frontier town the phrases show up on pennants postcards and a wide array of tourist novelties in 1935 the elks hire clyde zurby a carnival barker and show promoter he borrows an idea from tombstone arizona an event called helldorado one of the driving forces behind eldorado is big jim cashman john kalin jim cashman was one of the wheels of the elks lodge at that time and one of the wheels of southern nevada for that matter big jim cashman was what you would call a civic leader extraordinaire everybody knew big jim and big jim knew everybody george olam he was a pusher jim operated in an entirely different fashion than the others jim was a doer he was a person to get things done and when he envisioned something and wanted to do it he drove other people into joining him that was jim's nature cashman and the elks bring in zurby to promote the first eldorado the promoter that was putting this on had a connection with paramount movie studios and he rented all of these outfits top hats and chaps and guns and and all those things and the city fathers and mothers dressed up in all these rented hollywood studio props had their pictures taken and it was a giant fun exciting event [Music] they were able to convince the community that we should dress up in cowboy hats and boots and howdy partner [Laughter] the first eldorado a four-day event is a giant success it was so successful the chamber of commerce the newspaper said we should do this every year and in fact they did it the next year they had a rodeo to eldorado and they had a whiskers contest who could grow the biggest bushiest wildest beard they turned it into this tourist event that the locals absolutely loved and supported like most las vegas teenager helen cecil revels in eldorado the parades were the life of the city they were wonderful it was crowded very crowded and the hotels would do just gorgeous just beautiful floats and all the bands of course the bands but when the flag would go by everybody would be so hats off you know so attentive [Music] [Applause] and it's this opportunity for las vegas to sell itself to the national media as the true last frontier town when it really wasn't it was a recreation of a time that never existed here i guess i'm getting what i deserve but the city's pr campaign works perfectly a los angeles radio program describes las vegas as a frontier town with a carefree healthy stranger atmosphere its people are open-handed and open-minded westerners with their 10-gallon hats their loud shirts and tri-cornered neckerchiefs [Music] the westernizing of las vegas is not the only way the city sells itself to visitors there's the idea of liberty you can do things here that you can't do in other places you can gamble legally in nevada and while you're doing that you can get a divorce all you had to do was stay for six weeks and you get up in front of a judge and you say yes judge i'm going to stay here for the rest of my life and you could get a divorce and then of course you turned around and left it becomes known as the six-week cure thousands of divorce seekers pour into nevada but at first most go to reno and reno was very very quick out of the gate they became the divorce capital of the nation but las vegas gets in on it the chamber of commerce hands out brochures telling you how easy a las vegas divorce can be you can take a luxurious steam liner from new york and get to vegas in just 50 hours airlines now run direct flights from los angeles and san francisco but what finally gives las vegas the advantage over reno is a single event in 1939 it's a divorce made in heaven a divorce that introduces the curious factor of glamour into the sad process of breaking up it was rhea gable that really put us on the map rhea is clark gable's wife in 1939 clark is the biggest box office draw in the world it's the year he plays rhett butler in gone with the wind he marries ria langham but then falls in love with the effervescent carol lombard frankly my dear i don't give a damn maria gable she opted to come to las vegas to establish her residency and she was visible all the time she was out on lake mead she went horseback riding up on mount charleston she stayed at the apache hotel she said very pleasant things about las vegas we have a celebrity once removed who's come to town to get a divorce how do we capitalize on this so the chamber of commerce put out five hundred dollars for marketing and so they're taking photos of ria langham gable here's rio langham gable gambling here she is on boulder lake here she is walking down the street here she is not walking down the street newspapers across the country pick up the story gable divorce booms las vegas langham is pied piper for nation's top flight divorce colony look magazine said all ria had to do was to say a few positive words about las vegas and ever more people wanted to come to get their divorce in las vegas even people of modest means come to divorce renting out rooms in local houses helen cecil my mother that's how she made her living she always had someone come in and live with her they were divorcees that would come and stay for six weeks we made some very dear friends it was very good for the whole town money-wise [Music] but divorce is only half the equation and las vegas does even better with the other half the state of nevada had no waiting period to get a marriage license there was no health certificate required the state gets rid of the law requiring a blood test before marriage so you come down you say are you related no i'm not okay you can get married and so we have quickie marriage as well as quickie divorce in 1935 the chamber of commerce distributes folders with cupid's hearts and arrows to urge californians to marry in las vegas marriage licenses are issued immediately 24 hours a day sundays and holidays you begin to see some wedding chapels the airlines began to package these trips to las vegas we'll fly you in we'll cover the cost of the marriage license there'll be a room for you some meals and then we'll take you back home the next day and people began to flood to las vegas to get married again hollywood plays a role film stars begin to come to the desert to rest or frolic bringing an aura of glitz and glamour showbiz weddings abound clara beau the it girl william boyd hop along cassidy edgar grey spuros author of tarzan even bella lugosi greatest dracula of the day hollywood has discovered southern nevada filmmakers come to shoot movies like the silver streak in 1934 and a full-length feature called boulder dam in 1936. i'm helping to build something clark gable himself comes to see the dam this is the beginning of the kind of celebrification the celebrities are coming here not necessarily to entertain but oh gee i'm i'm here at a table in this club and is that clark over there but it's neither divorce nor marriage that brings las vegas its lasting reputation and its permanent source of income [Music] during prohibition las vegas has seen its share of bootlegging and illegal gambling but up until the late 1930s las vegas is not a magnet for big time urban criminals there's almost no evidence a figure some organized crime from chicago or new york involved in las vegas development in the 1930s when you talk about organized crime you typically think about the mobsters who came here from new york and chicago and cleveland those kinds of places in the 1930s we weren't quite to that point where those kinds of organized crime groups were settling here gambling might be legal but it's not big time then in 1938 las vegas is deeply affected by events in southern california los angeles was notorious for being a hotbed of underworld corruption [Music] city government was corrupt the police were corrupt you had individuals who had been involved with extensive vice rackets in southern california these are gangsters these were mobsters by a common definition they had organizations that they oversaw and that were engaged in sustained criminal enterprise like guy mcafee guy mcavee has been prominent in la for decades he'd once been the head of the la vice squad but by the early 30s he's considered the king of vice in la running much of its illegal gambling and prostitution the election of fletcher bauron as the mayor of los angeles in 1938 was a turning point he ran on a campaign of cleaning up the town he won the election and made good on his campaign promise he exposed guy mcavee so you start seeing people like mcafee looking to las vegas as their escape hatch his first effort is to purchase the small nightclub on highway 91 the paradise he saw it as a place that maybe he could transform refurbish and make it attractive to wealthy southern californians to come to las vegas mcafee sort of is the is the frontier you know los angeles guy who comes and and says to everybody hey i think this is going to work out come on down he was at the top of the game and he was smart and he was ruthless within a few years mcafee sells the paradise and moves downtown snapping up bars and buildings on fremont street and turning them into casinos and guy mcavee becomes one of the kingpins of a new las vegas and from that point they made the next great leap forward into the 1940s and the entertainment industry and the gambling industry and the resort and tourism that we know today but a city that will soon become world famous for gambling and entertainment is still traditional and even old-fashioned people go to their church or they go to their school or they go to their club or their civic organization they do all the things that are going on elsewhere [Music] the las vegas high school football team is the pride of the community five times in the 1930s they win the state championship george ulum anything that the high school did was a community affair when we had a football game everybody in the town was there it wasn't just the families of the kids everybody would turn out in june 1939 some 95 students graduate but the world they are about to enter is about to change the shadow of an ominous future has appeared almost 6 000 miles away in europe that september hitler invades poland the second world war has begun newspapers talk about an army air school starting up in las vegas the red cross appeals for recruits the city will help america prepare for war kids from las vegas high will go from social studies or shop classes to fighting a war at the other end of the world some of them will never return [Music] [Music] las vegas had always known what it was in the beginning it was a railroad town depending on the railroad for jobs and a lifeline to the world then it was a boom town the gateway to boulder dam in the late 30s the town had to redefine itself again it did that and again las vegas survived the 30s are really the key decade for building the las vegas that we'll see the foundations are laid for what we're going to see in decades to come [Music] well the one thing you can always say about las vegas and las vegas is their survivors las vegas survives from the beginning las vegas have always been adaptable you see that applied throughout the history of las vegas where we're willing to try stuff that no one else will try all of those things we're just adding to the excitement and the energy and the passion [Music] if you want to try something do it [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] you

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Length: 74min 36sec (4476 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021