Observations by Pop Squires 1955-1956

OLD JOURNALISM

JOURNALISM which I assume

and have assumed for many

years, means the making of

a newspaper, has changed

much in the last fifty years.

In looking over the issues Las

Vegas Age and Las Vegas Times dated

January 20. 1906, I observe that front

page advertising was then not con-

sidered so great a sin as it is now-

adays. For example, in The Age on

the front page are two-column ads

for Harry Belgen’s "Vegas Home

Bakery,” First State Bank, J. T. Mc-

Williams (“for 12 years a surveyor in

Southern Nevada”) who advertises

"Greatest Opportunities in Govern-

ment Lands": Las Vegas Mercantile

Company, The Denton Hotel (Cali-

ente) and two legal notices, with sev-

eral liners advertising The Ago.

In the Las Vegas Times there are

double column ads on the front page,

for Red. Cross Drug Store, Ed W.

Clark Forwarding Co.. Ed Von Tobel

Lumber Co., C. Ganahl Lumber Co..

(A. W. Jurden); Busteed & Co. (Real

Estate and Mining): and several mod-

Remember, all the above advertise-

ments were on the front page, not

because the editors wanted it so, but

because advertisers were afraid their

ads would not be seen if on the inside

pages. The names of some of those

ads bring strange memories to a few

of Las Vegas’ old timers. Ed Von To-

bel and First State Rink, now part of

First National, are the only firms

still in business.

Both newspapers had "patent in-

sides." which means that a country

weekly would give its readers perhaps

eight pages of good reading each

week, four pages of which would be

home printed, filled with local news

and advertising. The other four pages

were printed by some large printing

and publishing house in some nearby

city. Salt Lake City or Los Angeles,

for Las Vegas papers.

The local publisher would get his

newsprint (one side printed) free, or

at a very low rate, the city printer

FABULOUS LAS VEGASMARCH19,1955

being paid by advertising (mostly of

patent medicines).

Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Com-

pound was the most voluminous ad-

vertiser, and the ads would take the

form of long dissertations on the qual-

ities of the medicine, coupled with

pictures and sketches of the life of the

lady who sponsored the medicine.

Other patent medicines advertised in

those issues of the Las Vegas papers

were California Fig Syrup. Sloan's

Liniment, Anti-Gripine, Hall’s Canker

& Diphtheria Remedy, Pisos' Cure for

Consumption, Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills,

and others and still others; once fa-

miliar names and a definite part of

modern civilization as it was 50 years

ago in Las Vegas.

Most of those names recall memories

to some of us more or less "old

timers.” 1 well remember the great in-

terest with which I read that quarter

page article in the Las Vegas Times

of January 20. 1900:Whoshe was.

Sketch of the life of Lydia E. Pink-

ham. and a true story of how the vege-

table compound had its birth, and

how the ’panic of ’73’ caused it to be

offered for public sale in drug stores."

Perhaps modern advertising is not

such a great improvement in the art

of attracting attention, after all. Any-

body who opens one of the old vol-

umes of newspapers printed fifty

years ago just can’t help being in-

terested.

Nowadays automobile and oil com-

panies seem to be the backbone of

newspaper and magazine advertising,

having crowded the patent medicines

practically out of the prints.

When I look over some of the old

newspapers printed before the days

of linotypes. I wonder how we ever

had the patience and perseverance to

get out a four-page locally printed

sheet. We had to stand before a type

case, in which each letter or charac-

ter had its only little compartment and

pick up. one by one, the small metal

types and stand them up in a "stick”

to form the words (reading backwards

and upside down.) It took hours to

set a full column of type, which now

can be set in 15 or 20 minutes, when

the stick full of type was “dumped"

onto a galley. The handling of newly

set type was very touchy — just a lit-

tle unfortunate jiggle and the stickful

was pied. Once in place on the galley

the type was wet with a sponge so

that the type was held together by

the water. Just here is where the old

time printer delighted to show the

visitor who was viewing the wonders

of printing, those strange little insects

which still infest galleys of type and

are called "type lice.” They are not

really related to the insects for which

my mother used to search my scalp

for with a fine toothed comb, but they

are interesting and visitors to modern

printing plants still get a kick out of

looking for them even in these mod-

ern shops if the printer will take the

time to humor your curiosity.

Observations by Pop Squires — Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine — May 26, 1956

— Scan from the Over50Vegas.com Collection — Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine — May 26, 1956 —

VIA BONANZA

JUST a few years ago we of Las

Vegas wondered if someday

we mighl have an airline

operating regularly through

our town. An occasional plane had

stopped in Las Vegas and all of us

country jakes would gather around and

feel of the wings.

There is a picture of an airplane in

the "Las Vegas Age" — about 1920

brought to Las Vegas by a young en-

thusiast in the field of aviation whose

name was C. O. Prest. The plane had

a wing spread of sixteen feet. For

about a week it was parked on Fremont

Street in front of The Age office, then

occupying a room in the Overland Ho-

tel building now covered by the Las

Vegas Club.

The name “Poison” was painted on

the sides of the plane with the motto,

“Good to the Last Drop.” Of course

it attracted much attention and was the

inspiration for a fervent plea which I

wrote asking the people of Las Vegas

to encourage aviation.

Two or three times during the next

six years airplanes visited Las Vegas

and each was viewed with wonderment

by our people. To tell the truth we all,

in our secret minds, believed in the

story of Darius Green -and his flying

machine. We were ready to admit that

the contraptions really would fly and

that air planes had been of some little

benefit in World War I, but as a means

of conveyance the things just were not

practicable. Yet we kept right on urg-

ing the desirability of this area as a

place for flying.

It was April 17, 1926 when our great

ambition was realized. The government

had let a contract to carry air mail be-

tween Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

The first air mail arrived in Las Vegas

at 10:05 that morning and left at 10.30

for Salt Lake City. Maury Graham

was the pilot. Western Air Express

was the name of the operating com-

pany, the same as operates today with

only a slight change of name. It is

worth mentioning that Las Vegas as-

sumed the whole burden of maintain-

ing the airfield with Ikey Blum, a 24-

hour a day employee as caretaker.

Every automobile in and around Las

Vegas, about 200, circled the field in

greeting.

I am moved to write about air navi-

gation by the fact that I have just re-

turned from the Republican State Con-

vention at Winnemucca, traveling both

ways in an airliner of Bonanza Air

Lines. For some years after that first

trip of the airmail there was not a very

great advance in planes and methods of

operation. For several years we thought

of air travel as hazardous and a flight

was an adventure.

I remember that in the latter part of

May, 1928 I received a wire from my

friend Will Rogers saying that he

would be on the plane from Los An-

geles and would I meet him. I hastily

gathered Delphine, Florence and Jim

into the family auto and we drove out

to the airfield. Right on time the plane

came roaring down the runway, which

then consisted of a strip of desert with

the brush dragged off. This was the

first trip by Western Air of a new and

swift Lockheed plane with brakes. The

ship came past us up the strip at high

speed. The pilot did not try to land

but again circled the field and came in

for a landing, but still too swift. He

circled the field again and this time

touched the earth. Running up the

field at a furious speed, one of the

wheels struck a hummock and col-

lapsed. The plane dug her nose into

the earth and went clear over, land-

ing flat on her back with a crash.

Horrified and fearing the ship would

burst into flames, we ran to aid and

were the first ones to reach the scene.

Luckily Jim and I managed to get one

door open. There was Will held up

by his safety belt hanging head down.

We managed to get the belt loose and

Will fell down and we caught him. He

had a small cut on his head and blood

was trickling down his face. We freed

the other passenger, a Doctor of Salt

Lake. The pilot who had a little cock-

pit by himself up front freed himself

(Continued on Page 34)

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OBSERVATIONS

(Continued from Page 5)

and we all breathed easier. I said,

“Will, what are you trying to do?” He

replied:

“I am going to the Democratic Na-

tional Convention. If I had gone to

the Republican Convention this never

would have happened.”

That afternoon Western Air sent an-

other plane to pick up the mail and

passengers. And the next day the same

kind of an accident happened to Will

again at Edmondton, Wyoming. But

he persevered and helped nominate A1

Smith for President.

Such small mishaps did not keep Will

Rogers from his love of air travel and

along about 1935, with Wiley Post, off

on an exploration trip through northern

Alaska where there were no landing

fields whatever, both were lost.

That was not the last of the tragedies

which were the price of safe and quick

travel by air. It was on the evening

of January 10, 1930, when Las Vegas

experienced one of its infrequent snow

storms. I was in my office on Fre-

mont Street that evening when I heard

the drone of the mail plane which had

just taken off on its flight to Salt Lake

City. Snow was coming down in great

flakes but I could dimly see the plane

as it passed flying rather low. That

was probably the last time that West-

ern Air planes carrying Maury Graham

as Pilot was ever seen until the next

June when the remains of Maury Gra-

ham were found in a canyon in central

Utah something like a quarter of a

mile below where the remains of the

plane rested on the mountainside. We

of Las Vegas and Western Air Express

had done everything possible to find

the plane and rescue its intrepid pilot,

but the heavy fall of snow made that

impossible. One interesting feature of

the tragedy I recall. Maury Graham,

badly injured had survived the crash.

He had managed to free himself from

the wreckage, and dragged that pre-

cious sack of airmail until he fell,

never to rise again.

I observe that I have strayed from

what I intended to write about — the

tremendous and unbelievable advance

of air navigation until today it is con-

sidered not alone the quickest and most

pleasant method of travel, but the

safest also.

It seems only a short time ago that

Ed Converse established Bonanza Air-

lines to operate between Las Vegas

and Reno. Since then he has extended

his line from Las Vegas to Phoenix and

from Phoenix to Los Angeles via Palm

Springs and from Phoenix to Los An-

geles by way of San Diego. All the

routes are popular and prosperous*. The

great ships are modern in design and

there has* never, in all the thousands

and thousands of flights carrying hun-

dreds of thousands of passengers, been

a fatality or a serious accident.

The flight to Winnemucca and back

on which I was a passenger, was not

a regularly scheduled flight, but was

a courtesy offered to the Democrats for

their State Convention at Lovelock and

to the Republicans for their conven-

tion at Winnemucca, slaving delegates

much time and the long, tiresome trip

by automobile.

What a change in the past twenty-

five years! Now planes carry thou-

sands of passengers between New York

and the Pacific Coast every day in a

few hours. Hundreds of great pas-

senger planes carrying thousands of

people cross the Atlantic every night.

Almost daily service is maintained to

Honolulu and thence to the Orient.

By the way, Ed Converse President

and really the creator of Bonanza Air-

lines, was elected Republican National

Committeeman from Nevada. This was

in recognition of the leading part Ed

played in the election of President Ike

in 1952.

CRISWELL PREDICTS

(Continued from Page 7)

be more easily marketed. I predict this

much-needed survey will take the risk

out of world-wide merchandising, and

will help to solidify the financial struc-

ture of our nation and the rest of the

world! ... I predict that a very small

electric ear, which can be worn as a

watch fob, but will pick up the sound

of any plane and translate it into

speed, type of motor and how far

distant! This new electric ear will

prove most valuable in airports, and

also in the detection of foreign objects

in the sky! ... I predict that a very

famous man and his son, will come

to a parting of the ways, which will

mean the beginning of the end for

a famous industrial empire! ... I

HICKORY ROOM

Riviera HOTEL

Observations by Pop Squires — Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine — March 19, 1955

Observations by Pop Squires — Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine — May 26, 1956

Observations by Charles "Pop" Squires

Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine

1955 - 1956

Use the menu below to read columns for the years as noted.

The Christmas issues of Fabulous Las Vegas magazine were huge.

The December 24, 1955 issue below was over 300 pages. I've scanned and made searchable 116 of those pages.

It includes the Pop Squires column for that issue and a summary of events that were covered in

the Jack Cortez "That's For Sure" column for the entire year. It also has great advertisements and Christmas greetings from all the casinos and celebrities who were in Las Vegas at the time.

Click on the image below and it will open as a PDF in a separate window on your computer.

It's a very large column and may take a little while to open.