Observations by Pop Squires 1950-1952

COLEMAN REALTY

ANNIVERSARIES CREEP BY

ELPHINE and I are just awak-

ening to the fact that the

sixty - second anniversary of

our marriage is practically

upon us. It was the 21st of

August, 1869, that we were married

in Seattle and that evening boarded

the fine old steamer Walla Walla en-

roule to San Francisco.

That was soon after the great Seattle

fire which destroyed a large part of

the city and the harbor was full of

floating logs and other debris which

had not yet been brought under con-

trol. Trying to make its way out of

the port the Walla Walla struck a mess

of floating logs and had quite a hole

stove in her bow. However she went

on that night to Victoria, where the

next day was devoted to the work of

patching up the damage so that she

could proceed that evening out through

the foggy straight of San Juan de Fuca.

The ship’s pumps were working dur-

ing all that voyage to San Francisco

and there was considerable nervous-

ness among the passengers. However

we arrived safely in San Francisco

about ten o’clock on the morning of

August 25, 1889. At the pier we se-

cured one of the old-fashioned (but

then at the height of style) hansom

cabs with the driver of the old horse

sitting up above us. We drove over

the cobblestone pavements of Market

street into the great rotunda of the

beautiful old Palace Hotel, around the

circular drive until the horses stopped

right at the desk where, for the first

time I proudly registered “Mr. and Mrs.

Charles P. Squires.”

For some years we, have every year

visited the Palace Hotel on our an-

niversary, but this year we are just

quietly staying at home with a little

we heard from him about winter

quarters.

But the race track idea persisted.

Time and again our dear old friend Dr.

Roy Martin made strenuous efforts to

promote a great tourist hotel and a race

track with winter training quarters. But

Doc was twenty years too soon. How I

wish he might see the Las Vegas of

today and realize that most of his great

ambitions for Las Vegas have been real-

ized!

A few of us never gave up the con-

viction that Las Vegas Valley is an

ideal place for raising and training race

horses, but we were not in touch with

the right people.

Then along comes the right man at

the right time in the person of Mr.

J. M. Smoot. He it was who was largely

instrumental in promoting the world

famous Santa Anita track and several

other great racing plants of the na-

tion. He has been in no hurry, pre-

ferring to carefully survey the situation

before making a start.

Now he is going ahead full speed.

He has ample money available for the

construction of the great plant and will

have in Las Vegas, not the largest, but

as complete and perfect a race track as

there is in the country. His chief worry

just now is to get it ready for opening

by October first, and he is pushing work

at full speed with that end in view.

We have heard the remark that Las

Vegas can hardly hope to compete with

Santa Anita and other great tracks in

California. The truth is that race horse

owners of California welcome a place

where they can hold race meets during

the season when there are no tracks

operating in California. They see in the

Las Vegas enterprise an opportunity to

get their horses out of the fog and smog

of California for a few months each

year and at the same time afford race

tracks patrons some good sport during

the California off season.

Southern California has nearly five

million people living within five or six

hours of Las Vegas, all of whom ex-

pect to come to Las Vegas some day.

They realize the fact that from most

of Southern California they can drive

to Las Vegas with but little more trou-

ble than it takes to go from Los Angeles

to the Santa Anita track. Those who

know horse lovers realize that thou-

sands of people will come here during

the Las Vegas racing season and add to

the prosperity of our already estab-

lished hotels and entertainment enter-

prises.

THE RACE TRACK

MARCH11,1950

by Charles P. "Pop" Squires

SINCE the town of Las Vegas

was first started, there has

been talk of a race track as

an addition to the varied en-

terprises of the place. The talk

generally was based on the idea that

some of us developed that this climate

and other conditions were fine for the

raising of fancy racing stock and that

race horses from California would be

brought here for training between the

racing seasons.

For a little variety in the race track

hopes of Las Vegas, we remember that

in 1921, Al G. Barnes Stonehouse,

principal owner of the Al G. Barnes Animal

Circus, “The Greatest on Earth,” came

to Las Vegas for a divorce. With him

came a gay young woman with a couple

of children who called Al “Daddy.”

The young woman soon raised pangs

of jealousy among some of the Las

Vegas matrons by driving about the

streets with her children in what for

those days was quite a fancy auto-

mobile with the name “JANE” on the

doors in heavy gold letters.

After a bitter fight in divorce court,

Al was given a decree of divorce and

immediately married Jane, who by this

time was recognized by Vegas people

as formerly having been a bareback

rider in Al’s circus.

Then in 1923, Al came to Las Vegas

again, this time to divorce Jane. In

taking up his residence here again, Al

made an announcement which created

quite a sensation in Vegas. The Al G.

Barnes Animal Show, greatest on earth,

would establish winter quarters in Las

Vegas. Al was negotiating for a large

tract of land east of town on which to

build the necessary housing for the

circus and its approximately one thou-

sand employees. It was a grand enter-

prise from the standpoint of Las Vegas.

Al got his divorce and that was the last

family party. Oh, no! Not getting old

or anything like that! Just taking

things easy as we go along. But come

to count them over on our fingers,

sixty-two are quite a batch of years for

two people to have lived together in

peace and contentment,

MY LADY OF THE GRAPES

A year ago (August 5, 1950) I wrote

in “Fabulous Las Vegas” a little story

of “My Lady of the Grapes,” just as I

had done each year when Mrs. J. T.

McWilliams sent us a box of grapes

dripping with sweetness, from the

trellace in the yard of her lovely little

home on the West Side.

This year again we have been re-

membered by this kindly and friendly

lady whom Delphine and I have known

and loved for so many years. And the

sweet, purple grapes which she grows

(Continued on Pago 43)

POP SQUIRES:

(Continued from pog* S)

so well have a finer flavor because of

the loving care she gives them.

By the way, I wonder if anybody

now in Las Vegas knows that Las Vegas

grapes took first prize at the Chicago

Exposition in 1893, for sugar content?

Mrs. Helen J. Stewart, then owner of

the Las Vegas Ranch which was after-

ward bought by Senator Clark as the

site of his new Townsite of Las Vegas

and division terminal of his new rail-

read. sent the grape exhibit to Chicago,

I understand. After the award was

made there were great hopes that Las

Vegas might be enriched by extensive

vineyards and wineries, but nobody up

to now has ever had the patience to do

much about it.

Over forty years ago, Frank Buol,

brother of Pete Buol who was elected

first Mayor of Las Vegas and among

the most enterprising of our early citi-

zens, left Los Vegas, buying himself a

ranch in Pahrump Valley, in Nyc

County and going into the wine busi-

ness. For many years he was engaged

in the making of wines in a small way,

but never on a scale sufficiently large

to command a profitable market. But

every once in a while I was recipient

of a bottle of fine wine from my friend

Frank, who, by the way, has been for

many years one of the assemblymen

from Nye County in the State Legis-

lature.

I recall another little incident about

grape growing and wine making in this

region. Along in the 1860s Charles W.

Towner, traveling with our old friend

Sam Yount from Oregon down through

Nevada driving a band of horses, was

stopped in this part of the country by

unfriendly Indians. He came into

possession of the Indian Springs Ranch,

about five miles northwest of Las

Vegas, built him a home and started on

the business of making a living out of

the soil.

Among other things, Towner took

pains to get cuttings of choice wine

grapes and planted and cultivated a

fine vineyard at Indian Springs.

It happened that among Towner’s

nearest neighbors were the Kyle Broth-

ers. who owned a ranch three miles

north of the Las Vegas Ranch, where

they already had a fine vineyard and

were making considerable good wine.

Unfortunately Las Vegas was far

from any market for wines, but this

defect was partially remedied by Kyle

Brothers becoming the best and most

enthusiastic consumers of wine from

the Kyle Brothers Vineyard.

The outcome of this situation was

that there were frequent wild revels

cn the Kyle Ranch, during one of which

the two Kyle Brothers had a violent

falling out. One of the brothers with

his rifle in hand, had been hunting

rabbits, and as he approached the house,

his brother, who was on the porch, saw

him coming and making threats. He

stepped inside the house, seized his

rifle, opened the door, aimed and fired,

then stepped inside and slammed the

door.

The brother out in the yard fell,

mortally wounded, but he still had the

strength to raise his rifle and fire

through the closed door of the little

house. As fate would have it his bullet

found its mark and the brother in the

house was instantly killed. That bullet

hole in the door was one of the in-

teresting tilings shown to newcomers.

I wonder if it is still an interest of the

Boulderado guest ranch?

It happened that Charles Towner was

just then making a journey down from

his Indian Springs ranch, arriving at

the Kyle Ranch just in time to he called

as one of the little group who estab-

lished themselves as a coroner's jury

to inquire into the cause of death of the

two Kyle Brothers.

Mr. Towner returned to his Indian

Springs Ranch deeply affected by the

terrible Kyle Brothers tragedy. Soon

after reaching home, he hitched one

of his horses to a plow and plowed

down the long rows of growing grape

vines, uprooting and killing every one.

After that, for many years, there was

not one single grape vine on the In-

dian Springs Ranch where Delphine

and I spent much time each summer,

after the ranch was bought by Mr. and

Mrs. Ira MacFarland. Mrs. MacFarland

still lives on the ranch quite undis-

turbed by atomic explosions and jet

plane activities, although Mr. MacFar-

land died about ten years ago.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

For myself as well as all those who

help to make this gay little magazine.

Fabulous Las Vegas, I wish for all our

readers and all our advertisers the Hap-

piest Christmas you have ever enjoyed.

And to all you girls and boys in the

entertainment world who are giving so

generously of your lives to make this a

truly fabulous Las Vegas, we give the

wish that you may enjoy all the thrills

of the Christmas season every time you

step on the stage.

To all you who have visualized, fi-

nanced, built and operate our great

resort hotels, we glory with you in the

success you have earned in bringing

new thousands of fun seekers to enjoy

with us this fabulous Las Vegas.

Which includes just about everybody

—to all we wish . . .

A Very Merry Christmas!

OUR GAY SPOTS

ERHAPS those enterprising

men who have created our

great resort hotels with all

their beauty and glamour and

our great downtown casinos

with their myriad lights, gay decora-

tions and enticing games, wonder what

the few poor devils who lived in Las

Vegas 40 years ago. more or less, did

for entertainment and recreation.

We did have some good times (in a

rather simple way, perhaps), to soften

the hardships which insisted in sur-

rounding us.

One of the very first of our summer

pleasures was “the old swimmin’ hole”

DECEMBER 22, 1951

at the Stewart Ranch. Mrs. Walter R.

Bracken very kindly invited the women

of the new town of Las Vegas to enjoy

the shade of the great cottonwoods and

the pleasant waters of the pool. It was,

I imagine, almost the first excuse our

women had for establishing some sort

of social life in the new town.

I remember, one hot afternoon in the

summer of 1906, a half dozen women

who lived in the new townsite, banded

together and, to escape for a while from

the burning sun and the desert dust,

walked (there were no automobiles

then), down the bank of Las Vegas

Creek to the Ranch.

It was one of those hot, muggy after-

noons with great banks of clouds hang-

ing over Mount Charleston. The women

planned to go bathing in the pool and

since there were then no bathing suits

(Continued on Page 35)

POP SQUIRES:

(Continued from Page 3)

in Las Vegas, each had brought her

filmiest night gown to serve the pur-

pose.

Every thing went nicely so long as

the girls kept under water. But a star-

tling thing happened. There was a

quick gust of wind, a vivid flash of

lightning and a crash of thunder. Rain

came driving in on the wind with

cloudburst force.

Just naturally the women were star-

tled. Not exactly afraid they would get

wet, but instinctively seeking the shel-

ter of the Stewart home, the girls

climbed out of the pool and started

running toward the house.

Those filmy, wet night gowns stuck

to every form so closely that to the

casual observers it appeared that the

girls had nothing on at all. It was a

sight for long years thereafter referred

to only in whispers by the few men

who happened to witness the scandal-

ous affair.

Like most other desert blasts, the

storm was soon over. But the vision of

the running women clad in wet night

gowns will live long in memory.

The Old Ranch served the pioneers of

Las Vegas well. In 1855 the Mormon

missionaries, sent here by Brigham

Young, selected that place as the site

of their first settlement and they built

a fort, the remains of which still stand.

They also built a “Bowery” where they

held religious services and whenever

possible other meetings and social af-

fairs.

The year the railroad townsite was

opened Harry Beale built a platform

and covered it with cottonwood

branches to form a “Bowery,” at the

Ranch, and there public dances were

held every night of the summer. All

told, the Stewart Ranch was the scene

of many gay parties as well as of some

very tragic events.

Those first summers in Las Vegas, the

Big Springs divided the honors with

the Ranch as a place for picnics. Teams

and buggies and wagons were scarce so

many of the women walked the three

miles from Vegas to the Springs, some-

times carrying a basket of lunch and

carrying the baby in the other arm.

There were two great swirling pools

not far apart; the waters which boiled

up quite strongly forming the stream

which we knew as Las Vegas Creek.

The creek flowed past the townsite to

The Ranch and thence to Vegas Wash

where the waters lost themselves in the

sands.

It was quite a stream and the people

who were here the first few months

after the railroad came, were glad to

have such a bright, clear, pure stream

from which to dip their water supply.

It was, I think, along in the fall of

1905 before the railroad company had

water mains laid, establishing the water

system of the Las Vegas Land & Water

Company. At any rate the Big Springs

for some years provided the railroad

and the townspeople with a very ample

supply of clear, pure water without the

necessity of a reservoir or of wells.

The Big Springs were long ago en-

closed by a high fence with locked

gates and later, I think, were roofed

over to keep out contamination. The

fencing in project was started after a

miner missed his pack burro and a

week later discovered its body floating

merrily around in one of the springs.

There was history attached to the

Big Springs. General John C. Fremont

and his party, including the famous

scout. Kit Carson, camped there the

night of May 3, 1855. Fremont wrote a

very concise and accurate description

of the Springs.

“After a journey of 18 miles in a

northeasterly direction we camped in

the midst of another very large basin,

at a camp ground called Las Vegas—

a term which the Spaniards use to

signify fertile or marshy plains. Two

narrow streams of clear water, 4 to 5

feet deep, gush suddenly, with a quick

current, from two singularly large

springs.

“These and other waters of the basin

pass out in a gap, eastward. The taste

of the water is good but rather too

warm to be agreeable, the temperature

being 71 degrees in the one and 73 de-

grees in the other.

“They, however, afford a delightful

bathing place.”

I am not sure that none of us older

folks ever took advantage of the op-

portunity of bathing in the springs,

although we did bathe in the streams.

But small boys were daffy about swim-

ming in the Big Springs and battling

the strong current which gushed up

from below.

Moreover, I remember with pleasure

that in the winter the railroad com-

Eany piped hot water from one of the

oilers to a wooden “bath tub” located

where the railroad crossed the stream

just north of where the freight house

is now located, and permitted some of

us townspeople to take an occasional

bath there, although the convenience

was originally installed solely for the

railroad employes.

We really thought Las Vegas was

made when the railroad company erect-

ed the Railroad Eating House, a rather

large, two-story building a short dis-

tance north of the depot. And we were

highly gratified when the company an-

nounced that the dining room would be

(Continued on Page 41)

Here's a hope that the New Year holds a full store of

love and prosperity

for you in 1952

FROM THE

MANAGEMENT AND PERSONNEL

OF THE

MONTE CARLO CLUB

DOWNTOWN

-2-

POP SQUIRES:

(Continued from Page 35)

open for the use of fraternal organiza-

tions, banquets and political meetings.

It was a really fine dining room and

we were proud of it and of the railroad

company and before we knew what we

were doing the place was invariably

referred to as The Beanery, but really,

never in derision.

In The Beanery, the Las Vegas Ro-

tary Club held its first meeting and

was organized in the spring of 1923.

And there were many gay parties, some

of them quite dignified social events.

There, we held some of the dinners in

honor of those who were working with

us to promote the Boulder Canyon

project, Secretary of Commerce Herbert

Hoover and Mrs. Hoover being among

those so entertained by Las Vegas

Chamber of Commerce.

To skip along a little faster with this

story: Las Vegas was really all swelled

up with glory when Frankie and Louis

Cornero came to Las Vegas and built

the famed resort named “The

Meadows.”

Frank and Louis (Tony, the third of

the Cornero brothers, was then very

busy with his Los Angeles enterprises),

came here to live and they worked very

hard planning and supervising con-

struction of the resort.

The location was, we thought, a little

too far out of town, being on the south

side of Charleston Boulevard, about

half a mile east of the city limits. But

we were really gratified that the great-

ness of Las Vegas (that was along in

the middle ’30s, I think), was at last

recognized and that our social, artistic

and gambling proclivities were at last

properly recognized.

When “The Meadows” opened we all

put on our evening clothes so as to vie

with the tuxedoed waiters. Everybody,

even down to the cook and bus boys,

was dressed up and the dealers of the

games were dignified and severe.

In all the history of Las Vegas we

never had finer meals in more dignified

surroundings, nor more lovely and tune-

ful music for the dancing.

To be sure the ambition of the own-

ers to make money brought the place

finally to a shady sort of a reputation.

And there was intense bitterness on the

part of the owners when the section of

“the hotel” which housed the girls was

destroyed one night by fire.

The bitterness, on the part of Frankie

and Louis, was emphasized by the fact

that when the fire alarm was sounded

the Las Vegas Fire Department quickly

responded, made a fine run to the city

limits and there stopped while our

lovely hotel adjoining The Meadows,

burned down.

It was explained by the chief of the

fire department that the city commis-

sioners of Las Vegas had just recently

passed a resolution forbidding the fire

department to go outside the city to

fight fires. And that really marked the

end of our civic pride, for the time

being, until about the year 1940, Max

Kelch started Radio Station KENO in

what once was the dining room of our

delightful resort “The Meadows.”

This clipping from the Ogden Standard Examiner July 17, 1931 reports on the building permit taken out by P. O. Silvagni for the Apache Hotel. Pop Squires column below describes his recollections of that time in early downtown Las Vegas.

To most residents of Las Vegas

the Apache Hotel has been a

part of this town since the be-

ginning of lime. There are a

few of us. however, who re-

member that corner of Second and Fre-

mont streets as a discreditable hole in

the ground, partly filled with water and

overgrown with willows.

Without taking the time for a lot of

tedious research in order to verify dates,

my recollection is that the lots were

purchased at the auction sale of lots

in May, 1905, by Judge W. R. Thomas

with the intention of building a hotel

there. My partner, C. N. Brown, and I

bought the lots across Second street

where the Shell Oil Station now is, in-

tending to build a hotel there. After

the first hot summer hit us we all

soured on the hotel idea, for the time

at least. We used our Second and Fre-

mont lots as a site for making cement

blocks. Judge Thomas built two small

frame cottages for rent on the back of

his lots facing Second street next to the

alley.

For some years the Thomas property,

except for the cottages, was idle. Then

the town was electrified by the an-

nouncement by Judge Thomas that he

was ready to proceed with building his

hotel.

Sure enough, the two cottages on the

back of the lots were moved off. Then

shortly, two or three teams and scrapers

appeared at the site and began to dig a

hole for a basement. As was learned

years afterward by many others of our

citizens, digging was hard and slow and

expensive in that hardpan. But as the

work of blasting the caliche went on

we became quite enthusiastic over the

idea of having a modern, high-class

hotel in Las Vegas.

Soon there was an excavation for

quite a sizable basement and when

Judge Thomas had a lot of sand and

gravel and cement hauled in and began

Fabulous Las Vegas April 26, 1952

by CHARLES P. "POP" SQUIRES

to pour foundations, we really were en-

thusiastic. Soon there were a lot of

2xl2-inch lumber brought in and floor

joists were laid on the concrete founda-

tions. Everything, it seemed to us hope-

ful Las Vegans, was going ahead full

blast and in a few months there would

be a fine hotel added to the resources

of the city.

Then something happened. We never

did quite understand it, but work on

the big, new hotel project ceased. Water

began to collect in the big basement

excavation and all was gloomy around

the corner of Second and Fremont.

Of course we knew that work would

soon be resumed again. But as time

went on nothing happened. The next

spring we noticed green sprigs of wil-

lows growing in the bottom of the hole.

The next spring after that the willows

(Continued on Page 37)

Golden Nugget Saloon

EXTENDS A WELCOME TO

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NOW APPEARING

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WITH

CONRAD

AT THE PIANO

OPENING SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 1952

SHORTY THOMPSON & CO.

DIRECT FROM STATION KOA, DENVER

SECOND and FREMONTDOWNTOWN

POP SQUIRES:

(Continued from page 5)

had pretty well filled the hole, grow-

ing up to the floor joists which by now

were becoming warped and crooked

under the influence of the heat of sum-

mers. By about the third summer, the

willows were growing up between the

floor joists and soon that unsightly cor-

ner became a nice little forest of vig-

orous willows.

As I remember it (without looking

up exact dates) that condition continued

for more than ten years, until about

the time the Boulder Canyon Project

bill was passed by the Congress, Decem-

ber, 1928. Then, along about that time,

a man named P. O. Silvagni came down

from Price, Utah, prospecting for some

promising investment in the coming

metropolis of Las Vegas. Soon he

bought the Second and Fremont corner

and announced that he would build a

fine hotel for Las Vegas.

True to his word, Silvagni tore out

the old floor joists and the foundations

which had been standing unused for so

long, put a lot of teams and scrapers

and wagons on the job and before long

had an excavation large enough for a

full-sized basement.

Of course, there were occasional

spells of trouble as the project ad-

vanced, but Las Vegas really was

pepped up when the new hotel was

completed, three stories and basement,

with an elevator! It was almost incred-

ible that Las Vegas should have a build-

ing pretentious enough to boast an ele-

vator, but so it was.

Soon after that the hotel portion of

the building was leased to Mr. and Mrs.

Bob Russell, who operated it for more

than ten years. The ground floor corner

at Second and Fremont was first occu-

pied by quite a fancy restaurant, the

casino business having not yet reached

its present-day importance. But gradu-

ally the casino business displaced other

ground floor features of the hotel until

now all except the hotel office is occu-

pied by Benny Binion with his brilliant

Horseshoe club and restaurant.

For some years the Las Vegas Rotary

Club, after leaving The Beanery, met

each week in the basement dining room,

right where for ten years or more the

willows grew out of the pools of water.

And the Apache hotel still remains just

about the center of downtown Las Ve-

gas. There are a few of the women. I

am sure, who remember attending the

bridge classes which Mrs. R. H. Gate-

wood, then living in Boulder City, used

to give. They sure were pretty stylish

affairs for Las Vegas, especially when

the bridge tournaments were sponsored

by one of the national bridge authori-

ties.

Just why I should choose the Apache

Fabulous Las Vegas April 26, 1952

hotel for my comment this week I can-

not tell. Perhaps because I observed

the brilliance of the Horseshoe the

other day and could not help contrast-

ing it with the long years when that

corner was just a hole with pools of

water out of which grew vigorous

young willow trees as a sign that we

might easily revert to the desert jungle.

Jake Kozloff. general manager of the

Hotel Last Frontier, is general chairman

of the Variety's Club's 16th Annual

Convention, and committee chairman of

Tent 39 Heart Fund

THAT'S FOR SURE:

(Continued from Page 35)

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First wife: “My husband snores.”

Second wife: “You should complain!

My husband is a ventriloquist and he

snores double!”

—McMURRY COLLEGE WAR WHOOP.

JUST IN CASE

WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED YOU!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

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THE ANDREWS STORY ....

a biography

IT ALL began when a young

Minneapolis. Minnesota, high

school miss was stricken with

the mellow-throated crooning

style of a rising radio singer

by the name of Bing Crosby. She was

a talented pianist and singer and in

demand everywhere for both local pro-

fessional and impromptu home enter-

tainments. She had a natural flair for

the keyboard and pounded out a "hot"

piano by ear.

So it was only logical when her idol,

Mr. C., was billed on a radio program

with a local trio called the Boswell Sis-

ters, that this talented teen-ager lent

her sensitive ear to their catchy tune

deliveries, and decided that it would

be fun if she and her two singing sis-

ters, who also headed the local home

talent parade, would join forces and

warble a la these Boswell girls. The

very next evening, when the family

and a handful of music-loving friends

were gathered in their customary circle

around the living room piano, LaVerne

Andrews fingered a lively demonstra-

tion of one of the Boswell song arrange-

ments she had heard, and sisters Max-

ene and Patty blended their voices with

hers in close natural harmony.

With that, the Andrews Sisters were

in business — but the road to the

present-day popularity and profits

stretched a long, hard way ahead of

them.

Already veterans of innumerable lo-

cal show and club dates, but always

soloing or dueting, the three girls now

turned to trio possibilities and when

the opportunity came, auditioned as a

threesome for visiting Larry Rich. This

resulted in their joining his traveling

stage unit. They bid their high school

studies a fast adieu and were officially

on their way toward a first-hand edu-

cation in show business—and what

turned out to be a minimum amount

of fame and a maximum amount of

famine.

After their Rich period — which

wasn’t remuneratively so—they joined

a Joseph E. Howard production in New

York, and from there, toured the coun-

try with such bands as Ted Mack,

Maurice Sherman and Leon Belasco,

spending their time between engage-

ments loosening their vocal chords

while tightening their belts.

The Andrews Sisters were spotted

during one of their engagements by an

executive of Decca Records. Unknowns

at the time, they took the regular small

term contract naturally hinging on

whether the public would accept them

as recording stars. The rest is history.

Their truly first great hit was “Bei Mir

Bist Du Schoen,” followed by such

equally sock hits as “Joseph. Joseph,”

“Hold Tight,” “Beer Barrel Polka,”

“Scrub Me Mama,” “Beat Me Daddy,”

“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” and their

identifying theme, “Apple Blossom

Time.” Today, wax-whirlers are still

enthusiastically spinning these all-time

hits as well as such succeeding An-

drews Sisters successes as “Rum and

Coca-Cola,” “W i n t er Wonderland,”

“Near You,” “I Can Dream, Can’t I?”

which spotlights some smash soloing

by Patty, lead singer of the trio. They

now enjoy the distinction of having

sold over 25,000,000 records, their latest

release being “Why Worry.”

After “Bei Mir,” radio welcomed the

Andrews girls immediately to the

microphone fold, and such top spon-

(Continued on Pag* 179)

Fabulous Las Vegas Christmas December 20, 1952

POP SQUIRES:

(Continued from Page 3)

that the company would build its ma-

chine shops there, and that we liked

the climate of Las Vegas, even with her

hot summers, much better than the

climate of Caliente with the cold and

ice and snow of her severe winters.

I have often thought that had Cali-

ente at that time a few more people

like Mrs. Culverwell, full of optimism

and faith in their town, Caliente might

have become such a city as Las Vegas

now is. 1 remember a slogan with

which we in our Chamber of Commerce

spurred ourselves to activity many

years ago: “Las Vegas, City of Destiny”

coupled with the statement that “Las

Vegas men can make Las Vegas what

they will.” I wonder! Caliente has had

a lot of able and optimistic men during

the past forty or fifty years who fought

vigorously to build their railroad town

into a city. Perhaps the element of luck

entered into the matter to some ex-

tent.

That election of 1906, when Search-

light and Las Vegas were tied in the

number of registered voters on the vot-

ing lists at Pioche, with 320 each, re-

newed our faith and courage. The idea

that we were equal in voting strength

to the great mining camp of Search-

light gave us new courage. We decided

that it was time to make a more vigor-

ous effort to divide Lincoln County and

make a new county of the southern

half with Las Vegas as the county seat.

I found in an old file the other day,

the records, quite complete, of that

“Lincoln County Division Club” which

we formed in the summer of 1908 for

the purpose of making out of a part of

old Lincoln County this new county of

Clark. There were listed fifty-six of our

businessmen, who contributed $1490

to the fund, which was a lot of money

in those days. I notice on the list three

who still survive, Ed Von Tobel, John

F. Miller and C. P. Squires, each of

whom contributed $50 to the fund. So

far as I know there are no other sur-

vivors of that “Lincoln County Division

Club.”

We put on a vigorous campaign,

sending Judge W. R. Thomas to all the

towns and settlements in the north half

of Lincoln County trying to persuade

those folks to “Let My People Go.”

And, strange as it may seem, we had

a lot of vigorous opposition right here

in what became the new county. They

said it would bankrupt the property

owners and taxpayers if they had to

pay taxes to build a new court house

and pay salaries to another set of coun-

ty officials. We answered this by agree-

ing that the business men of Las Vegas

would provide a building sufficient to

Fabulous Las Vegas Christmas December 20, 1952

house the new county government for

five years, without any cost to the

county. We contributed $1800 and built

the first little court house on Carson

Street. This one thing I believe turned

the trick. The people remembered all

too well that the old Lincoln County

court house built in 1873 and paid for

in bonds, finally, in the process of add-

ing interest at ten per cent and refund-

ing occasionally, had reached the tasty

sum of over six hundred thousand dol-

lars (of which the new county finally

had to pay $430,000 in spite of all our

dodging.)

In the election of November, 1908,

we managed to elect a majority of the

members of the new legislature who

were in favor of county division. But

still there was a bitter fight in the

legislature before the Lincoln County

Division Bill was passed creating the

new county of Clark. The new county

became effective July 1, 1909.

There are two holidays which stand

out in my memory above most of the

others. Christmas of 1908, we were

pretty sure we had won the fight to

make a new county for ourselves. And

when we celebrated the birth of the

new county on the Fourth of July,

1909, we really had something to shout

about.

The greatest Christmas we ever had

in Las Vegas was Christmas of 1928.

(Continued on Page 181)

THE ANDREWS STORY:

(Continued from Page 177)

sors as Wrigley Gum, Dole Pineapple,

Chesterfields, Nash-Kelvinator, and

now Campbell Soups, have been keep-

ing them on your loudspeakers ever

since. Today, dialers tune them in three

times weekly, Monday, Wednesday,

Friday on CBS’ “Club 15.”

Movie audiences, too, have acclaimed

this top singing trio, for their song and

laugh contributions to many a filmu-

sical, including Walt Disney’s “Make

Mine Music” and Paramount’s Crosby-

Hope co-starrer, “Road to Rio.”

Their every appearance on a theater

or nightclub stage continues to draw

record-breaking crowds that constant-

ly send the girls out on the road again

for return engagements. A few seasons

ago, when a road tour took them back

to New York’s Club Riviera, they found

themselves drawing a salary of a hun-

dred times the fee that was paid them

when they sang at the same spot ten

years before.

Yes, on stage, screen, records and

radio, the Andrews Sisters are Amer-

ica’s top singing act—and they’re still

soaring!

POP SQUIRES:

(Continued from Page 179)

On December 14 of that year the Boul-

der Canyon Project Act was passed by

the United States Senate. That was

the real victory of the long campaign

and there remained only some com-

paratively unimportant amendments to

be approved by the House of Repre-

sentatives and the signature of Presi-

dent Coolidge to make the bill a law.

That was the time that several hundred

Las Vegas people formed an automo-

bile caravan and drove the long, sandy,

treacherous road, then entirely unim-

proved, to the head of Black Canyon,

where they knelt on the sands of the

Colorado River bank and joined in

prayers of thanksgiving for that great

Christmas present for which they had

been hoping for so many years.

I suppose, after all our struggles when

trying to do something for our com-

munity, that the enacting into law of

the “Boulder Canyon Project Act” was

the greatest victory and the greatest

blessing this community ever won.

Oh, yes; I saw The Sands, gorgeous,

charming and beautiful new hotel

down on the Strip, Sunday evening.

The thought came to my mind that,

after all, our two Nevada Senators,

Oddie and Pittman, and our Nevada

Congressman, Sam Arentz, were en-

titled to most of the credit for the pas-

sage of the bill. Without their hard

work through those vital years of the

1920s, the river might not yet have

been harnessed and there would not be

enough electricity in the entire state of

Nevada to serve this great, new

“Sands” for half an hour.

The reason why their efforts succeed-

ed when so many politicians had spent

years of political squabbling over it

without getting results, was that those

three Nevada men, one Democrat and

two Republicans, were big enough to

ignore partisan politics and devote

themselves to the best interests of the

people of their state. I well remember

that after all the multitude of details

and small amendments to the bill had

been agreed to, Senator Key Pittman

invited several of us, including Ari-

zona’s two Senators, Carl Hayden and

Henry Ashurst (who bitterly opposed

the Boulder Canyon Project Act), to

dinner at his beautiful home, then in

the outskirts of Washington.

That evening we celebrated the pas-

sage of the Act (which did not occur

until the next day) in champagne. It

was a gay and happy evening which I

shall never forget. Among the group

very active in the movement down

through the years to dam the Colorado,

were Senators Oddie and Pittman and

Congressman Sam Arentz of Nevada,

Senators Hiram Johnson and Sam

Shortridge of California, Phil Swing,

congressman from California: W. B.

Mathews and Bill Mulholland repre-

senting Los Angeles—there are too

many to list here. All of those I have

mentioned except Phil Swing have

passed on to their reward.

I wish they might all come back and

see the great industrial cities on the

coast which their efforts made possible,

and Las Vegas with the brilliantly

lighted and decorated Santa Claus Lane

on Fremont Street and the four miles

of the glittering Strip and all our great

and perfectly lovely and beautiful ho-

tels, beginning with Tom Hull’s El

Rancho Vegas, too wonderful to be

true when it was built about 1940.

Then our fine friend Griffith and Bill

Moore went a step farther with lovely

Hotel Last Frontier. Then the fabulous,

ill-fated Buggsy Siegel gave us the

miracle of the Flamingo. Wilbur Clark

surmounted tremendous obstacles to

come out victorious with the sensation-

al Desert Inn—too wonderful to be

true. But there it is speaking for itself.

It was the pinnacle, we thought.

Then the very acme of wonder and

beauty and attractiveness—the Thun-

derbird, the creation of Marion Hicks,

Cliff Jones and a little group of great

minds; a delightful place in all respects

and lovely beyond description.

Milton Prell really fooled us. When

he told me in August, 1951, that he was

planning to build our favorite and

beautiful Club Bingo over into one of

the finest resort hotels in the country

we were just a little doubtful. But the

marvelous Sahara more than fulfilled

his promise—it amazed all of us.

Now The Sands! A little glimpse of

it Sunday evening amazed all of us.

It would take a high expert on beauty

and a writer with the descriptive pow-

ers of Dickens to describe it. Wonder-

ful and beautiful! Just how wonderful

and beautiful we will not know until

it has settled down to its niche in this

great galaxy of Las Vegas resort hotels.

I give up. Nothing will seem impos-

sible to me now after having seen our

Las Vegas—the most gay and charm-

ing little city in all the world!

SNYDERS SLACKS

Tailor Made to Your Measure

FOR MEN AND WOMEN

421 South 5th St. Phone 6644

Fabulous Las Vegas Christmas December 20, 1952

Seasons greetings from the Las Vegas Club.

House of jackpots.

Merry Christmas

Horseshoe day box men P. S. Burton Jimmy Horn

Christmas cheer from the Boulder club.

Fabulous Las Vegas Christmas issue December 20, 1952

FOR ALMOST two thousand

years, the Christmas season

has been the brightest, hap-

piest and gayest season of the year.

At that time, our souls take on new

life. Our hopes are renewed and we

again are not afraid to look into the

future. The birthday of Christ has

brightened the world for countless

millions of discouraged human beings.

It brings to us anew that strange pow-

er we call religion, without which, in

spite of ignorance and disbelief and

all the sordidness of mankind, life

would not be worth the living.

You boys and girls of the stage

(life’s playground) are just humans

like ourselves. So — when you feel

discouraged and down and almost out,

come with us to our Christ Church

and have your souls refreshed and

your tired faith in life renewed. Be-

cause, whatever the spirit of atheism

and disbelief which may possess you

and cast you down, religion is the

great power which none can ignore

for very long.

I was just about to tell you of the

first Christmas Celebration by white

men in Las Vegas. The strength and

faith to make it true came from the

religion of the Mormon Church.

Observations

By the late "POP" SQUIRES

(Reprinted from December, 1952.)

Their tireless faith and indomitable

spirit gave them strength to earn

out their desperate projects and the

wisdom to preserve them for us.

So, I will tell briefly, about that

band of thirty men, summoned by

Brigham Young, their great leader, to

outfit themselves for a journey

through the almost untracked and

unknown desert country, far to the

southwest of Great Salt Lake and

establish a Mission at Las Vegas.

They reached Las Vegas after in-

credible hardships on June 14, 1855

and proceeded at once to start build-

ing a fort and cultivating garden

plots to save themselves from starva-

tion and building a Church to make

a permanent settlement.

The day-by-day records preserved

by the Church show us that their

existence during that first summer

was a desperate fight for survival.

Yet, they kept the faith and did what

they could to minister to the Indians

starving here. There was no word of

complaint in their daily record al-

though their condition must have

been pitiable.

On December 20, “Mr. Conger ar-

rived with the mail from Great Salt

Lake and President Wm. Bringhurst.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

HARRY RAHNER

Stardust Hotel

SEASON'S

GREETINGS

TO ALL OUR FRIENDS

AND

ENEMIES, TOO!

LOU MARSH

TONY ADAMS

DIR: BILLY J. CREEDON

President of the Las Vegas Mission,

received a letter from Brigham

Young, which cheered the Las Vegas

missionaries greatly. With this mail

came word that a post office had

been established in Las Vegas.”

On the 21st, the only record is “The

mail left for San Bernardino at 9:00

ayem.”

“Sunday, December 23. Meeting

was held at the usual hour. Several

of the brethren spoke and a good

feeling prevailed. A good meeting was

also held in the evening.

“Monday, December 24. The breth-

ren did public work again this day,

but it was so cold and blustry that

they did not do much. Brother Bring-

hurst and a few others staked out

their pre-emption claims, taking in the

whole valley near the creek on both

sides, probably eight miles in length

and one mile or more wide.”

“Tuesday, December 25,1855.

Christmas. This was the coldest morn-

ing the brethren had experienced in

Las Vegas. The ground froze hard

enough to hold up a horse and rider

in some places. During the night the

Indians stole a quantity of squashes,

corn, etc. out of Brother Mitchell and

Carter’s house. They entered the fort

at the unfinished portion, took the

loose adobe out of the window and

carried the squashes off unperceived

by the guard.

“This being considered a licenses

holiday, the brethren mustered for a

wolf hunt on horseback. About a doz-

en went out and after chasing around

a few hours, returned without success.

“In the afternoon. President Bring-

hurst and Smoot went out and located

the Indian farm for the coming season

on a little stream two miles north of

the fort. Some of the brethren enjoyed

themselves at a game of ball in the

fort.”

Jumping over a few days we come

to Sunday, December 30:

“The weather for a few days past

had been quite cold; some of the

time very blustery. Meeting was call-

ed at an early hour and after the

brethren had finished preaching. Pres-

ident Bringhurst sent for Brother

Season’s Best

Wishes —and a

Happy 1965

Dolores and Alex

GOLDFINE

Riviera Hotel

Hulet to come in, whereupon com-

plaint was made by the President that

Elder Hulet had manifested a spirit

of opposition from time to time to the

counsels and regulations given by the

authorities in Las Vegas and he con-

sidered that Hulet had used his influ-

ence to prevent others in camp from

fulfilling the requirements made of

them. Brother Hulet acknowledged in

part and said he was sorry and would

try to live more strictly to the duties

of his calling. He hoped that forgive-

ness would be extended to him. A

vote was accordingly called for that

purpose and it was agreed to unani-

mously, by all present. Thus, peace

and confidence was again restored in

their midst.”

About the only lesson I could learn

from this bit of history of Las Vegas

(almost a hundred years ago) is to

note that while there was much about

which those people might complain,

their religion brought them humility

and with humility, the strength to

bear their sufferings with fortitude.

(The greatest Christmas we ever

had in Las Vegas was that of 1928.

On December 14 of that year, the

Boulder Canyon Project Act was

passed by the U.S. Senate. That was

the real victory of the long campaign

and there remained only some com-

paratively unimportant amendments

to be approved by the House of Rep-

resentatives and the signature of

President Coolidge to make the bill

a law. That was the time that several

hundred Las Vegas people formed an

automobile caravan and drove the

long, sandy, treacherous road, then

entirely unimproved, to the head of

Black Canyon, where they knelt on

the sands of the Colorado River bank

and joined in prayers of Thanksgiving

for that great Christmas present for

which they had been hoping for so

many years.)

It should be interesting to us just

now while we are reveling in the

brightness and beauty of our brilliant

streets and gaze in wonderment at

the glories of our great resort hotels,

Jack Cortez

to look back at the dreary desolation

in which the little band of thirty brave

men who founded L.V. Mission in

1855 found themselves.

It may be food for us now to dwell

for a moment on that first day of the

year 1856, the first New Year Day in

Las Vegas, of which we have any

record. The leader of the hand of

L.V. Missionaries wrote:

“This day commenced a new year

with the brethren at L.V. and they

could truly say their hearts were full

of gratitude to their Heavenly Father

for his protecting care that has been

over them while on their mission; they

enjoyed health and reasonable

strength, food and raiment, and their

efforts had thus far been attended

with success in gaining the friendship

and confidence of their Lamanite

brethren, by whom they are surround-

ed. Peace and good will prevail.”

The Lamanites referred to were the

Indians of this region, whose constant

thievery was finally a considerable

factor in driving the missionaries back

to Salt Lake City.

“Peace and Good Will prevailed,”

declare our Mormon friends on New

Year’s Day, 1856. We hope those

strong souls who, for their religion,

could endure such privations patient-

ly and without complaint, may be

able to look down from a pleasanter

world on the L.V. of today and see

what the foundation they so well laid

in 1855 has enabled the men of this

later generation to build so well.

I wish they might see the magnifi-

cent churches of their faith here in

L.V. with all their comforts and con-

veniences and their hundreds of mem-

bers still working just as sincerely as

they were for the benefit of mankind.

And I wish we might say with the

same sincerity as did they, “peace and

good will prevail,” though, I fear, that

might too much tax the credulity of

many of us.

On that New Year Day of 1856, the

little band of missionaries were busy

building fences to protect their farms.

Also, they hung one-half of the south

gate of the fort enclosure in its place.

They were a little bit apologetic as

they explain:

“The only hindrance in not having

Season's Best Wishes

LYNN & PETE BRADY

Stardust Hotel

Season's Greetings

JULES PODELL

COPACABANA

10 East 60th Street

NEW YORK CITY

it completed was lack of files for put-

ting the saw in order that the lumber

might be sawed out for the same.”

Another serious and troublesome

problem was the depredations of the

Indians toward whom the missionar-

ies had been so uniformly kind and

helpful. On that night of January 1,

1856, we are told:

‘The natives climbed over the back

part of Elder Rick’s house and stole a

quantity of corn therefrom.”

Then comes the touching part of

that incident:

“President Bringhurst reprimanded

the Chief for allowing such acts to be

perpetrated by his people. Chief Tosh-

earump took offense on account of the

President threatening to punish of-

fenders caught stealing and he forth-

with left for the mountains, saying he

would stay away a long time.”

This possibly grieved the devout

missionaries very much. I am relating

these small happenings so that we

can better understand the faith and

forebearance of those men and the

kindly disposition they bore toward

One Hundred Thirty-four

the Indians. This was quite in con-

trast with the treatment the Indians

suffered at the hands of other travel-

ers. An example of this we find re-

corded on January 6, 1856, when Pres-

ident Bringhurst went over to the

Indians’ camp to see a man who had

disabled his foot with an ax while

working for the brethren. He pre-

scribed the manner of treating the

wound, gave him some food and com-

forted him the best he could. The

method of visiting the Indians in their

afflictions created a better feeling be-

tween the whites and them than any

other mode of procedure.

The record goes on to state that

the Indians preserved the same good

feeling toward the brethren as hither-

to. “But sometimes they were very

hungry.”

Now, I ask you, can you blame

these poor, ignorant, starving Indians

for stealing food to keep the spark of

life alive in them? Most any of us

would do the same thing under the

same circumstances, probably.

Right here the missionaries list 65

Indians whom they baptised, giving

with care the Indian name; the Eng-

lish name; by whom baptised; by

whom confirmed and the date of bap-

tism. They are listed with infinite

care; 53 of the Piute Nation; of the

Quoeech Nation, four; of the Iat Na-

tion, three. How they managed to

spell out those Indian names is a

wonder. Among those names we find

such as these: Newahwewary, Ween-

ahbegunt, Pakweahrum, Patsearump

(a Piute Chief). There were but a few

nice short names such as Kibe and

Neat.

On the 10th of January, three other

brethren sent from Cedar City by

Erastus Snow, arrived at the Mission.

They were in destitute circumstances

and had but little or no provisions.

On that same day, January 10, 1856,

a great event in our history happened.

Documents establishing a post office

at L.V. were received. It was to be

called: “Bringhurst’s P.O., Las Vegas

County, Territory of New Mexico,

William Bringhurst, Postmaster.”

And so Las Vegas was bom!

It should be remembered that this

part of the country was then a part

of the Territory of New Mexico. One

of our most prominent citizens, Mr.

O. D. Gass, was a member of the

Legislature of the Territory of New

Mexico and served as such during the

session of Santa Fe.

On this same day, January 10, 1856,

Mr. James Williams arrived in camp

on his return from Great Salt Lake to

San Bernardino and President Bring-

hurst made a bargain with him to

bring grape cuttings and fruit trees

Traffic lights on the strip will make everything in Las Vegas the most fabulous in the world.

and seeds from California at the rate

of $10.00 per 100. One thousand slips

were ordered.

Even then Las Vegas was an enter-

prising community!

-- ------ -----

The gentleman stopped to talk to

the wee girl who was making mud

pies on the sidewalk.

“My word,” he exclaimed, “you’re

pretty dirty, aren’t you, my little

girl?”

“Yes,” she replied, “but I’m prettier

clean.”

Yule Tide Greetings

DEMPSEY FOSTER

Flamingo Hotel

Fabulous Las Vegas Christmas Issue December 26, 1964
Reprint of Pop Squires Observations from December 1952

VOLUME 3 FEBRUARY 23, 1952NUMBER 45

OBSERVATIONS ... by CHARLES P. "POP" SQUIRES

CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS

AS VEGAS enjoys and sup-

ports as many civic organiza-

tions as any other town I

know of—perhaps more than

is usual for a small city. From

the day the town was born. May 15,

1905, the need of organization was fell

by all the several hundred people who

met here as strangers and remained

to try to make a community of this

bare and desolate piece of desert.

The people who comprised the first

citizenship of Las Vegas in that spring

of 1905 were strangers to each other.

Some of us had begun to get ac-

quainted with our fellows a little bit,

but Las Vegas settlers had seeped in

from every state in the Union and

hardly any two had more than the mere

speaking acquaintance which resulted

from the necessity of working together.

Immediately after the auction sale of

town lots, the necessity for some sort

of public sanitation was realized. In

McWilliamstown, people had been

packed like sardines into shacks and

tents without any means of sewage dis-

posal. In the new town were a hundred

or more tents and shacks, the occupants

of which used water from wells only

six or eight feet deep, located within

perhaps a few feet of the garbage dump.

Cases of what we feared might be ty-

phoid were breaking out here and there.

We just had to do something.

I posted a notice in Hotel Las Vegas

calling a meeting. Everybody came,

because everybody was vitally inter-

ested in trying to save the life of the

new infant Las Vegas. We talked things

over a while, the natural pessimists declaring that there was no use trying to

do anything because we had no author-

ity. I was among those who declared

that if we made regulations, the people

would obey them—they just would not

dare do otherwise, even if they wished.

FABULOUS IAS VEGAS

I was chairman of the committee to

draw up regulations. We presented our

findings and requirements to the ad-

journed meeting. They were adopted.

The requirements seemed rather strin-

gent, and besides every property owner

was assessed one dollar a week as the

cost of carrying out the requirements.

We appointed Mr. Fitzwilliam—a big,

tall, strong fellow—as garbage and sew-

age remover and had no trouble what-

ever in enforcing our regulations. In

fact, we began to suspect that people,

even the unknown and unrelated ele-

ments which composed the new Las

Vegas, desired to be governed by rule

rather than by chance. At that time

Las Vegas was 155 miles from Pioche,

the county seat, and while we had a

deputy sheriff, his time was devoted to

looking after the drunks and keeping

order, if he could, in the saloons. So

in that first attempt at local govern-

(Continued on Page 21) FEBRUARY 23, 1952

POP SQUIRES:

(Continued from Page S)

ment in Las Vegas we felt well pleased.

It was not very long before we felt

the pressing need of another organiza-

tion, this time a “Board of Trade,” in

which businessmen could join together

for the exchange of information and for

their own protection in business. A

meeting was held July 6, 1905, and the

organization perfected in a hurry, be-

cause it was feared that some of our

too many business houses would not be

able to survive very much longer in

the heat and dust and pest of flies. Too

many of those who bought lots and

thought at first they would stay in

Vegas, gave up the idea. It was a little

worse than they could bear and a lot

of them just “beat it” without paying

their debts or saying goodbye.

There was not much a Board of Trade

could do except exchange information.

But within a few weeks we were able

to intervene in the matter of the failure

of Crowell & Allott, the town’s big

mercantile house and save a loss of some

thousands of dollars to our permanent

population. It was on that occasion that

I made my first trip (in the night) to

Eldorado Canyon and thereby saved the

First State Bank a loss of $2,800, which

at that time would have been a very

serious loss. However, the day after I

returned home and deposited the notes

I had taken for the bank in payment

of various accounts the Eldorado Can-

yon people owed Crowell & Allott, the

representatives of the Los Angeles

Board of Trade walked into the bank.

“How much do Crowell & Allott owe

this bank?” they inquired.

“They owe us nothing at all,” said

Cashier John S. Park.

And those smart fejlows from Los

Angeles were furious to think we got

in ahead of them, but we made it. We

had a Board of Trade.

It was not very long after the Board

of Trade was started that our fine old

friend, Judge M. S. Beal, who had for

months been giving practically all of

his time and attention to trying to help

the sick little town, came up with the

idea that we should organize something

like a chamber of commerce, but he

did not favor calling it that as long as

we had a Board of Trade. He sug-

gested “Las Vegas Promotion Society”

as the name, with the slogan, to be at-

tached to all letters and other publicity,

“Nothing to Sell.” The judge did not

want strangers to get the idea that we

were trying to unload town lots on

them. He wanted to tell of the fine

winter climate of Las Vegas, the fertile

(more or less) soil, the crystal pure

water, and the majestic scenery.

The “Las Vegas Promotion Society—

Nothing to Sell” served a very useful

purpose if it did nothing more than to

encourage ourselves. It at least kept

us busy and gave us renewed courage

from time to time as we needed it.

We did not really get down to brass

tacks and get into the life and death

struggle in dead earnest until some

time in 1908, when we began to feel

too strongly the burden of paying taxes

for Pioche to spend and spending our

substance on the three- or four-day

trip every time we had business at the

county seat.

We determined that “County Divi-

sion Must Come.” So Judge Beal gave

up for the time at least, his “Las Vegas

Promotion Society — Nothing to Sell,”

and helped us organize the “Lincoln

County Division Club,” the object of

which was frankly stated to create a

new county out of the south half of

Lincoln county, with Las Vegas as the

county seat.

I have all the old papers of Lincoln

County Division Club, with the list of

those who subscribed money for mak-

ing the fight. It was an uphill business,

because the people of the old, northern

part of the county considered us of Las

Vegas as interlopers in Lincoln County

who were interfering in something that

was none of our business. They made

it pretty tough for us, but we fought

it through at the 1908 election, and

then in the legislature early in 1909.

After promising the people that Las

Vegas would build the new county a

courthouse sufficient to serve for five

years, without any cost whatever to the

taxpayers, we got it through.

The new Couny of Clark was organ-

ized and began operation July 1, 1909,

and then began business in the fine,

new courthouse (now the old library

building) without a cent in the treas-

ury, but in debt to the old County of

Lincoln in the amount of something

like $430,000. It took us twenty long

years to pay that indebtedness, but we

made it—and here we are—

THIS IS LAS VEGAS!

KOST'S

PHONE 10381000S.MAIN

UNION CAB PHONE 911

You mean to say . . .

8 WEEKS

have gone by ! !

THANKS TO THE

PATRONS OF THE

CLUB BINGO

for making them

pleasureful

SEE YOU SOON!

Frankie Rapp

PHIL COPLEY'S

Restaurant and coffee shop,

the ultimate in fine foods,

kosher,

hot corned beef sandwiches, California Club

downtown.

Cashman's Firestone for a complete line of fishing tackle check local papers for dollar day specials

phone 2716,

107 N. Main

Observations

by CHARLES P. "POP" SQUIRES

PRELL AND SAHARA

WE WHO HAVE KNOWN MILTON PRELL for the past several years as a kindly, friendly, yet very efficient gentleman, must now change our estimate and add the element of greatness to our appraisal of this gentleman's fine qualities.

I have been among the many casual acquaintances of Mr. Prell since he bought the barny looking, half finished building which had been standing a long time just outside the city limits on the strip, its high, upward-expanding feature looking forlorn as it implored somebody to come and take pity.

It did seem just too bad that so pleasant a man as Mr. Prell should get stuck with the unfinished, sprawling shack but, oh well! I suppose it's his own affair. So without protest or any attempt to save Mr. Prell from disaster by giving him good advice, we just let him go his reckless way and spend his money as he pleased. Whatever happened, it was good money spent in Las Vegas anyhow!

And so one day that upward expanding wedge-shaped thing that had been sorrowfully beckoning at the passers-by for a year or more blossomed into brilliance, with an operating "Bingo" card bingoing with lights once every minute and the attractively designed sign "Club Bingo."

As Ray Bolger said in his opening remarks of his opening act Tuesday night:

"Just a few years ago, desert! All of a sudden, BINGO!"

And there it was, full of life and lights and activity—a lovely club, with fine foods and all the attractive features of a great Club, including the pleasant Bingo room and Mr. Prell pleasantly greeting his friends.

Then, a year ago, a greater ambition was burning in the Prell heart. A new hotel was proposed for the site. Club Bingo was to be demolished and the new enterprise was to give us another great Strip hotel, excelled in size, beauty, novel design and beauty by no other hotel on our world-famous "Strip."

"It will take us a year to build it," said Mr. Prell. And then some of us looking forward to the inevitable troubles and delays and heart-breaking disappointments such an enterprise always carries with it, really had sorrow in our hearts as we saw the beautiful Club Bingo destroyed and great piles of building materials scattered over a large area about the site. Somehow it gave some of us a feeling of futility and disappointment, for how could Mr. Prell

with all his genius and energy give us anything more pleasant than the old '•Club Bingo"?

Tuesday night we had our answer when "Hotel Sahara" had its opening. There is no use for me to try to describe it. Others have done that better than I possibly could do it. Besides if I really-tried to describe the new Sahara in any detail it would require several issues of Fabulous Las Vegas to contain it without any of the life saving advertisements Jack Cortez must depend upon to keep it going and growing.

But I cannot resist the temptation to dwell very briefly on a few of the features that most pleased and impressed me. The first, and probably most important feature of any similar enterprise, is the friendly and kindly sentiment of those who operate Hotel Sahara and are responsible for the pleasure of its guests.

First of these in importance, so far as Delphine and I are concerned, is the clever Stan Irwin, director of entertainment, who put together for the opening a program which it would be difficult to excel on any occasion.

Knowing that first nights, especially opening night celebrations, may easily be flops because of the worry and confusion of last moment preparations, we were delighted that Stan's presentations were just about the most pleasant and appropriate that could be chosen to adorn such an important occasion as Hotel Sahara's opening.

Then—my, oh my! What am I letting myself in for! I will just subdue my enthusiasm and let other pages of Jack's Fabulous Las Vegas tell you all about it better than I possibly could. From the creator and supreme manager, Milton Prell, down through all the stages of management and operation the results are great. And, instead of being competition for the other great Strip hotels, the Sahara is an adjunct, bringing to Las Vegas more patronage for all.

Las Vegas today is a greater and more prosperous city than she ever had been prior to Tuesday evening.

And there goes the urge again! Did you ever see a more perfect miracle than the wide reaching green lawns about the great swimming pool, where just yesterday, it seems, was only the sand and dust of the desert?

Sahara! We of Las Vegas salute you! A sentiment in which, I notice, Wilbur Clark and his Desert Inn and all the other great Strip hotels—El Rancho Vegas, which the genius of Tommy Hull and his sister Sally created some twelve years ago: Hotel Last Frontier, the Thunderbird, the Sands, the Flamingo (built on the forty acres of worthless desert Delphine and I owned for about twenty-five years) and all the downtown casinos and hotels heartily join!

FABULOUS LAS VEGAS OCTOBER 11, 1952

Observations by Pop Squires — Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine — October 11, 1952

Observations by Charles "Pop" Squires

Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine

1950 - 1952

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