Las Vegas History

[Lzcutter]

Las Vegas History

For all those interested in the real history of Las Vegas, I wanted to let you know that we have on our blog:

A Brief History of Fremont Street (the real history);

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/ ... n-history/

And we have just started A Brief History of The Strip

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/ ... the-strip/

As well as other stuff on the blog, so be sure to check it out.

And don't forget to visit the website:

www.classiclasvegas.com

to find out more about my efforts to help preserve the history of my hometown.

Thanks in advance.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Lynn,

I love Las Vegas and can remember the old hotels on the Strip.

The Old Flamingo, Desert Inn, Sands, Dunes, Riviera and those ones in your web link.
Only the Sahara and the Tropicana are still standing and they both looked dingy when I was last there in 2002.

I usually stay at the MGM Grand. I was "comped" there in 1998 as a guest of Ann Miller (she was on the board).
And in 2002, I was "specialized" because of the diminished tourist business after 9/11; so I've made out pretty well in Vegas.

I love the Belagio, Paris and Venetian and Mandalay Bay and could and have stayed in Caesars Palace for a whole day (those Forum shops are Heaven)....

I have seriously thought of moving there and just vegetating...

Larry

[Lzcutter]

Larry,

I had no idea (but should have) that you had visited Las Vegas in it's glory days.

Just think if you lived here you could hang out with BenWHowell and I would visit you every few weeks.

Ah, a girl can dream....

Loved the line in tonight's While the City Sleeps that Vincent Price had:

"There I was at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas by the pool...."

I immediately pictured it in my mind.

[benwhowell]

Hi, Lynn
I know I've said this before, but thank you for all the work you do to "preserve" old Las Vegas. I moved here in '87, so I did get a chance to enjoy life in old Las Vegas...for awhile...until Steve Wynn started the whole "who's is bigger" competition and everything became "corporate."
It still had a small town feel and you'd run into friends all over town while making the rounds...in one night. Couldn't possibly do that now...you'd spend a lot of time stuck in traffic.
And don't get me started on the cheap food and drinks and all the freebies you'd collect. Remember those (pink) painter caps Circus Circus gave away? That was a local favorite. You'd see them everywhere. I loved that two story revolving bar (the top floor had slot machines) and the trapeze acts. And that giant buffett! I'm not sure, but I think the breakfast buffet was $1.99, lunch $2.99 and dinner $3.99. I think Circus Circus made be the next to go.

[jdb1]

Lynn, please forgive a seemingly silly question, but where do you live, those of you who live in LV? Where are the homes?

On any TV show about LV, you rarely see actual residences, except maybe for some palatial place owned by a celebrity. There have to be lots and lots of people around who work at the attractions -- where do they stay? Do residential areas surround the resorts? Are they to the east or west? Do people live "in town," or does everyone have to commute long distances?

[benwhowell]

Judith, the majority of the resorts are on Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip)-which runs north and south. The residential areas are to the east and west of The Strip-and are moving closer and closer to the mountains as we speak. The latest trend in housing are the luxury high rise condos popping up on and around The Strip-including downtown. The downtown casinos are on Fremont or Main Street. (There are many other resorts scattered around the city in residential areas.) The downtown area is not what it used to be, but is slowly being "cleaned up" and redeveloped-thanks to our mayor (and former mob attorney,) Oscar Goodman.
I live quite near the downtown area-about 10 blocks-on a cul de sac in a duplex built in the '60's. I call this area mid town. (Las Vegas does not have a traditonal downtown like most big cities.) I'm sure it must have been a great area to live in in the '50/'60s. Despite it's overall run down look, homes atart at $250,000!
I'm sure Vegas has more than doubled in size during my 20 year stay...and people are moving here (daily) in droves!

[benwhowell]

I forgot to mention Boulder Highway. Fremont Street becomes Boulder Highway-which connects Vegas to Henderson and Boulder City and beyond...There are several casinos up and down Boulder Highway.
Boulder City was created to house the people who worked on the Boulder Dam-later becoming the Hoover Dam. Ironically, Boulder City is the only town/city in Nevada without legalized gambling.
Where is Lynn? She's better at this than I am...

[Lzcutter]

Judith,

When we got to Las Vegas in 1961, the town was still fairly centered around downtown Fremont Street. We did our shopping there, we bought our groceries there, we went downtown to go to the movies, see our doctors, etc.

There were other neighborhoods that had sprung up further out of the historic core such as the John Parks neighborhood, the Huntridge neighborhood (built behind the old Huntridge Theater that Irene Dunne and Loretta Young were investors in), Marycrest and Paradise. Paradise was behind the Strip.

As the town continued to grow, other neighborhoods such as Charleston Heights, Hyde Park and others built for the single family dwellers like my folks were all the rage.

My mom says there were less than 50,000 people in Las Vegas when we moved there in 1961, now there are almost two milllion and more townships than I can ever remember.

The housing extends all the way to Henderson (which you used to be a half-day drive down the Boulder Highway and there really was no reason to go to Henderson because it was just a factory town surrounded by desert) and is creeping towards Railroad Pass. Boulder City is about 4 miles up the highway from Railroad Pass and I hope the housing stops before it ever gets that far.

Boulder City is a small town of about 15,000 residents (including Desi Arnaz, jr and his wife who own the local performing arts theater), that retains a great deal of its 1930s/1940s charm from its days as a federal reservation for Dam workers.

Coming in from Southern California, the housing developments will one day reach all the wty to Primm/Stateline I believe. There are two Post War families that have formed a partnership to build a bedroom community out in Jean (about 25 minutes south of Las Vegas) and it will likely be very popular but it will spell a death kneel for the rural way of life out there.

So, Las Vegas continues to grow, continues to tear down its historic properties in historic neighborhoods and on the Strip and pay but just a passing nod to the history that it is losing.

But everyday we fight the good fight against that thinking.

For the record, I don't actually live in Las Vegas anymore. I live in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles but am up in Las Vegas about half the year it seems.

Hope that helps!

Lynn

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Dear Ben and Lynn,
Thanks for a great history lesson on Las Vegas! I'll meet you there, Larry.

[jdb1]

Yes, Lynn and Ben, thanks for the tour. I hope to visit Las Vegas, and I'd like to see much more than just a mob of other visitors. Your website and descriptions here give me some good ideas about where to go and what to see.

Judith

[mrsl]

Hi All, I'm baaaacccckkk!

Judith, your question about where people live made me laugh because when I was moving out to LV after Mr. L died, I think my Mom envisioned me living in a tent in the middle of the parking lot of one of the casinos! She was greatly relieved when they visited and found me in a lovely double wide mobile home, in a great mobile home park.

If you drive out from the Strip on any of the big streets like Tropicana, Flamingo, etc. you will find loads of single family houses, condos, and apartment complexes. When I moved out there in 1990, there were a lot of mobile home parks, but I believe some of them may have been sold to make room for housing. The apartments are generally only two floors up, which makes for more friendly surroundings, and even the single family communities have walls around the complex with gated entrances making for a safe feeling of security. Many of the outlying homes are the palatial ones you see in movies and TV, but most of them are normal sized two or three bedroom houses like in any suburban neighborhood. One thing I loved about Vegas was every condo and apartment complex had work-out rooms, swimming pools, and steam rooms included in the rent as well as community rooms with TV, and conversational seating (couch and chairs with coffee tables).

Most nights, when I got home at 1 or 2 a.m., I went down to the hot tub swimming pool, where most of the neighbors congregated for late night confabs, and snacks. The pool was closed, but the hot tubs were always busy. In many cases the swimming area was busier late at night or early morning, than during the day, because of the work schedules.

lzcutter: reading your Fremont Street history, I'm pretty sure the Las Vegas trilogy by Fern Michaels was loosely based on Mayme Stocker and her experiences in the early days of LV. I miss Vegas thoroughly, but if I returned, I'm sure I would find it so changed from my days there, it would seem like a different place.

Spending 4 or 5 weeks per year there in the 80's and living there all through the 90's, I knew the city pretty well, and watched it grow from 600,000 to over 1,000,000 in the 9 years I lived there. I do remember the Golden Nugget as a real dump, kind of like a cheap bar with lots of one-armed bandits, and then turning into one of the most beautiful showplaces in the entire city. I also recall the Desert Inn as it was in the days of Dan Tanas' Vegas, and that wonderful genie outside/alongside of the Dunes. It took about 3 minutes to walk from the street into the building of the Sands because that big, long, driveway and walkway in front. That grassland is now the Venetians' waterway for the gondolas. I never made it to the new Aladdin, but I recall the girls in their little harem outfits in the old one, and the Wizard of Oz setting in the re-built MGM.

I was there for the first implosion (of the Dunes), and recall all the people standing around to see it. I loved the volcano and the pirate ship/English ship battle, the musical water at Bellagio, and watching Mandalay Bay being built.

I'm not sure if I dare go back for a visit, because someone may have to drag me kicking and screaming to get on the return plane to come back here. I loved living in Las Vegas, and truly miss it.

Anne

[Lzcutter]

Anne,

Glad to have you back! And glad you are enjoying my website and blog. We just started A Brief History of the Las Vegas Strip which will talk about the original "ladies" (hotels) that made up the Strip for most of my life and the ones, all of us of a certain age instantly recall.

Hope you are staying cool in Chicago.

[moira finnie]

Okay Lynn, (I know you live in the LA area but spend alot of time over in Vegas), Ben and any other members around the Las Vegas and Southwestern US area:

Consider this a friendly check to see if you guys who hang out in those unbelievably hot cities are okay. Are you hydrating enough? Got your air conditioners cranked up to the "ice age" setting? Any sign of brown-outs?
Please, please take care of yourselves and let us know how and if you're beating the heat. I think of y'all whenever I hear those cockamamie weather reports.
Thanks
-moira

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Lynn & Kyle & Ben,

Wow, Las Vegas was 46C, 117F yesterday. That's hot!!!
And, Los Angeles is reporting blackouts and brownouts and fires still burning.....

Lynn -
Now is the proper time for you to bust out the parasol and become a proper lady of the 18th century!!
A fan and a coquette look would come in handy too!

Stay safe and stay cool!!!!!!

Larry

[mrsl]

Moira:

Because of all the mid-westerners moving into Vegas and bringing their grass and trees, it's a little more humid there than it was 7 years ago when I left, but still, the heat is hot but it doesn't take your breath away like the humidity here and in NY does. You know those puddles of water around your A/C unit? The ones in Vegas are about 1/2 of that. It's our humidity that causes such distress in our lives more than the heat. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disregarding the 117 degrees, but I'd much rather have that in Vegas, than 87 degrees here in Chicago with the humidity.

lzcutter and all of you guys - I wish I was there with you.

Anne