Transcript of interview with Midge Innis by James Thomas Griffin, May 8, 1976

UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis i An Interview with Midge Innis An Oral History Conducted by James Thomas Griffin Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis iii The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis iv Abstract On May 8, 1976, James Thomas Griffin interviewed former casino dealer Midge Innis (born September 23rd, 1928 in Neligh, Nebraska) in her apartment in Las Vegas, Nevada about her life in Southern Nevada. The two discuss her occupational history as well as how she met her husband. The interview concludes Innis’ thoughts on environmental and social shifts in Las Vegas.UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 1 (Audio begins mid-sentence) 117 Dr. Roske. My name is Jim Griffin. I’m interviewing Mrs. Midge Innis in her apartment. Number 52 at 3600 Paradise. Mrs. Innis has been in Las Vegas twice, first in 1950 and later in 1955. What was your reason from coming to Las Vegas the first time Midge? My husband had lived here before he knew me. And he knows (unintelligible) and came over in 1950 and lived here for six months and left, left and stayed in Washington. And came back in 1955, I’ve been here ever since. The reason we came is because we had some success some and new some people around town, (unintelligible) so we never had to get back to—we had been in an assigned business in Washington and working with decorations and so forth. And he was good at (unintelligible) and that’s unusual, and that was getting to be a long going thing, and so I think a contractor friend of ours who was helping to grow our business then, put up the money for our trip and for the promotion, and we did the work, but as it turned out, he never left home, and we had a couple of cold, hungry days here in town. You said he was supposed to meet you here in town, right? Yes, he was supposed to meet us at Midnight at the Golden Nugget and he and I landed on a Saturday night, it was shortly after New Year’s. It was chilly. And he didn’t show up, so we called him on the next day, but he wouldn’t accept the charges anymore. End of the story is that he didn’t come, and he didn’t wear any money, but we had a row of (unintelligible) in the car. (Laughs) What had you heard about Las Vegas before you got here? What were you expecting? I really heard only from my husband and it sounds like some kind of a fantasy now. I guess to him, he wasn’t a particularly stable man—a very unstable man. And it was this kind of town—I remember he made it the twenty-fifth when he first came into Vegas, and he would come in at UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 2 night so that I can see the lights of the town coming up. It was exciting even then, and there was really nothing here compared to what it is now, when you come into town. And when we drove in, he’d said he had told me that you could read a newspaper in the middle of First and Fremont at midnight and he wanted to prove it to me. I’ve heard the same story when I first got here. Yes, so we came into town late at night and (unintelligible) and were saying gambling, and I mean right out in the open gambling. And that was some, I couldn’t believe it, I looked at it and I couldn’t believe it. If the town was really out in the open like that. I think the appeal, that was one of the appeals the town had for me, was the fact that everything was in the open. Some (unintelligible) honesty and openness that most people look for and never find. Do you know anything about the term “Glitter-Gulch?” When I first came to town I was told you could, the corner of Fremont down where the Gold Nugget is, is like New Day at midnight, you know, I was told it was Glitter-Gulch. Of course nobody thought of that name then, nobody, that was just Downtown Las Vegas, but later, much later, they finally wrote it, or somebody else around there wrote it, and decided that it should be Casino Center. I liked Glitter because it kept the flavor of what Las Vegas used to be. Hmm. And I don’t know where that name came from. It was called that for a long time. Okay. So you say, you said before that your husband came here to work— Yes. And he never found a job— Well, we came down with the idea of promotion and murals with this sort of thing in mind. It’s just that the other guy didn’t show up, we sold his scotch light to a sign shop here for enough UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 3 money to last a day or two and get on home. In the meantime, he got a job here at a sign shop. He wanted to live here so badly we went back up there and sold our business. We closed our business, brought all of our equipment and everything and came back down to live, and when we got here the job that we had gotten was not there. The man had promised him a job and it didn’t work out. Told him that he could work on commission if he wanted to part-time; I mean, the man was here, so in needing a job, the town wasn’t that big, so that was built in help at his basis. Did this for a little bit, and then we opened a shop here, and there was a fella that we met who was into black light. The old Santa Anita Race book then was on Fremont Street, I think between Main and First. And at night it was a cocktail lounge—there was a man in photography that made big photo murals. I think they were each—each section was about eight feet long but he mixed sets and he superimposed, made photo murals to put them up. He wanted to black light these and our technique was with an airbrush, which he didn’t know how to use one. And so through him, we got into that sort of thing, and he wanted to go into California to Hollywood, and he had a backer and would go down there and promote, which we did. There was a group of us, young men and his mother—she had some money. This artist and his wife and me and my husband, we went down there and found then that he was just, he was selling the job but wouldn’t let us work. And he had the notion that you get enough lined up and run through their money and get somebody else to promote it, which he ran out money and got disgusted ‘cause no money was coming in and then he could find what these promises of work that we’d sold to get a bigger and better promoter. We couldn’t quite swallow this so we pulled away from him and told he lady, “Hey, we don’t want any part of this.” And she said, “Okay,” and, “We’ll do it on our own.” Then we find out that the light fixtures were not really available, so they left us high and UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 4 dry in Hollywood, and we had trouble getting back to Vegas. But we did, and I was surprised then that they didn’t like California— Who, the people in Vegas didn’t? Oh yes, they didn’t care much— Wasn’t that most, the business here and the casinos, were all from Southern California? No, mm-mm. No, Californians were strictly outsiders, they didn’t care really—best business was like, people from Texas or big money— Did they have (unintelligible)? They weren’t going for the low junkets, no. They didn’t have junket flocks then? No, no. They didn’t go for volume then, as a matter of fact you could go and see a show for the price of a hamburger and a drink then—a showroom show, because the gambling covered all this, and that was their enticement. That was their thing. Everything was friendliness, and they didn’t expect to make money on their food or their drinks, the gambling was the thing. But then, with now, what they call the “Age of the two-dollar better,” in volumes of people come in, they have to make money in each department, because you just can’t cover giveaways for that many people. The amount of money that each person spends is much lower—they can’t do it anymore. So there used to be fewer people, a lot fewer people who were spending more per person. Yes. Did you find that Las Vegas had changed from the time that you were here in the ’50? When you came back in ’55, did you noticed any—? Yes, of course, I had ruined a lot in between— Could you tell us, could you give me some examples of how it had changed? UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 5 No, well, a lot of people had been added. I went to work in the Old Nevada Club, which at that time was three casinos joined together. They didn’t even have doors, it was directly slot machines, and I think it’s about one of the first places that was all machines. They didn’t have any live games at all. And we had, when they’d take the machines, they could not drop it off. They had to take this big cart with the money buckets out the front door of one, with the security guard walking along, you know, and then the door next to them. Because the three—he was in court (Unintelligible), he was incorporating the three of them and (Unintelligible) fortune, which was one of them. Gradually, they, he bought Cecil out and Cecil and bought up a place down the street and he, the place no longer exists. It’s part of the Golden Nugget. Mm-hmm. You mentioned a story about some policeman that you know when you were living in North Las Vegas? Yes, 1950, it was just a typical small western town. We liked the flavor of North Las Vegas better than we did Las Vegas proper. The old-timer, a lot of the old-timers worked out there, and they were still weary as they are extremely wary now, but they were weary then of people that weren’t natives, weren’t from around here. And some of the cops came in, and ate at the same place that my husband Russ and I did. They used to tell them by the police car they had had, htat they went to chase somebody, they’d turn on the siren and the motor would die and they’d start the (Laughs) start the chase again, and turn on the motor and die again, just a typical little close-knit, small western clothes. They had little night clubs out there then too. And they don’t have men. Did you find you had any trouble when you moved into the community—with making friends? And—? UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 6 No they were a little, a little weary, but once they saw they, like they’d said, “their kind of people,” they’d say, “Fine, okay.” You know— How would you describe that kind of people? The kind of people that, the western kind of people. And what they would cost you or what they could— the community, should keep you safe. (Laughs) There was a lot of good jazz around. They had the first female impersonator stripper I ever saw was in North Las Vegas there up in the old tower. They had floor shows and things like that. Yes? Mm-hmm. Did he or she take it all off? Well, not all of it. No. No? Uh-uh. I don’t exactly know (unintelligible) or take it away (Laughs)— Mm-hmm. It had a strong western flavor, I had no doubt. There were some pretty rough places too, I wasn’t allowed to go to. Not concerning the second and final time you came here— Yes. And you’ve been here, in Las Vegas, since 1965, where did you work, and what kind of work did you do? Well, I can answer that, there was an ad in the paper for (unintelligible) and I went and applied for that and it was all full, but they needed a restaurant cashier. And I think that it was the only UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 7 place in town that ever has had an aptitude test, and my aptitude for that kind of work was high, so I worked for two weeks as a restaurant cashier, and they put me in a cage, and this was pure murder for me because I didn’t even know what the drop on a slot machine was, I didn’t know anything (Laughs) Was is the drop on the slot machine? I was green as grass. A drop on the slot machine, at that time, now that is—at that time, they only talked about, had a jackpot, if it was say, a five dollar jackpot, a dollar would drop into the tray and nickels and the change girl would come and give you four dollars either in cash or nickels, usually in the nickels, but wrapped, instead of it come out from a machine. Oh, I see. The drop from the slot machine is the, what goes into a bucket, the overflow from the tubes. So I not only didn’t know about work I was supposed to be doing. I didn’t know what they were talking about when they told me that I survived. Where was your first job? The Nevada Club. The Nevada Club—and then? You worked there as a restaurant cashier—? I worked there for two weeks, and then they transferred me into the casino cage. And it was my first experience. I worked there, I think it was a year and a half, and had switched to—that was my baptism. I switched to different shifts, I was on the day shift, I’d been divorced in the meantime. And a girl on swing-shift had a tragedy in her family and wanted to be home in the evening with her husband, so I, traded shift with her because my children were gone anyway. And then I did, and then the girl on the graveyard had a husband that was out of work and couldn’t leave the house early enough to get the union all—he was look. What I traded with her, UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 8 okay I did. I might’ve been head cashier. A guy had worked up to that on recommendation, so I trade with (unintelligible), so I traded with her so that she could be with the kids and he could go see a buy job and get first call at the union. Then I found my children coming home and I said, “Hey I want my shift back,” and I wanted her fired because I couldn’t get along with my fellow employees. They asked why, and I said I was about to. I didn’t know that you didn’t belong to Las Vegas until you’d been fired at least once because everybody was going to have to move back down. I was heartbroken, just crushed, and wound up with a better job. What was your better job? Well my better job wasn’t immediate. First I hadn’t, they’d have tables in there and I was a little experienced in working as casino cashiers did. Just slot machines, but they hadn’t had them all for very long before I got fired so that was my main intention in order to keep my income up. And work pleasant, so I applied every place, and I had been making I think, a hundred dollars a week, which seemed like a lot of money for a woman then. There was no women there. Mm-hmm. How did that compare with men’s salaries? Oh— For the same job. Not too bad. There are—other places paid more than there. The idea was to get in. (Unintelligible) were other places. But, so I, one of the places that hired me was the Mint, but they had a policy that everybody that had never worked at a (unintelligible) department and everybody who went into casino cage had to come from change, had to have been working in a change booth and promoted from there. They promoted only from within the organization. Mm-hmm. UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 9 So I went to work in a change booth, by that time I was supporting them and I wasn’t making any money. I saw these girls strutting around with change bills, being change girls, and making tokes, and their wages were very close to what I was making, but they were making tokes besides, and I said, well, to heck with the casino cage, I can’t do this, I have to be making more money. Put me on the floor, which they did, gave me a good station, but it was—just plain rare. In what way? (Unintelligible) they didn’t have harnesses when they rolled up the change bills, you were required to carry more change, it was heavy. Laws had gone into effect and they can’t require it. (Audio begins mid-sentence) so I got sick and I didn’t have a telephone, I called from a telephone booth and told ‘em I was sick, and I didn’t have a phone, that I, you know, I let ‘em know what I felt there, I had the flu. But my middle was really hurting too. And when I come back in to see when I should come back to work, they said, “Well, you’ve been terminated.” So I was removed, I was fired a second time, I said, “What for?” and they said, “For no show, no call. You didn’t come into work and you didn’t call.” “Okay.” So I got unemployment because the Mint was famous for that sort of thing, and it was after that thing that I got the job at the Pontiac Wing. I wanted to ask just one question: who was the owner of the Mint at the time? Not (Unintelligible)—? I think it was (Unintelligible) then, yes. Mm? I think (Unintelligible) built it, didn’t he? I’m not sure. UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 10 I’m not sure either. (Unintelligible) was the manager. Wasn’t him that fired me, it was somebody else (Unintelligible) or something. Does the Mint still have this kind of reputation? I don’t know, it’s a work house. But I don’t know, I don’t know too much about that now. Okay. So I still wasn’t really rolling in experience, as far as a casino with tables, so I used to go in and told what’s-his-name, same guy that managed the Pontiac back then, that I’d just come in every other week, (Unintelligible) hired me or told me to get lost. And he wound up hiring me and I guess he liked my determination, because I was determined to get into a cage. All I had was three days in the slot booth, and three days release and cage until something else opened up. And then I went to work full-time in the cage, that’s where I got my real casino experience, as a casino cashier. Mm-hmm. They used to have some really high games in there. Meaning what? (Unintelligible) What sort of games? Oh craps, wheel, (unintelligible), same thing you’d find in a casino. Where did you work after that? How long were you there? I think I was there a year or so, and was offered more money down the street, at seventeen-fifty-ish, if there, and he had always promised me more. And I went down the street, and he said, and well, the place was losing and I knew it, he said, “As long we’re losing money, I can’t give you what I promised,” so I went to work at the Golden Gate for twenty dollars a shift. UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 11 How would you describe the people that you worked with in those days? Probably at the Pioneer Club is when I began to get some of the flavor of Las Vegas. The, with the people, and I’m fascinated with people, anyway. I really got to meet some honest to god, (unintelligible) characters, and I had kind of a sheltered life in a lot of ways, and I hadn’t come across anything, I didn’t believe this was all for real. I thought people were putting me on first, I couldn’t believe it. I spoke a different and a different expressions and everything which part of me had never heard before. (Unintelligible) boosters and shoplifters, and all that stuff pretty well applied. Everyone’s a big talk, money in every place. They really would knock themselves out if they had the chance. And there was an honor system, with the age of computerized markers and all that sort of thing. Like the (Unintelligible) corporation had (unintelligible) casinos. I heard that one cashier remark, was probably around longer than I am, say, “Yes, now they’re unhappy if you don’t have the computer number,” and all this sort of thing. We used to be lucky if we even got a signature on it. Me and the other guy said, (Unintelligible) just put his name on it for him, but he knows you wouldn’t that, if it weren’t real. And like I said, just kind of an honor system. Doesn’t work anymore, it wouldn’t work now. It was more of a closeness among people who worked in the same place and—? I mean, the people who worked in the (unintelligible) just about the town. The town was really, really beginning to just change. A lot of people from California, lot of California people here, then. And the methods, everything was changing from what it had been in 1950. I’ve noticed from being Downtown and on the Strip, the dealers do not smile. Oh that isn’t true. Isn’t it? UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 12 They’re—they’re encouraged to be friendly, but the more time they deal those cards, they keep that game moving, you know? Mm-hmm. If they’re too friendly, they’re either hustling for tokes or maybe some nonsense going on. You’re not encouraged to get too buddy-buddy, friendly. Mm-hmm, has this always been— They tell ‘em to be friendly, yes, but not too, you know. Has this always been the case? Yes and no. For instance, in the old Golden Nugget years ago, they used to, every twenty-one dealer, a crap table, four dealers and split their tokes, and either (unintelligible) went for themselves. So where his table was positioned, and how many people knew him, that sort of thing, was really important. Now it’s split even around the clock, sometimes, I mean, he didn’t even know what shift he was on. (Unintelligible) Now it doesn’t really matter that much, it’s kind of a grind out process. But the more games they deal, that percentage is always working the more games they deal, keep the game roaming. The more money the house makes. Alright, so when Las Vegas really began changing, when would you say was this? About when was this? Began changing when we were gone I guess, between ’50 and ’55. Uh-huh. Or probably had started before that, like when the Flamingo came in. Mm-hmm. UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 13 And that was the first place they ever—my husband had been offered a job there as a sketch artist, sketch the people, but they told him that he’d have to wear formal ware, and he said he wouldn’t be caught dead in soup and fish, and passed the job down. (Laughs) (Laughs) So— That’s before I knew him. What was causing the change after 1955? The town was just growing. Just growing. Uh-huh. Were you getting a different element, were people coming from different parts of the country? Or, were you getting a different clientele? For instance in—I had started back, it was when Bugsy Siegel came in and it started from there. It had an old town western type gambling before, and then, I don’t know if you want to call it gangster or the under-mob or whatever began to come in, but they were still honor system type people. What went on behind the scenes, I had no idea, I never asked, I didn’t want to know. But there still was a kind of a “take care of each other” feeling. Mm-hmm. And this is kind of, well it just isn’t so anymore. Do you think perhaps, that that changed—? Well it happens at any town, the (unintelligible) When a lot of money started coming in, a lot more money, is that possible? Yes. In big places, anyway. Most people, thinking of Las Vegas, the image that would cross my mind, in 1950, even crossing by that, it’s not most things (unintelligible) UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 14 What sort of entertainment was offered here? In ’50 or ’55? In the mid-fifties. Let’s see, the Sahara Drive-In, had the lounge entertainment and show room both at the El Rancho of course. I don’t remember—the lounge policy was coming into effect then. The big name, Lounge Policy. There were times those years that whenever I saw people (unintelligible) Ella Fitzgerald, you could tell what kind of music. People (unintelligible) and lounge— So this was around the mid-fifties? Late fifties probably, or sixty. Maybe after sixty, I guess it was probably after 1960, the lounge thing really got going. I understand that Ella Fitzgerald was one of the few black entertainers to play Las Vegas clubs at that time. Do you remember other? No, they played here, but they weren’t allowed to stay in the hotels. Where did they stay? On the north side, or else in the servant’s quarter. And what did they eat? Servant, well for instance, black people were only allowed in the porters mainly, they weren’t in the casino. Or a dish washer, something like that. They were allowed to eat with them or on the Westside, they wouldn’t be serving them at any kind of coffee shop. Mm-hmm. Were they paid? They paid well, they just weren’t allowed to mingle. Mm-hmm. What other black entertainers do you recall, if any (unintelligible)—? Sammy Davis been coming here for a long time. UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 15 Uh-huh. In fact, he might as come back as far as the El Rancho. I don’t remember. I was so busy trying to earn a living and take care of the little monsters at home that I wasn’t—I wasn’t ever (unintelligible) What, how did the people, who came here as tourists to spend their money and to gamble, to enjoy the town, how did they change, from 1955, say until the present? What’s the same and what’s different in that respect? Nineteen fifty-five we were beginning to get some volume then, we were beginning to get some volume from the gambling end of it. With the giveaway souvenirs and they were still giving food away in the old Nevada Club, they used to go around with the (unintelligible) and coffee, and of course the free drinks too. But it was just comp, comp, comp, heavy. And it isn’t no more. When did that start to change? With the volumes of people, I can’t name the year, but it’s just been a gradual thing. Mm-hmm. I mean, certain free things and freebies just began falling off—? It used to be just then that they’d comp someone a show on the Strip or for instance, they’d all go (unintelligible) Sands of Sea I think, and that was opening about 1955, something like that. And they used to bring us back there, and this is the thing back and forth between the different places. They sent word down, they’d crack the show, everybody, all the employees and even the backup would come to the show, because they did nothing but take customers out to the Strip to a show. And so, they did this among the employees too, and we would come and (unintelligible) at a casino I guess. Mm-hmm. How were women treated—women who worked in casinos at this time. How were they treated, what sort of things were expected of them on and off the job? UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 16 That’s a good way to put it. In the cage we were treated well, you were handling large amounts of money, the first thing they want to know is, “Can you count?” And so we didn’t have a personal pressure, there wasn’t a lot of areas, I think when everyone’s off, it has to do with, walk around and look pretty and hand out free drinks and make as much money as we were making. (Unintelligible) and I think that was true then. I didn’t feel especially bad about it, because it was the job, and if she didn’t like it, well, then use her head to make a living. There was only recently in the last few years, they started cracking down on prostitution, really. As long as they were working with the house, if a prostitute were to come in, and there’s a high-roller, and he’s winging a girl, okay, she had, they’d rather bring in a girl and see if he wants to leave, and see that he comes back with that pocket full of money to the same place. Whether that’s actually still true, I don’t know. But it wasn’t so hidden, it was just a matter of choice. You can listen to unhappy things as they can remember, (unintelligible) and that sort of thing. (Unintelligible) was embarrassed to have me see when they called up somebody. See them walking off, fixed with people I used to work her, and she was just, just got—dice, that’s a thing I should tell you about. It’s what happens when a regular lives with a good many people because it’s a holiday— (Tape one ends) Alright, so we were talking about values. Yes, so it used to bother me a lot at first, I think (unintelligible) my family, and more to the (unintelligible) and take better care of his friend, and as to the atmosphere, and surrounded, his values changed. As his wife, I could understand how tense everything was, and then he had to sit in (unintelligible) after work. It just, all, the whole thing, that’s what you’re waiting for. Waiting for the family, and everything’s changing, and maybe she just doesn’t understand it. Same thing with they figure it isn’t fair, they’re probably better some place off with relatives, because we do UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 17 this to make more money, and we’re only doing this for the kids, if they wanted, but the kids just ran down (unintelligible). This started out before the kids, it was very tragic. Mm. It was frequent, but not quite—the constant push, it was a constant reminder to me to watch out. What about the casinos now and the values, compared to now? I guess they were just about coming in or getting stronger, of course, I haven’t belonged to one, but I heard something that was connected to the union, talking a few years later about what they’ve done. The working conditions of the front rows in particular. And the change, I don’t know became, the culinary became quite a (unintelligible) and then you get stuck in how much weight they had to carry, not having breaks, scattered, and pretty much, women or for men. They worked hard getting things right. These changed— Yes, there were a lot of thing put in, a lot of benefits. There was no such thing as time and a half, no such thing as a five day week. There were no insurance benefits, and these things were a block in my area, I don’t know about a union in the cage. I hope it rubbed off there because then the whole house, in order to compete, or keep people from going, then they start giving out the benefits, give you a break. There are somethings we lost though. Like what? Well, like the, if your paychecks say the last holiday you did very well, here’s an extra twenty, thank you for working hard. Things like that don’t happen anymore. Since the (unintelligible)? Yes. So overall, would you say it was a net gain with the unions? UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 18 It had to be. It was too big a town for it to—it had to be union. So the unions haven’t advanced— Well in my opinion, they don’t—(unintelligible) they work at this place. And (unintelligible) would get mad about it and nitpick, for management that wouldn’t be necessary if they didn’t push—like (unintelligible) a few years back— What’s that? AGBA, American (Unintelligible). I went back there, nice pacing, they got these nice raises for the entertainers in the loop. It was pushed to them. You recall any strikes in the mid or late fifties as the unions were being formed? Nothing seems to (unintelligible) Now you say you began by working down on Fremont? Yes, they wouldn’t even take an application from the woman on the Strip for some odd reason. It was after 1960, or right then after. What was the Strip? Just briefly. It was just growing and growing. The hotel accommodations were cottage style, or ranch style. Bungalows? Yes, instead of—there was no such thing as a high-rise. Mm-hmm. And (unintelligible) in the mid-fifties. Yes. When I lived here before, it was just, I would sit out on my hammock in the 1950s. But it was a part of the Strip already. I even worked at Caesar’s palace. I guess I was the first woman hired at the Hacienda to –then there was a gal that ended up switched in after (Unintelligible) died. They UNLV University Libraries Midge Innis 19 had no work for him, but they just hired him flat cold as the casino, and they worked hard, they didn’t like working the cages. Almost superstitious, but it worked out good. You were hired anyway? Yes, I know a cashier or two. I was a good cashier. But I worked at the Caesar’s Palace, maybe it’s because I’m more familiar with the old Las Vegas, I don’t like the big casinos too much, the big hotels, it’s very cold. Impersonal? Yes, you’re almost expected to be impersonal except with the owners. If somebody comes up with a paycheck, we don’t cash paychecks. If somebody asks you for telephone change, you send them to a change morgue, which can be done courteously and occasionally. But for the mos