Transcript of interview with Sam Earl by Laura Button, March 9, 1981

UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl i An Interview with Sam S. Earl An Oral History Conducted by Laura A. Button 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 Sam Earl ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 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 Sam Earl iv Abstract On March 9, 1981, Laura Button interviewed Sam Earl (born 1912 in Virgin, Utah) about his life in Nevada. Also present during the interview is Sam’s wife, Melissa Earl. The three discuss a wide range of topics from the early development of Las Vegas, Sam’s work on the Boulder Dam, the Earls’ early residence in a tent, and the family’s religious participation. The interview also covers gambling, Block 16, the first members of the police force, recreational activities, and the Helldorado parade. Sam also talks about his work as a building contractor, including some of the buildings and casino properties he helped build, and the interview moves to a discussion of the development of the Las Vegas Strip. The interview concludes with Sam’s description of his work as a truck driver and a discussion on welfare benefits. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 1 The informant is Mr. Sam Earl. The date is March 9th, 1981. The time, four p.m. The place, 1124 Norman Avenue, Las Vegas. The collector’s name, Laura Button, Swenson Street, Las Vegas, Nevada. The topic is Local History: Oral Interview. Mr. Earl, I guess I’ll start by asking you, are you a native of Nevada? Yes. Well, I was born in Utah. Utah? Yes. I came here first when I was fifteen years old in 1928. What prompted your move to this—? Well, I had quite a few realities, here, and I come down here then just to see the country and stayed a couple months with (unintelligible) and went back home. And you said, what year was that? That was 1928. 1928. And then I come down again to come down to work during the Boulder Dam days, about 1935. How did you arrive here? What sort of transportation? We had our own car. Travelled car here? Yes. Did you come alone, or? No, my wife and I. That’s your wife, Melissa? Yes. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 2 Ms. Melissa Earl. Why don’t you just start by telling me, what did it look like, what was the area? Well, we had an aunt by the name of Rose Warren, that they named the school after here, you know, over in Westside—that was Old Town then, instead of west town—that’s where most of the people lived over there. Except for the railroad houses in Las Vegas, there wasn’t too many people living in Las Vegas. And there used to be a trail across from Old Town over to, which is Main Street, you know. Fremont Street, then, was five blocks long. Then from Main Street down to Las Vegas Boulevard, which now used to be Fifth Street. And I come down to work on the Boulder Dam, I had two brothers that was working on the dam, and we got down there (unintelligible). They told me the only way you could get a job was being down in the hiring office way early in the morning and getting in this little place where they hired, guy by the name of McCannon, if I remember right, was doing the hiring. And so I got down there about one o’clock in the morning, and there was still guys standing in the door, but there wasn’t too many (unintelligible) got in. By the time they opened the office, there was about 4,000 men in the street, you know, looking for jobs. They hired two men that day, and I was one of ‘em. So, how long did you work on the dam? Well, I didn’t work too long on the dam. It was getting near finished, and my partner fell after a month or so, you know, and got killed, and so I quit. Oh. What did you do after that, as far as professions? Well, we went back home, and I didn’t do any more work here till 1940, I guess, I come down during when they started this defense program. So you went back to Utah? Yes. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 3 Then came back here. And we’ve been here mostly ever since. So, why don’t you tell me what the summers were like then? How did you manage to keep cool? They were hot, real hot. And no air conditioning, and no evaporative cooling. What did you do to keep cool? Well, they had some houses where they put a double roof on the houses, and they had burlap they would wet with water and blow through them with the fans. It was just people knew how to live without air conditioning, and that’s the way they lived. So the homes were rather small then? Yes. Well, there’s a pretty-good sized homes. Pop Simon had a home right on Fremont Street (unintelligible) I don’t know if it’s been torn down or now. I think Melissa mentioned something about tents, living in tents? Well, I did in 1941. Everything was filled up (unintelligible) when they started this land out there, the Magnesium Plant, you know, in Henderson. And there was no place to rent. So, with some of my friends, we camped out with—brought them out of town and built a fire and took our (unintelligible) before she moved down. And then (unintelligible) we just spread out and made a (unintelligible). And I finally bought a lot out on Bonanza Road, then we pitched tents out there and lived in tents. Then did you built a home there? I did, yes. I got all the guys together one weekend and built a little two-room house and then I moved her down, we moved into it. And how long did you live there? UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 4 We lived there from then until 1944, I guess, when we moved back to Utah for about a year. Then I come back down again and been here ever since. So, why don’t you tell me a little bit about your family, children and so forth? My family? Well, we, when we come down here, we had one child, our oldest boy, which is forty-four now. And then the rest of them was born here. Of course, (unintelligible) with our daughter, Julie, that’s (unintelligible) mother-in-law, I guess. She was born in St. George. And then we lived in Henderson when we come down to (unintelligible) last time. We lived in Henderson five years, and our two boys was born in Henderson—well, one of them was born in Utah, but he was living in Henderson at the time. And they all went to school here? Yes. Do you belong to a particular church in town? The Mormon Church. And any activities? How involved you are in the church? Well, she’s involved. I’m kind of what they call a jack Mormon. I’m not too active, but I was born in the church. My father was a bishop for about eighteen years when (unintelligible). In fact, I didn’t know from the time I remember up until most (unintelligible) anything but a bishop (unintelligible). Would you mind telling me a little bit about how Melissa is involved in the church, what she does? Well, she is involved. Two of my boys have been on LDS missions, two youngest boys, and she’s really involved. She’s working in the church all the time. And two of the boys are—my UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 5 oldest boy and my daughter and me are kind of one caliber, and her and the other two boys are a little bit, we’re kinda non-goers, and the rest of them are very much religious. Okay. Are there any special awards or honors any family members received—of your children or yourself? Yes. (Unintelligible) got the—what (unintelligible) it was the (unintelligible) award that he got one year in school. We still got his picture, and we got the (unintelligible) on it. There was two of them (unintelligible) junior high—a girl and boy won the outstanding honors that year, and he was one of them, I think. This attorney—what was his name, I can’t remember it now—his daughter was the other one. How about property? You said you bought some property up near—? Oh, well, I had the chance to, at one time in 1943 or ’44, I could’ve bought three city blocks for $1,500--$10 down, $10 a week. My Uncle Warren, he was buying property, and for taxes, he’d go down to the courthouse step every day and buy his property for taxes, then he would double the price and sell it out again—said he was going to spend $60 million out here on his plant, and the town was gonna boom, and I had never heard of magnesium, you know, and didn’t think—I thought he was kinda spoofing me a little bit, and so I didn’t buy it. But sure enough, they spent $160 million, and I had a chance to—these three blocks, one of them is over here where they built these Mayfair houses, and one was right on the Strip, one block, city block was on the Strip, and one on this side—I could’ve bought the whole thing for $1,500. And we was only paying $10 a month for rent, and we was loving good on $10 a week, so I had $30 a week that I could’ve spent on something, but I didn’t. Three children were born here? Well, not actually. There was only one born in Henderson. That’s right, we went to Hurricane. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 6 I was wondering about the hospitals in those days. The youngest was born at the Rose de Lima Hospital in Henderson, and two of them was born in St. George Hospital in St. George. What were the facilities like back then? Well, this was a maternity home in Hurricane where my middle boy was born in 1944. That’s when we just happened to be up there (unintelligible). Why don’t you go ahead and tell me a little bit about the gambling here, what the casinos were like. Well, it was wide open then, about like it is now, but it mostly more Western, you know, everything was Western. You didn’t see hardly the class of people you got now. Everybody knew each other. I go down Fremont Street, and I knew practically everybody I’d run across. I can go out and spent a full day out on the Strip or uptown, and I never see anybody I know—very seldom I ever see anybody I know. So, there weren’t too many people? I don’t know what the population was. You can find that out, but I never did—don’t remember of hearing the population the, but I would guess, when I come down here in ’28 the first time, I don’t think it was over 3,000, 3,500 easily. Getting back to the gambling, can you tell me anything about the slots or what was different? No, it was pretty much the same now, except they have penny slot machines—penny slot machines, and you could bet on the twenty-one tables and crap tables as low as a dime. I know, we went out this MGM when it opened up, we had some folks here from California—showing them around, went in there, we hadn’t seen the place before, and I thought, well, I’ll show them UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 7 how to play twenty-one. So, I went up and put a dollar on the twenty-one table, and he said, “No, it’s two-dollar minimum,” I said, “Okay, well, I saved a dollar. (Laughs) (Laughs) I haven’t been out on the Strip. In fact, we hardly ever go out there to gamble. Can you recall the names of the original casinos here in town? Well, yes, there was one they called the Eight Ball—of course, there was the Old Frontier Club and the Boulder Club and—well that was the main ones. They were relatively small then? Yes, compared to now. And they right just down on Fremont Street? On Fremont Street, and on First Street. First State Bank was on the corner of First and Fremont, and then the Eight Ball was right next to it. And that’s about all the clubs there was. Well, there was Block 16; that’s where the girls hung out on First Street around just past the bank and the Eight Ball, and that’s where the red light district started. It was about a block, then, they called it Block 16. Now that I come down here in 1928, the only peace officer was a cousin of mine, which his name was Joe May. And he took me on to all these (unintelligible) into bars and stuff. Of course, this was before the repeal of Prohibition, but they were still selling booze over the bars and (unintelligible) drinks. And so I asked him, I said, “Well, isn’t this illegal?” He says, “Yes,” but he says, “usually, when the feds come in, why, they’re tipped off, and it’s all hidden. They come in, look around, and leave again.” (Laughs) That was the only—you might say almost the only peace officer in town then that told me that. He showed me around two or three different times. But it was a good town then. I mean, this place was really a fascinating town then, right up until it started growing and growing too big. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 8 He was killed (unintelligible). Oh, yeah, that’s right. And then I had another—his brother, Ernie May, later years—he was chief of police. When I was down here, he was an engineer on the railroad, and then a few years later, he joined the police force, and he was chief of police, and they went out to North Las Vegas, some old house, they had this criminal they was chasing down, and he wouldn’t come out, and so Ernie was going in to get him, and he shot Ernie down. Do you remember any names from that incident? Well, before he died, he killed the other guy. Oh. He shot him down, but he still killed the other guy before he died. He was Joe May’s brother, they was cousins of mine. They was Aunt Rose Warren’s boys. And I had two aunts, was here when the town was formed in 1905, Aunt Rose and Aunt Louise lived here then in 1905 when the town was made officially a town. You could just about—them days, why, you didn’t have to lock doors or anything; everything was (unintelligible) wild nature, but everything was on the up and up. You didn’t have to worry about criminals or anything. Although when you come over where we lived over to Las Vegas, it was a (unintelligible) and (unintelligible) used to be a big water ditch running down through the Vegas Wash, it’d come out of the flowing wells out here—the water flowed right out of these hills. And there was a hobo jungle there, you’d go right by, you’d see them back in those cottonwoods and mesquites, and they had their places set up where they lived right in there, stop by off the train, you know, and stay there. But still nobody around robbing or anything—hardly ever heard of a robbery or killing. Any killing done was right in the club, guy cheating at poker might get shot across the table. Just like that, huh? UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 9 Oh yes, that happened quite a few times. But usually, they both had guns, they didn’t do anything with them. Was that very frequent, like, once a week, or what would you say? Mm-hmm. Bar room brawls, I guess? There was only one Mormon church here, and that’s over here on Ninth, it’s still there. That’s the only church that was here. Now there are fifty-two wards (unintelligible) state. When we come here, I think it was just the one church house and one ward. [Recording cuts out, starts midsentence] The same (unintelligible) for a long time before—? Yes, I was pretty much the same. The war boom kind of changed a little bit, then when they built the dam, there was a lot people here then, Boulder Dam. But between the time they finished building the dam and the time the war boom started when they started building defense plants, why, a lot of the ground sold for taxes. People moved out, and a lot of the grounds sold for taxes. It was real, real cheap. Then it’s just grown by leaps and bounds in the last fifteen years, or a little longer than that. Since I quit business, it’s grown—I don’t even know how much it’s grown. I don’t even get around to see the growth anymore. But this has been a beautiful town. It’s been really good to us. We’ve made a good living. Not that we haven’t made a lot of money like some of them, which we probably could’ve done, but you know, what we made, it was honest, and we’ve been comfortable while we’ve been here—been real good for us and our kids—our kids are educated. Are there any key points you wanted to add? Oh, I guess there are quite a lot of them, but I can’t think of them now. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 10 Melissa, do you have anything to add? Yes, you can add. I can talk now? Yeah, sure. (Unintelligible) you had a lot of good fishing trips down to the (unintelligible)— Oh, yes. Where did you go fishing at? The Colorado River, you know, before they built that Bullhead Dam after Boulder Dam. Down there was the best trout fishing in the world. I used to go down there every weekend, catch (unintelligible) trout, and nothing under fifteen inches long—beautiful fishes. Then they built that Bullhead Dam and backed the water up, and I used to (unintelligible) be a guy come up from San Diego there every weekend, and I’d see him down there, and he says, “Well, they’re building that dam down there, it will ruin the fishing and the trout fishing,” and sure enough, he was right; it did. There was no fishing spots and the lake was, you could be good, but till they got so many fishermen. We’d go out there after work, and I’d catch a (unintelligible) bass—beautiful fishes. Are there any other recreational activities you want to tell me about? Oh, well, we used to have organized baseball, (unintelligible) baseball. Why don’t you tell me about that? Well, it was good. I liked it, and I know my oldest boy, I got used to taking him to ballgames, and I really missed it when they (unintelligible) people and just come out. They had one good year, and they would get (unintelligible) 4,000 people out to it. And then they started having a bad year, why, they’d only, some nights only 2- or 300 and they just couldn’t, didn’t pay off. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 11 Where was this at? I (unintelligible) with some of the other people—Harry (unintelligible) and, oh, this guy that the printing outfit, and (unintelligible) would put out money out of their pocket to pay their way on their own and get back again for a while trying to keep ‘em here. They finally couldn’t make it, and they lost that. Where was this at? Down at Cashman Field. Cashman Field? Yes. (Unintelligible) when they had the first Helldorado, and them days was really something, and that’s all the hotels had to be (unintelligible), hotels on the Strip, and they had what they call Helldorado Village, and I mean, they, really, really something. The hotels went through a lot of expensive building big floats (unintelligible) celebration you ever seen in your life when they first started Helldorado. And that was sponsored by the Elks. Started on Thursday—Friday, Saturday, Sunday, four days. Yes, usually four days. And then they’d have a parade three days— Have the children’s parade, and old time parade, and the Western parade. And—no, the beauty parade. Yes, the beauty parade and the children’s parade and the old time parade, and then the Western— No. They didn’t have Western? UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 12 Just the three parades. The children’s parade and the old timers’ parade and the beauty parade. And the beauty parade, that was the one, that’s when they had the big floats. The rest of it was wagons and all kind of stuff and horses and really old time Western stuff. They brought their Budweiser horses, you know, beautiful, beautiful horses almost every time. But when you went to those parades way back, and what they have now, we haven’t even been to one for years and years. You just, too much of a letdown after knowing what they used to do. The hotels, they don’t spend any money on floats anymore. That’s the worst part about—most of the town has changed so much, and the people are so damn tied and money hungry—that’s all they think about now is money for themselves. They don’t care too much about, they don’t have community spirit like they used to. They used to work hard to make programs go real and be good for the public and everybody, but it’s not that way anymore. In what other ways did you influence our community was far as, maybe, companies? Why don’t you tell ‘em about being a building contractor? You’ve built a lot of— They’re not interested in me. Maybe that would be part of the growth of Nevada—you built schools and you built banks and you built things of that sort. I’ve been a building contractor. I ran around work in this town for other contractors for about fifteen years trying to go into business for myself, and then I got my own license, which I still have an unlimited state contractor’s license. But I closed my business down in 1964, so I still build a little now and then. I just finished a house with my boy, little boy. There couldn’t have been too many builders when you started, huh? Yes, it was nothing like now, but—well, I built a few. I put a big addition on the Las Vegas High School, and I built that five-story telephone building down on Las Vegas Boulevard and Carson, UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 13 and the bank down in North Las Vegas, First National Bank on Twenty-Fifth Street, which is Eastern now, they changed that to Eastern. And the Evergreen Terminal, telephone building, several (unintelligible) stations, and quite a few apartment houses. I built (unintelligible) apartment house on Desert Inn Road and the thirty-two unit one down here. Well (unintelligible) the big contract like some of them, but (unintelligible). And it was good. The competition got rough—I might have stayed with it a little bit longer, but competition got rough, and I wanted to quit. We have a summer home up in Cedar Mountain, and I liked to spend the summers up there. So, I decided to quit and let somebody else take over. [Audio cuts out] And they’ve worked here before when they were younger? They what? Where did they work when they were younger? They worked for me on the construction when they was younger. That’s why they went to school. (Laughs) They didn’t like that pick and shovel too well. So, I think that’s why they wanted the education, ‘cause they didn’t care for the heavy construction work. I don’t blame ‘em. (Unintelligible) and just make them work just like all the rest of the guys and give them any favors—I paid them the same amount of money as the other guys. Even when they was really (unintelligible) and (unintelligible). And your daughter, Judy? What did she do, start working out of high school? Yes. She’s worked (unintelligible) at the hotels. She worked in the telephone office when she was younger. She worked in the laundry, and the worked at Ronzoni’s—that’s right after she got married. Which telephone company? UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 14 Well, it’s the one you built. What is that? Southern Nevada Central now—Southern Nevada Telephone Company. Where were the phone systems like then? Well, the used to be, before they got this dial, you had to call an operator and tell them the number you want, and then they had to ring it for you. And it got so many people sometimes, you’d have to wait a half an hour to get an operator, they’d be so busy, and the phones would be busy, and you just waited. You’d just ring the operator, wait for the operator to answer you, and then you’d ask for your number and they’d give it to you. Was there a special emergency way? Same thing—no. You still waited? No, wait. You still had to go through that operator. They didn’t have as many emergencies then. When you think of the murders then, it wasn’t that often, not too often. And that was really shocking—when happening now, it happens two or three a day—one or two every day or so. So that has changed. There wasn’t any murders. There as hardly any murders. Hardly ever had a fire or anything. Just a long, long time—just a very peaceful, quiet town for a long time. Was there just one judge or mayor? Well, there was one judge, and then up until, let’s see, about 1950, there was only one building inspector, one guy to look at all the building department. He checked the plans, and they come out and they inspect, old Mr. Marley (unintelligible) electrical inspector, and they run UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 15 everything. Now the place up there is crawling with people—you can’t hardly get through them, three or four people in every office. But when I started the building, there was only just one guy that done the inspecting and approving their permit for them building and everything. And that was as late as about 1940 when I built that apartment out (unintelligible) and was about 1949, and he was only building (unintelligible). What was, when you went shopping, I don’t think they brought in too many fresh fruits and things, did they? Yes, they always had fresh fruit—they always run trucks in California. Not like it is now, they don’t have the variety they have now. But the stores was right uptown. That was the only store. Market—Sears was up there, and there was two stores, and Market Town was the one. A loaf of bread would be ten cents or five, you know, sometimes it was just five. The small loaves was five cents, and the big loaves was ten cents. And I guess the theater was about twenty-five cents, not more than that to get in a movie. That was just one theater? Well, there was only one on Fremont Street, and they put another on Fremont Street, and this one over here was the third theater, right over here on Maryland Parkway and Charleston. Do you remember the name of the first theaters? Well, let’s see. The theater that Ernie Cragin had, what the devil’s the name of it—I should’ve start thinking about some of these things—El Portal. It was the El Portal—I thought it kept the same name. El Portal, I guess it’s the same one. That was the original one. So, was there a local radio station or television? UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 16 No. We didn’t have television then. They didn’t have television. And I don’t think it was any local radio stations. We used to get radio reception from California—KMX was the main station you listened to. And it’d come in real nice and clear here, (unintelligible) even get it up to Utah in the mornings, evenings. Is there any history of illness in your family, or? We’re real healthy. (Laughs) I can’t say that we’re ever sick. We’re seventy years old and as healthy as they can be, anybody could be. How about any special skills or interests that you have? Skills? Well, I’m a carpenter by trade, and I classified myself as a real good one. I taught school. I substituted six years here out in Henderson and Southern Utah. That’s how I come to meet her. I lived in the little town of Virgin up between Hurricane and Zion National Park, and (unintelligible) their first year out of college. Skill—he’s very musical. He don’t do a lot with it, but he has the ability. He’s very—he can play any instrument just by ear and the piano. I sang in the (unintelligible) in 1935 when the World Fair moved from New York to San Diego. Did you use your talents here in Las Vegas? No. Besides the church, were there other organizations that you were—? PTA, I’ve always done things with PTA, (unintelligible) in Henderson, I’ve been here in the PTA. I belong to, right now, only two golf clubs. (Laughs) Nevada State Seniors and the Craig Ranch Men’s Club. UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 17 He belongs to Breakfast Exchange. Breakfast Exchange, which I, on account of being gone in Utah all summer, I had to quit it. I wasn’t around, you know, and I spent my summers most of the time up in Utah. (Unintelligible) spent most of my time up there, (unintelligible) going up in the morning. Do you remember anything about the first golfing? Well, the first golf course was the Municipal Course—there’s nine holes. I remember when they put the first nine holes out there. And the next source was the Desert Inn. And then our municipal course, they, I think it was just prior to the Desert Inn golf course. Do you remember when the Strip as we know it today made the hotels look (unintelligible)? Well, I knew the Strip when there was only two places out there: the Red Rooster and the Cottonwood Camp. I drove trucks through there during the Depression. Like after the Boulder Dam was finished, I drove trucks from up there to Los Angeles back and forth, and I had gone through here all the time for four years. And then as soon as I quit driving trucks, I come back down here and went to work. So, you might say I’ve been here all the time. How did the Strip become as we see it today? Well, in 1939, they started building. They built the El Rancho Vegas in 1939 as the first (unintelligible). And then I think the next one was the Last Frontier, then the Flamingo, is the way I remember, and then there was Club Bingo, then they enlarged that. I worked on that when they enlarged it—I worked on the Flamingo Hotel, and I worked on the Red Rooster when they made a bigger place out of that. I think that’s where this, oh, what’s the on out on Hacienda—that’s where the Hacienda is now, it was the Red Rooster, what they called Gracie Hayes’ house, Red Rooster. It was more or less a bar and a small gambling—bar and slot machines, little dance floor. Then the Cottonwood Camp, when it was just a bar and a service station—I used to gas up UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 18 there when I was driving trucks to Los Angeles. Then they had, oh, about half a dozen cabins to sleep in. That was the (unintelligible). They used to have a lot more motels than they did hotels. Yes, just little cabins, and they’re all gone now, but just little teeny cabins. That’s what my Aunt Rose had on Westside, and quite a few of the gamblers worked Downtown, they’d go over to her place, the dealers and like that. And it rented for about ten or fifteen dollars a month. Ten dollars a month. Wow. Then she done some other washing, she made a little extra money that way. And she also had a maternity room. Yes, she had a maternity room over there. And she also had a place for divorces, coming from California, stayed while they were getting the divorces. That’s right. Do you remember when the airport was built, McCarran? Well, yes, I worked on it. Oh, this one out here? Well, this used to be McCarran out here where Nellis is; that was McCarran Airport there. I worked on that when they built that. Do you remember what year that was? That was 1940, ’41, and then when they built this out here, they changed this to McCarran out here and called that Nellis. But that was McCarran when they built it. Do you remember much about the services in town, fire department? UNLV University Libraries Sam Earl 19 Yes, they had one fire department. They still have it up there; it’s up where the old library was on First Street or Second Street right next to the freeway there, where the off ramp is if you’re coming down south. That was the old original firehouse. I think the second they built over here on Industrial Road. I think that was the section, build over there (unintelligible). That are (unintelligible) now. Oh, there’s a lot of them now. I built three or four of them (unintelligible) and I didn’t built any (unintelligible) construction then. I built quite a few building when I was a supervisor working for other people. I supervised work for Tiberti for four years, and (unintelligible) construction when they built these Crestwood Homes down there. And the Old Frontier, the Birdcage Theater, and the health club, I supervised that work for (unintelligible) Construction. Getting back to the casinos and hotels, what were the shows like, the showgirls? They didn’t have shows then. No? No, not very much, except maybe a few striptease shows, they didn’t have shows like that, not way back then. No, I don’t think they started (unintelligible) the Strip out here, these big places out on the Strip. It was mostly just gambling, gambling and drinking places. What was the feel towards wom