Transcript of interview with Phillip L. Cook by Richrad Strahan, March 3, 1977

UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook i An Interview with Phillip L. Cook An Oral History Conducted by Richard Strahan 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 Phillip Cook ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 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 Phillip Cook iv Abstract On March 3, 1977, Richard Strahan interviewed Phillip L. Cook (born 1939 in Las Vegas, Nevada) about his life in Southern Nevada. Cook first talks about his parents’ move to Nevada and then describes how the school system has changed over time. He then describes the first businesses that opened up in the Downtown and Strip areas in Las Vegas before discussing prostitution, Block 16, and recreational activities available to youth. Cook also talks about the first television sets and telephone systems made available, and he moves on to talk about the prices of things such as movies and haircuts when he was younger. The interview then moves to discussions on the Old Ranch, racial discrimination, school integration, the crime rate, and the school system in Las Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 1 Informant is Phillip Cook. The date is March 3rd, 1977 at two p.m. Place is Rancho High School, North Las Vegas, Nevada. The collector is Richard Strahan of 1804 Jansen Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada. The project is Local History of Las Vegas. In what year did your parents arrive here, and what brought them here? They came here, Richard, in 1936 from Kansas City. There was a person by the name of Gus Morehouse, who, at that time, had a boat plant, delivered oil to the dam in Boulder City. The entire area approximately of Las Vegas extended from the railroad, which is First Street, through Sixth Street. Most of the town was developing towards the area known as West Las Vegas. My parents came here because they were good friends with Gus Morehouse, and my father came out first and obtained a job, worked then as a partner in the oil business. And so they had a chain of service stations that were (unintelligible) going to Boulder Dam on the Boulder Canyon project. What were your early school days like, and have the school systems changed much in the years since you went to school here? I attended Fifth Street Grammar School, which is no longer there. It was located where the federal building is now. My sister attended both elementary and junior high school there in the same complex of Fifth Street Grammar School. Part of the building is still there now; of course, it was recently dedicated, it’s the Clark County Courthouse annex, and that was originally a high school. You’re asking about my early days—of course, my early days, after going to Fifth Street Grammar School for kindergarten first grade, my family then moved to the first brand new tract in Las Vegas; there were only two other tracts in the entire city. There was Biltmore, which is located off of Main and Bonanza, and there was the Meadows, which is located off of Eastern as it is now. Of course, that was all dirt road. Of course the new tract was built as clear out in the UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 2 desert area, which seemed, at that time, quite far from town, and that was the Huntridge Edition built by Mr. (Unintelligible). I went to John S. Park Elementary School. Can you give me an idea of what Las Vegas was like in the late forties? Sure. In my first recollections of (unintelligible) Las Vegas are living at 202 South Fifth, which was, at that time, on Carson and Las Vegas Boulevard South—one street to the south of Fremont. At that time, there were still homes located on Fremont Street. The last street in town was Las Vegas Boulevard South, and from that point forward, it was dirt. The Sears & Roebuck store was just beginning to build in a dirt lot area two blocks to the east of where we were living, and that was going to be a brand new big building. There were 25,000 people in Las Vegas by 1945 when I started to go to elementary school. The town of Las Vegas, of course, was very small, very tightknit, (unintelligible) based upon Boulder Dam and the railroad. Of course, Nellis Air Force Base had been built, and my family was friends of Gary Nellis, for which Nellis Air Force Base was named. So, we had three major fields. As far as the hotels were concerned, at that time, you had the gambling casinos beginning to develop on Fremont Street. There were little or no hotels on the Strip, what we now know as the Strip, which is of course Las Vegas Boulevard South. The Las Vegas High School had been built on Seventh Street and of course had been going for some time. Both myself and my sister attended Las Vegas High School. My father recalls, and I can recall him telling stories of when they first came in the late thirties; of course, we still had a red light district located on Second Street by the old Arizona Hotel. He used to tell stories of having to deliver oil to that (unintelligible). Of course, they tried to pay him in taking out their (unintelligible); of course, he refused, but we really had madams in the old type outfits of (unintelligible) girls literally hanging out the windows on Second Street with the old red light district. Many of those buildings UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 3 remained all the way through the fifties, and it wasn’t until the late fifties that most of that was destroyed. When did the hotel system really start moving in Las Vegas? The hotels really didn’t begin to build—the hotels on the Strip anyway—did not begin to build until the late forties and the early fifties. The first hotel was, of course, the El Rancho Vegas, and that was owned by Beldon Katleman. The El Rancho Vegas was a beautiful ranch-style hotel based upon the Old West concept, and of course, that’s what Las Vegas started out; that was the idea of maintaining the Old Western come-as-you-are-type atmosphere. The first hotels, for example, used to charge to see (unintelligible) the price of a (unintelligible); you could see entertainment for that price (unintelligible) of the major (unintelligible) hotel would be based upon those that gambled and all the food and the entertainment would come out of the hotel. The second hotel that built, of course, was the Bingo Club, which later became the Sahara Hotel, which was across the street from the El Rancho Vegas. And then they began to build—well, I’m sorry, correction, it was the Last Frontier that was built next, and then the Bingo Club. The Last Frontier was built a little bit further down from the El Rancho Vegas and again maintained the Old West atmosphere. I can recall, at that time, it was just the three hotels, having birthday parties at the Last Frontier Hotel in which they were catered. We used to swim in the pool. The entire cost of a birthday party was $25 for completed catered sandwiches and birthday cake and use of the pool and all the facilities at that time. Was prostitution legal up during this time of the hotel and gambling? Prostitution, by and large, was frowned upon, but it was not illegal in Clark County, as we said. Early, it was, I mentioned already, the red light district on Second Street; that was done away with by the 1950s. The prostitution had moved to what was known as Four Mile, or Roxie’s, UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 4 which was four miles out of town on the Boulder Highway on the way to Boulder City. On the left hand side, there is still a trailer port (unintelligible) from where it was located called the Four Mile Trailer Park. Prostitution in this town was rather interesting because it was, in my first recollection of knowing that that place existed was when it was owned by the two people that, one had owned the property that we had looked on at 202 South Fifth. That was Louis (unintelligible), and he was connected with a man by the name of Glen Jones, and Glen Jones was the sheriff of Clark County. And the sheriff periodically would raid Roxie’s/Four Mile before it became public. He had owned the house of prostitution and of course say that he was cleaning up prostitution in this city, and he would notify them beforehand if he was coming, and then of course know, when he was there, when the sheriff would arrive at the house of prostitution. Finally, of course, he (unintelligible). His successor in the sheriff’s office came in and raided the institution for the first time without making a phone call and discovered (unintelligible) sitting at the bar, which caused quite a stir and a scandal for a long period of time. Prostitution, then, was pretty well closed down from that point forward as a legal institution in the County of Clark, and of course, I’m sure still exists on the Strip. But as far as legality, it was closed in Clark And Washoe Counties. What kind of recreation facilities did they have for the teenagers in Las Vegas when you were growing up? Well, there were three major swimming pools that I can remember in the city. One was located right on the site of the Old Ranch, which now is where the Elks Club is located. The swimming pool there was open most of the town, and most of the citizens in the town went to that swimming pool. There was another one located Downtown, which was rather semi-enclosed. That was located on Fifth and Fremont and later became a music building and also UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 5 (unintelligible) gift shop. There was one pool, which was located quite far out, and that was Lorenzi’s, which late became Twin Lakes, as I remember, which had a beautiful area, a swimming pool and ponds and ducks and boats and horseback riding and fishing. And of course, there was always the lake and there was always the mountains, which the kids could go to, which we still do. Also, the hotels were much more interested in entertaining young people. Parties at the Flamingo used to be thrown by Abe Schiller, with mainline entertainment in the afternoon all free of charge to all the kids in the city. And Easter egg hunts on the Last Frontier lawn; they (unintelligible) all the eggs, and all the prizes were provided by the hotels. At Christmastime, the hotels used to decorate and have Christmas parties in almost every hotel for the kids of the city. And they were constantly provided things for students and for the high schools and the elementary schools. (Unintelligible) Benny Binion, which now owns the home that Gus Morehouse built in Bonanza—provided a great many things for our local school system, free of charge. Of course, he’s the one who built the Horseshoe Club on Fremont Street. When do you recollect the earliest time that TV came to Las Vegas? Well, before then, Richard, I can remember rushing home to the radio. One of the most exciting things, of course, was, during the period that I grew up, was the radio. We had an old (unintelligible) round radio, and remember listening very vividly to the (unintelligible), and this guy came into the inner sanctum, the squeaking door, and of course, Mr. President by Edward Arnold on the radio. And my imagination was extremely vivid, much more vivid than TV. I think this is an important thing that we’ve lost in our society relationship—the kid was listening to the radio and letting their imagination run wild with all the stories: the Lone Ranger and all the different Western stories and listening to these things on the radio. It was during the fifties that UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 6 we finally see TV here. Prior to that, of course, I had seen TV in the San Francisco area on an eight-inch television set. We actually purchased our first TV in the early 1950s right after TV arrived in Las Vegas for the opening of the first TV station. We purchased a Pacific Mercury TV, which was later bought out by Sears Roebuck & Company and became their major, actually, supplier for television. I had a five-year guarantee (unintelligible) purchase (unintelligible) at Whimpy’s Drive-In; of course, if you remember the fifties, the drive-in Downtown had just closed, and they turned that into a TV sales place, and so we purchased our TV there. Of course, TV was something that we all were really excited about, and of course, it was miserable-looking, and it was a black and white set. Most of the images were very, very dim. And I can never remember any story, though, that was as vivid as the stories that I used to listen to on the radio. Telephones were another thing; the first telephones we had in Las Vegas, we had to wait for months to obtain, because they had plenty of party lines. And we had to have a private line, because my father was (unintelligible) and left the oil business and was now involved in the railroad anyplace where the (unintelligible) were stuck on the railroad—became a conductor, and of course, that was his job. He was gone for weeks at a time with two trains running for the war. And as a result, the telephone, as my mother recalls the story very vividly, (unintelligible) the telephone company for, oh, it must have been over a year, every day, calling three times a day to obtain a single telephone that was a private line. We finally did obtain that, and even then, it wasn’t very good. Of course, it was the old operator telephone, which you talked to the operator to go ahead and get a number. And I can remember the frustration, of course, of the time when they no longer had operators getting numbers for you, and you had to actually go (unintelligible). (Laughs). UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 7 Can you tell me something, like, on prices compared today to yesteryear when you were growing up and let’s say, for instance, Cokes and movies and—? Oh, yes, I can remember going to the big theater Downtown, the El Portal Theatre, and paying fourteen cents for a theater ticket, and had to pay the terrible price of fifty cents to see Gone with the Wind in the first large screen Western chain—it cost seventy-five cents, and that was a horrible price. Haircuts on this town—the individual that gave my first haircut is still alive and owns a good share of the property, including the property that is owned by Marie Callender’s both on Sahara and out on Tropicana. He was a barber who invested in land and has made good. But the price of a haircut was fifty cents, and it was terrible when it went to a dollar. Of course, with the prices of movies, they first were fourteen cents, then I can remember twenty-five cents, and then fifty, and then seventy-five, and when they reached about that, that was just deplorable. What about food prices and prices of electricity, gas, and stuff like that? What was it like back in the fifties? Well, very truthfully, I can’t answer you that because I (unintelligible) my parents talking about, actually, fuel prices, and we started out with (unintelligible) coal-burning stove, pot belly stove, that heated out home. We had a gas stove to cook on. The first prices that I can remember were those that were involved with oil, because we moved to Huntridge; all of the Huntridge had oil-burning furnaces, and those prices usually were, we used to pay ten dollars twice a month for oil for the entire month. What was the (unintelligible) in state politics like here that you can remember as far back as you can? Well, as far as I can remember, of course, the first politics that I remember is Senator Pat McCarran, for which McCarran Airport was named. Senator Pat McCarran, we had what was UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 8 known as the McCarran machine, and McCarran had literally controlled politics of the governorship and most of the major mayors and the city officials in Las Vegas and Reno for years. You had to go to a machine to go ahead and get elected, and if you weren’t a member of the machine, you just didn’t get elected. Senator Pat McCarran, when he died and the politics began to open up in the State of Nevada, the next interesting things that I can remember about politics is the period with Rex Bell and his family. As you are probably aware, Rex Bell was married to the famous It Girl of movies and television. Of course, she was never seen; she was supposedly an alcoholic and died a very miserable death. Rex Bell, Jr. is still involved in politics and was just recently, prior to the present district attorney, was in the district attorney’s office. And one of the days, I imagine, Mr. Rex Bell, Jr. is going to run for major offices in the State of Nevada. Politics were always rather interesting, especially in North Las Vegas when North Las Vegas became a city. The first mayor was accused of murdering someone; a body was found in his living room, and North Las Vegas was always the wrong side of the tracks. The school that we’re sitting on was part of the Old Ranch, and politics has always been rather interesting in terms of North Las Vegas and Las Vegas. Mayor Baker developed something very interesting out of what was known as the Homestead Act. A good share of Las Vegas property was homesteaded. (Unintelligible) where the homestead properties were located and proceeded to go ahead and have people homestead property, which he acquired later on and was able to develop C.D. Baker Realty Company, and a great deal of what was the result of taking up the homestead property, which cost very, very little to purchase as long as they put a well on the property, and after five years became were turned over to the person who homesteaded the land. A good share of the Strip was homesteaded property to begin with. UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 9 You mentioned that the Rancho High School was located on the land of the Old Ranch. What exactly is the Old Ranch, and how did it come about? Well, the Old Ranch was one of the first stopping places for the Mormons as they came through this area and for John C. Fremont and others—well, John C. Fremont never really came through this territory—but, for other explorers as they came through this area, since we are really part of the old Spanish Trails of California. And Las Vegas means the meadows, and the meadows areas that they’re referring to is the Old Ranch, where there was spring water available and a stopping (unintelligible) for travelers and ultimately used by Union Pacific Railroad as a watering spot for their engines. That’s why a roundhouse was developed here, and of course when the railroad came, they developed it out of the town. Discrimination in Clark County began as a (unintelligible) movement in 1957. I can recall, for example, the outbreak of Little Rock in Arkansas. At that time, I was in Las Vegas High School, and for the first time, I recognized that there was a difference between black students and white students in the school. The first (unintelligible) for a riot began about that time at Las Vegas High School. Suddenly, I recognized that there was discrimination in Las Vegas. We used to have a Roundup Drive-In here in which blacks were not allowed to sit in the restaurant. I can recall graphically being in the Roundup Drive-In one time when Nat King Cole, a famous entertainer, came into the restaurant and was refused the right to be seated and was told that he could take out his meal but he could not sit in the restaurant. I recall graphically the instance, for example, that blacks were not allowed to sit at the counter at Woolworth Dime Store, Downtown Las Vegas. I recall vividly Mabel Hoggard, for which a school is now named, that the black movement on a sit-in in the restaurant at the Woolworth Dime Store Downtown. And finally, blacks were allowed to go ahead and sit in the dime store and eat. I recall vividly, UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 10 also, the fact that the hotels could not allow blacks to enter on the Strip, and that was the reason for the Moulin Rouge being built in West Las Vegas, which never became successful but was the first start of attempting to have a black hotel with black gambling. The (unintelligible) in housing in Las Vegas has been considerable over the years and still is not totally solved. In the 1960s, of course, riots ensued in all of our high schools in relationship to what was felt, discrimination, in part, between blacks and whites. Integration as far as the schools, by and large, in the early part of Las Vegas, blacks were always attending the Fifth Street Grammar School and Las Vegas High School. It’s only as a larger community developed in the west part of town that, ultimately, black schools began to be completely developed in the neighborhood level, and of course, this facilitated, later on, the integration plans, which brought about busing in Las Vegas. (Unintelligible) also in relation to major entertainers, most entertainers were not allowed to stay at the hotels while they performed even though they were receiving phenomenal salaries of $30,000 and $40,000 and $50,000 a week. They were required to stay at Twin Lakes in a motel that was on the grounds; that was the only place they were allowed to stay while they were entertaining at the hotels. Discrimination in employment was quite evident in Las Vegas. Most blacks worked as hotel maids or in the restrooms as (unintelligible). (Unintelligible) porters on trains or serving on restaurants on trains. Going back to education, the first high school, of course, was Las Vegas High School, and it was a great thrill to finally see the university begin to develop, first starting a (unintelligible) at Las Vegas High School with Dr. Dickinson leading the way, and then the beginning of a campus with (unintelligible). With Frazier Hall and seeing the campus begin to grow in associating with its first student body presidents and being encouraged by the fact that there might one day be a real cultural base developed in Las Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 11 Culture in the early days of Las Vegas was associated with the beginning developments of the Community Concert Association, which used to hold benefit performances and performances of the artists at the old city hall auditorium, which is now torn down but at one time was located on the side of the present-day City Hall of Las Vegas. At that place that Jeanie Roberts used to perform (unintelligible) for her dance recitals, and beginning symphonies were held, so many concerts were held. They used to be performances of the various junior high and high school bands in the auditorium located in the city hall. Plays were performed by the community in the early life of Las Vegas at that same auditorium, so that culture did start there and, of course, expanded as we finally obtained the university and began to develop a fine arts program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It was a thrilling sight to remember the development of the convention center on the old Joe W. Brown grounds, which at one time were a racetrack. When Mr. Brown died, which was associated with the Horseshoe Club Downtown and Benny Binion. Mrs. Brown gave the property to the county to begin the development of a convention center and to be able to attend the first programs in the convention center was a real thrill for the City of Las Vegas to realize that we were going to be able to have full time tourist trade, to be able to develop the hotels. It was very interesting to see the tremendous changes in the hotel structure as the result of big business finally coming in and taking over the various hotels—the Hilton chain, Howard Hughes and his association with Senator Laxalt. As governor, the tremendous speech that he made that he had actually talked with Howard Hughes and that he was not attempting to take over all the hotels, although he had already purchased. Several hotels, in fact, had the largest number of hotels in the entire state and had also purchased all the surrounding property around the perimeter of Las Vegas, and has purchased the UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 12 El Rancho Vegas property and was leaving it dormant. There were great promises that he would build tremendous cities underneath one roof, and there was tremendous hope that he would really bring great assets to Las Vegas. Instead, with the major industries in our hotel business, the idea became that each department in the hotels have to go ahead and pay their own way, and prices doubled and tripled for food and for entertainment. And an exclusion, for a while, exited of local citizens from the hotels. The lounges, which brought many new entertainers to the world. Suddenly, were closed, torn up, for the purpose of building bingo parlors and keno parlors. Yes, Las Vegas has changed rapidly over the years from a town of 25,000 to over 275,000 people, with track upon track. What was a mecca for people who had asthma and hay fever has now become a city with pollution problems, water problems, reservoirs, and feeling the impact of the energy crisis. We have truly become a major urban center; however, we’re still small enough that a phone call can be made directly to the governor’s mansion and reach the governor at night, and our legislators are still responsive if you’re interested in participating in the political process. Getting back to government, I can recall vividly that, for many years, we had no crime whatsoever in this city because we were by and large protected by the mafia. In fact, there were very few drugs in Las Vegas because had a very strong vagrancy law in Las Vegas, and if any drunk was found wandering the street, or anyone was found wandering the street without going from one destination to another, they were picked up and placed in jail overnight. However, things have changed. With civil rights affecting the nation, it also affected Las Vegas, and now we see drunks, and with the change from the mafia with Howard Hughes weeding out the mafia in Las Vegas and legitimate corporations coming in and taking over the hotels, we now have an increased in crime. By and large, as the city has grown, our crime rate has tripled and quadrupled. UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 13 Today, citizens are finally organizing in vigilante committees in neighborhoods, feeling probably the biggest crime of all, and that is robbery, usually based upon the increase in drug culture in Las Vegas, and without the vagrancy codes stopping the action of drunks, we find now that we have to go into major community agencies in Las Vegas to go ahead and handle the drug problem of the young, the drinking problem of the old, and this is now proliferated until we have four or five major concerns in Las Vegas that are handling nothing but drugs and drinking. Yes, the mafia was good for Las Vegas, and the criminal rate was certainly cut down, but as we become a legitimate city, also we have to then find new ways—citizens groups now forming to go ahead and see what can be done about crime. And everybody else blaming each other, from the courts, to police, to the breakdown of the family, to inflation, to government—all of this has affected Las Vegas, and certainly it has had its effect upon the schools as we become one of the fastest-growing centers in the entire country. Las Vegas High School was almost ready to be torn down until the population reached the point where we still needed to keep it open. As far as education goes, we have gone from a very classical and traditional college prep education to all the current demands of integration and success-oriented schools, success without failure, as Glasser puts it. Standards have constantly decreased; now, we have schools that have 1,300 out of 2,500 students that cannot read above the third grade level. From being in the top five schools systems in the nation during the 1950s and the early part of the sixties, we have no progressed to the bottom end of the bottom ten percent of the school systems in the nation in relationship to standards, which also has affected the university and the community college. Grade (unintelligible) is a real product of the Clark County school system—tremendous number of A’s and very few F’s. The university went to a complete no failure policy for a series UNLV University Libraries Phillip Cook 14 of years, starting in the late sixties and early part of the seventies, directly as a result of the Vietnam War. The protest (unintelligible) certainly did affect this community. From a highly conservative area, we changed to a highly liberal area, and back to a conservative area. And, again, we are entering a new 1950 era as we go through the 1970s and being progressing to the eighties.