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SANFORD, ME. TRIBUNE & ADVOCATE Circ. W. 5,383 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1956 Las Vegas Has All This and Cul EDITOR'S NOTE: Will Jones, Minneapolis Tribune entertainment col' umnistf writes today from Las Vegas, Nev. By WILL JONES TODAY'S dispatch from the land of gambling and glitter will deal mostly with cultural awakening and intellectual unrest. I'd rather write about the line of girls at the Dunes, which would knock your eyesoutr" Or the swinging gang of maniacs at the New Frontier who do a square dance on^pogo sticks.,^ JDr Lena Horne. But I have other orders. The boss heard rumors of intellectual ferment in Las Vegas, of a new striving for respectability and social status, and here I am trying to find it. It's here, all right. I've been to the first national invitational bridge tournament e v e r held in Las Vegas. I've had a talk with the man behind the first National Art League Roundup, which is Las Vegas' first big art show. I've talked wilh some folks who are interested in Las Vegas' first opera sea- ' son, which is just about to happen. I have attended the Las Vegas Community fair, where a large man wearing a brown suit and an electric-pink necktie presided over a booth-that advertised "Nevada's First Private School. No Half Days." Las Vegas is due to get PRETTY GIRLS LURE TOURISTS TO LAS VEGAS <a college, too?╟÷the University of Southern Nevada, now in the planning stage. Some other folks told me what I had missed in the Sahara Cup Races, the town's first big regatta, just held on Lake Mead. And I missed the horse show. And there was a first annual Shirtsleeve symphony and chorale not long ago, conducted by the band leader from the Copa room of the Sands. I tried to look up an old acquaintance?╟÷Stan Irwin, who stages the shows at the Sahara?╟÷and couldn't reach him because he was out of town campaigning. He's running for congress. THE TOWN has long since made it as a gambling capital and entertainment capital for the country, possibly the world. Credit for that is due largely to the Strip, which is the row of big hotels on highway 91, and to a couple of brightly- lighted blocks on Fremont- street downtown. . To offset the noise made by the casinos, the local Chamber of Commerce has been steadfastly pointing Out that there's that other part of Las Vegas?╟÷the town. It contains, among other things?╟÷and this has been a standard boast for years?╟÷more churches per capita than any other place in the country except maybe Abilene, Texas. A lot of Las Vegans think of the Strip and the town as two separate communities. A town dweller I met said, "I suppose you're going to write about the Strip and ignore the rest of us, Why does everybody do that?" The casino men can't afford to have too many people thinking that Way. These are the people whose votes can regulate gambling. And authorize the building, of municipal convention halls ?╟÷ which has just been done to the tune of about 8 milKon dollars. LAS VEGAS is a strong Mormon town. When a. Los Angeles, Calif., newspaper labeled it the town of sin, gin and din, tourists mC?·*FIONS IN LAS VEGAS. mWv$f^)ffijFvl of; 22 WlI>~ .ie^trae^ hot only enjoyed her ?Σ≤r**tt- v?╜^ t.irfo-'&t. ^bfc,,?║jifflfe - in Las Veaas'^.Nev.. but she MS^^^W^M^^^^^W^^^^^ sor*' DfrKS'i',who is captain, of the outside cre^lOf .'equrteous attendants who cater to the guests at the: famous? fes<yrf hotel. ; ^&Vegas New Brir??: PARK RIDGE, ILL. HERALD Circ. W. 3,500 DEC I 1954 came flocking ?╟÷ and relations with the Mormons weren't helped any. y^^\ 1 So the pitch now is respectability and good; community relations. Top prize at the art show will be provided by Wilbur Clark of the Desert Inn. The Desert Inn and the r Flamingo are co-sponsoring the bridge tournament. The Sahara Cup race is, of course, hotel-sponsored. You can bet the casino men will be heavy subscribers to the opera series. /<v^*f The number of first annual events suggests the determination with whichjjrS all being done. Bill willard, the local Variety correspondent, and also an active member of the art league, told how the jury went about making its art show selections: "They had to be very rough?╟÷to get really the cream, and make this show as good as other j cities where they've been ; doing this, foryears," Cultural groups are finding what churches and charities have known for some time: That the Strip hotels are soft touches, free with money and with help in staging benefits. The Mormons refuse all , gambling money. But elsewhere co-operation readiest! a high degree. l^M St. Anne's Catholic church, an architectural second cousin to some of the Strip hotels, stages a 5 p.m. mass each Sunday for the benefit ' of those who work and/or play all night. Last Sunday one Las Vegas minister made this announcement at services: "NOW OUR church is not going into the entertainment business ?╟÷- not permanently, anyway ?╟÷ but the owners of the ne^v Desert Spa have donated their establishment for New Year's Eve. We're going to have a big show, plenty of good entertainment, a good band, on The Strip, New Year's Eve. Let's all get be- ! hin*d it." In the congregation were Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy, who were appearing at the Sands. Hayes' moth- VeJ NEWARK, N Hajl STAR-LEDGER bee! Circ. D. 200,371 -.S. 297,328 twil AUG 2 6 1956 own ideas about town-and- Strip relations. "I don't agree 3With some of the Strip hotel men that we don't depend on business from Las Vegas to keep going," he said. "We change i our act ?╟÷ a completely new_?║ act every time we here ?╟÷ and the people i town knowt it and comej see us. "THEY'RE UP TO the^ ears in entertainment, ancl are pretty choosy^ They don't come any more to see the Danny Thomases and Joe E. Lewises and others who come back with the same routines time after time. But we can use these 65,000 or 70,000 people, especially on Mondays, Tues- j days and Wednesdays. J. (don't .leaYg any- lie gambling tables } of, but they help ie room." Vacation at Las Vegas 0% Joseph M. Callahan, president of the Chicago division of Ein- son-Freeman, Inc., display lithographers and point of sale consultants, is* pictured here trying to get away from it all in the pool at *he nlfllfo iNH lng MfUjiTi Npvrt'*n R"f even while vacationing; it's apparent that busmessfiBTTtfught up with him as pretty wife Betty hands him the telephone. The Callahans, who live at 900 Austin, Park Ridge, figure the working conditions aren't too bad at that, 'mm ?imjS?·&. VOWS W.fcfcE EXCHANGED?╟÷Far from respective homes^ Ritg Qwmto of Elmont, L.I., and Herbert E. Greenston^ of East Orange were married in Sands Hote^fi|,Yeq<*^ P. His brother and law partner, Louis Greenstone,..^m% \ best mart. Bachelor Al A. Eisenberg made trip for'tw ?√ß ?√ß wedding, i IfPllr'T ?╟≤ ,. h'M&S?║i