Transcript of interview with Ruth Gust by Beth Ann Bonenfant, March 10, 1981

UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust i An Interview with Ruth Gust An Oral History Conducted by Rebecca Bonenfant 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 Ruth Gust ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 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 Ruth Gust iv Abstract On March 10, 1981, Rebecca (Beth) Bonenfant interviewed Ruth Gust (born 1905 in Mokane, Missouri) about her life in Nevada. Gust first talks about her original move to Las Vegas in 1947 and some of the first businesses that existed at the time. In this brief interview, she also talks about the first casinos, the culinary union, her employment as a server, and Mt. Charleston. UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 1 The narrator is Ruthie Gust. The interviewer is Beth Ann Bonenfant. The date is March 10th, 1981, and the place is at Ruthie Gust’s houses, 1933 Canosa Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada. When did you first move here? In 1947. How many were in your family when you first moved to Las Vegas? I had my one son with me, and I had a brother living here. My brother’s name was Jim Middleton, He was connected with the Ford garage at that time. Where did you first move to, what part of Las Vegas did you live in? I first lived on South Seventh Street, directly across the street from the high school, and then Bob and I had a home on South Second Street. When did you first move here to your present address? In 1959. Was it considered out of Las Vegas in the outskirts, or? Well, I would say that Canosa was not too well settled at that time. Just one block over was just desert. How big was Las Vegas when you first moved here? I would say approximately 10,000 people. The borders, like, how far out did it stretch? Like, now it goes all the way out to Henderson. Well, I don’t know how to state that exactly to tell you the borders of the city, but I can tell you this, that the old Green Shack was considered out of town. When we went there for dinner, that was a long drive. Okay, where is the old Green Shack? I’m not familiar where that— UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 2 Right here on Fremont Street, this side of the Showboat. Were there any big casinos in town? Yes. At that time, when I first came here, we had two motels, the El Rancho and the Old Frontier—that was the only hotels on the Strip at that time. Were there casinos in shopping centers, like Safeway and Albertsons, did they have casinos like they do now? Well, not in the grocery stores, they didn’t have any. You mean, did they have slot machines? Yes, slot machines. Yes, there was slot machines in the grocery stores, but no large chains that come in here yet. Safeway was here at that time, and I believe that that was the only large chain. How did the casinos affect Las Vegas? All of a sudden, did they just burst, like there was only two when you first moved here, but now there’s so many hotels and casinos, and that’s what Las Vegas is centered around. Well, of course, at that particular time, most of your casinos were Downtown, but they were not large hotels. Now, we’re speaking of the Golden Nugget or the Horseshoe, the old Boulder Club, Sal Sagev, Las Vegas Club—that was all that was here at that time. The Nevada Club was Downtown. The California was? The old California Club was there, which is no more; we don’t have the California Club now. The California Club I’m speaking of, dear, was strictly a casino, and it was right on the corner of First and Fremont. Across the street from it was the old Pioneer Club. Okay. The Hoover Dam, that was built—? UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 3 Hoover Dam was built back in the thirties; that was here when we came here. Was the surrounding cities, was Boulder City the nearest city, or—where was Henderson? Boulder City was there at the time, strictly a government town at that time. And Henderson was growing up at the time because they— (Unintelligible) It was Henderson when I came here, Dutchie, because, you see, that was after the war. And Henderson started to build up and they put those titanium plants out there, and they were put there during the Second World War. So, Henderson had started to grow, but it was just a little small town. There was no casinos out there. Okay. So, you are a member of the culinary union, right? Yes. How long have you been a member? I joined the culinary union in Tacoma, Washington in 1939 and transferred in here in 1947. Why did you join the union? Better working conditions. What were the working conditions then compared to what they are now? Now, are you speaking of when I came to Las Vegas? When you came to Las Vegas? Well, let me say, there was no comparison. Our wage scale was very low, I went to work there at the old Silver on North First Street for $3.15 a shift, an eight-hour shift. What did you work as, what position? Waitress. UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 4 How many members were in the culinary union when you first joined, and how many are in the union now, approximately? Well, when you say I joined, that was—when I transferred in here, it was in 1947, and (unintelligible)—I couldn’t tell you how many members there were. But at the time that I went to work for the culinary union, was in June of 1943, and we had 2,100 members. Do you know about how big it is now? I guess they run about 26,000. Okay, the culinary union, is that for waitress and—who can join the union? Anyone can join the union. If you’re speaking of crafts, this covers what we call the fun people, which is waitresses, bus boys, cashiers, hostesses—now you got into the showroom, you have captains, maître d’s. That covers anybody that works in the kitchen: cooks, cook’s helpers, dishwashers, and so forth. It covers the housekeeping department, which takes in all maids, all porters, and we have the casinos porters, we have the (unintelligible) room girls, we have change girls, and booth cashiers in most of the hotels. And all bellmen, and I would say that pretty well covers it. If I have neglected somebody (unintelligible). That’s a lot of people. I’ve neglected to mention that the bartenders union is affiliated with the culinary workers; therefore, the bartenders, cocktail waitresses, and bar porters are under the contract. Also let me go back and say that, at the time I started to work, there was no paid holidays, vacation pay, very little help in welfare, no pension fund. Most waitresses furnished and laundered their own uniforms—no job protection. At the time I started as a business agent for the late Mr. (Unintelligible), the secretary and treasurer (unintelligible) was president. We were in a very small hall upstairs directly behind the Pioneer Club. When I first began work, my area was all UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 5 crafts in the Downton area of the Boulder Highway, including Boulder City, the Sahara, and the Thunderbird Hotels. This required seven days a week, fourteen and sixteen hours a day. In 1964, we started to organize the change girls and booth cashiers. The Golden Nugget change department was the first to come aboard. Their salary, at that time, was eight and ten dollars a shift, no fringe benefits. At the present time, a change person receives $36.60 a shift, booth cashiers $51.70. All crafts have eight paid holidays, vacation pay, one week for one year of service, two years, two weeks paid, six years, three weeks paid, and twelve years, four weeks paid. Good hospital and doctor coverage, dental care, allows time for sick leave, good pension, thanks to Mr. Brammet—job protection is very good. Can you tell me, who are the officers now at the culinary union? Bench Moody is secretary and treasurer and Mike (Unintelligible) is president. Okay, waitressing was your job in the union back when you first started; what is your job now? Well, I’m no longer working for the union, but at the time that I was terminated and left, I was working in the office and helping the business agents with their grievances, helping management with questions they wanted answered, taking grievances from the members when they came in and their agent was out the building. According to contract, just an overall troubleshooter in the office, I would say. This means you went around to all the hotels? As a business agent, you had to cover all of your area, each and every house that is assigned to you to see that the members are being paid the correct wage scale, that they’re receiving good food—in other words, that a contract is being followed. And if it is not, then you take a UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 6 grievance from the member and go to management to try to get it straightened out—you have a board of adjustment, then you go to arbitration. Can you name any situations that this happened, like you were talking about once your cocktail waitresses going in back alleys and stuff to serve drinks? Oh, evidently, you’re referring to many years ago when working conditions were very bad. I can remember, at one time, the old Nevada Club and Fortune Club—the Fortune Club had a license for mixing and serving mixed drinks—Nevada Club did not have a license. And so they would have the cocktail waitresses carry the drinks—to being with, they were carrying them down the alley, and I reported this to the health department, and so that was stopped. And the next thing I knew, they had the girls taking the drinks across the roof of the Fortunate Club onto the Nevada Club roof, and then they went down by a dumbwaiter, and the was very unusual and very dangerous as far as I’m concerned. Another time, Mr. Van Zandt decided that he would head to New York, I understand, and go into one of the clubs, so he came back with the idea of having the cocktail waitresses slide down a flagpole, I guess you would call it, with a tray in their hand, and the drinks, and serve them to the customers. He had swings hanging from the ceiling, the cocktail waitresses would go up there and sit in the swings and swing, and Mr. Brammet and I met with Mr. Van Zandt, and after telling him that he would have to pay the entertainers wages, have more insurance for them, he decided that he didn’t want any part of that, so we got that stopped. I can’t see waitresses sliding down a flagpole. (Laughs) That’s kind of funny. Who is Gracie Hayes? Is she still alive today? Well, Gracie Hayes, when I first come here, that would have been in the forties, she owned the Red Rooster on the Strip. There wasn’t big hotels to speak of at that time. We had the Last UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 7 Frontier and the El Rancho (unintelligible) some entertainment, not too much. I do remember the Blacks would come there because they weren’t allowed to go into the casinos. So, between their acts at the two hotels, then they would come over to Gracie Hayes, and sometimes put on a little entertainment for us. As I remember, sometime in the late sixties, probably between ’65 and ’70 is the first that Blacks were allowed into the casinos and the showrooms. Up until that time, they were not allowed. And most of the entertainers would have to go to West Side for lounging. The Blacks being not allowed on the Strip, when they first were allowed in the hotels, did that cause any commotion? Oh, I can’t say that it did. I think that some of the owners, for a very short time, tried to keep them out, but I never heard problems. What were the first major hotels on the Strip, like the big hotels, where they had casinos? Well, like I say, when I first came here, the only ones here was the El Rancho and maybe the Last Frontier. Then the Thunderbird opened, and after that was the Flamingo Hotel. I remember that, when the Flamingo opened, everyone seemed to think it was way out of town, that it would never be successful, but they were (unintelligible). Let’s see, Vegas High School is the first high school here, right? Yes. Now they’re at fourteen high schools in town? I really couldn’t say how many high schools. When I came here, Las Vegas High on South Second Street and the Fifth Street School were the only two schools around. Let’s see, which one is the next—Rancho is (unintelligible)—I’m going to skip over to Mt. Charleston. UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 8 Well, when I first came here, The Lodge at Mt. Charleston was rather small, but it was fun to go up there; they had a piano player that would play almost any request you had. As I remember, they had a few slot machines in the place, possibly a twenty-one table, although I’m not sure. I remember the big tree that they built the building around, so anyway, the tree trunk was inside of The Lodge, and it was just a short drive up there, some (unintelligible) up there on Sundays and have a few drinks and have dinner and have a lot of fun with the piano player and come back down to Las Vegas. I have not been up to Mt. Charleston. Is that bar with the tree trunk, is it still out there? No, they had a fire up there many years, and it’s been replaced with (unintelligible). When did the ski lodges develop? Really, (unintelligible) to be skiing and didn’t have too much time to take away from my job, but it seems to me that the skiing came in probably in the 1970s, but (unintelligible). No doubt a lot of people went up with sleds and skis previous to that time, but if you have any facilities, I would say no, it must have been in the seventies. Do you know anything about the railroad stations here in town? Well, of course, when I came, the Union had a very good station here, a very nice station; that’s where the Union Plaza is today, and of course, there was many more trains going through here, passenger trains, took a train out of here to Los Angeles or Salt Lake City, and (unintelligible) and the air freight took over most of the business, so the Union Plaza bought that property and built a hotel there. And now, when Amtrak comes in, it’ll come in directly behind the Union Plaza and check into the Union Plaza hotel. Do you know when Nellis Air Force Base was built? UNLV University Libraries Ruth Gust 9 Nellis Air Force Base, I’m pretty sure, was started here during the war, so of course, that was before I arrived, but I know it was in the early fifties. There was a lot of men out there in the Air Force, and also in 1954, they had a hospital out there (unintelligible), so it brought a lot people in here, right in place of it. [Audio ends]