Transcript of interview with Steven and Wendy Hart by Barbara Tabach, October 23, 2014

AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVEN AND WENDY HART An Oral History Conducted by Barbara Tabach Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ii ?Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV ? University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers: Barbara Tabach, Claytee D. White Editors and Project Assistants: Maggie Lopes, Stefani Evans, Amanda Hammar iii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes 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. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews with permission of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas iv PREFACE Steven Hart was born on April 7, 1946, and moved to Las Vegas as a one-year-old with his parents Nat and Sylvia Hart. After graduating from Las Vegas High School, Steven Hart went through an apprenticeship program to become a journeyman carpenter as his father wanted him to learn all phases of the hotel, restaurant, gaming, and business. Including hot to build and design them. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and joined its construction battalion during the Vietnam War. Upon his return to Las Vegas, Steven followed in his father?s footsteps working in the casino industry. Nat Hart was one of the city?s original celebrity chefs and corporate vice president of food and beverage for Caesars World. Well-known for his restaurants at Caesars Palace and the Desert Inn, and for his popular gourmet cooking school. During his long career as a successful gaming executive, Steven worked at several properties, including the International Hotel as food and beverage controller. He was the vice president of food and beverage for the Del Web Corporation. The assistant corporate food and beverage director at the Argent Corporation as well as the Casino Credit executive and Junket Representative for Caesars World. He worked as executive casino host at Bills Gamblin Hall and Hotel in addition to working as the hotel gaming consultant with Hart Gaming LLC. Steve?s wife and dad also owned Kazuku Yakitori, Ichi Ban Japanese steak house, Ringside Bar and Grill and the World Boxing Hall of Champions Museum. In 1985, Steven married Texas-born Wendy Stark Hart, who is also present during this oral history interview. Wendy Hart also pursued a career as an executive in the food and beverage industry. Together, Steven and Wendy Hat reflect at length about Nat Hart?s successful career, particularly as longtime corporate vice president of food and beverage for Caesars World Inc., and opening many of the company's restaurants at Caesars Palace locally and in Atlantic City. Steve and his dad also put in many restaurants for many of the Las Vegas Strip hotels. They discuss both Nat?s relationships with infamous industry figures, like Frank Rosenthal and Hy Goldbaum, and Nat?s dining endeavors with other industry leaders such as like Kirk Kerkorian and Stu and Cliff Pearman. They also highlight the innovation and creativity that Nat brought to his work. v Steven also talks about his own career path, from working small jobs at the hotels while in high school, to his military service and developing construction skills, to learning various aspects of the gaming industry management. He reminisces about his childhood in Las Vegas and involvement with Jewish community, including being the first bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Sholom and later serving as president of Jewish War Veterans, Post 711. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Steven and Wendy Hart On October 23, 2014 by Barbara Tabach in Las Vegas, Nevada Preface?????????????????????????????????..?..iv SESSION 1 Steve shares family history; family escaping Europe during World War II; relatives in New York; how his parents met and their journey to Las Vegas. Talks about father?s job at New York shipyards, then as restaurant owner in Florida; parents moving to San Francisco???????????????????????????????...??1-6 Share about Steven?s father local restaurant, The Palm, and its customers; going into business with Jack Levit to open restaurants, first in Canada and then in U.S.; working at Fairmont in San Francisco as ma?tre d? while also working at a nightclub. Steven discusses Vietnam War military service; family friend that ran the Jewish USO in San Francisco, feeding servicemen???.6-14 Talk about Steven?s father moving to Las Vegas; taking position with the reopening of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino food and beverage manager with Dave Berman; his pioneering ideas like creating the first Strip buffet, the Chuck Wagon, seating system; greeting hotel guests. Mention Steven?s parents? relationship with Del Webb; discrimination against African-Americans in Las Vegas during 1950s. Wendy shares story about Steven?s mother shocking hotel patrons walking in casino with Pearl Bailey?.???????????????????.?....14-23 Steven remembers his bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Sholom, stars attending; Friday night dinners at temple. Both talk about Sylvia and Nat Hart?s community involvement; experience of anti-Semitism during childhood, in military service. More about enlisting in Navy, joining construction battalion and building furniture. Steven mentions Las Vegas High School classmates..??.22-27 Steven talks about first job delivering papers; working on construction of the International Hotel and Casino as junior foreman; working as server at the Landmark Hotel and Casino while in high school. Both discuss Nat?s career, moving from Flamingo Hotel and Casino to Caesars Palace; relationship with Hy Goldbaum and together opening restaurants in Las Vegas, Gilded Rafters; hired by Japanese to head their World Pavilion at the 1964 World?s Fair???????...27-36 vii Continue talking about Nat?s creativity in restaurant industry, at Caesars Palace, Thunderbird Hotel and The Mint Hotel. Steven mentions early job managing coffee shop at Dunes Hotel; the working norms amongst the waiters, kitchen staff; being hired as assistant corporate food and beverage director for Stardust, Marina, Hacienda and Fremont Hotels by Frank Rosenthal; protected from any impropriety of mob-run gaming scene????????????..?36-43 Discuss more about Nat?s career; starting local Food and Beverage Directors Association, which included community outreach????????????????????????..43-45 SESSION 2 Steven talks about first job as pool boy at Sahara Hotel and Casino; dad?s insistence that he learn all aspects of gaming business, including food and beverage, dealing, marketing. Reflects upon various positions over career, including working at El Cortez, the Horseshoe, Mr. Sy?s Casino of Fun and creating Fun Book, at the International Hotel as food and beverage controller, at Bill?s as casino credit executive, at Dunes Hotel and Casino????.???????.....???...45-52 Continues discussing his career and working for Argent Corporation under Frank Rosenthal, Victor Greggor; his father?s relationship with Rosenthal. Mentions attending a roast for Osacar Goodman with Earnie Shavers. Recalls childhood neighborhood and neighbors, including Redd Foxx, Paul Endy, Cashmans. Mentions relationship with Tony Spiltoro; Lem Banker. Much about Frank Rosenthal and his career????????????????????????..52-56 Steven talks about father?s involvement with Culinary Union, Kirk Kerkorian, training Terry Lanni. Mentions working at Night of Stars event at Cashman Field; Foxy?s Deli; Freed?s Bakery and the current lack of Jewish food available in community. Discusses his leadership of Jewish War Veterans Post 711, organizing event against Ralph Engelstad?????????? 56-63 Reminisce while looking at photos, of Wendy and her brothers, Hy Goldbaum at Stardust, puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft, more from Harts at Flamingo. Reflect on gun laws and carrying norms in 1960s and 70s, versus in Atlantic City. Steven talks about Las Vegas? history with boxing; first match at Silver Slipper Hotel; his father?s cooking tutorial recordings; evolution of fine dining as well as hospitality to high-rollers in Las Vegas?????.???????63-71 Reflect on Nat?s innovation in various aspects of food and beverage industry, including specialty grocery stores in Nevada and California, learning from foreign chefs to cook authentically for foreign guests; membership in Cha?nes des R?tisseurs. Share about etiquette norms; stories about pie fight involving Frank Sinatra at Bacchanal Room, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and pizza fight, failed Judy Garland New Year?s Eve show?????????????????71-81 viii Talk about Nat?s involvement with Jewish theater in Chicago during childhood; Nat Hart?s Cooking School. Mentions Pussycat a Go-Go, where gaming industry employees would hangout; the building of the Danny Kollard Youth Center at Temple Beth Sholom. More about Frank Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro; Jack Binion; Michael Gaughan?s business endeavors; The Flame restaurant; Alpine Village; Red Barn, an early gay bar?..?????????????...81-86 Steven talks about childhood neighbor Paul Endy Jr., founder of Paul-Son Gaming Corporation; working as gofer at Dave Bliss? Colonial House; Mentions having drawing published in military magazines when in the service; father working on dining ideas for MGM Grand in planning stage for Kirk Kerkorian. More about evolution in how hotels treat customers; role of credit hosts???????????????????????????????.??.?86-90 Shows cufflinks David Berman gave to Nat. Mentions large boxing memorabilia collection; barbers, the Trujillo brothers, and manicurist, Helen, from old Caesars Palace and Stardust days. Shares story about family inheriting turkeys used in Anthony Newley Thanksgiving show; attempted robbery of Caesars baccarat table; Nat starting the Holiday Inn Japan show; recommissioning the U.S.S. New Jersey; celebrity chef fundraiser for Meadows School???????????????????????????????...?....90-99 Index......................................................................................................................................99-101 Appendix?????????????????????????????????..102 ix x 1 Today is October 23, 2014. I'm sitting with Steve and Wendy Hart. This is Barbara Tabach. We're in the Oral History Research Center, our office at the UNLV Libraries. I welcome you both. I appreciate you coming in and sharing some stories with me. WENDY: Many. Good stories, right? I put the big memory disk if here so that you can talk all day long, Wendy and Steve. So let's start a little bit about your family ancestry. I would like to know what you know about your Jewish ancestral roots. STEVE: Well, I know German and Polish. I actually gave?the star light fixture to the Sheldon Adelson School so?when the Nazis invaded the country my grandfather was told by the Rabbi of his temple (to all of the congregation) to take something from the temple. So my grandfather took a star light fixture that was hanging outside. I brought it to Adelson School to keep as an archive and hope it never happens again. Well, it went to my father and my then my father passed away and I got it and I donated it to Sheldon Adelson School, which is in there archives showcase area along with a letter of what it involved. So were they escaping? STEVE: Yes, they were all escaping and they were trying to keep as much as they could of the temple archives. You didn't have any family that perished in the Holocaust that you know of? STEVE: Not that I know of. Maybe, but not that I know of. You're not a direct descendent of that. STEVE: Yes. Because on my mom's side?I have a picture of her relatives. There is a lot of them. So indirectly, yes, probably a lot of people passed away. 2 WENDY: Of course, his dad was an only child, and so there was a vast difference. How many siblings in your mom's family, five? STEVE: Four brothers and a sister. WENDY: We really didn't know?I don't think we knew too much about your dad's cousins or anything like that because they would all be second and third cousins, of course, no direct cousins. STEVE: I do know I have a lot of relatives in New York. In fact, I did meet a few of them growing up that used to come out here. The stories are endless. But one of my mother's brothers, Bernie, he worked in a shipyard. When I went up to visit in New York one summer, he asked to take me to the shipyard. He was an electrician. He told me, ?Go up there and touch those wires and make sure they're okay.? And not knowing and so young, I touched them and of course got shocked. He was a character. Then I had another cousin who?worked in the schmatte (clothes) business?his office was at the top of the Empire State Building, Joe Braverman. I know he was the top guy, but I'm not sure what kind of men?s clothing he sold. And then I had two more uncles that were also in the schmatte (clothing) business. Both of them lived like ?The Honeymooners (TV show.)? They lived in a 143rd Street, Flushing Meadows, Queens. I remember the address by heart. One lived on top of the other. When they wanted to talk to each other, they actually used a broom on the ceiling. They worked for the same company. One was a cutter and the other one was a pattern maker. WENDY: And they lived in that same apartment for over thirty years. STEVE: When I went to visit them, my uncle told me, ?If you want to read a good book, go to the closet. All my books are in the closet.? I went in there to look, my uncle knew I loved cowboy stories because my parents had a ranch style house in Vegas. I opened the closet door and he had 3 every Zane Grey western cowboy paperback you could think of. WENDY: Jewish cowboy. STEVE: Well, yes I'm a Jewish cowboy. WENDY: That's true. When you talk about Dad and Mom, what are their names? STEVE: My dad was Nat or Nathan Hart and my mom was Sylvia Rose Hart. Do you know the story of how your parents met? STEVE: My dad met my mom, I believe, up in the Catskill Mountains. My father was a singing waiter up there. My mom and her family were visiting the Catskills and that's how they met. WENDY: Well, they owned a hotel in Spring Valley. STEVE: Yes, right. Your mother's family? STEVE: My mom's parents owned a hotel up in the Spring Valley area. Her dad actually was also in the schmatte business, but they had a hotel at the same time, a little cottage hotel. They say, he made suits by hand, just the jacket part for presidents. He was a true tailor. STEVE: He was a true tailor. My mom, because they had the little cottage hotel, was a tomboy. They used to have all kinds of vegetables and fruits and she used to go up in the apple tree and throw apples down at people to really aggravate the situation. After that they went together and moved to Florida and they opened up a dietetic restaurant. My dad was from Chicago originally and knew all the guys, knew all the boys. Then from there he went to Vegas. 4 WENDY: San Francisco. STEVE: Oh, San Francisco on the way. So your mother?s side of the family that lived in New York? STEVE: Yes, my mom came from New York. WENDY: But once they were married dad worked in the shipyards in New York. STEVE: Yes, my dad worked in the?during the war. Well, that would be before? When they first got married, they lived in New York? STEVE: So after the Catskills he worked in the shipyard because the war broke out. What did he do in the shipyard, do you think? STEVE: He did what they call the four draft system, in the boiler room there were two kinds of fuels that had to be separated going through the smoke stack at the bottom of the ship all the way to the top of the smoke stack. This is what he did. Something like and A/C man putting in a duct system made out of metal. WENDY: The flue. STEVE: ?to get the gas out of the ship. That's what he did. So that was his service job before we ever get to his other careers. STEVE: Right. So from there they moved to Florida as a married couple? STEVE: Right. Were there any children at that time? STEVE: Yes. WENDY: Ronnie was born in New York. STEVE: I have a sister Ronnie born in New York. I was born in 1947 in San Francisco, but on the 5 way to Las Vegas. WENDY: But while Dad worked in the shipyards at night, he was a waiter. So his mom's parents really loved being around him [Nat] because every time he would come home it was always a lot of fun. He would take all this money out from all of his pockets and his socks and they'd hide it in different places. STEVE: That's right. WENDY: He would throw it on the bed. It was a holiday; they would be counting the money. So he was literally rolling in the money. STEVE: She remembers the story. WENDY: Yes, counting the money every night and they had this newborn baby. I think your mom told me that Ronnie...they used to let her sleep in the drawer of one of their dressers, for goodness sakes; that's how hard things were. And so when Dad would come home with this money after working in the shipyards and then go to wait tables and working in the food business, it was quite something. That was the job that brought home money every single today and still today does. I mean it's still very relevant today. STEVE: One story I do remember that Dad told: During the Depression, he used to go in and?order soup, he used to take ketchup and put it with hot water to make (the soup)? types were tough. WENDY: It sounds like the children's book, Stone Soup. Do you remember that book? Yes, yes. WENDY: But Dad found that obviously it [restaurant] was a lucrative business and he honed his skills. He had gone to all of his cooking classes?the Cordon Bleu and had worked at the Waldorf and had done all of these things because that's what was really paying the bills. 6 So he let go the shipping dock? WENDY: Yes, the war was over and there was no more necessity for that. STEVE: The war was over. He wanted to contribute to the war and I believe because he has a family he joined the shipyard to do his part in helping out the war. Well, let's talk about Nat and how he developed this career; that's going to eventually bring you to Las Vegas, basically. STEVE: Right. WENDY: They had been in New York and Dad had worked under Waldorf Astoria and had done the Cordon Bleu and had traveled while Mom was still in New York. And then, of course, the three of them then moved to Florida where they opened the restaurant; it was called The Palm. No relationship to any of the Palm restaurant here? WENDY: I don't really know how long they were in Florida. But I remember seeing the menu from the restaurant and I'm not sure if it's here in the archives. But it just used to make me laugh and giggle when I saw the prices. Full dinners were ninety-five cents, a dollar twenty-five. Coffee literally was ten cents. STEVE: We have many of the menus and every year we give so much. Eventually between U. Huston and UNLV it will get there. But we also have menus from when we built the restaurants in Winnipeg, Manitoba and the Grand Canal of Venice, and of course the wine and the food prices were much different like six, seven dollars for a full meal. Isn't that amazing? It's just hard to believe. WENDY: Yes. It still doesn't equate with inflation rates, but, yes, it's still pretty amazing. So they had the one restaurant in Florida? 7 WENDY: They did. And where in Florida exactly was that? STEVE: Miami Beach. WENDY: And so Dad had an opportunity to go to?was it the Fairmont? In San Francisco. Of course, everyone in the family was okay with Florida because they used to go to Florida, during the winter months. But when Mom told her family that she was going to be going to San Francisco, of course, they couldn't imagine. The other side of the world and what's out there? No one really had a vision of what that was like. No one had ever been there or traveled there before. So they were pioneers on the way. I mean Dad saw opportunities after he had developed his skills in food and beverage and his name was out there. STEVE: All the guys used to go into their restaurant. He knew all the boys, all the Jewish and Italians. Did he ever have any personal stories of his interactions with some of the boys? STEVE: There's a lot of stories. Many. STEVE: Many stories. WENDY: And all great stories of how they were to Dad and how amazing because I think they realized his talent. I remember Mom telling me a story when they were already living here in Vegas how Dad was sick and he was home and she would tell me that a van would pull up to the house and there would be food being delivered from the hotel because they didn't want Mom to have to worry about food for the kids. They just wanted her to get Nat well so that he could get back to work. I mean very generous, always very kind. If you're on good terms. [Laughing] 8 STEVE: But here is the real story, which I believe. My dad's mom used to make the greatest Jewish food in the world, but everything she made was in miniatures. And the guys?I mean they loved it. They loved it. This is what may be the possibility is my dad never told my grandma because my grandma used to help my dad in the restaurant, see. Even though it was a dietetic restaurant, she was also making Jewish food. Let's pursue the dietetic restaurant. STEVE: It was a diet restaurant, right. That seems to me that that's way ahead of what was normal back then. WENDY: He was quite a visionary even then. STEVE: Oh, yes. Not jumping ahead?but in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we were approached by a gentleman who built the Winnipeg Convention Center. He owns all the franchises of Sheraton, Radisson and Country Inns. He developed the whole downtown area, Lakeview Development, Jack Levit is the owner and president. WENDY: That was much later on, honey. WENDY: You're going all the way to the 1970s. We're still in the forties. We're talking about the Palm Restaurant. WENDY: But what you need to know is Steve's sister [Ronnie] is seven years older than he is. So the time line...from New York and then to Florida and then when Mom and Dad actually did move to San Francisco, which is where Steven was born in 1946?I keep forgetting what year you were born?in 1946 you were born in San Francisco, and then pretty much shortly thereafter Mom and Dad then arrived here in Las Vegas. Had an opportunity here in Las Vegas. So all of this is developing in the 40s? 9 STEVE: Right. But not to lose thought of what I was thinking because you said a guy before his time. Yes, a visionary. STEVE: A visionary. So going back to this again in Winnipeg, so we were partnered up with Jack Levit whose partners with a guy called Oscar [Grubert] and Colonel Sanders. They were asking around in Vegas for someone who built and created restaurants in Vegas. ?I'm building this great shopping area, this complex called Lakeview Development across from the Winnipeg convention center, and I'm looking for somebody who knows how to build restaurants. We're steak and potato eaters over here in Canada.? So they got ahold of Dad. We became partners with them. We built the Ichi Ban Japanese Steakhouse, which is still in existence. We have five locations around the country. And we also built and Italian restaurant called the Grand Canal of Venice. You talk about a visionary. We put two ships in actual water the port of Venice which was in the basement of the opera school building. The servers sang opera because that was one of the headquarters in Winnipeg there is also one of the headquarters in the United States. Dad introduced microwave cooking. The microwave had just come out and Dad's concept was using one executive chef. WENDY: This was the early seventies. STEVE: ? the chef makes the food fresh in the day time and puts it into the box freezer. Knowing the par value of how many you're going to serve. So they put like twenty, let's say, chicken cacciatore. And then when you order a chicken cacciatore on the line, they take it out of the box freezer and they put it into the microwave oven and, bingo, in thirty seconds you have chicken cacciatore. Around the ships in the Grande Canal of Venice restaurant was the city of 10 Venice. It was beautiful as we created many types of shops. WENDY: There are just many stories of Dad being so far ahead of his time. This was in Winnipeg? STEVE: This was in Winnipeg, Manitoba where it was thirty below. WENDY: But Dad was at Caesars at that time as well. STEVE: I never knew what cold was until I went there. That's another story. My dad says, come up now we need to built the restaurant??Come up and start working.? And I had this little, tiny Corvette with an open top and a little trailer in the back and it's thirty below with the wind-chill factor and it's snowing and everybody's looking at me and saying, what is going on with this kid? So this would have been about what decade? WENDY: That was the early 70s. STEVE: We forgot the World's Fair in 1964. WENDY: Why don't you go from when you got to Vegas? Because that's where you left off before you went to the seventies? So when they left Florida they went to San Francisco where Steven was then born and Dad was at the Fairmont. Again, his mom and dad would come out. His Grandpa Louis, who our son is named after, David Louis, was a tile man in Europe for many, many years. STEVE: That's the one that brought the star light fixture here. WENDY: The one that brought the star light fixture?. The tile has glass and all kinds of toxins in it certainly back in the day before it was lead-free. But he was great at working at his hands. So they came out to San Francisco and that's where he had his barbershop. 11 STEVE: And the reason they're in San Francisco is because my grandpa...they came through the island and that's how he wound up in San Francisco. He immigrated? STEVE: Yes, he came in. Okay, so he was in San Francisco, my grandpa?My dad's father, right. And yes, he was a tile man over there. My father asked him, ?What do you want to do?? Because his hands were so bad?it was like poison that they used, the lead. Anyway, of all things, he went to barber school and became a barber. And my dad set him all up in a barbershop in San Francisco. My grandfather had a little boy?s seat that they put on top of the barber chair? He only had one chair in the place. This was on The Avenues in San Francisco where dad had him. Just a little space. And he put me on this little chair and gave me a razor haircut. WENDY: A straight razor. STEVE: Yes, a straight razor to cut my hair. WENDY: We actually probably still have his cup that he used with the shaving cream and the brush. STEVE: Right, with the brush. WENDY: With his picture and name on it, of course David's namesake, in our cabinet. Hopefully David will appreciate later on. Even though Mom had other siblings, Steven's mom and dad were kind of always the focal point of both of their families. And so while Steven's dad's parents came to San Francisco, my mother-in-law's parents would always come for many, many months and stay with the family. Of course, now there was Ronnie and there was Steven. Dad was still working at the Fairmont. The money was flowing for Dad. Again, every night he would come in. Everyone just was amazed at the amount of money that you could make doing this. He worked actually two 12 jobs during that time. So he would work at a nightclub in the evening after he got off in San Francisco. So at the Fairmont, what is his job description there? I believe he was ma?tre d' at the Fairmont. And then he also worked at like a nightclub after hours. In 1946?well, let me just tell you that they made some really amazing lifelong friends in San Francisco and people that I had the pleasure of meeting even when my son was born and they were still friends and they would still come out and visit. But one very important person was Momma Goldstein. This was a woman and a family. It was the Stones, the Goldsteins, and the Pearls. And these three families?they were two sisters, Momma Goldstein's two daughters. And Momma Goldstein, because it was a port for all the servicemen in San Francisco, her husband was a butcher. So all the servicemen would come to her home and she would always have a huge pot of chicken soup and matzo balls on the stove for these servicemen. STEVE: She was the USO for all the Jewish boys in the service. WENDY: I had the pleasure of going to meet Momma Goldstein, and not long after she passed away. But when Steven and I had begun dating, we made a trip to San Francisco and we went to her home. STEVE: Oh, I wanted to show her. WENDY: Yes. Well, of course, you wanted to show me off to her?And all of her walls were filled with pictures of servicemen. STEVE: I was up there. Photos of Jewish servicemen. STEVE: During World War II, my Uncle Bernie was also stationed in San Francisco and as the story goings was dating one of the Stone?s daughters? 13 WENDY: He actually dated one of Momma Goldstein's daughters. STEVE: He went to the USO house of Momma Goldstein. And the Stones had two daughters, Martha and Mildred, two really nice Jewish girls. My uncle was dating one of them. WENDY: Which one, by the way? STEVE: It was Mildred. WENDY: Okay. Well, he chose wisely then. STEVE: Yes. Anyway, of course, nothing really happened because it was wartime and everybody was dating everybody and having fun. Okay, so you do go into the service. STEVE: I went to Vietnam after high school, just after I graduated high school. I have to go through San Diego boot camp, which is in San Diego. And my home port to go from San Diego to Vietnam on the USS Enterprise CVAN- 65 as a builder heavy (carpenter). So my Uncle Bernie says to me, he says, ??Wow, while you're in San Francisco,? he says, ?look up Momma Goldstein and see if anything is going on.? He gives me the number and I call up Momma Goldstein. Low and behold, she still has the Jewish USO going on in San Francisco, all these years, for the guys in Vietnam, too. I go over there and I meet her and I see the walls are just covered with Jewish boys. She knew every name. WENDY: It made you cry when you saw it. STEVE: She knew every single name of every single boy that was on this wall. Bless her heart. STEVE: And she says, ?He's deceased; he's alive; he's deceased.? It was unbelievable. WENDY: She kept in touch with them all the years, all the years. STEVE: Mildred is now married and she has two daughters and a son. 14 STEVE:. Because I was a past commander here in Vegas of the Jewish War Veterans. When she passed away I called up the Jewish post in San Francisco in her area and I told them who Momma Goldstein was?she was the kind of person where if you went to the USO in San Francisco they would say if you're a Jewish boy, ?You can go to Momma Goldstein's.? I asked the post commander ?Do me a favor. She just passed away and I would like for a couple of honor guard veterans to go and be present at her funeral,? which they did. That's wonderful. Well, that's a great story. How old were you when you moved to Las Vegas? STEVE: I was one year old. What brought your dad here? STEVE: He knew all the guys. He went with Dave Berman and they reopened the Flamingo Hotel. WENDY: Well, don't forget there was the Fontainebleau in Florida, and so all of the people that went to Fontainebleau visited The Palm Restaurant. That's how he got to San Francisco. Then, of course, he [went] from San Francisco then to the Flamingo. STEVE: Yes, he probably got a call and the guys said come to the Flamingo with Dave and reopen the Flamingo because they had just eliminated Benjamin Siegel, which I have the letter, the actual letter that they gave everybody was a memo letter from Moe Sedway, Flamingo Hotel Manager.