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I agree.In this audio clip, Mustafa Richards talks about his job as a casino porter and his promotion to bell captain at the Imperial Palace.
Mustafa Richards oral history interview, 2013 March 10. OH-01563. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nev
English
I was a casino porter. Then Ralph Engelstad's brother, Richard, came and asked me one day actually, it was the casino head who came and asked me, but Richard had told him to. He said do you want to go to the bell desk? He said we're going to go up to the big hotel; do you want to be a bellman? I said bellman? I said no; I'm satisfied here. He said you don't like money? I said do bellmen make more money than a casino porter? He said yes. I didn't know anything about Vegas. The shift didn't bother me; I didn't care. Yeah, but they put me on the bell desk. I went to the bell desk and I stayed in that bell desk for about twenty-five years, which I was the only black bellman for a long time. I was the first black bell captain and the only black bell captain, at least when I was there. That became a very good job for me. I became a Muslim while I was there. I stopped drinking when I was there. Because I was running luggage at that point, I was studying, had little notes in my pocket and I'd study the Arabic as I was walking back and forth to rooms. It just became a good experience. When I became bell captain and worked the bell desk, it was a very good experience both from a financial point of view although I didn't save any money; I made sure of that. I told my wife one day, I said, I saved you and my daughters from that awful lifestyle of those who are rich; I protected you from overabundance of wealth.