Transcript of interview with Marian Beltran Decaro by Frank Murillo, March 27, 1977

UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro i An Interview with Marian Beltran Decaro An Oral History Conducted by Frank Murillo 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 Marian Beltran Decaro ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 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 Marian Beltran Decaro iv Abstract On March 27, 1977, Frank Murillo interviewed housewife Marian Beltran Decaro (born September 7th, 1914 in Flagstaff, Arizona) in her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers the history of Las Vegas, Nevada’s first Mexican restaurant. Mr. Decaro is also present during the interview. Additionally, Mrs. Decaro recalls the first atomic bomb test in Las Vegas and also offers an overview of the growth of the area, overall, including the development and demographic details of such distinct historical communities as the Westside. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 1 Testing one, two, three, testing, one, two, three. This is an oral interview with Mrs. Marian Beltran. Oral History of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas. I am the interviewer, Frank Murillo. Mrs. Beltran, when did you come to Nevada? To Nevada, I came in 1938. We came from California up to Tonopah and we stayed there one winter, it was real bad. So then we decided on our way back to Arizona that we’d stop in Vegas and see what it was like and I liked it and stayed here. That was the end of—about the middle of ’39. Did it take you very long to figure out that you’d like to stay here in Las Vegas? Oh no. The weather was beautiful and I liked it. It was a small community. I liked what I saw the first couple of weeks we were here. You must’ve come at an ideal time as far as the weather was concerned? Yes. Because I think it was about in September. It wasn’t too hot but it was like our good old Arizona weather. Yes. I think, I believe it, Las Vegas and Arizona. They got pretty close weather. Yes. Same. Yes. Did you come with your family? Or? Yes. I came with my husband and a small child. And when we decided we’d stay here, we looked around for a little business to open up and we opened a little restaurant on Second Street. And I was curious about your family, you had a husband, what was his name? Oh, his name was Kennedy Beltran and my daughter was Francis Beltran. Oh. How old was Francis, at this time? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 2 Francis was about—well, she completed two years that November, here, of ’39. I see. I know that you’ve live here in Las Vegas all these years, did Francis, she was with you all this time, wasn’t she? Oh yes. Uh-huh. She went to elementary at Las Vegas Elementary School here and she graduated from the big Las Vegas High, until she got married and left. Oh, she decided to leave to greener pastures? (Laughs) Well, wherever her husband took her. (Laughs) Wow, that’s good. Did—you said that you opened up a little restaurant? Yes. When we came here we looked for a place and we found a little place on Second Street that used to belong to Williams and we rented that place. There was a Safeway across from the, from our little restaurant and we stayed there a couple of years, I believe. (Unintelligible)? About two, three, years, three years, and then we moved to—on Main Street, under the Sal Sagev Hotel, which belonged to Mr. John F. Miller. I see. Then, the first restaurant you had I believe, you say it was across the Safeway. Mm-hmm. And on the—today it’s Casino Center. Mm-hmm. And just next to the Four Queens there. Mm-hmm. Yes. And—so you, you had never been in the restaurant business before? Oh yes. Mm-hmm, in California. Oh you—you had an idea? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 3 We had a restaurant before. A little one but one. This first restaurant that you had was, was it very big? In California? No. Here in Las Vegas? Oh no, it was just a small place, a small little place. It had six stools, counters with six stools, and three little tables on the side. That’s all. Ah, six counter stools. Mm-hmm. I see. Did you have very many customers? At one time the place would fill up? Oh yes, after we got, you know, for a few weeks or so then we began to get good, a lot of customers, a lot of people that used to work at the courthouse. ‘Cause the courthouse was just down the block. And they would come in and eat Mexican food. Wow. I see. The courthouse was very close to it (unintelligible)? It was real close, yes. Mm-hmm. Just the next block on Carson. See, I was between Fremont and Carson on Casino Center. Right. And then the courthouse was on the next block. I see. Between Carson and Bridger. Mm. And did you also have a lot of customers from—that were working at the casinos? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 4 Well, we had, yes, a lot of bartenders, and a lot of times there was a lot of bartenders that used to order, when we first came, used to order a dinner or something, or some kind of Mexican food and then we’d take it down there to them. Wow. I see. At the place. At the bar. Wherever they were at—which was only the, right only one time, one block there, which was the Boulder Club, mostly. And the Kiva Club, which was on the corner of where the Golden Nugget is today and other little bars of the day. I see. You and your husband ran the business by yourselves? Oh yes. Yes. And you or your husband would go and deliver this food then? He would. I would stay at the restaurant. I see. Did, would he stay very long? (Laughs) Oh no, no, he’d just went and delivered and came right back. Yes. That’s good then, glad to hear that. (Laughs) So, afterwards, you got acquainted there and— Then we moved. I hear that you moved to another location. We moved on Main Street under the Sal Sagev Hotel. And then, we were there for twenty years till ’59, we stayed there. Oh that’s— I think it was in ’42, we moved to the Sal Sagev, and, which belonged to the Sal Sagev and we stayed there till ’59, December of ’59. Oh that’s quite a long time there. What made you decide to move to another location? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 5 Well, it was a better location. Better building. Alright. The other one was kind of run down, you know, and I thought they’d take it off soon, I mean destroy it sometime and build something else. And we knew the Sal Sagev wouldn’t, they wouldn’t come down right off, anyway. (Laughs) They did. But not—not at that time. Yes. And how did you become aware that you could get a place next to Sal Sagev for a little restaurant there? Well, it was, the place was for rent. So we just went down there to see if we could rent it and Mr. Miller said, “Yes.” We complied to his rules and—(Laughs) we could rent it. Oh, great. Did the Sal Sagev have a restaurant at that time? Yes. They had a restaurant but since we weren’t doing the same kind of food that they were, well, they, he didn’t mind. Because they had American food and we only had Mexican food. I see. At this time do you remember if there were any other Mexican restaurants in Las Vegas? Not the kind of food we were serving. They had a Mexican restaurant on First Street but he served more of a regular dinners than—I only served just regular, what you call, Mexican food, today, tamales and chilaquiles, tacos, and— Bowl of chili? Chili. I believe, did Mr. Miller like to come and eat? Oh yes, Mr. Miller used to come and eat chili beans there. He used to like it. All the time. I see. And did—he had you on a lease? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 6 Oh yes. We had a lease. We got a lease from him but it was all in his favor. (Laughs) If he didn’t like us he would just tell us to get out. That’s, he was a shrewd business man. I see. Well, he must’ve approved of you being there because you were there— He left us there twenty years. Yes. That’s a long time. Mm-hmm. And was, what was the name of your restaurant there? Well, when we started, we started on First Street, we called it the Mexican Kitchen and still when we were at the Sal Sagev, that we moved up there, it was still the Mexican Kitchen for quite a time and then we decided to change the name to Tampico. That was in the later years. I see. Is there a reason why you picked the name Tampico? Well, I’ve, I don’t know really the—we just probably liked it better. (Laughs) And how ‘bout the restaurant, was it very big? No. We didn’t actually have a big, big restaurant, no. We had at the Sal Sagev, we had a counter with eight stools, and it had four booths and round tables for four families, big families. I see. Did—I guess you couldn’t get bigger? Seat more people? Well, we didn’t want to. Oh. We didn’t want to get any bigger. We didn’t want to have a big, big restaurant. You could only get so big. ‘Cause there’s only so much room anyway, to begin with. Well, in that restaurant we probably could have gotten another building but that wasn’t our idea. We just wanted to make a nice living and everything. I see. Did you have your separate entrance to your restaurant or only one entrance or—? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 7 Yes. Yes. It was on Main Street. It didn’t have no connection to the hotel at all. But you were—the building was one building? Yes. It was big, one very big building. What was next to you? To your restaurant? Anything? There was a beauty shop next to it, which belonged to the hotel. And then, there was the entrance to the hotel, and then on the corner was a bar. I see. And the casino is, well, (unintelligible)? Well, they didn’t have a casino at the hotel at that time. Uh-huh. Where the casino is today on the Fremont was a restaurant that was Sal Sagev restaurant. And then they had a barber shop and other stores down more on Fremont. So Sal Sagev weren’t into the casino business at this time? No, no, no. They didn’t have no gambling at all. Strictly a hotel and restaurant beauty shop. Mm-hmm. I see. Well, they might’ve had a few, in the bar, they had slot machines. But that was all, no gambling like it is today. And we had slot machines in our restaurant, three slot machines: a dime, a nickel, and a quarter machine. I see. Do you ever take any chances on your own slot machines? Well, we play but never, not, never been much of a gambler. Uh-huh. (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 8 (Laughs) That’s good to hear. You can’t make it in Vegas if you’re a gambler. (Laughs) Oh, I can believe that. (Laughs) So how is it that you had your slot machines in your restaurant that—? Well, they used to—a fellow would come and install them for you and then he would give you a percentage of what he got out of it. About what kind of percentage like fourth or half or—? Mm. More like— Ten percent? It wasn’t much. Mm-hmm. I don’t think it was half. I don’t know, maybe less than that. I see. And did you have to fill some kind of a character affidavit to be able to handle slot machines in your restaurant? Well, well, just what he brought around, and he said, well, you sign these here and that means that you’re gonna take this much percentage of it and it’s, the slot machines are mine and whatever it is we pay out of here and whatever is left you get. (Laughs) I see. And hmm, it, was the—having the slot machines very profitable for you? Well, it helps. It helps? Yes. We had a jukebox, too, which did more, I think, than the slot machines. Everybody used to play the Mexican records we had there. (Laughs) Oh, where did you get these Mexican records? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 9 I used to buy them in L.A. when I went there. Would you take a trip to L.A. and buy them? Oh, we’d take a trip once a year to L.A. and get (unintelligible). And we ordered all our—‘cause I used to do all our food there. All our—from the beginning. And we’d order our corn and our cheeses from California. They’d come in by train, southern pacific. I see. You didn’t have to go whenever you ordered or to go to L.A.? Oh, no, no, we’d just send in or call in and they’d send it to us. They knew exactly what we wanted. I see. Was this every month that you’d get a shipment from L.A.? Well, more or less every month, yes. And we’d get shipments every month from San Francisco with cheeses that we ordered. Then we’d get them here in the storage and mark a spot in the market, in the meat department, freezer, keep ‘em cool. Oh wow. ‘Cause we ordered a large amount. This market would be willing to keep your, store your cheese for you? Oh yes, oh, we paid for it. I see. Did—in your business did you have many variety of cheeses? Well, no, not too many, but it was a certain kind, a couple of kinds of cheeses, which you couldn’t get in town. Did you get very many Mexican cheese? Well, they were more Italian cheese, which you would call Romano cheese and some other melted cheese like mozzarella, etcetera, which people like. Some like their Mexican food with melted cheese and others like just the other grated cheese. So we kept both kinds. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 10 And what did you make with cheeses? What was—? Oh, enchiladas, and tacos and chilaquiles, and stuff like that. And you seem to have a great variety of different Mexican dishes. Well, well, what we had mostly, what we sold mostly, was tacos and enchiladas and tamales. And I made everything there. Everything was made there. Homemade. It wasn’t—nothing was bought from nobody else. I see. We made our own tortillas. And they wanted to buy the stuff and make it themselves, we’d sell it to them, too. Did—I believe Mexican food takes a long time to prepare, is that right? Right. Right. It does. But you were able to do this on your own? Oh, we used to do, after closing hours, we’d stay there working for the next day, trying to do some, get things ready for the next time. Mm-hmm. All this time that it was just your husband and yourself that ran it? Well, by that time—by the time we were there at the Sal Sagev on Main Street, well, I used to get couple of ladies to come in and help me on the (unintelligible) you know, we had lots to do. Well, they would come in and help me. And then, I had a fellow that came in and did the dishes, washed the—dishwashing. But the rest, the main cooking was done by just my husband and I. Yes. I see. And you also made tortillas, is that right? Oh yes. Wow. We had a machine that could grind our corn and make the tortillas and do everything. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 11 Did you make more corn tortillas than the flour? Yes. More corn. They were—they sold better than the flour tortillas. ‘Cause I guess at that time the American people that lived here, they didn’t know much about, just the corn tortillas because they would eat tacos and enchiladas, which were mostly made with corn. I see. What about the burritos, weren’t they—? No. You didn’t—very few you’d get a call for burritos. (Laughs) They didn’t—I guess they didn’t know what they were. Or if you tell ‘em if you want a burrito that was on the menu, they’d say, “What is that?” (Laughs) Right. Mickey Rooney used to come and eat, enchiladas with and tacos that were at our place in the forties, when he first got married with Martha Vickers and the whole bridal party came over and had dinner there, and I mean him and his wife and those who stood up for him. I think there were about six people, together. And the Martha Ray was there (unintelligible) place. So you had some very famous people there that stopped at your restaurant? Well, yes. Yes. (Unintelligible) Mickey Rooney used to stop there all the time. Did he stop every time he would get married in Las Vegas? Well, not get married, a lot of times he just came here, just—I guess to see shows or something like that. Mm-hmm. And he would always stop by, have something to eat. Did he always have company with him when he stopped? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 12 Ah, yes. He always brought some girl or some friend of his, boyfriend, a friend of his, you know, men friends, things like that (unintelligible) I guess. Mm-hmm. Did would he come late at night? Well, no, no, he wouldn’t come late at night. We were only open till eleven o’clock. So he would have to come before eleven. We open from eleven in the morning till eleven in the afternoon. And how many days of the week were you open? Seven days, seven days, open. The only time we closed was Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Laughs) There wasn’t too much business for Thanksgiving and Christmas? No. Because everybody had their own turkey or ham or whatever it is they made at home and it wasn’t too much business. I mean not enough to and we thought it’d give us a day off, too. Wow. That’s good. You know when we first came here, the Mayor Gragson that used to be our mayor? Yes. He used to have a secondhand store here, him and another fellow, and we bought our first furniture, secondhand furniture, for our restaurant, there. (Laughs) I see. Then, they would have restaurant furniture at the store? Yes. They used to have all kinds of secondhand furniture there and maybe some that had closed, you know. So our first counter and six stools we had and a little table, we got them from Mayor Gragson, his secondhand store. Did you have to put—? That was in the forties. Did you have to put little finishing touches on it (unintelligible)? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 13 Oh yes, paint it and fix it up a little bit more but, yes. Then later we got our better furniture. (Laughs) I was curious, in your restaurant did you have a Mexican décor inside or—? Yes, pictures and things like that. Mm-hmm. Probably— Not a lot but just you know, some, not too many. You picked some up in L.A., of the pictures? Yes. We got pictures in L.A. and put ‘em up. Anything that wouldn’t show too much, you know, that you could keep clean. Not decors, not (unintelligible) and thing like that. ‘Cause they would get dusty. If it was anything like pictures you could clean up and that kind of thing. You mentioned that you would go to L.A. would you drive down there? Or? Oh, we’d go on the train or we’d go on the bus. ‘Cause we didn’t have a car at that time. At that time there used to be a train route? Yes. We’d just— For passengers? Yes. And we just lived across the street from there so we didn’t have far to go. (Laughs) I see. Across the street to you— Well, our restaurant— There was another depot, too? Yes, the, across the street from the Sal Sagev, where the Union Plaza is today, they used to have a bus depot and then farther down, I mean farther back from the bus depot was a train. I see. And most of the—your tourists in, that would come to Las Vegas— Would come, yes, would come on a bus or come on a train. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 14 Mm-hmm. So we had a good tourist’s trade, too. I can see how you were in a very good location. We were in a good spot. Mm-hmm. They would see a restaurant and probably think about stopping there. Mm-hmm. Did your customers, you mentioned you had some famous people come into your restaurant. Did you have any local people come in? Oh yes. Most of the people that were in town, almost, came, all came in to eat at our place. (Unintelligible) I see. And you had—did you have a following from the courthouse that followed you from your old restaurant? Oh yes. They used to come there and eat and then when my daughter was going to school at the Grammar School a lot of the kids I’d known used to come and eat, Mexican food, you know, at the grade school. Then when they were in high school, a lot of them in high school used to come and eat, at noon, have an hour to eat and they’d run up there to you. It was not too far from Las Vegas High School? Actually, no it isn’t. Vegas, let’s see, it’s on Sixth Street, and they used to drive down there or walk down there. My daughter walked to school all the time and come home and eat at noon. What is your daughter’s name? Francis Beltran. And I was wondering if she was any help to you at your restaurant? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 15 Oh yes. When she grew, when she got bigger, she helped at the restaurant; was a waitress and cook and everything else. Mm-hmm. I told her if she didn’t learn anything in school well she could always be a Mexican cook. (Laughs) (Laughs) That’s great. And did, were, what were your prices at your restaurant? Oh, well, we had good prices, of course, like one tamale would cost you thirty-five cents, at that time. And one taco would cost you fifty cents, which a lot of them used to think it was an awful lot of money but there was plenty of meat and you ate one and you didn’t want anymore. I mean you had a salad, you had meat, you had everything in that one. So it wasn’t—it was just a regular meal. ‘Cause a lot of the kids used to come from school and eat one tamale or they’d eat a dish of beans, with tortillas and they say they used to get more out of that than having a sandwich. And did you ever have anybody complain for a fifty cent taco? For what? This taco that was selling for fifty cents at the time. Did anybody ever complain? Well, there was one had complained and I told him (Laughs) I told him what I thought of him. What—what did he say to you? Well, he says, “What do you mean charging tacos, fifty cents a taco?” He says, “Don’t you know down in Mexico they make ‘em for five cents?” He says, “Why don’t you go down to Mexico and learn how to make tacos for five cents?” So I told him, “If you want to eat tacos for five cents, you go down to Mexico and eat ‘em.” (Laughs) (Laughs) That’s the only complaint I ever had. That’s the only one? (Laughs) Yes. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 16 Did—then would ever, they would ever come and order a big order from you? Like special holidays or people would want some preparatory food to make their own Mexican food at home? Oh yes, they used to do it on Christmas holidays, there was quite a few of the Mexican people that lived here and they lived in Sloan. They used to ask for mosses so they could make tamales at home. They’d tell me, plenty of time, tortillas, and things like that. Have it all made for them (unintelligible). Then this was very much part of your business, too? That was part of the business, too, but that was only maybe once or twice a year. It wasn’t all the time. Uh-huh. Or like, if you want, somebody wanted to make a special party for next week, well, they’d order whatever they want for that next week and that was it. Hm. But nothing. It wasn’t all the time. That wasn’t our business. Big business was just selling what we had in there. Yes. And moss takes a—you start it from scratch? Oh yes. You, we used to get the dry corn and cook it with the lime water and then wash it and grind it and then make it. I see. And would you get that many orders for (unintelligible) too? Mm. Well, it depends what they were going to make. ‘Cause see lot of people made tortillas with the corn and a lot of them made tamales. When they made tamales, they would order the corn. But if we made just the tortillas, we’d prepare it with meat. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 17 I see. So they would get all this from you? Mm-hmm. Yes. And did you have very many railroad people stop at your restaurant? Oh yes. The people that used to—a lot of them that used to work at the railroad, you know, the old timers that worked the railroad, they all used to come eat Mexican food at lunch time. See being the only one in town, well, I mean with those, that kind of food, well, (unintelligible) ‘cause when we first came here I don’t think people knew too much about Mexican food. I mean outside of the Mexican people (Laughs). But they got to learn and like it. So they used to come in and eat there. I guess word would spread very fast here? Oh yes. It was a small town. So. Everybody knew right away. There was something going on here. (Laughs) I see. And did—I was wondering about, if you would have a special during the day for lunch or you would serve a meal where it would, they would give you soup or anything else? No. No, I never had that kind of a meal. I just had a special plate which consisted of a tamale, enchilada, taco, and beans, or a different combination that you wanted. I never served (unintelligible). Oh. I mean a regular dinner, Mexican dinner and that. I see. Mexican food is quite spicy and to have good Mexican food it needed a good chile. Where would you get your chile from? We’d get that from California. Everything. Chile and spices and everything (unintelligible) UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 18 Yes. Did you have any connection with Mexico, Santa Fe? No. No, everything was from California. You were closer to California? Mm-hmm. I see. I was wondering did—I guess you saw, could see a lot of the things happening around town. Did, you ever see any more famous people here? Oh yes. I got to see Jane Russell when she was making a movie here, Downtown. I saw Fernando Almas, when he was making a movie at the bus depot. (Tape one ends) We are continuing here again speaking with Mrs. Marian Beltran on her remembrance of the history in Las Vegas. Mrs. Beltran, when you worked at the Mexican restaurant or Mexican Kitchen as you called it, did you see any other famous people? Yes. We saw, I saw Clark Gable when he was here, when his—the plane crashed that killed his wife, Carole Lombard. He was stepping out of the Sal Sagev Hotel and the car was waiting to take him out to where the plane crashed. Was there a lot of people around? Oh yes. There was a lot of people around him but they (unintelligible) Did he have his own private car? No. I think it was cars from here from Vegas. Sheriff’s car, things like that. ‘Cause I think he came in a plane from (unintelligible) and then— You believe, do you know whether or not they had recovered the body of Carole Lombard yet? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 19 I’m not sure but I know that he was going out there to the site but I (unintelligible) already recovered. Why do you think Clark Gable stayed at the Sal Sagev? Well, I think it was the closest Downtown Hotel. It was a nice hotel. I see and was it, had anything to do because it was close to the railroad depot? Probably. Maybe because he came—I don’t know how, whether he flew in or whether he came in the train. If he came in the train, well, that was the closest, or if he wanted anything Downtown with the sheriff department or anything, it was the closest, and the Strip, they only had a few hotels (unintelligible). I see. What about—did you ever see any other famous people—any other famous people would visit your restaurant like Bugsy Siegel or? Well, we saw—Bugsy Siegel used to come to eat at our restaurant while he was building the Flamingo. And what did he look like when he would come to your restaurant? Oh he was—he was like any ordinary man, nice looking, young man. Was he dressed nice? Oh yes. He was always dressed well. And would he always have company with him? Well, he’d have company with him, yes, wherever he’s working or friends. Did you ever go to the Flamingo Hotel? Well, we went to the Flamingo at opening night, that they opened the Flamingo. But it was kind of scary. Nobody was there so we just stayed a little while and left. Ah wow. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 20 It looked kind of funny, you know, nobody was very enthused. We’d gone to the other hotel openings. It was a lot of people but not at the Flamingo the night we went, the first night. I see. And there weren’t you say too many people at that time, inside, at the Flamingo? Well, at the Flamingo, no, there was—looked quite empty and looked like, didn’t look too good. (Laughs) Did it—the Flamingo, did it seem like it was far away from everything? It was—what did the Strip look like at that time? Well, they only had two—they only had the El Rancho and the Last Frontier and the Flamingo at that time. That was just the four hotels they had up. Wow, and it, did it look like it was all by itself? The Flamingo? Mm-hmm. That was way out farther out from the other two hotels that were closer together. I mean they were—not closer but anyway they were not so far and the Flamingo was the farthest one up. And did you ever go to any other openings? Yes. We went when they opened the Moulin Rouge, we went to the opening of that. What made you go? For the press they had. They gave out tickets for the press to go to—before the opening night so we got tickets and it’s being my daughter’s graduation day, well, we went out to the Strip and we saw Tony Curtis and Vivian Lee and Jeff Chandler and they were all going to the Moulin Rouge, so we all went. (Laughs) Now we didn’t go with them but I mean we heard they were going so we had the tickets for the press night, so we went, too. Was that the same night or the following? The same night. UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 21 The same night. The same night of the graduation night. Room 55. Did you stay very long? Yes. For the show they had a show there, that’s what it was for, for the show, had drinks and a show. (Laughs) Was that a night to remember? Oh yes. I, they had a good show out there, too, (unintelligible) I wanted to find out more of Las Vegas, in the years before these, did you notice a big change in Las Vegas? Oh yes. A lot of big changes, yes. Everything was right Downtown. You didn’t have to have cars to go out. You went out to the Flamingo. A lot of people used to even walk out there, you know. People could walk it. That seems like a very long way to walk but— Well, I mean since people were used to walking at that time. Nobody had, not very many cars. And so if you went to, Downtown to do your shopping or anything, you didn’t think nothing of walking, anyplace. Did you have a car at this time? No. I didn’t have a car. And we used to walk where ever we went around town. If we needed a car we rented one and go out to the lake and things like that. Was it very, was it more economical to rent a car? Was it reasonable? Well, I think it was reasonable, yes, you could rent a car for eight dollars and go out to the lake, spend a day and come back. (Laughs) Would that include gas, too? UNLV University Libraries Marian Beltran Decaro 22 No. You had to put your own gas. I see. What about Nellis Air Force Base, do you remember when they opened? Oh yes. When they opened that Nellis Air Base, they used to have, they had this Block 16. Yes. On First Street and before they opened that, they had to take that away, so then the government was willing to have Nellis out here. So we used to have a lot of the boys from Nellis come and eat at our place. We used to have a bus and it’d stop across the street from us in the bus depot and we had a lot of boys from Nellis coming through. Did, would that bus run every day? Oh, it went three of four times a day. And there was always somebody riding it? There was always people. Yes. Always passengers—people that went out there to work and people that were stationed out there. Did Las Vegas, did it grow very big because of Nellis? Oh since Nellis? Yes. It started growing and be a lot of—that’s when the Blacks st