Transcript of interview with Mae Farei by Martha Jane Cunningham, February 24, 1980

UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei i An Interview with Mae Farei An Oral History Conducted by Martha Jane Cunningham 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 Mae Farei ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2017 UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 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 Mae Farei iv Abstract On February 24, 1980, Martha Cunningham interviewed her aunt, Mae Farei (born 1909 in Illinois), about her experiences living in Nevada. Farei first talks about the development of the Downtown and Strip areas. She then discusses work at the Twin Lakes Lodge and Stardust as a housekeeper, and she later mentions some of the recreational activities available to those in Nevada. She also mentions the importance of Nellis Air Force Base and expresses her appreciation for living in Southern Nevada. UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei v UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei vi UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei vii UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 1 This tape is a project in Nevada history, Professor Roske’s class at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This is an oral interview with a longtime Las Vegan resident. The informant is Mae Farei. The date is the 24th of February, 1980. The time is approximately six p.m. The place of this interview is at 2275 Clinton Lane, Las Vegas, Nevada in the home of the informant, Mae Farei. The collector is myself; my name is Martha Jane Cunningham. I reside at 1741 Harmon Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview is being conducted with only two people present: the informant and the collector. Since the individual being interviewed is a relative of mine, she is affectionately known as Aunt Mae, and that’s the way that I will be referring to her during the interview. Okay, Aunt Mae, if we could just relax and get on with this, I’d like to talk to you a little bit about how you came to Las Vegas, a little bit about your life since you’ve been here—perhaps some of the other places that you’ve lived in Nevada. And I’d like you to just relax and give me as much information as you can remember about your years in Las Vegas. First of all, would you mind telling me how old you are and how long you’ve lived in Nevada? Well, I’m seventy years old. I’ve been in Nevada twenty-five years. Aunt Mae, can you tell me about when you came to Las Vegas and why? Well, I lived in California, had lived there since 1937 when I left Illinois, and moved to Lake Tahoe, California—that was three miles (unintelligible) the Nevada line. And for eighteen years, I lived there and did all my shopping in Reno, and had wanted to live in Las Vegas all those years. So, finally, in 1955, I came to Las Vegas to stay. What prompted you to make the move? First, I came to Las Vegas on a vacation and liked it so well, I went back to California and moved everything I had to Las Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 2 Did you have a family? I had had a family. I had four daughters—they were all on their own at that time. Since this is a Nevada history project, Aunt Mae, you mentioned about living at Lake Tahoe and doing all your shopping in Reno—wasn’t that quite a ways to do your shopping, to have to go to do your shopping? Could you tell us a little bit about what it was like living there at that time? Yes, Reno was a very small town, and it was about forty-five miles from where I lived into Reno, by way of Carson City, and sixty miles if I went over to what used to be, oh, Route 40 is now Route 80. And it was a long ways in the wintertime. But we had to do it; it was the only place. Did you have a car, did you drive? Oh, yes. We had a ’37 Chevy for years when I lived at Lake Tahoe, and it was a very good car and took us everywhere we needed to go. Our children all went to school at Lake Tahoe, grade school at least, and graduated from the school of Truckee, California. Could you, in making a comparison between living in, say, northern Nevada and living in southern Nevada, which do you like best? Well, when I lived at Lake Tahoe, I loved it, ‘cause we were young and able to cope with the deep snow. But now, I wouldn’t want to live there. It’s a beautiful place, but Las Vegas is more like where I want to be at this kind of time in my life. After leaving northern Nevada and moving to Las Vegas, I’d like to get your ideas of what your first impressions were of Las Vegas? Well, I liked Las Vegas as soon as I’d seen it because it was a small town, and it was so beautiful here. The weather was great, and it was well-lighted downtown. They had a great police force UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 3 here with walking police on the main streets, and it was so well-lit up that I thought it would be a wonderful place to live. I loved the weather. Did you spend a lot of time Downtown, in Downtown Las Vegas, or more in the outlying areas? No. All of our time we had for recreation was spent Downtown, mostly on Fremont Street. There was very few places on the Strip at that time. There was—I think the Desert Inn was there and the Old Frontier and the El Rancho—there was about three or four places down there. We used to go down there—at that time, we could go to any of the shows for five dollars. Are you talking about the big shows now? Oh, yes. The main shows with real, live stars at that time were five dollars per person. Anyway, it was a beautiful place to live because it was so warm, and the weather was just perfect here. Where’s the first place you lived in Las Vegas, what area of town? When I first came, I stayed a few days at the Union [Plaza] Hotel. It was on, just south Main Street right off of Fremont. I stayed here a few days, then I went to the Sun Newspaper, which was just down on Main Street and talked to a wonderful lady there—I’ve forgotten her name, I wish I could remember it—but she told me that I could get a job and not to get discouraged, that it was a wonderful place to live. So after a few days, I got a job about two miles out of town as a housekeeper at Twin Lakes Lodge. At that time, it was owned by the St. John family. They had fifty units, and I was the housekeeper there. Mostly, the tenants were divorces from other states. I remember one was the wonderful Carol Channey, got a divorce there. Well, then it was kind of a resort area where people— It was a resort. They had all kinds of swimming pools and lakes, and it was out in the country, and all their water was furnished by artesian wells—they didn’t have any artificial wells there at UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 4 all at that time, or the water wasn’t city water. It was just from artesian wells. And then, the St. Johns sold the Twin Lakes Lodge to the city, and right now it’s called the Lorenzi Park. Well, for heaven’s sakes, that’s interesting. Do you know when that sale took place, how long it’s been since that occurred? No, I really don’t know. I would say about, well, to fifteen years ago. You mentioned one celebrity that you met while you worked there—could you think of any others? Well, I remember Evelyn Hayes, and she was a very popular person at that time. And most of the others were just wealthy people from New York, mostly from New York, I would say. How big an area was that, Twin Lakes? I don’t know how many acres. It seemed to me like it was forever because it was way out of town. The people Downtown said it was two miles out there, but there wasn’t any houses or businesses or anything out that way. There were just open deserts until you got to Twin Lakes Lodge at that time. What shift did you work? I lived there at the Lodge. They furnished me—I got two hundred dollars a month and my room, and I stayed right there at the Lodge. I was on duty from seven in the morning till five in the evening, and then I was on call during the night, because I was the only housekeeping department. In other words, you were the only housekeeper that was on duty at that time? Yes, I was the only housekeeper they had at that time. What did people do for recreation, that stayed there? UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 5 Well, they had a big swimming pool, they had horses that you could ride, and they had a nice little bar and recreation room where you could play room or any table tennis or any of those things. And they had hundreds of ducks and a fishing pond; it was just sort of an out-of-town recreation place. Well, Aunt Mae, can you give me some information about other places that you’ve worked here in Las Vegas? Well, I only worked one year at Twin Lakes Lodge because I married Shelley Clark, at that time, it was 1956, and he worked for the state highway department from Nevada. And we bought a mobile home and moved it up to Shady Acres on North Main, which 1001 North Main. We lived there ten years. Did you work during that time? While I lived there in Shady Acres, I worked on the Strip; I started working on the Strip. The Culinary Union got me the jobs, and their office at that time was upstairs over the Golden Nugget. That’s Downtown on Fremont Street. I don’t remember how long they were there, but they got me my first job on the Strip, which was at the Old Frontier. At that time, they called it the Old Frontier. There was— Is that the Frontier that we know of now? Well, I think now they call it the New Frontier. Oh. At that time, it was called the Old Frontier, and they had a Western Village out in the back. They call kinds of old stores and old jailhouses and things that had been brought off of the desert. And at that time, a lot of people said that Roy Rogers had bought all that stuff out of that old Western UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 6 town they had and was going to move it. And I don’t know where, if he did move it, where he moved it to, but I know it disappeared. Maybe some of it can be found in his museum in Apple Valley. Yes, I wouldn’t be surprised; that’s probably where it is. How long did you work at the Frontier? About a year. What did you do there? Oh, I was in the housekeeping department. I kept, get the girls ready to go out in the mornings and get the linen distributed around where it belonged and things like that. And I worked— Were you a member of the Culinary Union when you worked here? Oh, yes. Yes. I had joined the Culinary Union before I came to Las Vegas in California, and I just transferred to Las Vegas at that time. Did you find the working conditions were better since you were a member of the Culinary Union than when you worked at Twin Lakes? Oh, yes. The wages were better, and you had better IRs—of course, I didn’t have all that night thing to do, so it was much better belonging to the Culinary Union. Aunt Mae, can you tell me a little bit about the Frontier when you worked there, what it was like? Well, I can’t remember how many cottages they had, but that’s all they had at that time was just cottages scattered around over the grounds, which was lots of trees and was just sort of like an old Western village there, and we had quite a bit of walking to do from place to place. What year are we talking about now? UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 7 I’m pretty sure that that was about 1957. And then Bugsy Siegel had started to build the Stardust—that’s what they called it later. I don’t know what he was going to name it, but he fell dead about that time at another place. So, that Stardust sat there for about a year unfinished, and then they started to finish it for—Max Factor, really, was the boss I guess, but John Factor, his brother, was our boss. I went to work at the Stardust from John Factor. I helped set it up; I can’t remember what year that was, but I think it was 1959. How come you, to leave the Frontier? Well, the Stardust was a much bigger and better place at that time. It looked like it was gonna be a good place to work, and I decided to go there. And I worked for John Factor, which was a wonderful person at that time, for about a year or maybe more, and the Desert Inn bought the Stardust from John Factor. Okay, Aunt Mae, how long did you work for the Stardust, and then where did you work after that, and can you tell me a little bit about that? I worked for the Stardust for eighteen months. In the meantime, the Desert Inn bought the Stardust. Wilbur Clark owned the Desert Inn and had a wonderful housekeeper there at Desert Inn; her name was Betty Ozier, O-Z-I-E-R, and she took over, also, the Stardust. And she juggled everybody around and took me to the Desert Inn. And I worked there—the Desert Inn was a much easier place to work. I didn’t have as much walking, and I worked there six years. Well, Aunt Mae, you’ve worked several places on the Strip—I imagine you’ve seen some changes that have gone on in that area and among the hotels there. Can you describe some of the things that were particularly meaningful to you? Well, when I went to work for the Desert Inn, at that time they had what they called a Garden Hotel—all the rooms were little cottages scattered over quite a bit of ground. They had beautiful UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 8 olive trees, and every cottage was separate from anyone else, and they also had the golf course there, which was beautiful at that time. And then, Wilbur Clark died—I don’t remember what year—but it was sold to Moe Dalitz and some other owners. Anyway, everything began to change at that time, and that was, say— About what year was that, can you give us an estimate? I would say about 1960 it began to change. Big companies were taking over, and they were building on the Strip one place after another, and I began to think about retiring. You didn’t particularly like the changes that you saw then? It was all right for people that really needed to work and for young people. And I could say that it was getting to be too much. They built the high rise at the Desert Inn about that time, and I think it was nine stories. Was that the first high rise that was ever built on the Strip? As far as I can remember, it was the first high rise. And they used to have lots of real stars there, like Liberace and Harry Belafonte and—I can’t remember all the names. Aunt Mae, was the Desert Inn, then, the last place you worked before you retired? Yes. I retired in 1964. My husband and I both retired in 1964, and then we moved our mobile home next door to the Showboat. At that time, it was Sunset (unintelligible) on 2860 Fremont Street, and now it’s a parking lot for the Showboat. Aunt Mae, you’ve talked to me about your work and how you’ve seen things change in the field that worked in. Can you tell me what it was like twenty years ago when you wanted to go out and have fun in Las Vegas? What did you do for leisure? We spent lots of hours on Fremont Street. They had wonderful shows there then—lounge shows they called ‘em. You could go in any club and see wide open lounge shows. At that time, Wayne UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 9 Newton was just starting at the Fremont Hotel, which had been built on Fremont Street, and another one we’d seen that we loved so much was Judy Lynn at the Golden Nugget—Golden Nugget had been there for years. And you could go to any big show on the Strip for five dollars. Gordon MacRae used to be there, and Lionel Hampton, and lots of others. And we also liked the desert. We’d take long drives out into the desert with a lunch and spend the day. And a lot of weekends when we wasn’t working, we went to Lake Mead and slept on the Beach with just a quilt and our sleeping bag, stayed there the whole weekend, and came back to Las Vegas, just ready to go back to work. Did you like to fish? We loved to fish, and we ate the fish that we caught, because at that time, we didn’t make a lot of money, and everybody tried to eat as cheap as they could, and we both loved fish, so we ate lots of fish. And we loved the beautiful sunsets and the sunrises over the mountains. You talk about spending time on Fremont Street; now, Aunt Mae, be honest with me, did you enjoy gambling a little bit? Oh, yes, we both gambled. My husband liked to play keno, and he was very lucky at it. He won a few big pots, and I loved the slot machines and still do. It was really exciting to us because my husband and I both came from California, and we loved the excitement of Las Vegas, and we still do. Well, Aunt Mae, you’ve talked about traveling around a little bit in Southern Nevada and some, like going to the lake—are there any other places of particular interest that you liked to go? We’ve always loved to go to the Valley of Fire. It used to be very, just like going out into the desert, the wild desert. Now, it’s a state park; they got all kinds of utilities there like picnic tables UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 10 and water and things that they never had at that time. But it’s a beautiful place to go. Even my children and their families that come here now loved to go to the Valley of Fire, and the lake is always beautiful any time of the year, especially in the spring when the wildflowers is in bloom. Where’s the best place around here to see some beautiful wildflowers? The best place, I think, from here to see wildflowers is go up to Vegas Wash; from here to Vegas Wash, you will see lots of wildflowers. If you go to Henderson and cut off towards the lake, you will find lots of wildflowers in the spring, and that’s about April. If you wait too long, the wildflowers get too old; they don’t show up very much. Are there any other places that you want to mention that you still go to, perhaps, that you used to go to, say, fifteen years ago or twenty years ago? Well, twenty years ago, you could go to the Tecopa Hot Springs; at that time, that’s all it was, just the hot spring coming out of the ground over towards Death Valley. Of course, Death Valley is a wonderful place to go in the winter, but I wouldn’t try it in the summer, ‘cause it’s too hot there. But Tecopa Hot Springs, now, has built up a wonderful place for people with arthritis or anything, if they have lots of motel rooms there, beautiful motel rooms, and places for trailers, or you can take your motor home there and they can hook you up, and you can take these wonderful hot baths there that are very good for your health. Well now, Aunt Mae, I’ve been there to Tecopa Hot Springs with you, and I agree with you, it’s a lovely place and there’s a lovely motel there, but I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like when you first started going there. What was the difference? The difference was, it was out in the open. You just lived in your own car. We took our old car and went there, and we slept in the car and took these hot baths that was out—they had four or three little bushes around ‘em, and when we found the first hotel or motel, I guess they called it, UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 11 to stay, we stayed there for one dollar per night. They had a community kitchen where anyone that came along bought their own food and cooked their food in the big community kitchen. This ends side one. Please turn tape— Tell me about some other places that you’ve lived here in Las Vegas. I know that you didn’t always stay at that trailer park next to the Showboat. What happened subsequently after you lived there? Well, October the 1st, 1975, I married Sam Farei. And he had a little home on 2275 Clinton Lane, and that’s where I live now. Aunt Mae, what happened to your first husband? Well, he had a stroke and he spent three years in a rest home out at Beverly Manor. He was treated wonderful there, and I was, too, because I spent three or four hours every day for three years by his bedside, and they did everything they could for him, and he was treated wonderful, but he passed away in June the 29th, 1974. And then you lived alone for a while, didn’t you, Aunt Mae? About a year, I’d say, or maybe eighteen months. And then I married Sam Farei October the 1st, 1975, about a year, I guess, I lived alone. Did you find it fairly easy living in Las Vegas as a widow? Yes. I think it’s the most wonderful place in the world for widows, because everyone is so good to you here. There’s several numbers you could call, or—all the neighbors are wonderful. It’s just a good, clean place to live. Okay. And then, where did you move when you married Sam? When I married Sam Farie, I moved to 2275 Clinton Lane. And where is that? UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 12 Well, they built this place quite a few years ago, I’d say, at least twenty-four years ago. It’s where you buy your own lot. At that time, you could get a lot here for around $1,300, and now, I think, the lots are $12,000. But it’s still a beautiful place to live; there’s lots of trees and it’s shady, and Sam bought this place at least seventeen years ago, and it’s my home, and I love it. What part of town is it situated in? Well, it’s still Las Vegas, but it’s close to North Las Vegas. It’s just off of East Lake Mead Boulevard, and we go down Lake Mead and we’re close to the Silver Nugget and Safeway and the post office—all of those are North Las Vegas. But it’s real close to home, and everybody is good to you there. These are lots that you put your own mobile home on, isn’t that right? Yes, that’s right. And they have new ones now, they’re building new ones around, but of course, it costs a lot more to live in them, or to buy them, but of course the wages are better now than they were when I came here twenty-five years ago. Aunt Mae, now, how did you and Sam live, what did you do for recreation? We went out to eat four or five times a week, played a few nickels in the slot machines, and we both loved the desert atmosphere where we live; it’s not crowded out here. And then we just loved being in the desert, I guess. We weren’t crowded, and the people are so wonderful here—even the tourists that we even met from everywhere, from Canada, Florida, New York, everywhere they come, they want to be friends with us, and we loved to be friends with them. And everything is just like it should be. It’s just a good, good place to live. Well, Aunt Mae, I know you’re living alone again now, you’re a widow again. Sam died in March of last year; can you tell me about your life now? How do you spend your days? UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 13 Well, of course I’m seventy years old, and I don’t want to stop doing what I’m doing. I drive my car, and I go where I want to go. I try to spend as much time as I can with my neighbors and watch ‘em get married and grow up and leave home. And all of people that have been here for twenty years enjoy Las Vegas, or we wouldn’t be here. Aunt Mae, do you spend as much time down on Fremont Street as you did when you first came here? No, not as much time. But I still love Fremont Street. And we used to park our car at the Union Depot, the Southern Union Depot—now, it’s the Union Hotel—and walk Downtown. We walked all up and down Fremont Street. But of course it’s different than it was in those days. There’s not any walking policemen. But we always feel like we’re at home when we’re on Fremont Street. Are there any other places that you like to go to now? Well, they’re beginning to build out on Boulder Highway, which we used to say, twenty years ago, that would never happen, but we got Sam’s Town and the Nevada Casino and all those places out on Boulder Highway. I think people used to think that Boulder Highway would build up faster than it has, but at least it’s starting to build up now, and I think it’s still a good place to be, up on Boulder Highway between Henderson and Las Vegas. Well, now, Aunt Mae, I know how much you love Southern Nevada, and I agree with you a hundred percent, but there must be some little something that you don’t like about it here. Is there some one thing or maybe a couple of minor things that you wish were better than they are, or that have changed, perhaps, that you’d like to see improved? It’s awful hard for me to say that there’s anything here I don’t like, but of course, the crowds are getting bigger. It’s very hard for us natives to get a reservation on the Strip to see a show, but I UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 14 still love Southern Nevada. I love the desert and the beautiful mountains and the sunsets and sunrise, and the weather. This winter, there have been floods all over California and Arizona, and all the places around us. But we have been sitting up here high and dry, enjoying the excitement and all the people from other places. Aunt Mae, I know you live very near Nellis Air Force Base now. Do you find that inconvenient, or have you seen, and can you tell me about some changes that you might have seen over the years as far as the base is concerned? Well, I’m sure there’s been a lot of changes. I can’t even remember Nellis Air Force when I first came here. I remember the Navy base was up above there; finally, it was probably fifteen years ago, Nellis Air Force Base bought out that Navy base—I don’t remember what they called it. I think it was called Lake Mead. Lake Mead Navy Base, that’s right. Now, it’s all Nellis Air Force Base As far as I’m concerned, Nellis Air Force Base has really helped Las Vegas. They have a wonderful hospital there, and of course, wonderful places to live. And I think that it is a very good place. I love it. And of course, my husband Sam was a disabled veteran, and I get to go there; I used the card, the disabled veteran’s widow’s card, to go there and buy my supplies. And they’re cheaper there—and all the wonderful young people that are there. And my niece works at the hospital there, and it’s—I think Nellis Air Force Base has helped bring Las Vegas to where it is today. The planes don’t bother you? No, I’ve lived here close to where all the planes take off and come in, and to me, when they go out, I say, well, we’re starting another day, and when they come in, I think all our kids are coming home, and I love every minute of it. UNLV University Libraries Mae Farei 15 That’s a very wonderful sentiment, Aunt Mae. And I know for a fact you do. Well, Aunt Mae, I want to thank you very much for giving me your time to do this interview. I know you thoroughly enjoy your life here in Southern Nevada. You’ve shown me a beautiful, beautiful way of life here, and I am just as enthusiastic as you are about it here. I have not had the opportunity to see the changes that you have, but in your opinion, they seem to all be for the better, and I think that’s encouraging for everyone. And I hope you have many, many years of good and prosperous life here and that I can share many of them with you. All I can say now is, come to Las Vegas. We welcome you. Thank you very much, Aunt Mae.