Virginia T. Lanier interview, March 16, 1981: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier i An Interview with Virginia T. Lanier An Oral History Conducted by Heidi G. Hughes 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 Virginia T. Lanier ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 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 Virginia T. Lanier iv Abstract On March 16, 1981, collector Heidi G. Hughes speaks to Virginia T. Lanier at the collector’s home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lanier talks about living on the Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1950’s and 1960’s. She speaks about her experiences riding the bus, working in food service, and what the Strip was like during the time period. UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 5 Okay. Interview with Virginia T. Lanier. Lanier. Lanier. (Laughs). Heidi G. Hughes. Recorded March 16th, 1981. Interviewer’s house. Okay. What was the first place you lived here in Nevada? The first place? My first address? My first home? Yes. My first address? I lived at the Boston Motel on Las Vegas Boulevard South. Oh, about two blocks away from the Sahara Hotel. Okay. What year did you first come? 1954. 1954. And what was this place like? Well, it was a very small place. It was a studio type apartment, which I was very grateful for because the hours I worked, there was no bus after 2:30, so I was very glad to find the Boston Motel on the Strip. And it was, the price was something I felt I could afford temporarily until I found an apartment. What were the rents like? Were they very high? Well the rent was, I thought, was very high then, which is funny right now. It was 100 dollars a month. And I thought 100 dollars a month was just ridiculous. (Laughs) (Laughs) Because I had paid like sixty dollars a month for an apartment, a one bedroom furnished apartment, in Minnesota. So when I came out here, I thought 100 dollars was just too much, which has always been so funny, thinking about it now. Yes. I can imagine. UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 6 Yes, really. Okay. What was the Strip like then? Were there a lot of buildings? There were a lot of buildings Were there a lot of big hotels? There were a lot of big hotels, yes. They weren’t as large and they were not small, of course. They’ve made so many additions now that they look like entirely different hotels. Okay. What was the housing like here in Las Vegas? It was very easy, very easy to find a place. You could move every week or two or every month. There’s always, there’s plenty of room and plenty of apartments. Okay. Were the structures you know, one floor, two floors, or how were they made? Well, they were one floors, most of them one floors. You’d have a few two floors, but the nice part is, they were usually just on one floor. Was there a lot of air conditioning, or most places didn’t have it, or? Well, I was happy to find that most of the places were air conditioned because it’s so hot out here. The swamp coolers were in a lot of places, which I didn’t like. I preferred the refrigerated air. What do you object to in the swamp cooler? Well, they, for me, aren’t very good, because you’re not cool all over, you’re just cool in one spot type thing. And if you have any kind of sinus or if you have any form of arthritis or, it’s aggravating to me, and to a lot of people. They’ve improved upon it now. But for apartments, and to me, I just couldn’t live in the swamp cooler. Very aggravating. Okay. What areas of Las Vegas were most populated as compared to today? UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 7 Well, the areas around the hotels, just by the hotels. The transportation’s safe because the transportation wasn’t too good. It wasn’t around the clock like it is now. The buses stop running, a lot of people didn’t have cars, and the people, like the couples both worked, they had one car, so people tried to live close to the hotels. There were a few that lived out, but I didn’t know about those because I had to live close. I didn’t have a car and I was working at night. So I really didn’t discover Las Vegas for a while because I just worked six days a week, six nights a week. So with one day off, you really didn’t explore too much. Okay. What kind of tourists came? And were there, did they come in great numbers? No, they didn’t come in great numbers like they do today. They came in much smaller numbers, in couples, two, four, six, there weren’t large groups like there are today. They’ve worked on that over the years and more people are traveling today because they can’t make it on their own. So money-wise, the larger groups are much more conducive. And a lot of people who’ve never been out of the backyard will now travel because they know they’ll be with a group of people. But years ago, they came in smaller groups. More individualized thing in the hotels and so forth. That part we miss now. We miss today. We’ve gotten completely away from that. Okay. What kind of tourists came? Were they high rollers or were they—? Very high rollers. Very exclusive. They had, some of the hotels, where they, the high rollers, they welcomed several times a year. You don’t see those too much today. There was very high rollers, oh yes. So you’re saying that Las Vegas was geared mostly to the richer individuals? Yes, yes, yes. But they catered to the general public, but it was really geared for certain groups just could afford to come. UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 8 Okay. Were there a lot of cars here in the valley? Or did they use mass transit? Or how did a person get around? Well, it was easier in the daytime and early evening to travel by bus because the bus ran on the Strip, even then in the early years, every fifteen-twenty minutes. So you were, if you got, lived near the Strip, anywhere near the Strip, you were sure that you were gonna get to work. So you really didn’t worry about a car. And it was nice and you could walk, because of the climate. You could walk both ways because everything was open on the Strip and there was lighting. So you were encouraged even to live nearby and to walk, because there was plenty of light. There’s an outlying areas, there would be more trouble there than there would be on the Strip, because everything was glowing. Stations were open, stores were open, so it was day was night. So it was very nice for the graveyard workers to feel they weren’t left out and they were the oddball working those hours. It was just, it’s a twenty-four hour town for working. Were they air conditioned, the bus system? No, no. Were the fares high or how were they? The fares were very low, like twenty five cents to the Sahara, thirty cents to the Stardust, and thirty five cents to the Tropicana and Hacienda. And it was very frustrating to the bus driver. (Laughs) (Laughs) No, people get on and where are you going? Well, I really didn’t know where I was going when I got on the bus and I put the quarter in, and I got off at Stardust and had to put another nickel in because I really didn’t know I was goin’ there. I wasn’t sure where I was going. So, everybody UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 9 got frustrated. It was very frustrating for everyone concerned, twenty-five, thirty, and thirty-five cents. Oh, so there was no set fare? I’m sure that drove the bus driver crazy. Oh yes. They said where are you going? Well, I don’t know, I think I’m going to the Sahara (Unintelligible). Well it was unreal. Just very, very, we laugh now, but really wasn’t very funny. (Laughs) Okay. What were the food prices compared to other places? The food was very low and very good. The buffets were of course here and twice the food that they’re serving today, three times the food. You could eat at a buffet and it was worth for everything. There’s just, there just so much that you couldn’t spend the whole day there and really, really partake of the food. For just a minimum, one dollar, a dollar fifty cents. It was just totally unlike it is today. Do you think that the casino gambling and the high rollers helped the prices of food stay down? Oh yes. Because this was one of the reasons that we are serving the food. We are conducive prices, so for the local people who want to take advantage of it, and they don’t gamble, it’s fantastic. You could eat here and be making minimum wages and still survive. And you can’t say that about a lot of places. But if you just want to eat, you could eat very cheap no matter what your salary is, ‘cause it’s all there. But it’s for the gamblers. Some of the places are, that’s why they’re here. They want to feed them, and get them back on the table. Okay. What was the climate like? Was it a true, more of a true desert then than it (Unintelligible)? UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 10 Yes. Humidity was, might say, four percent, it would be ninety-eight, a hundred. It was dry. It was a different kind of heat all together. At two or three o’clock in the morning was cool. It was seven o’clock in the evening, it could be 110 and humidity would be four or five percent. Just couldn’t believe that it got up to that. Today, for a 115, we’d all pass out. I think some people would just drop dead ‘cause humidity has climbed so high. I can’t believe that humidity was actually four and five percent. And that part is sad. Truly desert. The heat in the daytime, cool off in the evening. You’d need a sweater in the evening and it’s gorgeous. It was a paradise. Were the people here, who lived here, interested in planting lawns and trees? Or did they want to keep the desert terrain as it was? Oh, I would say half and half. Some people just couldn’t deal with trying to keep the grass up. But there’s some people who love the grass and who loved the green, and were willing to work, but you had to work harder, had to work harder at it. I wasn’t into any of that, but I saw some beautiful homes and I knew it took a lot of work to keep up. It was all gorgeous. Year round climate was just really ideal. Of course, I still think it is ideal year round, compared to. When you came here, was the culinary union here? Oh yes. Not as strong. A lot of people were working here who didn’t join and weren’t a member of the union. And they were allowed to work in the hotels? Yes, Yes. And finally, after about a year, it got a little tighter. And then it got to the point where you couldn’t get a job unless you went through the union. And you didn’t have to have a health card, up until 1960. We could work without a health card. Now you can’t get a job without a health card. But it was amazing how they just weren’t as strong! I had two of the checkers that I was working, neither one of them had joined that Right to Work clause. They said they had the UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 11 right to work, fine. But, it got to the point where they were resented because why should they get union wages then? Mm-hmm. I’m paying union dues and you’re not, so why should you be working here then? Then go work someplace else where there’s not a union. Anyone resents someone getting the same salary not joining the union. So the pressure didn’t come from the union members, but from the people they worked with. That’s where the pressure comes, and the resentful comes, the resentment comes in. So finally they both—one quit, and one joined. One just couldn’t deal. It was good for me, but I could see how it benefitted me to work for the union and be a part of the union with my hours and my salary. What were the dues when you first came? Four dollars a month. Were the benefits as good, or—? No, not as many benefits of course. We didn’t have dental. We didn’t have the eye examinations. And, it was good for that time. Now we have just everything. They had hospitals, a hospital, paid so much on the hospital, paid so much for surgery. But as far as anything else, there really weren’t too many benefits. But as the years progressed, they added more and more. And the dues of course went up, like everything else. What was the shopping areas like before they had the malls? Well, it was, the shopping area was on the Strip. From my corner of the world, there were several stores open within a few blocks away from me around the clock. More stores were open around the clock than they are today. There are very few open twenty-four hours a day. Across from the Sahara hotel, they had a beautiful grocery store. I could get my hair done, and grocery shop, and UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 12 go home, and wash my blouses, and hang ‘em out, they’d be dry before I went to bed. It was really a beautiful life. Easy. It was just all there within a few blocks away. The areas that I lived in then I wouldn’t go near today in the daytime, much less in the night time. (Laughs) It’s just, it’s a little sad. (Unintelligible) But it was, it was really very easy going, very beautiful life. And you could pick your own hours, and that was, that was what I liked. I could work the hours that I liked. I didn’t have to work day time. I didn’t have to work, I could pick my hours, and in Las Vegas, that’s the joy of living here. You can work your hours whether you’re in school, the mothers can work, find a few hours to work, couples who one has to work, the other one has to go to work. It’s very nice. You can fit in so many, so many hours. But I, I liked it for that reason. It was just a simple life. Okay. Were there a lot of big department stores or supermarkets? No. There weren’t too many. You had the downtown. There were a few stores: Penney’s, Sears, (Unintelligible) now Diamonds. There weren’t too many. They were all just, I would say in the downtown area. There really wasn’t a lot of shopping. We didn’t mind too much. They had a few on the Strip. Maybe there were a couple small shopping areas, but not too many. But what we had seemed to be plentiful and they seemed to have the things that we needed. A lot of girls went to California. They felt they had to go to California to shop. I went to California couple of times because I am tall and they had couple of tall girl shops there. I miss that. They didn’t have one here. They do now. But, I now, now of course, compared to now, there’s no comparison. But, I found shopping here. I didn’t really have to worry about California except to get the tall shop a couple of times. But I enjoyed there. But I was glad to come back to Las Vegas. Was the food any different than any other area of the country where you lived? UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 13 (Unintelligible) (Unintelligible) Well, personally, I really didn’t, wasn’t into too much shopping because where I worked, I got my meals. So on my days off, I didn’t do the shopping that the housewife would do, or someone who had a job where they had to eat. But I found that the foods and the produce were excellent. I found fresh, fresh vegetables. They had some frozen, but now it seems like it’s all the frozen and you’re lucky if you get some nice, some fresh, fruits and vegetables. Well I found it to be good, but I just didn’t do that as much as some people might. So that doesn’t stand out in my mind. What were the roads like here before they put the interstate in? Well, I can’t really give out too much information there because I didn’t drive. I took the bus, I maybe would drive with someone, so I really can’t really, I can’t really get into that. I don’t really remember. So you didn’t drive around Las Vegas or get all around Las Vegas? No, not too much. Not too much. We’d be on a bus, we’d go to (Unintelligible), I’d take a tour. I’d go to the dam. I’d drive with somebody. But working six days a week, I just didn’t get out that much for the few years, first few years. See, we worked six days and one day off. So I didn’t spend it driving around as much as I did a few years later, which I was sorry, ‘cause it was just so gorgeous, there was so much to see. But you just don’t, you just don’t work six day, I didn’t. I didn’t. I’m discovering more now, of course. Getting out, driving. What was the weather like? Was it, the air quality I’m sure was a lot better since— Oh yes. Oh yes. You didn’t have the haze around the mountains? UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 14 Oh no, I didn’t know what haze was. Just (Unintelligible), we didn’t have any of that. It was just so gorgeous. It was just to get out and breathe and take a deep breath. Now, I go out and take a deep breath and I have to be careful how many deep breaths I take when I get out on the terrace. It’s sad. It’s not (Unintelligible), but it’s sad. ‘Cause it was just, we just, the air, the smog, you know, what’s that? You know, in California the air was (Unintelligible) I couldn’t see (Unintelligible) in Santa Monica, couldn’t see across the street. It was smog free, Santa Monica. (Laughs) But we just didn’t have it those first few years. Even into the sixties. It was just a slow process, a very slow process. Do you have any interesting stories about tourists you’ve come in contact through your work? In the first years here, I was in the outside. I was cashier on the outside, like in the coffee shops, and people would stop and talk to me, because I worked at night. And they would come in, it was a little more relaxed. And, so many people would ask me how I liked staying up all night! And somehow, so many people thought that the people that lived here stayed up all night, stayed up all the time, and never slept. Where they got this, I don’t know. So I tried to enlighten a few people that we worked just like they do back home in Indiana or Pahokee, Florida, that we had schools and churches, and that people that were married and had children, and went to school just like where they were from. But our image was so bent out of shape, and I think that has changed, just slightly. And they were shocked when I would talk to them like a regular person, and that I didn’t come in the hotels and gamble on my days off. I stayed home and did my washing, did my shopping. And some of the places did stay open all night, but everything didn’t stay open all night. There were a few places that closed. And people had this, still, this strange idea about Las Vegas. And they read this from the posters, and they read this from the hotels, UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 15 and they think this is all there is to Las Vegas. That’s the PR of course. I heard about the Sands hotel and I heard about the showgirls and that’s why I didn’t want to come here at first. And I was shocked that people just worked like everybody else! And I came here on a regular prayer, and the girl that I came with left a week later because she couldn’t find a job. Well I was here and it looked so beautiful that I thought I’d try to stay. And it took me ten days. I walked the streets, blisters on my ankles and on my feet. It was so hot, even in September, and I covered the Strip, and the last place I went to hired me a week later. And I was so thrilled, and I wasn’t scared to death, because I’d worked in kitchens before. In a showroom can frighten you. You think they’re kidding. This is the part that should be televised. It would be so interesting. No one would believe it’s really true what happens in the showroom during the push when the shows are on. I was thrilled to death to get the job, but there’s no way that I was gonna go back, cause I had left and I couldn’t go back. So finally, just before payday, I cashed my last traveler’s check—twenty dollars, I paid my rent, and I was so happy that I got my first paycheck. And it’s just been uphill for me since then. And I was glad that I didn’t go back to Minnesota. What kind of thing goes on in the showrooms? There are shows that are gorgeous. So many people think they’re just naked women and strip-teasers. They confuse it with (Unintelligible) City in Chicago, where they are strip-teasers, and they will come up and get right up close to man, and dip their breast in their cocktail, in the drink, and let the man lick it off. We don’t do this in Las Vegas. I’ve seen this. I was shocked, And I’m shock-proof. And I thought, I thought that was a little much. But then, for those people at the time, that was great news. UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 16 They don’t do that in Las Vegas very much. Trained, skilled, intelligent, beautiful young women. A lot of them are mothers. They live in town just like anyone else and a lot of women have come here with children and they have to support their children. And if they’re beautiful women, they’re lucky to get in the show or cocktail service. All the cocktail girls are not hookers, sorry about that. They’re average women also. They have the image of driving Cadillacs and they’re all hookers, they all go up to the (Unintelligible). I’m sorry, that just isn’t true. If you wanna hallucinate, go right ahead. But I hate to blow the image of Las Vegas, ‘cause we’re normal, as normal, is what you wanna call normal. What’s your definition of normal? Just working people. There are a few that ruin it, like with any place. Are there a lot of showgirls, yes, who will go for the prize, if the price is right. For 500 dollars, I wonder if (Unintelligible) might be interested in a 500 dollar offer. I mean, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. I’ve met some beautiful people, I’ve made some dear friends, and I’ll always defend Las Vegas. I just see red when I hear the stereotype version of Las Vegas—staying up all night, gettin’ drunk, sleeping with another man’s wife, datin’ the showgirls, cost you 500 dollars, and you know, have orgies while you’re here. Honey, I could tell you about things that happened in Minneapolis and Chicago that would never happen here in Las Vegas. And for a while, stories hear everywhere, please. Sorry to blow it, but that’s the way it really is. That’s the reality of Las Vegas. There’s a certain element that they stack pretty high. There’s, it’s the entertainment capital of the world, so you’re gonna find a little bit of everything. I don’t, have never lived this part of it. I’ve watched the entertainers, I’ve enjoyed them, but I’ve just never lived that life. That’s not my choice. But we mix with so many people. I think the races, the colors, blend here more beautifully than any place else in the world. And I’ve worked for black waiters, black. In the beginning it was UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 17 difficult for some of the people from the south in the late fifties and early sixties, but somehow they kept working and had to deal with this, and somehow, they finally decided they were people just like everybody else. Strange, isn’t it? I mean, he’s nice and he’s black, isn’t that something? Just recently, I had a very nice Jewish lady friend of mine was saved from a fire and a colored man saved her. And she said, “I’m gonna kiss him even though he’s Black”. I said, “Isn’t that wonderful. I’m proud of you”. She says, “I’m gonna do it”. I said, “God bless you”. So we still are into this. But I think now with the Mexicans (Unintelligible) and there’s so much to deal with. Well I think the blacks are finally getting a little more comfortable and are being accepted more as people, and I think this is a wonderful thing. This was welcome (Unintelligible) for me because I saw this in Illinois and in Minnesota. I also saw them mistreated. But somehow here, I find that they’re intelligent, there’s some very boring, and there’s some illiterates, like in the other race. But I find it really most exciting to think that we can all mix and be friends. Whatever. It’s a big moment in our lives, when we feel that we can really enjoy each other as people. Did you see a lot of racial discrimination while you were here in the earlier years? Yes. But not as much as I saw in Chicago. I didn’t see nearly as much racial discrimination. I wasn’t exposed to a lot of it. In the beginning, it was very difficult for the black food servers. They were somehow, they would approach, in the early years, I had some black food servers approach a table of eight people from the south. And they were asked, they asked if someone else could wait on them. Also, we find Midwesterners, they handled the situation pretty much the same. Perhaps you think it’s just because I’m from the south I’m defending it, but the south isn’t the only place that mistreats the Negro. I found more discrimination in Minnesota than I did anywhere else in the world. They would allow them to come in a restaurant, but not seat them. UNLV University Libraries Virginia T. Lanier 18 They were allowing ‘em to come in a bar, give them one drink, and get lost. I would almost prefer if I was black just not to be admitted than to be discriminated against and be humiliated and embarrassed. So give me the south, honey, where was the black and the whites, and then water fountains and the back of the bus. Somehow they knew where they stood and they were comfortable. It’s not the perfect solution, but it’s a far cry from being halfway about it. When I lived in Chicago, with my southern accent, you can imagine what I sounded like twenty years ago, I was, tried to wait on a table. I was asked to wait on a table of six blacks because one little girl from Chicago would not do it. I said, “I will”, and I approached the table with my southern accent and “Y’all, may I help you?” and they were stunned. I was gracious. We ended up laughing and talking. The tip was great, but most of all I think they were convinced I really wanted to wait on them, and they enjoyed chatting with me. Thank you.