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2 Los Vegos Review-Journal Friday, September 16,1960 MEL'S FLING Good ole Mel Miller is now back in Peoria super- rising his portion of the 27,000 employees of the Cater- piller tractor company and his wife, undoubtedly, is papering the walls of their club cellar with the many souvenirs of their very strange trip West. _________ I i suppose it?╟╓s anticlimactic in- formation now, but Mel isn?╟╓t the teetotaler he was made out to be ?╟÷ he had a beer with a group of us at the Sands' the afternoon be- fore ^e ieft Las Vegas. ?╟úI take a drink now and then,^ he said*i?╟úbutvery rare- and almost; never in my hom this whole thing started, though, I was afraid it would get out of hand with the press. You know, like I was coming West to have a binge with the Marines or something.?╟Ñ Mrs,; Miller, who surprised Mel when she snuck up ; behind him -at the ?╟úTruth or "Consequences?╟Ñ rrsliow; in Hollywood, neither ?╟╓smokes nor drinks and was con- stantly amazed :.as was Mel, at the whole affair; the life in Las Vegas1 especially, y-Mel couldn?╟╓t figure out how so Inaany people had so much money1 lo throw away at the gambling -tables. Incidentally, Mel did a bit of gaming himself, at the black jafck table his first night, and won Six dollars just before I pried him away from the table to leave .for a midnight show. But that was more of an ex- periment for * than a pen- chant for gambling, and he re- lated how his family?╟╓s money came hard. . Archie Loveland, vice president ami general manager of the Sands, |wa^\'ex^aiping ?╟≤ to Mel the com- "plfclteH process ,?╟ of running l a Strip estaWisbment and how it, was comparatively inexpensive to see a dinner show where you may dine and be entertained by a top siidw personality at the same time. Mel cautiously granted the point and when asked by Archie what was in Peoria, replied, to everybody?╟╓s surprise ?╟úNoth- ing.?╟Ñ He qualified the statement, how- ever, by saying that their enter- i tainment consisted of bowling and one or two movies and that there was considerable industry there from tractors to brewers, with a * few hundred thousand hard work; | ing people. II The amazing thing about this whole affair most observers seem- ed to agree, was the way Mel impressed the people he met with his calm curiosity, his unwaver- ing honesty and, oddly his ability to separate the phonies rather quiqkly. In other words, he was not a gullible farm boy who fell prey to the follies of a fast-moving West.. I asked him if it would take some time to unwind and re- adjust once back in Peoria. ?╟úOh, no. I?╟╓ll be back making good tractors again on Monday and this?╟╓ll all be over. Sure, they will talk about it all around for a bit, but I?╟╓m really just a man with a wife and three kids who has a good job and enjoys being a nobody, We have a quiet life there, but it?╟╓s a good one and I?╟╓m satisfied with it.?╟Ñ I looked over the heads of the party to the women persist- ently pulling, the pne armed slots, people yelling for every number possible at the dice ta- bles, anxious faces waiting for a little white ball to clink in its slot and Black Jack dealers with expressionless faces. It reminded me of a question a psychiatrist friend of mine posed one restful, sunny Sunday after- noon back East. ?╟úFrank, I wonder what life is really like??╟Ñ -FRANK CROWTHER