Transcript of interview with Kathleen Bryan Gaston by Niki Rodriguez, March 17, 1981

UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston i An Interview with Kathleen Bryan Gaston An Oral History Conducted by Niki Rodriguez 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 Kathleen Gaston ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 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 Kathleen Gaston iv Abstract On March 17, 1981, Niki Rodriguez interviewed Kathleen Bryan Gaston (born 1949 in Las Vegas, Nevada) about her experience living in Southern Nevada. Gaston first talks about her father who moved to Las Vegas and eventually became a justice of the peace, and she also describes how her parents eventually moved to Las Vegas. Gaston later describes how Las Vegas looked as she was growing up and how it has developed since, specifically mentioning the schools she attended and the growth of the Las Vegas Strip. UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 1 This is an interview with Ms. Kathleen Bryan Gaston. At the taping of this interview, Mrs. Gaston is a thirty-three-year-old schoolteacher who had resided in Las Vegas all of her life. She was born here, and the only time she has left here was for her formal education, and that was at the University of Nevada, Reno. Also during this tape, Mrs. Bryan Gaston discusses her father who happened to have been one of the first justices of the peace here in Las Vegas. He was not born in Las Vegas but was born in Omaha, Nebraska and moved out here with his family. He went to school here, moved to the University of Nevada, Reno, then went to Washington, D.C. and married and returned here to set up a law practice and was later elected as justice of the peace. Also at the time of this interview. Mrs. Gaston’s brother is Judge Bryan, a well-known District Court judge here in Las Vegas. I understand your father was a justice of the peace; would you elaborate on that a little bit? Yes, I really would like to. I think whenever I talk about my dad or—my dad was Oscar Bryan, and he passed away twenty-two years ago. But in my early years of life, I remember many things my father told me about Las Vegas when he was growing up, because as a teenager, he and his family moved here, and I believe they moved here from Nebraska where they had been farming people for a while. My father’s father passed away, and my grandmother had remarried, and she married a railroad man. And at that time, Las Vegas was a railroad town. Gambling had not been legalized at that time, although there was gambling; but it was illegally done. And they moved here because this was a railroad town and this is where her new husband’s job had taken them. Daddy went to high school at Las Vegas High School, and at that time, there was no Las Vegas High School like we see it today on Seventh Street. It was housed on Fifth Street where the old Fifth Street School, which is now next to the federal building. And all the grades went there; in fact, I had some questions of dad in his class, and so it’s just interesting how—primitive is too UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 2 harsh a word—but it was rustic. I mean, the kids looked sandy, the roads looked sandy—everything was just, it was rough. It was very rough here, I think. About what time period? I would venture to see, if my subtraction is correct, and again with my father being deceased for twenty-two years, I cannot swear to any precise accuracy, but roughly around 1920s, maybe the early 1920s; I would estimate that would be about the time. At any rate, he grew up here. In high school, everybody was very close in the nicknames, and they seemed to, from the annuals I have—because they do have echoes, and the echo is the yearbook that they still have at Las Vegas High School. The echo that I do have—I only have one of Daddy’s—and their life was very much the same as you would imagine in the 1920s. They had the nicknames, and so-and-so was known for such-and-such, and that kind of thing. It was very, very small—very small. It’s strange to go through because you’ll see all the names of streets, or the last names of people that were his classmates or daughters or sons of prominent people. Later on when he was going to college, it was interesting because I have several newspaper clippings. Apparently, he was somewhat nomadic in those days. Apparently—you know, you and I, I think, in your day in age, you know, we go to high school and then maybe we work for a while and we go to college, but we don’t find ourselves traveling cross country. And for some reason, my dad did that, because there was references to him living in Arkansas and references to him living in some of the Midwestern states. This was all along, he was going to college? Yes, it’s strange. He would be in college for a while— What college did he go to? He went to the University of Nevada in Reno. UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 3 In Reno? Yes, and boxing was his big thing, and so he would be boxing and then they do a little biography on him in this little article, and we kept the articles. And we have a scrapbook that he kept of some of the things that he did up there in Reno. It’s really kind of interesting. He was on the debate thing and that kind of thing, so there was a lot of little articles to piece together. Daddy then left—and this is kind of an interesting story—he left Reno. I don’t believe he ever graduated from college, but somehow he was able to get into law school. Now, I understand—I may be mistaken—but in those days, it was not unusual that if you could pass the entrance exams, you could go to the school. He ended up back in Washington, D.C.—and I remember my aunt telling me this story—they put him on the train to Washington, D.C. with a tablecloth that was an heirloom—a very expensive tablecloth—and a lunch, and he was to pawn the tablecloth and eat the lunch. He had one meal, and to get across country from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C. was—oh, with one tablecloth and one lunch. By train. By train—was not the best situation. Again, and I’m piecing a lot together because there are pieces of it that are missing—a couple of years go by, I think he had to gradually put himself through school. And as he did so, I think he would have to maybe periodically drop out or not take as many units, because the Depression hits, and he is still in law school. And that’s when he met my mother, and they subsequently returned to Las Vegas and he became a lawyer here. He worked for the Union Pacific Railroad Company with Cal Corey—they were attorneys together—and the early years that my mother talks about, when they got here, there was no housing, very little housing. They were fortunate because there were some Army barracks—subsequently, my grandmother, my father’s mother and grandfather, he had retired and they had UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 4 made a small investment in some barracks, some railroad housing—they had purchased this railroad housing. As you know, by this point in the Depression time, we’re hitting now close to, we’re in the midst of the Depression—what I’m saying is, we’re getting close to World War II, I believe, now—we’re getting into the forties. And by this time, the war is about to start and things like that, but before the war, it was still pretty sluggish here. Gambling was legalized, but there was certainly not what we know of beginnings that came later in the fifties, really. They lived in this little shack, and it was rat-infested, they lived by the railroad tracks. It was just a really—of course, no air conditioning at all. And he was a justice of the peace? No, not at this time. Not then. He was just a, you know, really a budding attorney at this point. And I remember them talking about Helldorado Days and how different they are today and from what I can remember. Helldorado Days used to be a real big extravaganza for them and what I can recall. Their early life, they moved into a house on Huntridge, which was one of the first housing tracts that they had. Now, they lived in this little shack literally, I think, for four or five years, and then they moved into the housing tract in Huntridge, and that’s where we lived. Now, I was born about four years after that, and now I can recount, you know, stories of my own. My first recollection of Las Vegas is, and maybe because of the childhood recollection it may not be clear, but it was a lot of desert—I mean, a lot. And bamboo jungles were around here, which I don’t see anymore. When I was a kid, we used to play in bamboo jungles. And where Charleston and Maryland Parkway intersect, there were bamboo jungles there. What exactly is a bamboo jungle? UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 5 It’s where bamboo grows, and it’s so thick, we used to call it a bamboo jungle. And I’m sure it was not a jungle, and I’m sure they were probably just little sprigs here and there, but you know, to a kid, it was a jungle. And we used to go out there, and that was a real play area for us. It wasn’t a particularly safe play area because of the insects, and there were scorpions and that sort of thing, but we sure had a great time and enjoyed ourselves. I remember the town being very small. I remember very few electric lights. I remember not being able to buy shoes a certain size—my mother had a particularly small foot, and she would have to special order things and that kind of thing—it was certainly not the conveniences that are today. Helldorado, when I was a kid, I remember they used to have a beauty parade, and the hotels used to make very extravagant floats, and the showgirls would be on the floats—these gorgeous, gorgeous outfits—of course, the outfits were not as risqué as we know today. But they were bathing suits that were just spangled up and fancied up, and that kind of thing. And then of course, there was the kiddy parade, and then there was just the old timers parade. But the beauty parade, which I don’t think they have any more at all, was the big one. And I remember Daddy used to ride in it because he belonged to the Elks Club and the Lion Club, and they used to ride their horses, and it was a big deal, you know. I can remember sitting on the curb, and my dad would come by on his horse—and of course being totally not very fond of my father at all, I mean, really—and crazy about him, I would get excited, and he’d rear up the horse and get fancy with me and stuff like that, and I just thought he was the greatest. He was quite a character. A lot of practical jokes I can remember going on, because the town was really kind of small, and riding horses into saloons was just—I mean it was simply, you expected it. I mean, there’s a kickoff at a football game, and there’s a horse in the saloon. I mean, there were numerous stories about that, and the practical jokes that would go on at the rodeo. They’d always sign somebody up—you know, you signed UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 6 up to be in an event—and they’d always sign up some poor man to ride the Brahma bull, and they would call, “Joe, it’s your turn here, you’ve got the Brahma bull,” and they’d try to get him on that Brahma bull, and five men would descend on him and take him down there. And, oh, it was just raucous, and nothing, I don’t think, was ever very polished or sophisticated. It was just kind of there, and it was neat though. I really enjoyed it. Did they have paved roads at this time, or? Oh, sure, but the roads didn’t go very far. I can remember a trip to Twin Lakes—of course, the road was paved at Twin Lakes, but it was a full-day trip. I remember the first motel that had a swimming pool. The first one was, I can remember being really excited about this, it was on Main Street, it was called the Shamrock Motel. That was the first one we know of as kids; now, there may have been one before, but we sure didn’t know about it, and I can remember they had a palm tree. Now, palm trees may seem common to you people in Las Vegas, but when I was youngster, nothing was common here but sagebrush. I mean, you get grass to grow is a miracle—that and pyracantha and oleander—that was it. A palm tree was like a gift from heaven—“oh, there is a God, there are palm trees.” I can remember the first swimming pool, and then we made our dad drive us by that place a hundred times just to take—a swimming pool, you know, we thought that was just— Had you ever seen one before? Well, I had seen a public swimming pool; there had been one at Twin Lakes, but to get to Twin Lakes in those days, I mean, my mother, I remember, said, “Let’s not forget to pack extra water.” We used to carry these little canvas water bags on the front of the car, and on the back of the car, and five in the car, you know, to get to Twin Lakes, which, I mean, now it’s ridiculous. I don’t know why she felt that way. She was from back east and apparently had an obsession about the UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 7 heat or something, because it certainly wasn’t that big of an ordeal, but to her it was. Twin Lakes Pool is the first recollection I have of a public pool of any kind. And to my knowledge, and I may be wrong, it’s the only public pool I knew of for many, many, many, many years. The recreation department—I don’t even know if it existed in those days. This was, I’m talking early fifties. Did it seem hotter then than it does now, or just about the same? No, it’s hotter now to me. It seems like the way the heat is now is different. Maybe because of all the cement buildings and the pavements and the heat coming off the pavement? Maybe that’s it, or maybe more swimming pools, more sprinkler systems, there seems to be more humidity. It was warm, don’t let me—I can remember being a child and just opening that door and thinking, “Ugh, ha-ha,” to the house, that it would be cooled. They didn’t have air conditioning then, or did they? We had swamp coolers. Swamp coolers— Which is an evaporative cooling system where they have pads that are made wet by circulating water—the pump circulates water through the pads, a fan generates air into the house, ventilates air into the house, and the air is cooled by pads. And that’s very simplistically, but that’s basically the way it went. Could you compare the swamp coolers to today’s air conditioning? It’s interesting; I know that, for me, the swamp cooler, I think, could still be used. I just think, like, humid days, it doesn’t work at all. You’d still need an air conditioner, In fact, I know several people who still use their swamp cooler—they have central air, and for some reason, they UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 8 still have a swamp cooler, too, that functions. And on Sundays, they can use the swamp cooler. So, it still does work. I remember one day, or house caught on fire—I guess the pump shorted out and sparked and ignited the roof on fire. I remember we lived on Maryland Parkway, we had to go—in those days, it was just called Maryland Parkway—they call it Central Park now, the kids do anyway—and it was as safe as can be. We never locked our doors, left our keys in the car, and your windows were open, that kind of thing. It was just absolutely—I remember walking Downtown. Now, I couldn’t have been too young, but at any rate, Mother sent us out to the Central Park, which was a perfectly safe thing to do in those days. And I remember the fire department coming and putting that fire out. And the whole roof was on fire, and I can only remember being terrified as to how we were going to cool ourselves because, in the middle of July and all I could think of—so, I do know that even though I feel much warmer today, there were moments I was very uncomfortable. Even in those days, it was still very uncomfortable. Let’s go back for a second and tell me about your mother’s first impressions of Las Vegas. Poor mother. (Laughs) She was from Virginia, and she was a little highbrow, you know, a little—I mean, I love her dearly—she was just a little highbrow. And she was used to living near Washington, D.C. and that kind of thing, and she lived in Alexandria and was raised there. It was really difficult for her to adjust. My parents came out here, I guess, during the war years, and during that time, getting any kind of certain materials were just impossible to get. Well, Dad was never above anything; it was to serve his purposes, so to speak. And he got some black market tires, and my mother, being a very honest woman, really—and my dad, too, but this particular thing was important—she was hysterical when they passed the state line that someone would know that those were black market tires, and my dad kept teasing her, “What do you mean? How are they going to know black market tires from regular tires? They’re both round, they both are UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 9 four to a car,” I mean, what is to distinguish these from any other tire? Well, they stopped in Ogden, Utah, and in those days, people didn’t have very big houses, but they had these screened-in porches, right? And the winds—they had to sleep on the porch, right, and my brother was only five years old at the time, and they were out there on the porch. And the wind is blowing. And my mother, being from the east, says, “Oscar, the wind is just incredible out here, I’m really worried.” And she thinks that she’s hearing trees fall, and she thinks she’s hearing all these crashing sounds—my father slept like a rock. He rolled over and he said, “Lil, the wind always blows like this out west.” And he rolls over and goes back to sleep. Well, the next morning, they wake up, and the house next door is gone; it is not there. The wind has totally leveled it, the trees aren’t there, the street is gone—I mean, the place is in complete shambles. The only thing left standing, unharmed, is the porch they slept on. And my mother turns to my father and says, “The wind always blows like this out west?” (Laughs) (Laughs) And that was always kind of a joke the two of them had. She arrives in Las Vegas, mind you, and they had to go over Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam had been built then? Yes, it had. And Hoover Dam, at that time—it was the war years—was under incredible Army guard because it was considered, you know. Yes. A threat if something were to happen to it. So it was under heavy guard, and here she was with the black market tires, and they’ve got soldiers all over the place and immediately she’s gone through, you know, these black market tires for 2,000 miles, a hurricane, and now the Army is going to take her car and her children and they’ll never be seen again. She hits Boulder City, UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 10 which had just begun to really be kind of a cute little town, pretty little place, and they hit the Boulder Highway coming into Las Vegas, and there are tents on the Boulder Highway because there’s no housing. So, they finally get in to the house, and there she is with the rats and the dirt and the heat and the black market tires, and the military and the hurricane, and everything is miserable, and Dad says, “Oh, Lily, I’m gonna take you out for a picnic, and we’re gonna just, you’re gonna have a wonderful time, you’re gonna forget all that you’ve been through.” He says, “We’re gonna go to Death Valley and have a picnic.” And she says, “Death Valley?” (Laughs) She had never heard of Death Valley, and she said, “Oh, sounds like a lovely spot.” So, she says, “My first picnic in Nevada was, I spread the blanket out on a sand dune and swatted scorpions. (Laughs) She just hated this place, and she never got over the dirt and the gray and the brown, and she just never did, and she lived here all her life, and bless her soul, she never left Las Vegas. I guess she got used to it, and the kids growing up, and she didn’t want to uproot us and that kind of thing, but boy, she never did adjust. She just couldn’t adjust, but she knew it in harder times that we do. You know, I think if she were alive today, she’d be very comfortable. All right, let’s go back to your childhood now. What school was it that you attended? I attended John S. Park Elementary School. Elementary school, just in that area. Okay, I attended John S. Park Elementary School; when John S. Park Elementary School was first established, what they had to do is they had to use Army barracks as buildings. Now, I do not recall the Army barracks—I think I vaguely remember them—but by the time I was in John S. Park, it was a permanent structure. John S. Park School started off as Army barracks, because my brothers went there, and they remembered going into these barrack-type buildings. I attended UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 11 John S. Park; Ruby Thomas was my principal, Dorris Hancock was my kindergarten teacher—it was kind of exciting, you know, you have elementary schools named after women that I knew very, very well. In junior high—I was one of the first classes to ever have junior high. They usually went from K through eight, and then you went to Las Vegas High School. Junior high, I attended John C. Fremont—I was the first person in my family to do it, so it was no big deal to anybody for some reason. You know, once you went to Las Vegas High School where Daddy had gone and Richard had gone and Paul had gone, then, you know, you were in the big time. But John C. Fremont, junior high, I was one of the first classes there. I was there just the other day. It’s just much the same. I remember Valerie Weiner and I helped write the school song; you don’t want to hear it. Why not? No, no, no—in fact, I don’t recall it if you want to know the truth, but I heard them playing it, you know, the little band they have, they were playing, and I thought, oh, what memories that brought back. Then I attended Las Vegas High School and the family tradition, and then I went to the University of Nevada in Reno, where Daddy went, where Richard went, where Paul went, and then I went. And strangely enough, when I was in Reno, well, my first year in Reno, it was probably much the same when Dad was there—there were not a lot of changes. But in the three years I was there, they built a new library, they built five or six new buildings—they were in the process of building them when I got there, but a lot of changes when I was there. But I can remember Richard saying, “It looks pretty much the same.” And I had some annuals and pictures that Dad had taken and some stuff that he had from there—I can recognize a lot of the buildings still. Is that right? UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 12 Oh yeah, it’s a beautiful campus—a lotta tradition there, I like it. I know this is going to UNLV, but—(Laughs) (Laughs) They can handle it. Tell me about the Strip, when they first started building the Strip up. The first place I remember, it was the El Rancho Vegas. I remember the El Rancho Vegas, I remember what was called the Old Frontier, and I remember the Silver Slipper that was next to it, and Silver Slipper came, I think, a little later. I remember the most memorable thing, I think, in relation to the Strip that I can remember was the night the El Rancho burned down and spending the night at one of my girlfriend’s house, and her mother was a reported for UPI. And she came in to our room that night—I was staying there with my girlfriend—and she came in to our room, she says, “Girls,”—my girlfriend’s mother was crazy, I loved her dearly, she was, “Come on girls, let’s all pile in the car,” maybe three o’clock in the morning—pile into the car, and we’re going to go, ‘cause the El Rancho is burning. And she says, “I have a feeling—it sounds like it’s pretty bad. So, we went down what was then called San Francisco Street—not Sahara—to the El Rancho, and I remember, we were pretty far away. We certainly weren’t close to it because her mother would never have us in any kind of danger, but I remember watching that whole thing as it started—the thing that, the El Rancho, when it was built, was like there was this main entrance that had a restaurant—I remember when you walked in, there was a casino there. And there was a restaurant over to your right, and to your left was where you signed in, where the hotel registration, the front desk so to speak. And it seemed like that was the part that was on fire, and it just kind of moved from that part, and I can remember when they had an ornamental windmill—I wasn’t authentic—but it was a windmill kind of thing was its logo, so to UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 13 speak, and I remember watching that go in the flames. The fire, of course—every firetruck person, I’m sure, was probably there—it was just mass chaos. And as a child, I don’t recall if there were any lives lost. I don’t believe there were, because of course, everything was built flat in those days. I guess it was a misconception that we had in those days, we thought we couldn’t build high rises. I remember someone saying, “Oh, the ground can’t support ‘em here.” Now, I don’t know if that was someone just saying something off the cuff to me, ‘cause I can remember when they started building high rises, I started thinking, I’ve been living with a really dumb idea all these years, but for years, they were all very spread out, and really, I think, a lot prettier than they are now—a lot more character to the hotels. In comparison to the recent fires we’ve had, how the reaction to the town? This was, you said, the first hotel that you can remember, the first major hotel—how was the reaction to the town? Well, in fact, I used to have the front-page clipping—it was a big thing. It was really big. This hotel was the place, even for locals. Now, when Bugsy Siegel and the Flamingo opened, that was not a locals place; that was built for tourists, and I know the El Rancho was, too. But the El Rancho was where a lot of local people went. And it was kind of our place as much as tourists’ and we enjoyed it just as much as they did. I don’t remember the Flamingo having that kind of appeal for some reason. I’m sure that comes from probably the hotel itself not wanting, maybe, locals there. It was very strong. Of course, the reaction that we had here with the Hilton was far more dramatic because there was human life—with the high rise situation that we had, lives were lost. People were just so disoriented—thing were so much bigger and so much more complicated, and in those days, I do not believe any lives were lost. I think—no, I’m mistaken. I do recall now, I believe a fireman lost his life. I think there may have been a fireman, maybe UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 14 more than one, but there wasn’t fifty floors, so people didn’t—what always amazed me is why it was never built again, and I still, to this day, don’t know why. They never rebuilt it then? Oh, never. It’s still a vacant lot. Is that right? Uh-huh. In fact, up until three years ago, parts of the hotel were still there. The cottages served as the rooms for guests, were still there. Where did you say this was located at now? This was located on what was then San Francisco Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, which is now Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard—right across from the Sahara Hotel, that vacant lot. Oh, okay. That’s where it was located. I really thought it had a lot of charm. I remember when the Desert Inn was built; I thought that was the most lovely place. It was character to these hotels, it was—I don’t know, it wasn’t so glassy and gaudy and tons of light that—it was still colorful, and it was very exciting. I remember the Dunes—you know the guy who stands by the Dunes golf course now? Yes. He used to be on top of the Dunes; that was their big thing. And that was it. I mean, now it decorates the freeway. I’m glad they kept it. You mentioned the high rises, when they first started building the high rises, was that reaction common, the surprise that they could actually build those high rises here, or? I may be exaggerating— Which was the first high rise that you—can you remember the first high rise? UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 15 By high rise, I’m saying more than four floors. I mean, high rise, by today’s standards, high rises are incredibly, you know, what, fifty floors, isn’t it? Possibly, yes. How high is the MGM? I think— [Recording cuts out] You seem to have a pretty good recollection of your childhood. We went over your first junior high school, Reno, the Strip, the growth of the Strip and all. On this part of the tape, let’s make an attempt to discuss the people’s feelings here—how did they feel, how did they live, their reactions to tourists, their reaction to newcomers here in town, how did they feel about the rapid growth of the town—did they feel that the town was going too fast? And while I’m thinking about it, you also mentioned to me a little earlier about a case in point where a politician had stuffed a ballot box during a local election—what was the town’s reaction of this? Were they in shock, were they angered, did they want to tar and feather the guy, or what happened to him, what happened to his political career? Did it just end, or was it all forgiven? Closeness, was there a distantness, or what? It was a small town, and it was found out, and no one was really hurt I guess. Or maybe that’s just the impression the person who told me the story had. And again, as a child, your recollections may be different, but I don’t remember the intensity and the anger and the frustration that we have today toward our political misgivings that people have done. It was a very forgivable kind of thing. In fact, I believe this person went on to other political things and won. Is that right? UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 16 Yes, I believe this person did. I don’t think that they were ever able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was directly responsible, but it was everybody’s common knowledge; it just legally couldn’t have been proven, and that’s probably because they had a few prints somewhere. Everybody scratched everybody else’s back a lot. I believe that did go one. I can remember, one time a woman was divorcing her husband, and she had a private detective follow her husband—she didn’t trust the private detective, so she had another private detective follow the private detective. Is that right? Uh-huh. So when the first private detective went into court here in Las Vegas to testify that, “Oh, this poor husband is just being brutally treated by his wife,” she had the second detective come up and discount the first detective totally in court. And that private investigator went on to become a political—he was just a private detective at that time, but he went on to, you know—a lot of political enjoyment, I guess. Do you care to give his name? No, sorry about that. (Laughs) (Laughs) Excuse me. No, you would know him. And it wasn’t that horrible. I think it was just something that was done. How was the feeling—when the town really first started, when did it really start growing rapidly? Boy, I think the boom, as far as I could see, was definitely in the fifties—there was a slump in the sixties I’ll never forget, a real slump in housing and everything. They overbuilt, overconfident or something, and construction companies and everybody who came from UNLV University Libraries Kathleen Gaston 17 California were going to make this grand killing ended up just broke. It was kind of tragic—beautiful, gorgeous homes empty and boarded up because there was either no money or no one needed the home