Transcript of interview with Ed Collins by Steve Smith, March 15, 1981.

UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins i An Interview with Ed Collins An Oral History Conducted by Steve Smith 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 Ed Collins ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2017 UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 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 Ed Collins iv Abstract On March 15, 1981, Steven L. Smith interviewed Edward A. Collins (born on March 16th, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois), at the Dunes Hotel and Country Club. Collins relocated to Nevada in 1955. The interview covers gender equality in the field of culinary arts in Las Vegas. Collins describes the changes he saw take place in culinary over the years. He also discusses Bugsy Siegel’s impact and influence on the emergence of big shows in the hotels on the Strip. Among other jobs, Collins worked as a captain in a showroom at the Frontier Hotel. He discusses Las Vegas before and after Howard Hughes and Bob Maheu appeared on the scene. UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 1 The informer is Edward A. Collins. The collector is Steven L. Smith. The day is March 15th, 1981. The place is the Dunes Hotel and Country Club, the setting is in a big quiet convention room. Project, Oral History. Mr. Collins, are you from Las Vegas, Nevada? And from where did you come from? And who did you come here with? Well, Steve, I arrived here in 1955. I was born in Chicago and I went to school there until the year of 1934 and ’35. At which time, it was the height of the Depression. So I had to leave school and go to work as a busboy at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. I stayed there about two or three years to learn the craft. I became a waiter and I was very energetic and responsive. So I worked in the pump room in Chicago, for about three or four years. I then travelled between Chicago and Miami Beach, Florida, during the season. I worked in Papa Brooches for about seven or eight years. I then left Chicago because I wanted to go to work at La ’Rouge restaurant at Los Angeles, California. I stayed there till the year ’54, 1954, and I came here because, with the progression and the building of the hotels, there was more work available, in my line of work. 1955 and ’56, I came here with my wife and four children. I went to work at the Sands Hotel for Nick Kelly for about a year. And when he opened the Tropicana Hotel, I went to work there and they opened the showroom. Can you tell me your impressions of Las Vegas since you have arrived? (Laughs) Well, I arrived here permanently in 1955, with my family. I stayed here for a visit in 1946 and ’47, when the Flamingo Hotel opened. I was in the Flamingo Hotel the week that Bugsy Siegel was killed and it was all empty, and when the crew changed, I saw ‘em changing, the whole crew—come from Florida, where I worked for quite a while. It’s interesting to note that when Bugsy Siegel originally opened the Flamingo Hotel, he hired all male help. But he found that they were not very honest towards him and he lost money in every department. After UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 2 he had closed it the first time. He decided to put a female crew, not dealers, but in the culinary department. He found that they were more honest and more dependable. It was Flamingo that started the idea of putting girls in different departments, as in the culinary department. They weren’t dealers yet. Because there was, in 1967, ’68, when the female dealers sued through the federal government to force all casinos to hire females in the same proportion they hired men; which is about forty to sixty percent. And they were able to win a judgement in federal court for about a million dollars apiece, which they could have collected but instead the casinos decided to put women dealers. So it may seem strange but previous to 1968, that is from ’55 to ’68, a thirteen years, you went into a casino you never saw a woman dealer. That is ’68, the federal government, so now you get, you must have thirty percent of female dealers all over town. In regards to the putting a girl in the culinary department, they insisted that they have a similar proportion in all the showrooms. Where before the hard work demanded of a waiter in a show, carrying the heavy trays, could not be carried from the woman. But through some quirk, or some juice or something, they got into the showrooms as waitresses and they make the men do the hard work. The women do the easy work. The men go in the kitchen, pick up the heavy trays, they put in twelve or fourteen dinners and carry ‘em out. Lay ‘em down on a sideboard and the women serve it. And they send ‘em back for more. It is strange also, if you notice, that in the dominant job, where the most money’s being made, which is in the cocktail waitress in the pits, men are not even included on it. I don’t know why. But they make themselves a tremendous amount of money. And there’s a lot of men out of work in this town. That’s a big change I see in the culinary. Of course, the amount of hotels built since then has doubled probably or since ’55. But the greatest benefit I think that (unintelligible) did for the culinary work is to put the pension plan and the insurance for medical and hospitalization. UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 3 Mr. Collins, in your opinion what started the trend in the casino showrooms for big shows? Well, when they started making, putting together these big operations, they had a problem as to how would they attract the traveler or the tourist into the gambling casinos. They all, all of them had crap games, all of them had roulette, and all of them had the same odds. But Bugsy Siegel decided that the way to do it is to get star billing and build a big showroom, four or five, six, seven hundred people. Later on they went to 2000 people. That is, the show would attract the people, they’d go into the show, and see a good show, have two or three drinks loosen up a little bit on their way out or on their way they’d stop at the gaming tables. That’s why, if you go into a modern built hotel, like the MGM with 2000 people, big show, if they have a big show, the casino is loaded. If they have a bad show, the casino is empty. So it’s a showroom that’ll bring the people in. Once they’re in there, they’ll decide to gamble and lose their money at the tables. Mr. Collins. In your work in Las Vegas have you came across any unusual incidents? Well, of course, quite a number of things happened to me. But the one stands out in my mind all the time is the fact that for eight years, I worked as a captain in a showroom at the Frontier Hotel. That’s even be—I opened it up, so that was before the time of Howard Hughes and Bob Maheu. They came into the picture maybe two years or a year-and-a-half after the Frontier was opened. Mr. Maheu came in often, he was very gracious since we didn’t know who he was. And several times threw some special parties, once they took over the hotel. They came to the showroom, had special dinners, special menus, special service. And normally I would take his order. And during this time, we got an order from the front office, that it was supposed to be an extra special party of maybe nine or ten people. Ringside, special table, special menu. I was assigned to the table and then I was taking the orders for dinner. There was special security, it came out that no pictures were to be taken in the showroom that night, in no place at all. During the time I’m UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 4 taking the orders from the nine people, I approached a young man, not a young man—middle aged man, it seemed to me, and I was taking this order; he was very quiet, very subdued and when he ordered his veal cutlet, I remember the food, he said, he only wanted half the portion served. Of course, serving an eight-ounce portion of veal cutlet isn’t very much and I sort of became insistent that perhaps the portion was so small after it was cut in half that it wouldn’t be enough for him. And in the midst of my discussion with this man, Bob Maheu and another man turned to me and said, “Eddy, just take the gentleman’s order, just the way he orders it.” And I did that. I finished serving the party and they left. Next day when I came to work, the head security came to our showroom, he said, “Well, I could tell it to you now, but Mr. Howard Hughes was in here having dinner last night.” So, I feel that I really took care of Howard Hughes at that time, without even knowing it. Mr. Collins, what was a major plus that the culinary did for the workers? Well, Mr. Bammit was not a holy angel. But he knew that if he could keep the workers working steady, that when the time to put ‘em in back in office was there, they would vote for him. So whenever contract time came up, he’d ask all the workers at the meeting, and said, “What do you want five dollars or four dollars more a day, or you want job security?” Everybody wanted job security. Because of what use is it if you get more money when every time a new hotel owner comes along he’ll fire you and bring his men from Florida, New York, or Chicago, or Los Angeles. So as the contracts progressed it was more difficult for the owners to fire the culinary workers. I became a business agent in the year ’60 or ’61. Mr. Bammit met some friends of mine from Chicago and he thought that, at the time, I was working at the Dunes Hotel as the banquet manager that I would be good material for business agent. It was through him that I met people like Nick Kelly, Morris Claimant, and I became very well acquainted with Mike Pisanelli of the UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 5 union who was member of the Italian-American club. I worked at the Italian-American club for several years off-and-on, didn’t get paid for it but I did things for Nick Kelly. Mr. Collins, since your arrival in 1955 can you tell me what kind of life you have and the events in them? Well, Steve, it’s difficult to sit here and just, although it’s twenty-five years, you have to reminisce and go back and try to review ‘em as much as you can. As I said before, I came here with a wife with two or three children; I had two more children born to me in Las Vegas, and it’s pretty hard to come to this town. I had a questionable background, so I was not able to get a work permit from the sheriff at once, because I had to come back two or three times. And it, although you may not realize it, there were not many jobs open, so it was difficult to get a good job. I went to work for a Mr. Nick Kelly, at the Sands Hotel. It was hard work, he put me in The Garden Room, graveyard, and boy, it’s hard to, even though the prices were much cheaper then, you could still have five children, you had a wife, and you didn’t make much money. Anyway, I was at the Sands for maybe four or five months and the Tropicana opened and I went there with a friend of mine. And on opening night a strange thing happened, they had hired a headwaiter from Chicago, who had a good background in high class service. And he decided that all the VIPs at the Tropicana, with Eddie Fisher, would get silver service. And he seated ‘em so slowly that the show was starting and half the room was empty. So, he only lasted there for about two weeks, then he got another head waiter. They got a headwaiter by the name of Richard Hubert. He was a good friend of mine, and he always promised to make me a captain but he never did, until later on. I stayed at the Tropicana several years and worked as an extra captain in the blue room, for a man from Chicago and I then got a job at the Thunderbird as the captain in a showroom, through a man who was a friend of mine. I stayed at the T-Bird for about a year and UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 6 Judy Garland was there. That was her short, last show she did. And a strange thing that her manager was a Lou Ervin, I think, or Stew Erwin. And he used to tell us that, in order to get Judy Garland on stage, he had to hypnotize her every day. Because she was so high on whatever she was taking. I raised, my boys all became good swimmers. When I was young I was a good swimmer, so I taught ‘em how to swim, and they all either tied the state record or surpassed it. They, one of them went to the University of Tennessee, where he became a good swimmer, but in the midst of some meeting over there, he was murdered in Texas, and I had to bury him here, in Las Vegas. I stayed at the T-Bird about a year and the Frontier opened up in approximately ’65 or ’66. I went there as a captain with Richard Hubert and stayed there for about eight years. Working at the Frontier was quite an experience as I mentioned before. Because I became, I feel well acquainted with Bob Maheu, who of course was, who represented Howard Hughes. It was numerous times that I talked to him. I decided I was getting old, so I decided to leave the culinary union and become a dealer. Now, it’s not easy for a sixty year old man to become a dealer, because he has no dealer background. But I became acquainted with a Mr. Johnny Jenkins, who owns a percentage of the Aladdin Hotel, and then through him, I got a job at the Aladdin Hotel as a poker dealer. I stayed there, learning the business for about six months. And I left there to go to work for one of the greatest men in poker, Mr. Johnny Moss. I worked for Johnny Moss two years at the Flamingo Hotel, when he had the poker room. He had the high stakes poker game. One hundred, two hundred, four hundred, eight hundred, and many is a day that I saw a pot of fifty or a hundred thousand dollars and I was the dealer. And he would bet twenty thousand at a time. I stayed at the Flamingo and became a shift boss for Johnny Moss, but he decided, they decided to close the card room and he went to the Dunes Hotel. And he took the card room over through Mr. Sydney Wyman, who was one of the owners. Mr. Johnny Moss, had UNLV University Libraries Ed Collins 7 the poker room in the Dunes Hotel for two years. He also had the high stakes poker game there, with all the poker champs playing there, Chip Reece, Wyman was playing, Bob Rice was playing, Johnny Moss was playing. And I became a shift boss for him also and he was very generous to me, money wise. When Johnny Moss gave up the game, the card room at the Dunes Hotel, it was though him that Mr. Chip Reece, my present boss, took over the cardinal, and he runs it the same way as Johnny Moss does. I still work here as a dealer. So I guess that brings me up to date now. I been here twenty-five years, seventeen as a culinary member, where I get a pension, and about seven years as a dealer. The town’s been good to me. I made a lot of money, raised a family, and I’m happy to be here.