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ent001320-095
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University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

You Gain Talk AboutHtfOut IJkud BRIGHT LIGHTS BECKON people who want to wager in Las Vegas, Nev. Founded as a railroad town?╟÷on the Union Pacific?╟÷Las Vegas now is a center for merrymakers. The lights burn from dusk to dawn. This picture was taken on Fremont-st. Jakie's Horatio Alger Story Is Set To Tune of Galloping Dominoes BLONDE JOYCE JOHNSON takes things easy m the sun at The Sands, Las Vega appears in a nightclub act. ,Joyce looks good in either the sunlight or the spotlight. By MARY FRAZER '^^teen Special Writer LAS VEGAS, NEV., Jan. 3.?╟÷It isn't often the Horatio Alger story -^-the great American tradition tale?╟÷is told to the tune of galloping dominoes or reeling roulette wheels. Usually, if a local boy makes good in the field of games of chance it's told soto voce, as Nathan Detroit tells of a floating crap game in "Guys and Dolls." BUT HERE in Nevada, it's lovely and legal. You can talk about it out loud. Supermarkets and sandwich shops, the airport and the apothecaries, everyplace but the post- x>ffice and the churches, have at least a slot machine to further a fling with Lady Luck. THE NEWEST temple of temptation' is "The Sands." I^^P "The Sands" is a hotel out of a movie set. It opened Dec. 16, this modern Monte Carlo with sumptuous suites, dreamy dining rooms, a pool that out-Holly- woods Hollywood, a Copa Room nitery with a $20,000 a week "entertainment budget,. Danny Thomas the first star and a host of other luminaries to follow. It cost $6,000,000 cash?╟÷no credit for such projects hereabouts?╟÷and it looks every penriy of it. IT STANDS on 97 acres of the last available ground, on "The Strip." "The Strip is a Broadway of the west, on Highway 91 lined with hostelries and inns for which . there's nothing but the word "fabulous." As guests and performers, it, had at the opening such stars as Spike Jones, the Ritz Brothers'^ Frankie Laine and his wife, Nan Gray, the Andrews Sisters, Pearl Bailey, Louis Prima, Ella Mae Morse, Tennessee Ernie, Irene Ryari, Phil Spitalny, Ray Anthony, Jane Powell, Georgie Price and a jillion lesser luminaries. All of them reaped the golden harvest in this little town of 38,- 000 standing in the midst of a dismal desert. BUT BACK to Mr. Horatio Alger's little man. He's Jakie Freedman, short, somewhere near sixtyish and as colorful as a Nevada sunset flaming out onto tlie 'atom-blasted sands. Half a century ago, give or take a few years, Jakie migrated to this country from Roumania. HE HEADED for Galveston. Why, he'll never know, and to I make his fortune in a manner of which he hadn't the slightest idea, i The handiest means of livelihood ?╟≤ that came young Jake's way was ! a wagonload of bananas. Jakie used some of the old country savings that he'd toted across the Atlantic in a handkerchief to buy the load. I Up and down the streets of the then busy, bustling seaport of Galveston he rode in a borrowed carfc^ shouting his wares, periodically selling a nickel's worth or so of the fruit that seemed anything but golden. THEN ALONG came a fellow. No one knows his name. All that's ' known is that he was a gambler, ! through said through. iflr.| "I'll match you for double or nothing for that load," the fellow said. Jakie gambled. And won. He's been at it ever since. IN LATE years, he's specialized in running a string of fine horses at the nation's tracks (the Sands' ranch-type buildings are named for famed parks). In other periods, he's supplied relaxation to tired Texas oilmen with whom he also did business in petroleum gambling. Remarkably enough, Jakie has worked as practically a lono wolf, with Jba^y Luck as his primary partner, down through these interesting decades. AND HERE Jakie is JLoday. Dressed up in the goi^arndest western outfit you ever did see. A cashmere top-shirt with* metal ..claspSj^^a^dark red basic shirt; $200 bootf"'/hU,a $100 Stetson. A poiSte'OT^I.J^his calling cards ?╟÷$rtJWnfbiM^svijich he carefully transfers/ into correct dinner cloth^when JgSiiht falls and The jStri^^4ncandefcent alley is at its dazzlinge^t. YES,.;TOI>Al| Jakie is the happiest ^^y^WJ^^^-man^s-. world. He's got a .hotel with"ii lobby full of devices that ' need only money to3!^i "rolling. He's got a desk piled high with congratulatory telegrams, including a set from Nevada's top execs. He's got a houseful of glittering guests.