Transcript of interview with Louis Fisher by Samuel Barto, March 20, 1978

UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 1 An Interview with Louis Fisher An Oral History Conducted by Samuel Barto 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 Louis Fisher 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 3 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 Louis Fisher 4 Abstract On March 20, 1978, collector Samuel Barto interviewed paint and drywall contractor, Louis Fisher (born July 10, 1922, in Alva, Oklahoma) in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The interview took place at the collector’s home with the collector, Mr. Barto and Mr. and Mrs. Fisher present. Mr. Fisher relocated to Las Vegas in 1953 after having lived in Alva, Oklahoma, Portland, Oregon, and Walla Walla, Washington. During the interview, Mr. Fisher discusses the history of Las Vegas from 1953 and offers key insight into the rapid growth of Las Vegas with special focus on the Strip, banks, the steady influx of people moving to Las Vegas for the warm climate, and housing. UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 5 This is an interview with Mr. Louis Fisher conducted on March 20th, 1978, at 7:15. The address is 2201 Piper, North Las Vegas, and the project is Local Nevada History. Mr. Fisher, could you tell me what year you came to Las Vegas and what exactly brought you to Las Vegas? Well, I came in January of ’53. I got out to get away from the snow in Oklahoma. What was your first job here in Vegas? I was working for a painting contractor by the name of Erwin Keillor. What was the general—what was the general Las Vegas area like? It was a town of about thirty-four thousand to thirty-five thousand. And then it—it just kept growing continually ever since. And it was a nice size town then and it’s got more beautiful since. In 1963 you were around for the construction boom, could you tell me a little bit about that? Well, it was all good for about three years and then just, the bottom dropped out about everything for about seven years. (Unintelligible). What was it that contributed to the construction growth? Well, I think there was, people was coming in and they started building hotels real heavy then and motels. And they just got there to build so much that they over built in there. And that, the, start building big time and they were letting too much people come in and build and they overbuilt each time because the state laws was letting out-of-town contractors come in and they was building too much at one time and then they took a lot of the money and left town. Then it just continued to go that way for several years there and after that why it starting building back UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 6 again. But after they filled all the building did they, build, overbuild, they got filled up again within five or six years and then it’s been good ever since until now it’s another big boom. What do you contribute the boom to now? Is it because more and more hotels are adding on, they need more employees or just what? That would be part of it but the bigger the (unintelligible) would be to, whether it has been in the east in the Midwest or any place that’s cold. People are coming out here now to get the beautiful climate in Nevada. With all of people you deal with do you find that they are coming out here because of the weather? Most all of them are. They just come to, against the cold, and it doesn’t really cost too much to live by just the heat, so they get out here where they can, the town eventually will be to (unintelligible) in the town and everything like that there. I will—only building now, it’s unbelievable how much is being built here on every corner all the spaces. It used to be so much barren and desert land in between neighbors now it’s being filled up by new houses, new apartments, new stores and shopping centers. There’s one going up on every corner now and I still think it would be a good thing because the town is filling up that much it’s from when I first hit Las Vegas of thirty-four thousand up to almost three hundred thousand now. And so it just keeps continue to grow and they say, by 1980 there’ll be another two hundred thousand in the town. So whatever they’re building now, they’re filling them up just as fast as they can build them. In fact, people go buy the houses before they even start to build ‘em now. Do you think that this building boom that we’re having now will continue? Or do you believe that they are over building like they did the first building boom? UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 7 No. I don’t think so because I think that there’s enough people coming in now that they’re just full, they’re filling, they’re not as empty after building, it don’t take long to sell the place. So I don’t think that they’re watching better now and there’s the city and the county inspectors are watching and I don’t think that it’s gonna be here a big of a boom. It’s a big boom but it won’t be as big of a bust as it was before. For the simple reason that all of the houses and stuff are filled up. If those apartments and houses wasn’t filled up before, now they’re all filled up. I think now that there used to be, that around, this town was gotten up to be about the third biggest boom city in the country other than a couple of cities in California and Arizona. It is one of the biggest boom towns growing right now, and it will continue for several years yet. This building boom has caused a lot of schools to be built in the area. What schools were there in existence when you arrived in town? When I hit Las Vegas in ’53, there was one high school that was Las Vegas High, and all the rest of ‘em has been built since. And there were several grade schools but there were just continuing—there was around, the last figure I factored there was over eighty thousand, of just the pre high school kids now in school, rather than the high school, just pre high. And they just keep building and they just passed a new ballot last Tuesday at the vote to build some more new schools. So they just—they’ve built at least twenty or thirty since I’ve been in the city—of new schools. Which schools have you worked on personally in the area? Well, one of the very first job, I done it when I hit Las Vegas and when I went to work for Erwin Keillor, as I said in—starting at his interview, work for him, it was one of the Bonanza grade schools. And I’ve worked on probably thirty since then. And I’ve seen all of the high schools come in with the Las Vegas High and the, a lot of the grade schools Mountain Vista, I worked on UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 8 that. Worked on the El Rancho, Rancho High, and then I worked on Valley View, Chaparral, and Western High School, and plus there are numerous grade schools. When I first hit the town there was only one or two automobile factories there; now, there is building all new plants with the name of the car dealerships on the two streets, Sahara and Decatur, now is, Automobile Row. You say none of the automobile dealerships were here when you first arrived? There were only about four dealerships in town, now there’s probably twenty dealerships in town, for cars. Jim Cashman was one of the oldest ones in town, he had four cars at one time. He sold Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC Trucks, all out of one store. What other industries were there in town when you arrived? Well, there was several gypsum plants around and Stauffer Chemical and Montrose over at Henderson, Nevada. They was built during World War II. And is still continuing bigger for all the chemicals that shipped all over the country now, but it was built for magnum, for planes attacked during World War II. But it just continued on and is now, is big business with chemicals and all kinds of toxins and stuff that goes in plants and stuff there now to—half of the space shuttle materials was built from Henderson magnesium plants. And then the gypsum plant up at Blue Diamond and around Atlas, north of town, were gypsum plant there and they pulled two heels clear down on there, just to pull in a gypsum board for the construction has gone all over the country now. The gypsum board from Las Vegas. And it was a, big plants gone up, two more big ones built there, (Unintelligible) and (Unintelligible) since they’ve abandoned town on number two of the gypsum plants. Plus the Henderson is built, Montrose is built in over there and then the Gypsum has built a big king of a plant there. There’s another plant come to Henderson, Levi Strauss. Did you work on that or? UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 9 No. I (unintelligible) three thousand people, it did good for the city of Las Vegas. The really, the only, I wouldn’t say a boom but really the only bad one that has ever been put in has been in North Las Vegas, was an industrial and it just don’t seem to get off the ground. It’s a good place but nobody seems to want to get in on that. That’s on Industrial Road in North Las Vegas? Yes. On Industrial Road. Why do you—why doesn’t anybody wanna build over there? I think it’s more on account of the taxes in the City of North Las Vegas than it is anything else. They’re having trouble on the taxes and stuff like that. Get ready. Oh and also, some of the plants they built here, when I first hit Las Vegas in ’53, the water for the city of Las Vegas came from the snow of Mount Charleston. Now they have built big plants that (unintelligible) water here from Lake Mead clear over into the city of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and surrounding towns. The purest water we had though was from Mount Charleston, come down in the ground, the underground (unintelligible) up northwest of town towards Charleston was the—was where the city got its water. All of the streets were just two way streets when I first came to town. And now it’s been widened to four or six lanes all the way. Beautiful streets. And the city and the county and the state takes good care of their roads in Nevada. The streets (unintelligible) in Boulder City or over to Henderson (unintelligible) first two-lane roads or four lane roads, it was half, it was a divided highway between Las Vegas and Henderson for the workers during World War II, to drive the road to Henderson, so we’d work at the chemical plants there and magnesium plant. The road was a divided highway, now they made it a six lane divided highway ‘cause almost traffic to there to Boulder City and Lake Mead. It is fishing UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 10 people come from all over the world to fish at Lake Mead. The road had been built across the dam over there and the clear around the lake, now you can go clear around the lake on the beautiful road that used to be just one road to the lake and that was it. The City of Las Vegas has a traffic problem now with the growth and population. When you first came to Las Vegas, even though the roads were two-lane highways were there still this kind of traffic problem? Not as bad as it is now but when I first came here right after I came here they had an interview, had a man come in and take a survey over there and he said, “Cut all the streets up and start over new.” And they didn’t do it and it’s, traffic jam. But the traffic is real bad now, but they’re working on it ‘cause they’re building better roads all the time but it is still a traffic jam on the main intersection of Las Vegas. When you first came the Strip, old Highway 91, was that the road to Los Angeles, right? That was the—that was the starting one, Sahara was starting of the Strip, and there was only two hotels. Two hotels and now there’s probably fifteen or twenty of them, and casinos and stuff, and they were just, the Flamingo and El Rancho, was the only ones out on the whole Strip. And they was building the Sands when I came to town. But the only road out there would be the one to LA, the old LA Highway. But since then, they got a beautiful freeway that they built, to LA, and the people can go now in three hours what used to take six hours, to go to LA, on the new freeway. When was the freeway built? It was started in the 60s and it was finished in the last three or four years it’s been finished and it’s a beautiful road, they take good care of it. UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 11 You say there was only two hotels on the Strip when you first arrived? Since then, what do you remember most about the building on the Strip? Well, the—one of the old ones that was here, the El Rancho burned down and then the New Frontier was being built, the Riviera, the Circus Circus, the Desert Inn, Dunes and Hacienda. Though Hacienda was like the Flamingo, they built it so far out towards the airport that everybody didn’t think to go there. But now it is one of the bigger hotels, too. Because people travel more now and they go out to the airports. Was the El Rancho Hotel ever built back up after it was burnt down? No. It was never built up and the fire started about four o’clock in the morning, and they don’t know yet what caused it. It started in the attic. It was an old building, though. It was built in the 20s I think. What happened to the property? What is there now? There’s nothing there now but it was sold to the Hughes empire, and now they’re talking about building a newer hotel out there now. But they haven’t done nothing yet. Where was that located? Right south of Sahara and the Strip. There used to be little cottages in there that were individuals. The hotel wasn’t too big but it had a bunch—there was probably twenty acres of little cottages and two apartments there that you drove to a little cottage and (unintelligible) of a room, you had a cottage to live in. Theses cottages were separate from one another? Yes. There was two to each one and the rest of ‘em were, and there’d be another five, six feet in between and they’d build another one there. But they have been all torn down, too, since then. And then west is the Riviera Hotel, which was built in ’54. UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 12 Hm. ’55. It is—Liberace was the first entertainer on it. I worked on it for one solid year, they were building it, when they worked on it. What year was that? In 54’ and ’55. What other major changes can, do you in view seeing in the Las Vegas Strip? Well, it used to be more or less the gamblers was more friendly on the Strip. Now it’s got big buildings and it seems to be more cold than what it used to be on the—I think that the old gamblers that really used to be in there, running the gambling places was more friendly to the public and did more good to the public than what the big businesses is now. ‘Cause they tried to show it probably. They always did probably but they didn’t have to show it probably to nobody but their selves and they were individually owned and now they’re all a cooperation that they are linked to, so they have lost some of their friendliness that used to be in the hotels when I first hit town. What—what are some of the names you remember most about the early Las Vegas gambling? Well, when I first hit town, Fremont Strip was the main gambling Strip. I remember the hotel line now torn down now and made into one big place but there used to be each individual building was the Nevada Club, the Boulder Club, now the Golden Nugget owns a whole block and their used to be at least six little places of gambling on that lap before they got it out all and they built rooms and everything on it. The Fremont Hotel and the Four Queens now, they are building some beautiful hotels down on the Fremont Strip where there used to be just small little individual places. UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 13 On the Las Vegas Strip what are some of the names that you remember most? Well, the hotels was in there and they had that other boom that we had during the ’62 and the ’63 summers. The hotels got a little trouble and that’s when the Hughes empire came in and brought four or five of the hotels, six of ‘em out, and he saved, more or less saved the hotel business till now that he is selling them out now to other people. But Hughes sold it and Bugsy Siegel, when he built the Flamingo, he was the only one and then (unintelligible) for Sands (unintelligible) and to for the town. What were the hotels that Howard Hughes bought in the area? When he first hit town he bought the Desert Inn first. And then, he got the Sands, then he got the Castaways, then the Landmark and then the Frontier, I think then he probably—he got the New Frontier, rather, and then he got the—he’s remodeling the DI now, too. He lived in the top of the DI for about three or four years before he died. Who were some of the major Hughes executives that you remember? Well, Jimmy Gay, just retired. There had been so much there, Mayheu was the, Robert Mayheu was one of the main men here in town for Nevada till he was displaced. When I first hit town, the casinos were Downtown there, there was a lot of stores in Las Vegas at the time, they was on Fremont Street, too, like Rose (Unintelligible) and in there and they went all out to all of the shops on the Fremont Street and more out unto the intersections and the parking lots had in the shopping centers on the Strip, around town now, they’re moving from Downtown and they’re getting more of the gambling, it’s coming back Downtown now again, to build up at one time. It was ahead and then it lost a little bit but now it’s coming back Downtown again. I mean Fremont Street when I say Downtown. When you first came to the Las Vegas area, where was most of the residential area? UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 14 It was around Fremont Street and around—the most of the local people that go to the Fremont Street today are gambling. And the others at the small hotels out on the Strip that we had, that’s where the out of towners go to now. It’s that they go everywhere but at the very first, the local people would hit the Boulder Club and the Nevada Club and places like that on the two blocks of Fremont Street that would have it, consistent to gamble. And the train station used to be down at the end of Fremont. Now the Union Plaza is attached to the train station and they don’t have no passenger trains in there now. It used to be that passenger trains would hit five, six a day, or load people to go down to gamble and the train would stop long enough for the people to go and have a beer and do some gambling but now the trains do not travel through the passenger trains enough to travel through the town, so they have built a hotel where the depot used to be on the end of Fremont Street. That’s the Union Plaza Hotel, right? That is right. Why did the train stop running through the Las Vegas area? I guess on account it wasn’t hauling enough people there. But people starting coming in their cars and airplanes, rather than trains, so, the trains, freight trains don’t go through Vegas heavy yet, but passenger trains do not come anymore. You said something about people coming in their planes. When was McCarran Airport built? Well, McCarran Airport (unintelligible) out of Nellis Air Force Base where the government took over it. That used to be the local airport. Then the government came in and built it for World War II, for the training pilots, for fighter pilots for World War II. Then they build it the side of UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 15 town where the present location is and they named it after one of the senators, McCarran. It was one of the (unintelligible) and it’s still named to this day after Senator McCarran. The commercial airplanes landed at Nellis Air Force Base before McCarran Airport was built? Yes. They landed there. That was where the—the passenger planes would land at Nellis Air Force Base. Then they would come to town, till they built the McCarran. Then there was only Hughes Air West when he was here. He bought, used to be the old Bonanza Airlines. And he bought it, now it’s Hughes Air West. And he had built a big airport on the west side there for his terminal and the new terminal is on the east side of the airport now, over on Paradise Road, and it used to be on the Strip to the airport then. (Unintelligible) that airport on the Strip it was the LA Highway. The Strip was called the LA Highway till it got out of town. And you used to go into the airport on the Strip or rather the highway side, but they built a new terminal on the eastside of the Paradise Road. So now it is a (unintelligible) airport there now and Hughes Air West has the west side, what it used to be the airport there. He got a private line going there. He got a private lane going there. Nellis Air Force Base was built in the 1940s and was used for training pilots. Is this correct? It was for pilots in World War II and (unintelligible) to clear up to the fast jets now, the (unintelligible) Eleven’s and then there is still one of the few advance training pilots for the pilots when they go overseas in case of war. This is advanced training for the pilots after they get their primary training and other ports and stuff like that train at other schools, they come here for an advanced, for the last leg before they go overseas, if there’s a, in case of a war. How much is Nellis Air Force Base grown since you first came here? UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 16 Oh, it has probably tripled three times over from what it was when it was just in buildings when I first came. They tore all of the, most of the buildings down, they was threw up for the war, and now they got permanent buildings out there. They got nice buildings, rather than just rafters and studs, and when they finished up inside just before the war and now they got permanent buildings out there today. They built it up, beautiful city. You say that before when Nellis was first built, it was built temporarily the buildings were built temporarily? Yes. It was just for—just to last the war but there was such good climates and training in the area round in Southern Nevada that they went ahead and made a permanent training base out of it. It was one of the few training bases in the United States now that is for advanced pilots and fighter pilots. When you first arrived in town, where was the main residential area located? It was within two or three miles of the Fremont area. Now it’s—the town has grown to twenty-five miles across town but that one time was only if you were two blocks away from Fremont Street, you were out in the desert there. But now it’s—when I first hit town there were a lot of trailer parks. The buildings wasn’t building fast enough. But now the houses are being built fast enough that the trailer parks are going out and there were several trailer parks when I first hit town but the houses that are being built, more are filled. There’s still, they can probably take in five thousand houses filling in the spaces yet in between other houses before they’d have to go out and (unintelligible). Las Vegas is over a period of probably fifteen, twenty square miles. When you first came to Vegas yourself you lived in a trailer house? Yes. On 2067 North Main, down across from Valley Bank, North Las Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 17 You say when you first came to town, a lot of people lived in trailer houses because they could not build houses fast enough to accommodate all the people? That is correct. And they were not building as fast then as they do now. And they did not have advance ways of building so it took longer to build the house than it does now. Was the Nevada Test Site in operation when you first arrived in town? Yes. It was in operation but it had just started in ’53, or I think it started in about 1950, and they were still blasting the bombs above ground when we first came here. We have seen a lot of mushrooms come out of the ground. Seen them come up there and blow up and then four or five minutes later they would shake your house, for a period of about seventy, eighty miles. It took that long for the vibration to hit town to shake your house and move whatever was in your house. Did you have anything to do with the construction of any of the buildings? Not so much, but I’d done a few up there on the Base there in the administration and up in some of the—some of the foreign areas up there. We went up and painted some of them and got the drywall on them for the contract that we had with the builder who was building them at the time. When did the test site first start blasting underground? I think it went back into the early ‘60s. They figured there was too much radiation getting in the air. So they went underground and I think it was a good deal because you could still feel the vibration but you don’t see the mushroom, but the mushroom was beautiful. About how many blasts do you believe you have seen since you’ve lived in town here? Ah, I would say, within the neighborhood of fifteen to twenty, we have seen. ‘Cause they used to fire them off quite early, early at the, together on the thing there. And then they got less and less, they got bigger all the time, that’s when they started having to go underground because they got some of ‘em so big that they had to go underground to start keeping ‘em from putting too much UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 18 radiation in the air. Also the range up there at the Test Site was for the fighter plane from Nellis to train there, too, and they had a small airport at Indian Springs on the way to the Test Site that the fighter planes would come in there but the Test Site was in with the war games that they had there for Vietnam—train together through both units were working together all the time. So during the war games the planes would take off from Nellis and have a bombing range at the Test Site? Yes. They would go up there and then they would fly through some of the mushrooms to take the radiation but they would also get up there to, the fighter planes would, to try to simulate a bomb attacked with the Atomic Energy Commission up there. Nellis also has a gun range at Indian Springs don’t they? Yes. They have it there but also they have got a beautiful Test Site there for the gunnery range for the airplanes and the bombing range. But also they got a better one there after the Atomic Energy Commission went and got the airports and everything up there, landing lanes for the planes. So when there were early training missions in, from Nellis, they dropped their bombs right around the Test Site? Yes. That’s where they would go up there and drop them and you better be out of the way. What was the major difference that you found in the people between where you were from in Oklahoma and when you first arrived in Nevada? Well, at the time, I don’t think there was any difference at all and people, they’re all friendly, but the more you get out here, you’re getting more of a—(unintelligible) from all over the world and the rest of the states are coming in and they’re getting to be a whole complete different set off people than the original ones that was here. ‘Cause the Nevadans of old were just like the people UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 19 wherever else. They were all friendly and open houses and everything and you had a friend by your next door neighbor, but now, they come from all parts of the states now, so they’re not as friendly as they used to be but they’re still good people. Do you contribute most of this because of, the city’s getting so large? Yes. I’d say that and then also the people coming in as I said before, from the cold weather, coming in here, but it is an ideal, the year round, Las Vegas is. Earlier in the interview I was talking about schools. I was saying Las Vegas High was the only school that I remember but now the school on Fifth Street was a grade school and then they built a new on there on the North Ninth, a grade school there, right after I came here in ’53. So them was some of the first schools that was around. Las Vegas High was the first one and I think they had a, oh, I school population of probably ten, twelve thousand, (unintelligible) thousands. Schools are, all the schools now are beautiful and they’re building around odd looking schools but they’re doing the job. On the—I remember when the very first shovel of dirt was out for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The little building was Maude Frazier building, was the very first one and now we went into a big metropolis college out there. Several buildings, teaching, although at first, when they first opened up it was just for a two year period and then they had to go to Reno, Nevada, to get the rest of the schooling. But now it’s a four year course out there now. But when it first opened it was just for two years. (Tape one ends) Mr. Fisher, who are some of the major political figures you remember most when you first came to this town? Well, I think that the sheriff was the most prominent one at the time there. It was Green Jones. He was sheriff for three or four years in the Brooks (Unintelligible) Building. But then, we had UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 20 Ronzone, he still is today, after twenty-five years, he was one of the city councilmen then, and he still is and I think he’s got a record for being one of the longest ones that there’s been. And then, Russel was the governor when I came to town and some of the other, Lands was prominent in politics, with the (unintelligible) state of Nevada as being governor, I think. And also some as West Howie and some of them have been going, too. What were some of the major political changes? Well, there hadn’t been too many. I think the biggest one is that, seems to be in the governorship because they’ll go for a while. Senator Laxalt got in there and he was a Republican governor for—ah, for two terms. But most of the state of Nevada into Southern Nevada is, the real Nevada is Republican and Southern Nevada is Democrat, or it’s been with the Democratic Party all the way through in Southern Nevada. And then, Warren Gretchen was mayor for so long I don’t know if people even forgot how long he was in as mayor. He done a good job though, so can’t knock that. Warren Gretchen was mayor from between sixteen and seventeen years and he did a good job all the time he was in. And he resigned, he retired the last time and Bill Greer now is mayor. Senator Cannon and Bible had been the ones that—Bible retired two or three years ago and Laxalt got his job in Washington D.C. but he retired. But he was one of the best ones that the state of Nevada ever had, I think. And then, Cannon is still in office and he had done a beautiful job, too—taking care of the people of Nevada. When you first arrived in town, what kind of job opportunities were there for the people that were moving to Las Vegas? Well, I think it’s about the same as it is now. Because I think if a man wants to work in the state of Nevada he can work ‘cause Las Vegas has been a year round work for Paradise for workmen of any kind. And I think that people who want to work can find a job in Nevada. And it’s been UNLV University Libraries Louis Fisher 21 that way ever since I’ve been here for twenty-five years. It seemed like that if a man wants to go out and look for a job, well, they can find it. Would you say most of the job industry around town is due to the hotel industry? It all backs down to the hotel industry is a gambling industry and it’s—it backs down, that’s the main idea of the whole reason of a town being here. Las Vegas came here for a train stop for wat