Transcript of interview with Jane Greenspun Gale by Barbara Tabach January 31 and February 9, 2018

An Interview with Jane Greenspun Gale An Oral History Conducted by Barbara Tabach Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas i ©Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV - University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers and Editors: Barbara Tabach, Claytee D. White 11 The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first- person narratives. The participants in this project thank University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes 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. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews with permission of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Cl ay tee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas m Preface Jane Greenspun Gale—actor, activist, writer, magazine publisher, philanthropist, and farmer— has filled her life with accomplishments such as the Animal Foundation and Springs Preserve. It has also been a life filled with adventure - from “looking for John Lennon” during her time living and studying acting in London to learning to raise chickens on the acres of the Gilcrease Farm she owns with husband and photographer Jeff Gale. Everyone calls her Janie. Born Jane in 1949, she is the third of four children bom to community leaders Barbara and Hank Greenspun. In this oral history, Janie captures the fun of growing up in Las Vegas under the watching eye of Hank. As a teen she and her friends cruised Fremont Street. Several years later she wanted to be arrested protesting the Atomic Test Site, when Hank diverted her into reporting about the event instead. Her Jewish foundation was at Temple Beth Sholom, where her parents were among the founding members. As the Jewish population grew, the tastes in synagogues grew to reflect the change. When Janie’s children preferred the Reform approach at Congregation Ner Tamid, a new family tradition began. She is proud of her background and shares loving stories of time spent with her grandparents as a child and pride in the heroic and dramatic story behind the naming of Hank Greenspun Plaza in Israel. Even her love story with Jeff is a tale made for movies. It unfolds in this engaging oral history interview along with anecdotes that are plucked from her personal history and preserve a reflection of growing up in Las Vegas, one of the Greenspun family of local fame. IV Table of Contents Interview with Jane Greenspun Gale January 31 and February 9, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Barbara Tabach Preface.........................................................................iv Session 1 Begins with her Anglo-Saxon ancestral roots on her maternal side, Grandma Jessie Ritchie and her likely conversion to Judaism, raised family with husband Joe Ritchie in Ireland; blending of the Irish and Jewish cultural influences. Sam and Annie Greenspun, paternal side discussed; stories about Christmas tree story, fresh challah, and schmatta doll.............................1 - 5 Talks about becoming aware of her Jewishness, Sunday school, parents among founders of Temple Beth Sholom; her brother Brian’s bar mitzvah; her youthful experience with Mormon religion and being called “kike” in sixth grade. Recalls desegregation of Las Vegas schools. She attended private school in 1963 and recalls learning of President John Kennedy assassination; being called “dirty Jew” and how the school and her father handled it. Her knowledge of her father’s history smuggling guns to Israel; people who would visit her home to talk to her Hank, memory of Six- Day War; cruising Fremont Street as a teen and coming upon her father intervening with a murder/suicide threat.................................................................6-11 Shares about attending Las Vegas High School, Class of 1967 and about being a Las Vegas teen in the Sixties, and younger sister to Susan and Brian Greenspun; dressing her younger brother Danny up; her acting aspirations. Las Vegas Sun’s anti-war position, her decision to attend 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago; her legal suit against Nevada for legislation allowing 18-year- olds to vote. Next, her move to England to “look for John Lennon” with her friend Marilyn Tobman; attended Guignard School of Vodavision in pursuit of her acting career; story of coming home and choice of Cal State Fullerton for college; move to Los Angeles for acting jobs, mentions Columbia Studios, Mike Frankovich, Jonie Taps, Lina Wertmuller, EST period, part on Vegas with Dan Tanna; met her “practice husband.”...........................................12-24 Talks about life in Las Vegas, mother of two children Jesse and Ariel, and divorcing in 1983. Recalls the photographer who took her photo while attending opening of Neiman Marcus. Mentions George Burns, Peggy Lee; being with Marilyn Gubler at VIP party for 25th anniversary of Caesars Palace and encounters the mysterious photographer again. Talks about courtship of Jeff Gale..................................................................................25-28 v Remembers Hank attending Washington march with her brothers; near-kidnapping story and being driven to school by Bill Poole; episode regarding Bill Couthard murder. Shares about marrying Jeff Gale in 1988; Hank’s struggle with cancer; birth of son Harrison in 1990; Hank’s funeral and sitting Shiva; Barbara’s elegance and wit; growing up around her parents and the newspaper business, feminism and her mother as a role model. Mentions event to remember Dana Marshall Bernstein who has recently died..................................................29-35 Discusses the early days of Greenspun family philanthropy, mentions Jerry Mack, Art Marshall, Israel bond dinners. Explains that she is a “farmer”; raised in a kosher home; decision to not eat meat while on a Greenspun family trip to Ireland in 1968; now she and Jeff live on Gilcrease Farm where she has chicken and grows vegetables; looking to invest in fruit farm in Hawaii. Shares her typical day. Describes her health column in the Las Vegas Sun during the 1980s; story of showing her father their farm acreage and history of Gilcrease Farm, climate change/studies by a UNLV graduate student.................................................................35-43 Talks about her history with the Animal Foundation, PETA and HSUS, celebrity involvement of The Go-Go’s, Rue McClanahan; Pat Derby and PAWS; animal act of Bobby Berosini and his abuse of orangutans; early organizers Linda Levine and Mary Herro; Mayor Ron Lurie, Mayor Jan Jones, Animal Control; building a shelter on land from the city; money for Lied Animal Shelter form Christina Hixson; Diane Orgill; opened in 2006. Greenspun Dog Adoption Park, LEED certified. Search for an executive director. Challenges and struggles; cleaned place up; Chris Robinson; 2020 goals.............................................................43 - 51 Reviews the Springs Preserve project, another project she is a leader of; Gilcrease Well Association; mentions Pat Mulroy, Tito Tiberti and Richard Bunker; learning the history of water on the desert that included Kit Carson and John C. Fremont; Paiutes; widening of 1-95 and Friends of Big Springs. Simultaneously working on Animal Foundation and Greenspun building at UNLV.............................................................................52-56 Session 2 Recalls she was in Los Angeles at the time of 1978 kidnapping of Cary Savegh from Temple Beth Sholom Day School; Beth Sholom as first synagogue; remembers Cantor Kinnory and Cantor Cohn; attended services in Los Angeles; preparation for her children’s bar/bat mitzvahs and affiliating with Congregation Ner Tamid; story of how she told her mother. Describes her parents’ household; housekeeper named Mary Alice; Hank’s involvement with Moulin Rouge Agreement; Rabbi Sanford Akselrad and Cantor Jessica Hutchings..............................57 - 63 Reflects on Greenspun Building at UNLV and having name displayed so prominently; Barbara Greenspun Lecture Series; going through a bad time as a family business. Explains her personal work at the Sun, her column, and rhyming column at holidays; Ruthe Deskin. Hank’s nudging advice after her divorce in 1983. Talks about being co-host with Dan Newbum on Channel 10, Las vi Vegas Life show; Kay Soldal producer; Health Watch reporter for Channel 8; Bob Stoldal. Talks about magazine enterprise she was more recently invested in; luxury lifestyle magazine business titles and Greenspun Media Group; Danny Greenspun; Michael Carr, Jason Binn, L.A. Confidential; challenge of magazine business in this era; describes herself as “retired from magazine business.” Speaks about brief thoughts of getting into cannabis business with legalization.........................................................................64-74 Remembers August 1964 and Beatles; duo Peter and Gordon; friends Jeanie Kronberg, Sue Shaw, Leslie Margolian adventure; cruising Fremont Street; Deep Purple getting banned from performing in Las Vegas; Johnny Crawford {Rifleman TV show); Paul Peterson. Mentions Charles “Moon” Mullin, probation officer, and curfews. How it was to raise her kids in the Nineties in Las Vegas. Talks about growth of city; first time Broadway shows came here; addition of fashion stores like Neiman’s; overall assessment of Las Vegas and opportunity to become a sports capital ... .75 - 79 Shares about Niki Devine, her mother-in-law, who passed away in 2014; married to Lou Gale, a Texas bookie and father to Jeff, her husband. Talks about Jewish men who were gangsters and settled in Vegas, Moe Dalitz and others; story of how Hank and Moe gave each other a hard time. Mentions Irving “Niggy” Devine, who Niki married later. Story of Barbara Greenspun learning to play golf; Evelyn Goot; Ida Devine. Niki was also previously married to Marvin Zindler, the inspiration for the movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas........................80-84 Talks about parents and other who lived in Regency Towers when it was built. Mentions Arne and Lynn Rosencrantz; her siblings. She was the topic for many of Hank’s newspaper columns; her relationship with her father; Israel and Hank Greenspun Plaza; Teddy Kollek Botanical Gardens; next generation have bar/bat mitzvahs in Israel; her children’s services at Ner Tamid and parties..............................................................................85-90 Hank’s Frank Sinatra story; attending shows like Rat Pack; enjoying Elvis’ opening night at International (though not a fan); Hank bailing Shecky Greene out; her father’s international circle of contacts and friendships; not a man driven by money. Guns and October 2017 shooting at Route 91 country music festival. Mentions families such as Morans, Molaskys, Arums.........91 - 98 Talks about the Atomic Test Site and the 1980s protests; list of those who protested included Carl Sagan, Martin Sheen, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Father Berrigan; story of how Hank dissuaded her from joining the protest; following those arrested to Nye County Jail; Hank was among those watching the first above ground explosions; his health fitness routine. Passover Seders and Barbara’s cooking; Bob Arum leading the service...........................99 - 104 Story from John C. Fremont Junior High Government class and being hit with a wooden paddle; another time called out by instructor for being Jewish and demanding to know about her mother’s heritage...........................................................................105-106 Vll Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project UNLV University Libraries Use Agreement Name of Narrator: Name of Interviewer: (MjbarA CM~>______________ We, the above named, give to the Oral History Research Center of UNLV, the recorded interview(s) initiated on ' / 3 > II S' along with typed transcripts as an unrestricted gift, to be used for such scholarly and educational purposes as shall be determined, and transfer to the University of Nevada Las Vegas, legal title and all literary property rights including copyright. This gift does not preclude the right of the interviewer, as a representative of UNLV, to use the recordings and related materials for scholarly pursuits. I understand that my interview will be made available to researchers and may be quoted from, published, distributed, placed on the Internet or broadcast in any medium that the Oral History Research Center and UNLV Libraries deem appropriate including future forms of electronic and digital media. There will be no compensation for any interviews. Signature of Interviewer Date Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 457010, Las Vegas, NV 89154-7010 702.895.2222 Vlll Session 1 Today is January 31, 2018. This is Barbara Tabach and we are sitting in my office at UNLV to do an oral history for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage project, and this oral interview is with Jane Greenspun Gale. Jane, just for the record, please spell your name. J-A-N-E. Greenspun, G-R-E-E-N-S-P-U-N. Gale, G-A-L-E. Also sitting with us is Kelly McCarthy, who actually coordinated this oral history appointment - which is great. Jane, it’s really fun to have you come in. Thank you. We usually talk about the ancestral roots. Mine go very deep. I go back to the Anglo-Saxons. Oh, really? Yes, yes. Tell me about that. My Grandmother Jessie, my mother's mother, used to tell me when I was a little girl growing up in Las Vegas—she came here in the Fifties, I guess, and I was born here in 1949—my Grandmother Jessie used to tell me stories—how deep do you want to go with Grandma Jessie? Grandma Jessie was wonderful. She traced herself back to the Anglo-Saxons, and I didn't know what that was but I thought that was pretty important because she loved the queen and she loved England. She told us that she was an orphan and that she converted to Judaism to marry my Grandpa Joe. These are my mother [Barbara (nee Ritchie) Greenspun]—Barbara's parents. They were married in England, in London. Interestingly, it was not until my mother died in 2010 that when we were looking through the safe we found papers from—Susan [Jane’s sister] found them—our great-great grandmother, who was Grandma Jessie's mother who didn't die until 1 1934. All we can figure is that when she became Jewish, they disowned her because she never had any contact with her parents again. But there was communication with my mother and my great-grandmother, and none of us knew that until my mother died. That's kind of an interesting Grandma Jessie story. Yes. What was Grandma Jessie like? Grandma Jessie was wonderful. She was very proper. She was Victorian. There were certain things that you had to do and certain things that you didn't do. You never discussed religion or politics, especially at the dinner table. I'll tell you a funny story. When we were little kids, we were having dinner at the Showboat. We used to eat at the Showboat. I don't know how old we were. It must have been in the Fifties or early sixties, so we were all young, preteens or kids. It was my parents, the four of us, and Grandma Jessie. She started telling the story that she was a medium when she was in Ireland. She and her friend Norie Baker used to do seances. My father hated this kind of talk, hated it. He called it black magic, abracadabra. He couldn't stand it. He didn't like religion or any of that kind of stuff. He was a big supporter of Israel, but he didn't like religion. We're all sitting there really wide-eyed as she's talking about this seance that she and Norie Baker were doing. She had just converted to Judaism. She and Norie were doing the seance and suddenly the table began to shake and roll. We're sitting listening to this story. "And the table began to shake and a voice said, 'Jessie, be a good Jewess,' and with that the table picked itself up and threw itself against the fireplace." And my father said, "And broke the bottle of scotch." After everybody stopped laughing, my grandmother looked at my father and she said, "Hank, there are things beyond your ken." 2 I loved her. I thought she was amazing. She used to tell me stories about she wished she had brought her furniture from Ireland for her apartment. I said, "Well, why didn't you?" And she said, "Oh, the ghosts. I couldn't take the furniture out of the house because of the ghosts." I said, "You lived in a house with ghosts, Grandma?" And she said, "Oh, but I was protected by the fairy ring." I said, "What's a fairy ring?" There was a ring of toadstools outside her house where the leprechauns lived. She used to tell me these stories and my mother was extremely superstitious. So I have all the Jewish stuff; I have all the Irish superstitions; I have all the seance abracadabra. I think that's interesting, the Irish overtones that seep into being Jewish. If I would see a dappled horse, I'd have to spit three times and cross my fingers until I saw a dog. No hats on beds, shoes on tables. Then I have all the Jewish stuff. It took me years to sort of break out of this. Thank you, God, I can walk freely without stepping on lines and doing things that were going to wreck my day. It took me a long time to get there. KELLY: Poor thing. I had all of that stuff. Grandma Jessie was married to Grandpa...? Joe. And he came along... He didn't come at first. He had lung cancer. He had been mustard gassed during World War I and he developed lung cancer. They all smoked. They were related somehow to the Rothman family who had Rothman Cigarettes in England and they all smoked like chimneys. He spent time at the Jewish hospital in Denver making sure he didn't have tuberculosis before he could come to Las Vegas, but my grandmother came first. I only met him—he was in bed—they had like a duplex 3 on Exley and I was just a little girl when I met him and then he died soon after that. He was the head of motion picture distribution in Ireland for Paramount Pictures, so there are very glamorous pictures of my grandparents. This one that comes to mind, my grandmother was in this black velvet halter gown. This was in the twenties. Very elegant and chic and beautiful. That was the life they had in Ireland; they moved from London. That's where my mother grew up; my mother grew up in Ireland. That’s the Ritchie grandparents. That's the Ritchie grandparents. What did you know about your father’s side of the family? My father's side of the family was Grandpa Sam — Poppa Sam — and Mommy Annie. They lived on Sweeney, which was across the street from Crestwood School where I went to grammar school most of the time and then we moved. But I would go every single day; I'd walk across the street and go every single day to lunch at Mommy Annie's house because she was just making fresh challah. Every day at lunchtime she would be taking the fresh challah out of the oven and I'd knock on the door and I'd say, "Mommy Annie, may I have lunch here today?" And she'd say, "Call your mother." I'd have to call my mother at the newspaper and she'd say, "Yes, it's fine." Every single day. I always had to call my mother. I'd say, "Yes," and she would slice the hot challah and put honey on it and that was my lunch every single day. It was still the best lunch I ever had. That sounds so good right now. I know, hot challah with honey. She had a schmatta closet where she made schmatta dolls. Explain what a schmatta doll is. A schmatta doll is made out of rags. I would go over and she'd open the schmatta closet and it 4 smelled like old linens. She would get rags and make little dolls for me and those were my schmatta dolls. Do you still have some of those? No, no. But I still have my doll collection. I always collected dolls and I have a lot of them still. My Poppa Sam...When I was a little girl, I think I was about five, I wanted a Christmas tree, and my mother explained why we didn't have a Christmas tree and why we couldn't have a Christmas tree, and I still wanted a Christmas tree. I didn't care. I wanted a Christmas tree. So I went to school, my parents went to work, and when we all got home there was a Christmas tree in the house that my Poppa Sam bought — who spent every morning davening. He davened. He was very religious; he studied Talmud constantly. He wore everything on him. Tefillin? Tefillin. He had everything on him. He was a very religious man. But he walked to Charleston Boulevard and bought a Christmas tree and brought it back to the house. When my parents came home, they said, "Poppa, why do we have a Christmas tree? I explained to her." He said, "When she's older you'll explain. Right now she wants a Christmas tree." So that was Poppa Sam. That's a sweet story. Yes. My father [Hank Greenspun] used to tell me I took after Poppa Sam because he said he was the original hippie. That was one of the questions I was really going to ask about -- which of your parents you take after the most, but the grandfather, yes? My father tells stories — He wanted his father to have a medical checkup. He had never had one. They came to this country — the forties? I guess, they came here in the forties or the Fifties, I guess. I don't know. He took him to the Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara. They got down there 5 and they had some time before their tests, so my father took Poppa Sam to get a haircut. They got a haircut and then they had the medical tests and everything was fine and they came home. The next year my father wanted to take him again. He said, "Pop, come on, we're going to go back to the Sansum Clinic." And Sam said, "Why? Do I need another haircut?" That's hysterical. He used to call him the original hippie and he said I took after him. When did you really become aware of your Jewishness? I always had to go to Sunday school. I always went to Sunday school. The first temple I remember going to was at the Methodist church; downtown there was a Methodist church and I remember going to temple there. My parents were founding members of Temple Beth Sholom. I think when it opened Brian was bar mitzvahed. It seems to me that he was bar mitzvahed. Everybody was there. Senator [Alan] Bible was there. Senator [Howard] Cannon was there. The governor was there. Everybody was at Brian's bar mitzvah at the temple. It was a big deal when the temple opened. So I always knew I was Jewish. But girls didn't get bat mitzvahed when I was a kid. That didn't start until the Seventies that girls got bat mitzvahed, so I didn't have to go to Hebrew school. I just had to go to Sunday school. One of my best friends was Christine Spencer. We moved from our house on Bracken where I went to Crestwood School to our house on Griffith near Oakey and then I went to John S. Park in the fifth and sixth grades. Christine Spencer was one of my best friends. After Sunday school I used to go to Primary with her. She was Mormon and I used to go to Primary with her. I loved primary. It was so much more interesting than Sunday school. We would make things. It was all crafty. We learned to sew. Mormons are much craftier, in the craft way, not in a bad way. I used to go every Sunday with her after Sunday school. One day the primary teacher came up to 6 me and told me how much she enjoyed having me there and did I want to become Mormon? I said, "Oh, no, my mother would not let me be Mormon. I'm Jewish." And she said, "Well, then you can't come back to Primary anymore." So I had to stop going to Primary. I knew I was Jewish. I can tell you stories when it really became clear. Christine Spencer and I both had a crush on this boy named Steve Earle. She liked him, so I thought he was cute. I didn't have a crush on him. She liked him, so I thought he was cute. We were walking across the playground on our way home and he walked by and called me a kike. I said, "What? What does that mean? What does that mean?" He just left. When my parents got home about five o'clock, I asked my mother what a kike was and she just turned white. "Who called you that?" Aaagh. She got really upset. I said, "What? What is it?" She explained to me that it means dirty Jew or something like that. And I said, "Well, why would he call me that?" It was more like, what's wrong with him that he would say that? I never thought, oh my gosh, I'm a dirty Jew; it never occurred to me that. I just thought, well, why would he do that? About how old were you? I was probably in the sixth grade. That is an age where kids verbalize and they don’t even know what they’re saying. Yes. My father said, "He must hear it in his house because why would he say that?" It's happened a few times in my life and it was always like, what's that about? It was never anything that I didn't want to be Jewish because of; that never occurred to me. Did you ever feel like there were periods of anti-Semitism in Vegas? Oh, yes. Well, in Vegas—I don't know so much in Vegas. I was in junior high school at John C. Fremont Junior High School in the eighth grade, so this must have been '62; '62-63 I was at John 7 C. Fremont in the eighth grade, and they desegregated the schools. They used to bus the little black kids over from the Westside to John C. Fremont and there would be these white thugs waiting for them to get off the bus. When these little kids would get off the bus, these kids would just beat them all. It was horrible. I used to jump in the middle and I'd be trying to stop it. I came home from school and I said to my parents, "I can't stand this. I hate this." Every single day this would happen as I was be arriving at school. I said, "I hate this. I've got to get out of here. I don't like this. I don't like this." Because these white kids were just so mean. "I want to go to boarding school." So in the ninth grade I went to Westlake School for Girls in the Holmby Hills in L.A. It was idyllic. That was 1963. That's when Kennedy was shot. My ninth grade year I was in World History class and we heard about it in World History class. My English teacher had gone to Wellesley and that's when I first heard about Wellesley, because I loved my English teacher. Anyway, so we had to wear white uniforms for dinner. I was late and I was running up the stairs. I lived in the dorm and I was running up the stairs to change into my white uniform. This was the second semester, so I had been there with everybody the whole time. I was running up the stairs to change into my white uniform and Theresa DeBore walks by and said, "Jew." And I said, "What?" And she said, "Dirty Jew," and just kept walking. And I thought, Theresa, what's... ? I had known her the whole year and nothing like that had ever happened. I just ran in my room because I didn't want to be late for dinner. My roommate, whom I was with, ran to my housemother and told my housemother. My housemother came and she was so upset. She came running in. It wasn't a big deal to me. I didn't want to be late for dinner. She came running in and she said, "Oh, my goodness, Jane, I'm so sorry this happened. We're going to deal with Theresa and you don't have to go to dinner. You 8 can have dinner in your room if you want." She made it such a dig deal, I thought, well, maybe I should be upset about something. She said, "What would you like to do?" And I said, "I think I'm going to call my father." So she said, "Fine, fine." There were pay phones, so I went downstairs and sat in the booth and called my father and told him what had happened. He said to me, "Baby, I fought a world war so my children wouldn't have to hear this kind of stuff. I fought all my life so my children wouldn't have to hear this kind of taunting." He said, "But look at Sammy Davis, Jr. Here is a one-eyed black man who became a Jew. With everything he had going against him, he became a Jew, and he's the greatest entertainer of all time." He just made me laugh and that was the end of that. Something else had happened; I can't remember. I asked my father, "Why does everybody hate Jews? What did we do? Tell my why people hate Jews." He thought for a minute and he said, "Because we gave the world the law. Before that there was no law." And I thought, what about Hammurabi and all those people? No, the Jews gave the law. Interesting. I'm sorry, did that throw you off? No, no, not at all. They were great stories. I'm thinking about here — is your dad, giving you this advice. When did you realize what your father's history was? Oh, I knew my father's history. Did you know it by the time you were in grade school and junior high? That he had smuggled guns to Israel; that kind of stuff? Oh, yes, yes, yes, that was pretty well known. He did that before I was born, though. I was born in '49; he did that in '48. Right. That's the reason I asked that, because a lot of times we don't know. When we're being raised by our parents that kind of history isn't important. 9 Yes. But it was never a surprise to see who was in the living room. Talk about that. Sometimes it would be the governor of Nevada. Sometimes it would be Hopalong Cassidy. Sometimes it would be the prime minister of Israel. There was always somebody really interesting in our house or in my father's office. I remember when the Six-Day War happened. Everybody was on the phone to my father in Las Vegas. I remember being in the house and my father talking about it. So I always knew there was something going on and there was always stuff happening and my father was usually in the center of it. That was just what he did. It wasn't like, oh my gosh, I can't believe he's doing this again. In high school we cruised Fremont Street. That's what we did—we would cruise up and down Fremont Street, like American Graffiti. Where Union Plaza is was the Union Train Station. So we'd go up, turn around at Union Train Station, come back down again, and we'd have our KENO radio blaring the Beatles' songs. It was the Sixties in Las Vegas. We got to just in front of where the Golden Nugget is, First or Second, whatever it was, and there were all these police barricades up. We had just been up and turned around and came back again and all the sudden we can't go. It's like, "Oh, come on. What are they doing now? Why are they stopping us?" We had the radio on and the disc jockey came in and said that there was this incident going on on Fremont Street and that a man had gotten into a cab with a sawed-off shotgun and he was threatening to blow off the head of the cab driver and then he was going to kill himself. So there was this very tense scene and the police were everywhere and he was telling the police to stand back. This is on the radio. We're sitting there and I'm sitting not too far from there. On the radio they say, "Suddenly there's a man going up to the cab and he's talking to the guy in the cab. 10 And now the cab driver is getting out of the cab and the man is getting into the cab. The man is Hank Greenspun." I'm sitting there and my father is now in a cab with a man with a sawed-off shotgun who is threatening to kill himself and the cab driver. The cab driver gets out. I turned left and went home. It's like eleven thirty at night. I got home as fast as I could and I woke my mother up. We sat and we were watching Channel 8 of this whole thing