Myron E. Leavitt interview, March 14, 1978: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 1 An Interview with Myron E. Leavitt An Oral History Conducted by Thomas Neill 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 Myron E. Leavitt 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 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 Myron E. Leavitt 4 Abstract On March 14, 1978, collector Thomas Neill interviewed Myron E. Leavitt (born October 27th, 1930 in Las Vegas, Nevada) at his law office in Las Vegas, Nevada. In this interview, Leavitt discusses his law practice and running for various positions in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also speaks about growing up, playing sports, and coaching multiple sports in Las Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 5 Could you tell us your name, sir? And your occupation? My name is Myron E. Leavitt. I’m an attorney at law. When and where were you born? I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 27th, 1930. Do you recall why it was that your family first came to Las Vegas? My father was born and raised in Bunkerville, Nevada. And he came to Las Vegas to work with the state highway department. Can you tell us what it was like for you growing up here? There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in Las Vegas in my childhood. We had to provide our own recreation. There were a couple of spots where we went. For example, down where the present Elks Hall is located at Cashman Field is a place that was known as the old ranch. We had a swimming pool down there, and we would—a lot of us would hike down there to swim during the day. And also where Cashman Field is now was in the city dump. And it was a lot production down there in the way of farm land. But, we spent most—a lot of our time down there swimming. And then we also used to be a—there used to be a swimming pool at the corner of the alley there at Fifth and Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont, which was known as the mermaid pool. That was at the—it was later developed into Bob Baskin’s restaurant. And right now, there’s a dealer’s school located in that site. But there was a swimming pool there. We used to walk there to go swimming. I was born at 328 North Eleventh Street, and from that house, there was the area where the Old Ranch and the Mermaid pools were the two closest pools. There was also a pool that we used to go swimming on at the corner of Thirteenth and Fremont. It’s not there now of course. It’s been cleared out. It’s commercial development. UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 6 But basically, swimming was about the only kind of relief we had from the summer heat. We didn’t have any air conditioning as we know it now. My dad used to make a air conditioning unit out of a washing machine motor, and a fan. And we used to run that during the day. But there wasn’t much in way of relief from the heat—got up to 110 and so forth—other than by swimming. And that’s how we spent most of our time, by swimming. I also used to do quite a bit of what we call crawdad hunting in the old Las Vegas Creek, which now runs beneath where the new Holiday Inn is on Main Street. And it ran from there through Las Vegas Boulevard. And ended up in the area where the Elks Hall is, and then that area there were little crawdads. We used to go hunt those during the day as a form of recreation. That’s interesting, sir. What particular incident in your life do you remember best? There must be many, but what do you think stands out most in your memory? As far as childhoods concerned, one of the major accomplishments I ever felt that I was able to achieve was when I graduated from the eighth grade. As a complete surprise to me, during the graduation ceremony, I was awarded the medal for being the outstanding athlete of my class, which was come as a complete shock to me, because I hadn’t anticipated receiving it. And I received a like award, the Jack (unintelligible) Award when I graduated from high school, as being the outstanding athlete in my class. But the one in the eighth grade was kind of a outstanding thing for me because it was unexpected. And I certainly appreciated it. The coach at that time was a man by the name of Francis St. John, and he was very active in the American Legion. And he lived on North Eleventh Street in the 200 block. But he was the coach in the grade school in those days, and developed quite a few athletes. He was also—he lost a son in World War II, during the—his son was in the navy and I remember that he was known in those days a Gold Star Mother, his wife was. And they were very active in the American Legion, the UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 7 American Legion Auxiliary, in which my father and mother were also active. My mother eventually became the National Vice President of the American Legion Auxiliary. But basically the outstanding event that stands out in my childhood of course, was winning that medal. I think I still have it. What—what sport did you play as a youngster? Of course, we didn’t have any baseball fields. I didn’t even know what a baseball was until I was about thirteen years old. We had a game, what we called, Shinny. And we called Shinny because we always got hit in the shins. And what we would do is, we would get a single milk can and we would use that as a puck, and we would put a center goal, and then we would have holes around the center. And the object of the game was the first one was it was to knock that can into that center hole and pull the stick over it and count to ten. And the rest of us of course would try to keep him from getting in the hole, but if we had to keep our stick in our home hole, other than the goal, and try to knock his can away. We used to play that game for hours. And in the neighborhood where I lived, that was the only way in recreation. Of course, I played high school football. I played high school basketball. I was on the track team. I played American Legion baseball. And those things all came later. But in the, as far as sports were concerned, organized sports, we didn’t have any baseball fields around here. And as the county commissioner of course, that’s one of the first things I did, was to make sure we built some baseball fields. And it’s always nice to play on grass, but we didn’t even have any grass, our baseball field. We used to—the only baseball field we had was where Hadland Park is now, and the National Guard Armory on Eastern and Stewart. That area was just desert of course then. And it had been (unintelligible) played on the dirt. And that was our baseball field. That’s where we played our games. UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 8 Well, can you tell us something about what you recall about the Boulder Dam, sir? I was about four or five years old when Boulder Dam was dedicated. And I remember going to Boulder City with my father. And of course, going to Boulder City was an event in those days. You got to drive in a car. But I remember specifically seeing Franklin D. Roosevelt sitting on the wooden stand they had built for the dedication purposes. My father had to lift me up on his shoulders so that I could see over the crowd. But I specifically remember when that happened, and the day that he was here to dedicate. It was quite an event in Southern Nevada. Thank you. Did you come from a large family? What did your father do and your mother do? Well as I indicated, my father came to Las Vegas to work as a—he worked for the state highway. He was a maintenance man, worked the state highway for several years. My mother worked for a hotel—was known as the (unintelligible) Hotel, which was on the northeast corner of Carson and Third Street. It’s a parking lot there today. It’s across from the city parking lot and across the street from the First National Bank. That parking lot there, right next to (unintelligible). There was a hotel, the (unintelligible) Hotel. My mother used to work there. And my brother—my brother Jack had a paper route with the Review Journal that I used to help him with. My brother Allan worked in the Bob Baskin Bakery. And he used to wrap bread, and at night that was his job. I used to remember when I was a kid, I used to go there and watch him wrap bread. I was fascinated with the way you had to wrap the bread by hand in those days. And that was his job, and— Do you recall the first job you ever had? And how much you were paid for whatever you did? UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 9 Yes. The first real job I had was—I went to work for Hal Leavy, I’m sorry that’s his son, Harry Leavy. I went to work for Harry Leavy and Mark Showman at the Foodland Market. It’s since burned down. It burned down about a year ago. But the market was at the corner of Fifteenth and Fremont. And that was my first paying job. A lot of the kids in those days worked for markets. But, I remember that I worked for forty-eight hours a week, and I received sixteen dollars and thirty-five cents a week. I remember that was my check. And I—it was a fantastic amount of money for me in those days. What do you think that kind of money could’ve—could’ve bought you in those days? Or did you decide to save it for later use? I always managed to save about twelve, thirteen bucks of that money. And the rest of it I’d spend on going to the (unintelligible) theater Downtown or the, which is still in existence. The Palace Theater was another popular theater. It was across the street from the courthouse where Golden Nugget now has a parking lot. It was previously the Palace Theater, then it was a Gill Theater. But we used to spend a lot of time in the theaters in those days because it was one place where it was nice and cool. They had air conditioning and we used to get away from the summer heat by going to the movies. But I spent a lot of time in those—those places. ‘Course the Huntridge Theater, which was later built on Maryland Parkway and Charleston, was built in the late 40s, about ’48, ’49, when I was a senior in high school. Junior and senior high school. We used to spend a lot of time there. But the theaters were very popular, because it was a good place to cool off. Do you—did you have a lot of friends when you were growing up in Vegas? And if so, do you still remember any of them to be around at this time today? UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 10 A lot of them stayed around. I remember one particular friend of mine when I was growing up, he just lived about a half a block from me. His name was Royce Worn. We used to call him “Tubby”. And Royce is now a gaming executive with the Marina Hotel. I remember when he was applying for his gaming license, he put down on the license me myself as a reference. And the gaming control authorities had called me and asked me about Royce Worn, if I know him and I said “Yes. I’ve known him for a long time, in fact, all of his life.” And they said, “Well, do you know anything derogatory about him?” I said “Nothing except the fact that he was a member of North Eleventh Street Gang.” And there was a long pause until finally I pointed out the North Eleventh Street Gang wasn’t a criminal gang or anything, it was just a gang of us guys that ran around together. And in that area, that was the outskirts of town at that time. The 300 block of North Eleventh Street was not paved, and it was the edge of the desert. During the war, they built the Kelso Turner Terrace, which is now the city of Las Vegas housing tract. But, up until the 40s, that was the edge of town, desert from then on out. There’s a lot of guys that are still around of course that I grew up with, who later on became attorneys, doctors, dentists, so forth here in town. We had a—quite a group. I know that when I was in high school, when I was a freshman in high school, I played football. We had a team that was undefeated, untied, unscored upon. Nobody had made more than one first down against us. There was an article in the paper about that team a little while back. Judge John Mendoza played on it, district court judge. Bill (unintelligible), casino executive at the Holiday Inn. Holiday Casino (unintelligible) Tom Barrel, local lawyer played on it. Gene Matootsie, Albert Matootsie, brothers, both lawyers, played on it. Bob Gallagher, Darryl Loose, (unintelligible) fellow now, still here in town. Don Fair of Fair & Davis Realty played on the team. And Bob Wingard of the Wingard family was a guard. And there was Frank Witherton was UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 11 a tackle, Quincy Shoeman, a dentist, was a center on the team. And there was—Jimmy Books was an end, and Gayle Sifford, who’s a general in the air force now, was the other end. Herman Fisher, a local lawyer, was in the back field. And (unintelligible), a local dentist, was a quarterback of the senior year when I was a freshman. All these guys names that I’ve mentioned, we all played football together under Coach Harvey Stanford. Coach more important—in those days it wasn’t really much in the way of entertainment, and when we, when I was in high school, we played football games, it was during the war. Like I went to high school from 1944 to 1948 and there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment. And the personnel stationed at Nellis would come in and watch our games. And we used to draw five or six thousand people to high school football games. We played some rather big schools. We played Compton, California. We played St. Mary’s of Phoenix. We played McKinley High School of Hawaii. We played San Bernardino, we played San Diego High School, Hoover High School of San Diego. We played Carvin County High School in Utah. We played the top teams in the West. And we had some real good football players come out playing that period of time. And football was a way of life at that time at Vegas High School. I mean, that was it. Everybody went out for football. Everybody that had any kind of ability at all. We had a great coach of course, and Harvey Stanford was a very moral man and kept us all in line. You didn’t dare take a step out of line. He was right there to make sure we didn’t. And it was a lot of spirit and a lot of closeness with the guys that grew up together. There still is. And we still have reunions now. And in fact, my high school class is planning its thirtieth reunion now. And we’ve had two reunions since then. And we’re still pretty close, even to this day. The guys here in town that I went to high school with—we still get UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 12 together occasionally. The friends that I made during that period of time remained my friends throughout my life. I was listening to your very interesting recollections and I heard you mention something about gaming. What do you remember about the beginnings of gaming and why do you think it began to flourish in a town like Las Vegas? Of course, the building of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam) is the thing that started gaming in Nevada. And I can remember that the only real gaming place Downtown was the Boulder Club, where the Mint is now. There was a bank on the corner there on First and Fremont. The main—the main gaming establishment was the Boulder Club. When I was about a senior in high school, which would have been around 1948, the El Rancho was the Strip. That was it. And the Last Frontier, which was then called the Old Frontier, I’m sorry, it’s called the Frontier now, it was then called the Last Frontier, was built. And then the Desert Inn was under construction. I remember how everybody—my father was a county commissioner. My father was a county commissioner from 1944 to 1948. During this period of time, and at that time the Flamingo Hotel was being built. And I remember how much criticism my father received because he was very insistent that McCarran Airport be built way out there in the boondocks. And he had a grand jury investigation. Wanted to know how come they were building the airport so far out, way out of town like they were. And who must own all the property around it, and that sort of thing. ‘Course my father was very insistent that it be built, it would be built, and he was instrumental in seeing that it was constructed. And despite the criticism as being so far out, of course, right now it’s very functional being very—it actually is close to most of the hotels and there’s not many places where you can go and land in an airport and be in your hotel room within fifteen minutes. And of course, that’s been a very good asset to Clark County, the fact that UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 13 you can do that. Then after, after the Flamingo and the Desert Inn, Frontier, and the El Rancho was built, of course, then there was kind of, just stayed that level. And I can always remember how everybody said that they’re building too many hotels. And sometimes you even hear that today, that every time a new hotel goes up, they say we’re reaching the saturation point. They’re reaching the saturation point. The fact is, that every time you built a hotel, it helps the other hotels. And business continues to boom. Of course, we had a period of time there in the 60s when things started to look real bleak. And then along came Howard Hughes and (unintelligible) Corporation bought up those hotels and put ‘em back on their feet and got ‘em going again. But it’s—every time it looks like the Las Vegas, state of Nevada starts to drop, there’s some people in the chamber of commerce, somebody comes in with a couple extra bucks, and they start promoting the town. They start to take off again. But the basic growth really came in the 50s, when the test site was open. Because when the test site opened, it provided at one time during its peak jobs for about five thousand people. And of course, that really certainly helped the economy. The 50s were really the golden years as far as growth was concerned. At that—after that point, then I think the 70s now, of course, are really starting to take off. And I look to even more in the 80s. But the 60s—during the 60s it was, the influence of Howard Hughes had really kept us going. During the 50s, it was—actually you can, you take the history of Southern Nevada, you can start back in the 30s when the Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam) was built. That was the economic shot in the arm during the 30s that got Las Vegas going. Then during the 40s, when they built Nellis Air Force Base and its payroll, that’s the largest employer in the state. Nellis Air Force Base. And that payroll got us going in the 40s. Then the 50s, the test site. And then the 60s, UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 14 Howard Hughes. And then the 70s, the MGM and the Hilton and all the other hotels that we’ve built have really kept the economy rolling. Were you in the service during the war? Or were any of your brothers? How do you remember Las Vegas to be during that time? I was too young to be in World War II. Both my brother Jack and my brother Allen, my oldest brother Allen, were in the services. Jack was an MP and was in the North African and the Italy campaigns. And Allen was, served in the Pacific and was in the occupation on Japan. I remember the tenseness that existed in Las Vegas during the war. Because, especially immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, I can remember very vividly that day because of the—of what’s known now as the North Las Vegas Air Terminal out on Tonopah Highway. That was the day I first—first day I ever rode in an airplane. I remember my dad paid a man five dollars to take me up in an airplane. And that was—I was eleven years old at that time. And we received word then, after I had landed, I remembered we, people were talking, they’d been listening to the radio. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I remember my brother Jack was in high school. He wanted to quit high school immediately and go enlist. And both Allen and Jack were ready to go off and fight, that sort of thing. They did finish high school. As a matter of fact, I think they got a year in college before they were eventually, both went into the service. They both came out as officers. Allen graduated Fort Penning and Jack, Fort Org. And they were both officers at the time the war was over. But it was a very tense time in my house because both when Jack was overseas and no one knew, you know, your communication was with your, with Jack and with Allen, were very limited. And only till we received letters back and forth, I remember the tenseness that was in our household, and, of course, as far as the community was concerned, it was a tremendous amount of concern UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 15 because of the possibility of being bombed. Because we were obviously a target area with Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam) and Nellis Air Force Base. Obviously an area where we’d be subject to an air attack, should one occur. I remember we had blackouts and I remember the rationing of gas, and the stickers, and how you could only—I remember the—I worked in the, as I indicated, I worked in the Foodland Grocery Store. I remember the shortage of sugar, shortage of cocoa, pepper, especially pepper. I remember we used to get pepper once in a while. I happened to mention Francis Saint John earlier, he used to come down and while I was there, where I could always go in the back room and get him a can of pepper. He’d have to pay for it, but pepper was so scarce. That was one of the commodities that was in much demand. And then you had your shoes were rationed. You could only get one pair of shoes for so much period of time. For your meat, you had to have certain stamps to pay, same as you paid your money, you paid these stamps for the meat. And you had stamps that you bought your gas with, and anyone that hoarded food was considered not patriotic. It was a very—it’s hard to comprehend now when there’s no problems. You go down and buy whatever you want and so forth. But in those days, you had to have stamps. You had a regular book that was issued to you, and you took those stamps down, you bought your food, along with your money, you had to have the stamps or you couldn’t get the food. And everybody was doing things for the war effort of course. We collected scrap iron then. I remember we used to cut toothpaste tubes and we’d take ‘em down and turn them in. Tin cans, that sort of thing was all collected for the war effort. There was a lot of work done then along those lines, but basically I remember it as a time of tenseness because of the fear and the possibility of the Japanese attack. UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 16 Could you tell us something about—I’m sure times have changed a lot—but, what did you like foremost about Las Vegas when you were growing up? And even until now, what do you like most about the atmosphere of this town? As I indicated, I still have friends that I grew up with. Las Vegas of course is, to me, is a relaxed town. It’s a town that where everybody was friendly. I remember you could walk Downtown on Fremont Street. You could see, always see people that you knew. Of course, as Las Vegas has grown, that’s not any longer possible. As I indicated, my father was a county commissioner from ’44 to ’48, and I remember he used to stand Downtown in front of the Boulder Club and you stay down there long enough, you could meet everybody in town. Shake hands with everybody. That’s how you used to campaign. You just stay Downtown or wait in front of the (unintelligible) and you could talk to everybody in town. I remember going with him a few times when he did his handshaking and politicking, but it was a small town then in a lot of ways. Even though Las Vegas has grown, it still is a small town in a lot of ways. There are friendships that have grown up over the years, and they’re still very solid. And, basically, I like Las Vegas because of the people. ‘Cause of the people who live here and the type of people. They’re friendly people. And they, they’re people that will help each other. Now, whenever you have a tragedy or something like that that occurs in the community, I think it’s, it really is inspiring to me to see how the people will respond to it. I know that I was involved in the Terry Romeo thing ‘cause Doctor Romeo and I have known each other for years. I was trying to set up a reward fund that was gratifying to me to see how quickly people responded for a request for funds to set up a reward to capture the killer of Terry Romeo. And it occurred that we had a twenty five thousand dollar reward fund set up within a week. Eventually, they caught him and the reward was withdrawn before he was caught. And that was just recently they caught the UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 17 person who committed the act, convicted the murder. It was gratifying to me how quickly the community would respond to this kind of thing. And when everybody is down and out and need a helping hand or something like that, the community’s always been quick to respond. And it’s the people that live here that make the community. And that’s the thing I like about Las Vegas more than anything else. I can see here sir that you’ve been married for twenty four years. Do you remember where and when you met your wife? I better damn well remember. (Laughs) I met my wife Shirley when I was going to law school. I had attended the University of Utah and I, after I attended the University of Nevada. First I attended University of Nevada and I received a degree in journalism, I played football up there for the Wolfpack. I was—attended there on the athletic scholarship. Then I went to the University of Utah and I went to law school. My first year in law school, I met Shirley. She’s the landlady’s daughter is what she was. I started taking her out and—I met her in September, we got engaged in December, and we got married in June. (Tape one ends) You, by all the diplomas and things I see here, so you earned your law degree at the University of Utah. What made you decide to set up your practice here instead of in Utah? Never occurred to me to do anything but live in Las Vegas. I always wanted to come back to Las Vegas. ‘Course, the fact that my brother, Nolan, was a practicing lawyer here was, of course, the course of least resistance. But I was offered a partnership by him and, but I really had no desire to live in Utah. I was only in Utah just long enough to get my law degree. And I wanted to come back to Nevada because this is my home and this is where I lived, I wanted to practice law in Las Vegas. And at that time, of course, I graduated in 1956, started practicing law in Las Vegas in UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 18 1956, at that time was just the end of the golden 50s. But there was still a lot of opportunity for a young lawyer to make a lot of money in those days. Because at that time, there were oh maybe, eighty five lawyer in the whole town. There’s over three hundred now. But, there was the divorce practice then, because California laws were strict, and everybody was coming to Las Vegas for the six weeks cure to get the divorce. And there was, my brother and I, I remember we used to put between ten, twelve divorces a month through for California residents. Of course, we used to charge one hundred and fifty bucks a pop, plus the cost. And that would take care of the overhead. And it was a chance to make some money and it was a very lucrative law practice in the late 50s and early 60s, especially here in Las Vegas. You were also a justice of the peace I hear. How are things any different at that time in so far as being justice of the peace was in relation to the present? Well, at that time, I was the only justice of peace. They now have four justices of peace in Las Vegas Township. And Las Vegas Township actually included North Las Vegas then, so I ran for the office. I’m very interested in politics and after I graduated from law school and came back here in 1956, two years later, I ran for justice of peace in 1958. I ran against a man by the name Oscar Brian, Richard Brian, the state senator’s father. And Oscar had been practicing law here for thirty years. And I’d been practicing law for two. I took him on in a campaign for justice of peace, and I beat him in the primary by about a thousand votes. In the general, I’ll never forget this, there were twenty-two thousand votes cast in that general election for justice of peace, and I lost by a hundred and twenty-one votes. And I’ll never forget that figure, a hundred and twenty-one, because that’s what I lost by. In any event, then, two years later, I decided to run again for justice of peace, and this time I won and I was elected justice of peace in the 1960 election. And I served as justice of peace 1961, 1962. During that period of time the justice of peace performed UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 19 the marriages. And he was allowed to keep the fee for performing the marriages, so it was a very lucrative office, and one which was sought very hardly. It was one of the top political campaigns of the area. In fact, I remember that when I was elected that John Kennedy got elected president. He got the headline. I was on the headline right underneath it in the paper, because it was considered one of the top offices in the area. And it was, as I indicated, it was very lucrative. It, I suppose that after paying taxes and everything in those days, I netted about forty thousand dollars a year after taxes, which was as I indicated, a very lucrative post. It was a two year post. And no one ever tried to run—well they tried to run for it again, but nobody ever really got reelected to it for a second time, until Judge (Unintelligible) ran and got reelected. And then actually, at that time, they elected two justices of the peace. But since I was the only justice of peace in town, and I performed, I suppose, about thirty thousand to forty thousand marriages over a two-year period. And it was, in addition to that of course, was the duties of the justice court. You still had the jurisdiction of every felony that was committed in the county. You had the preliminary hearing, plus the misdemeanors and the traffic courts, small claims court. It was a very busy job. It required me to go to work about eight o’clock in the morning, and I’d very seldom get to bed before one o’clock. And sometimes I would even get called in the middle of the night. But for the most part, I didn’t perform any marriages after one o’clock because—because of the busy court schedule. I had to take care of the court. I had to get up in the morning and take care of it. It’s—it was certainly a challenging job and one that took a considerable amount of effort on my part, but one which I enjoyed thoroughly. You performed a lot of marriages, but I’d like to ask you if you remember having married anyone of importance? And, if so, what impression did that person give you? UNLV University Libraries Myron E. Leavitt 20 Well, for some reason or other during that two years, nobody of what you might call importance, (laughs) may wanted to get married. I can’t remember anybody that like, a movie star or prominent person that I married. I do—I had some unusual twists even today. The other day, Sunday, I was—a man came up to me and he said, you married me and my wife. And I said, “Well, I hope it worked out alright”. In this case it did, because you’re talking about something that occurred fifteen, sixteen years ago. And they still—they still, you know, remember that I married them. I had some unusual experiences after I became justice of the pea