ent001320-069

BEAUMONT, TEX. ENTERPRISE Circ. D. 47,996 - S. 64,186 DEC 21J9S2 'S LIKE THIS. . . BY ROBERT W. AKERS Editor, The Enterprise npHE gambling wheels never stop spinning The dice never cease to roll. The black' jack dealers flip their cards endlessly. The slot machines whir and clank as one player replaces another. Twenty-four hours a day this goes on. Seven days a week.. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, save for election day. Las Vegas.must be seen to be believed?╟÷and e'venseemgTt one has the feeling he's in some unreal sort of existence completely detached $rom the world of everyday living, i I had that feeling last week shortly after I walked into the Sands ^h^l for the first time. It was about 9 b^ciock of the opening night of Jake Freedman's $5,500,000 luxury resort. The immense lobby wasg filled With men and women, many in evening dress. In my naivete I told myself, "Qui||f|iin opening reception. Well, here goes Jck jhfke hands, make polite. conversation 'WhireJ^re>iding a glass. Mtx-iafid mingle. Talk about the new hotel and Nevada's climateg tltOW wrong can you be? It wasn't the lobby and the crowds weren't making small talk. I i^V'fj^ftf^ They were so many individuals, each one personally intent on that $^|occupation of all who come to the City of ?Chance. They surrounded, two and three deep, the three roulette wheels, the eight blackjack dealers, the five dice tables, the scores of slot machines that filed the casino?╟÷not lobby. The Sands is constructed, Ijlbarned, like all the other fine resort establishments of Las Vegas It centers on the gambling room. It is a casino surrounded by several hundredpeiutifully furnished hotel rooms, a big swimming pool, a sunning beach, a mile-long (so it seems) bar, a magnificent dining room, smart shops, a postage-stamp -^size lobby, an elegant night club and a. snack bar where the players, be it 4 p. m. or 4 a. m., can step aside from the wheels .and cards long enough to have a- quick sandwich. The Las Vegas architectural scheme doesn't vary, basically, but the Sands, being the newest, is the finest of the lot. The whole hotel, complete in all its details, was put together in an unbelievable 10 months. The last guy wire, bracing the freshly planted palm trees in the central parkway, was tightened up just as the .first guests moved in. The final squares of green sod had barely been tamped into place. The gaming tables had scarcely been lined up on the rich, wall-to-wall carpet of the casino. And then the crowds swept in and took over. tjOW much money passes over those gaming devices each day, I don't know. I can state for a certainty, though, that it's measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Jake Freedman (whose partner in the Sands is Jack Entratter) has taken a long, long step from the gambling place he ran at the far end of Houston's Main street a few years ago. It's legal now. Visitors can't help having a certain startled nervousness, however, the first time they see neatly uniformed officers, Whose badges proclaim them to be deputy sheriffs of Clark county, Nevada, helping to move money bags from the casino t^flhe cashier's den and standing by to be sure gambling goes on without interruption to its orderly career. You have to rejgtod yourself that the state of Nevada has a direct interest, through taxes, in every turn of wheel or card or dice, every pull of slot machine handle. "night club." If tails a sradejt spade (or a blackjack if the ace and a facfJ&rd fall together.)-Las Vegas "signs sayj^ppjGolden Nugget sGambling Houses -and :'J0Qpp." or "Dance Hall?╟÷Band Plays till 5 A^^^^'"*Our Special Grubstake Jackpot Pays^liSO:*? rpHE Sands is now one of seven lavish re- sort hotel-casinos, but they're only a part of Las Vegas. Stand on the steps of the United States postoffice, look down the center of Fremont street and you'd almost believe you were looking into Times square from Forty-second and Broadway. The glare and the gaudiness of the neon lights are staggering. Flashing and zigzagging, flaring and erupting, they scream: "The Golden Nugget," "The Horseh6e?·"; "The Last Frontier." Las \^Hssdoesn't go in for euphemistic word substitutelrllke "casino," "cocktail lounge," >pHAT word grubstake sil&fgpc&l. Nevada still thinks in terms oi-fMnot-so-long-ago days of silver and gold mining}' of bonanzas, of prospectors, of the motherTode, of he-man boom towns in which gambling was the universal diversion and saloons and gaming houses lined the streets. ^iip? So it is that four solid blocks of 1952 downtown Las Vegas are simply a series of casinos, the neon-heralded ones I just spoke of. Most of them are finished in frontier decor, as contrasted with the quiet, modern elegance of the Sands. , There's the gambling room, the saloon to one side, the inevitable dance hall girls who perform on a small stage at -one end of the bar, the barroom pianist?╟÷an anemic-looking gent with dangling cigaret and and half-empty beer s who can play "Ragtime Cowboy Joe1 in the classic style, the "change girls" who roam the gambling room to provide silver for paper, the better to keep the customers uninterruptedly at the slot machines. pREMONT street's fiolid front of casinos ii j broken only rarely?╟÷usually by pawn shops. All establishments seem to be flourishing. Well, there was one exception to the rule- shoe store wedged in between "The Silver Queen" and "The Nevada ?√ßClufS^' if I remember correctly. Gloomily unnoticed between , the dazzling lights of its prosperous.^pfehbors, the shoe store's windows were plastered ;$ith, signs read ing: "Going Out of Biwihess^Must Sacrifice Stock to Satisfy CreditOE?║|pP ESTABLISHED 1888 BArclaf.7-5371 PRESS CLIPPING^REAU 165 Church Street -^sw York ANDEtlSODfiflC. mail;^ Girc. D. 5,477-- DEC231BS2 PRESS CUPPING BUREAU 165 Church Street - New York WARSAU, IND. TIMES & UNION Circ. D. 7.602 EarfliWffiJI0i IT happene^Iast NIGHT LAS VEGAS, Nev. ?╟÷ Streets of this town are green with Christmas decorations, as are the streets of most American cities today, j But ing what other city would you! see garbage cans full of silver dol-j lars? It's part of the flavor of this! modern Yukon. Silver dollars are dumped into J garbage cans in the gambling j houses on razzle dazzle Fremont] St., the main drag. They're push-j ed on hand trucks to the banks. 1 Sometimes they're pushed back] from the banks. TRIESS "You know",'* a newspaperman explained to me, "one reason they use silver dollars here is the worry of robbery. "If a holduplmafc gets 100 silver dollars in his pocket, he's not going to *t&j;'very fast." '"/ji-Ti^l. I'VE BEEN HERE frequently, but my farm hoy.eyes pop each time. Most Americans ^h^t~^aypw' that this, cbe)s^y&I ^y'fe becoming sort of an entertainment capital' in its desire to please "Gambling Society.'*: Though the city's population is O^y 35,000, it employs about $5,- 500,000 worth of cafe entertainers a year. Why, even New York doesn't have in its famous night clubs: a!s many stars as are here. "Lost Wages," as it's called, has seven big hotels plus two bigcafes. Gander these names working here now or due to make Las Vegas merry during Christmas: Danny Thomas, Pearl Bailey, the Andrews Sisters, Bert Lahr, Lauritz Melchior, Bob ?╟≤ "Ci^sby, Sophie Tucker, Tony Martin, Ca;rm?╜|i Mliranda, Louis Prima, Kerry Nimmo and Joanne Gilbert. AND WHEN Danny Thomas ?╟≤'lost his voice" and brapdn't go on et the Sands HotelJfae&ther night, who subbed i'oif Imn? Merely Jimmie Durante the Ritz Brothers, i Frankie Lainer Jane Powell, Spike , iJones and Denis&ffiwep- '* ?╟≤ It's exciting if:you can stay upj all night. Who's that at the gambling table next to you? Maybe a! Texas oils, man. Mayhfe^ a character fro^ni?h^he*eunderworld. It { could even, be Ursula Thtess, the] German gacjaejssswho's a friend of Robert Teller and who does a nude swimndjig scene in the new I picture, "l$$jp&on." - ?╜*l$vWASgpy "first picture and I did what they told meJ*. s^fetold me. "It's a.qutok scene and *^?║ope the pubha^Sets. itJaMcU^. ?√ß sBut thej#a|^;.whd wingof^lpse $90,000 a night" and shrfigMrjoff i-l^ah't get used to that: MJ|ey ;sev^r seemed tosiae to be for Jaat purpose. :,s''>:M^ Anyway, thele&l alre"aj|^Mgag about the new^fpvot bein^realled "The Sartdtf/'. They say that only -|B the Sands, fyill you find spinach ind there's plenty of that green stuff here. SUNNY THOU^p^R'WINTeR fiAYS^^qyce Johnson didn't do anything'"^fecial?╟÷didn't win a,trophy isrHM'Miss Some- I thing-or-Other". Shess just a pretty girl, relaxing in the sun at a I Las Vegas, Nev.. resort hotel. That seemed".reason?╟≤ enough for the pSoWff!Sff^^b^fke a picture with which to cheer the folks who i are chattering through another rough northern winter.?╟÷(NEA.) cJtlL ens PRESS CLIPPING BUREAU Established 1888 San Francisco Portland - Seattle Fontana, Cal. Herald & News (Cir. 3,433) DEC 2 2 1952 Fontan?·U8t5uples Visit^Tne Sands'j fipg iur Fontana couples recently I jeiit two days at "The Sands," in Las Vegas, that city's new and fabulous hotel and casino. The group included Don and Ciel Olson, Henry and Connie Smythe, Michael and Bernice Serv^i^nd Louis and J Jo Slade. Olson was especMp;^^aken With the flagstone work c^igtructed by his company and .which he said "looked beaut iijul^alih^it.; up like some of the patf^h^^rgs Smythe parti<h! lagly. enjoyed the trip since he haclg.'.be'ginners luck" *nd came away $300 to the good, according to a member of the party. ESTABLISHED 1888 BArclay 7-5371 PRESS CLIPPING BUREAU 165 Church Street - New York LAS VEGAS^NEV. REVIEW-JOURNAL Circ. D.lgpi,.- S. 13,116 DEC 2?║l9?║2 I MISCELLANY: Danny Thomas pack in rare form again after recovering from a sudden attack of laryngitis which forced him o % f stage of Hoteljgands last week. . . LaVeeda f^ck'ing grip for trip to Acapulco shanty for recuperation . . .Pianist George Redman celebrating sixth year at Hotel Last Frontier ivories. . .Ken Hunsted, now dealing autos for Used Car dealer Johnny Williams, oh ihe town enjoying reunion with ole show biz pals from days gone by. Ken was a tibofer for better than 20 years back in the days of vaud- ville. j .Bob Croshy bringing Club 13 RS#e t4?Sahara for two weeks MnU cBffime'rieirig January 13. . . White ChriiShhi to be s?·eht by all j treking to shdw covered lount phdileston for Yule B?·MSd&-?·j&t Political rurinef-ups , digapfcoihted because ' charge of "fraud*" in recent general election is Starting to look like real wash Ofx^jk .First bunch of Billots being irt&rked by Las Vegas Rlfcetrack sjtptskholders ihdicatirif tfi&t Luke-Smith plan Ml let to the wire in front. . . ; Southern fteV&da Powif gEbmpany ' now blaming pbwlf outages oh \ the kiddies. . ;Re^ie^ Journal b6ss- | men dusting off ?║fc ;Nick gafg' idi I Yule party being pdt o^iotW&%1 I m,pppets at Hotel FlaffitBigb this I afternoon. ^?╟÷i