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Audio clip from interview with Lovee duBoef Arum by Barbara Tabach, November 1, 2016

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Download jhp000705.mp3 (audio/mpeg; 5.89 MB)

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Date

2016-11-01

Description

Part of an interview with Lovee duBoef Arum on November 1, 2016. In this clip, Arum discusses her childhood, family life, and what brought her to Las Vegas.

Digital ID

jhp000705
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    Citation

    Lovee duBoef Arum oral history interview, 2016 November 01. OH-02884. [Audio recording]. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d1571bd4n

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    This material is made available to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. It may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity rights, or other interests not owned by UNLV. Users are responsible for determining whether permissions are necessary from rights owners for any intended use and for obtaining all required permissions. Acknowledgement of the UNLV University Libraries is requested. For more information, please see the UNLV Special Collections policies on reproduction and use (https://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions) or contact us at special.collections@unlv.edu

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    Original archival records created digitally

    Extent

    00:06:41
    9,504,892 bytes

    Language

    English

    Publisher

    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

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    audio/mpeg

    Oh, he never lived here. But he opened a business here? Oh, yes, he did. When he was younger and made money, we lived in Beverly Hills. We went from Los Angeles, where it was called Beverlywood to Beverly Hills. I think I was eight years old when we moved there. My father had a business in Los Angeles; it was a grocery store. It had a liquor store. It had fine foods. At Christmastime, they made these incredible baskets, which you see today. He did a lot of business with the studios. So that's how he started that part of his business. My dad used to come up to Las Vegas with my mother and gamble because everybody thought it was so cool. That's what they did. She'd get all dressed up and they'd get on an airplane and they'd come up here. I think my sister and I came here the first time when I was seven and she was five. I remember their being in the Golden Nugget downtown and we couldn't go in while they gambled or something. I remember there was somebody that was watching us. Then we went on a driving trip through the western United States. But that was the first time I was here and then I came here often after that. My father met a lot of people at the Flamingo. He had some cash and he decided he was going to build a motel. They talked him into building a linen company because the hotel owners didn't like this Ali?and I'm trying to think of his last name?the people at American Linen. They were the only linen suppliers in town and I guess they were just killing everybody and they didn't like him. So they asked my father, "Would you consider investing in a linen supply company?" In 1952, my father with three other gentlemen had a partnership; one was in the linen business in California, one was from Omaha, Nebraska, and one was also in the linen business and I'm not sure where he was from. The one from Omaha wouldn't fly. So every time he would come here, he would have to take a train. The one from Omaha also had some kind of gambling out of Omaha on a lake. What brought you to Las Vegas? Tell me how that trajectory happens. I had just married Larry duBoef and Larry's father had a lot of property here; we thought it was right behind the Desert Inn; it actually was [next] to Nellis. [Laughing] It was up Nellis Boulevard and the Boulder Highway. But he did have a lot of property here. Then my father had to buy the linen company from his partner because in those days you couldn't have competing businesses. It was American Linen and Community Linen bought American Linen?or American Linen bought Community Linen. In other words, his partner would have been running both companies, owner in both companies, and he couldn't do that because the law in those days wouldn't allow it. So my father bought him out and now he's got himself this big linen company. He had somebody working for him and all of a sudden the numbers didn't make sense. So I don't know how it came about, but my husband was in the agency business, television agency handling actors and actresses and writers and things like that. Somehow or another we were going to come here for five years and he was going to help in the linen supply company and check about developing his father's land. I really played with it whether we should and I never forget asking my family doctor. He said to me, "Lovee, you're so young." I was so young I couldn't vote. Oh, wow. That's right. And he said, "What's five years? It's nothing." And here I am; I'm still here. So the year you came was 1963. Yes. What was the city like to you? What do you remember about it? I remember culture shock. I can relate it to shopping in grocery stores and the department stores. People would say "extree" instead of "extra." I mean, I can't tell you how I felt when I moved here. Where did you live at first, what neighborhood? When we first moved here, we moved into an apartment called Fleur de Lis on Maryland Parkway right near where the Boulevard Mall is, on the other side of the street, though. We were only there a very short time because an entertainer lived above us and she worked late, late at night. It was unbelievable. She was always...They'd come home and she'd bring people in with her. It was just an apartment. Then we moved to the Palms Apartments, which were on Sahara between Maryland and Paradise. There's a big apartment complex there. And then in 1964, I guess, we bought a home on Rosemary Lane.