Transcript of interview with Robert M. Fisher by DeeAnn Coombs, March 20, 1978

UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher i An Interview with Robert M. Fisher An Oral History Conducted by DeeAnn Coombs 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 Robert M. Fisher ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2017 UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher iii 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 Robert M. Fisher iv Abstract On March 20, 1978, DeeAnn Coombs interviewed Robert M. Fisher (born 1945 in Las Vegas, NV) about his experience growing up in and living in Southern Nevada. Fisher first discusses his background and upbringing, from being born at Nellis Air Force Base to attending several schools in Las Vegas and joining the U.S. Navy. Fisher also talks about the development of Las Vegas, particularly the Strip properties, and the various recreational activities in which he would participate, such as water skiing, drag racing, and skydiving. Fisher also talks about his work at the Nevada Test Site, including his work as a draftsman for the underground atomic testing. UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 1 Narrator is Robert Fisher. The date is March 20th, 1978 at 6:30 PM. The place: 3660 North Bronco, Las Vegas. The interviewer is DeeAnn Coombs, who lives at 3660 North Bronco, Las Vegas. The project is A Local History Project: Life of a Born and Raised Las Vegas Person. What is your name? Robert Michael Fisher. And your present address? 4459 West Buena Vista Drive. Okay. Were you born here, Bob? Yes. When? July 25th, 1945. And where at? At that time it was Las Vegas Army Gunnery School; it’s now Nellis Air Force Base. Okay. Your father must have been in the service? Yes. He was a gunnery instructor out there. How many members do you have in your family? Living? Living or deceased. Total family? Total family. No telling—(Laughs)—I’ve got a sister, a mother, father’s deceased, got a grandmother, aunt, and an uncle. Okay. How long were your parents here? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 2 They came here in 1942. In 1942. Because of the Air Force? Yes. And what rank was your father? Sergeant. Sergeant. (Unintelligible)? Not as a pilot. He did as a gunner. Okay. And your mother is still living here? Yes. What is your father’s name? Kenneth A. Fisher. And where did he come from before he came here? He came from Mt. Carmel, Illinois. What about your mother— He was a schoolteacher back there. My mother went to school to him in the seventh and eighth grade. And he was her teacher? Right. I always accused him of being a cradle robber. (Laughs) And your mother is from Illinois as well? Yes. What is your mother doing now? She’s a chief accountant for Bertha’s on East Sahara. Did your grandmother come with them, or did she come out later on? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 3 She came out later on. And what is she doing? She’s working as a shill in the El Cortez. How old is she? She’s eight-four, going on fourteen. (Laughs) Got more life in her than I’ve got in me. Okay, where did you go to school, Bob? Well, I started off at Sunrise Acres grade school, and I went to— Where was that at? That’s at Sunrise and Eastern now—was Twenty-fifth Street then. And went to North Ninth Street School for two years, then back to Sunrise Acres, and then four years of high school at Rancho High School. Were there a lot of schools around at that time? Not at that time, no. There was Rancho and Vegas, and then they just built Western then. Those were the only three high schools—well, other than Basic—out of town schools in the same area. There were, I guess, four or five grade schools at that time—no junior high schools at all. I was in the last eighth grade graduating class from Sunrise. That’s when they first built Roy Martin—that was the first junior high school in town. And after that, there was no more freshmen in high school—all junior high school now. You’re the last of the oldies. Last of the oldies. Where did you live? You started out at the Air Force base? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 4 That’s where I started out, yes, then Mom and Dad had an apartment up on Charleston now. It’s around where Surette’s is—it’s been torn down since. Then they built a house—I guess the government (unintelligible) building, they moved from Nellis up to North Ninth Street School, right next to Cashman Field. We lived there for a few years, we moved from there to 205 North Twentieth. We lived there until I was about thirteen, then we moved down on Mesquite and Eastern, which, then, was Twenty-fifth Street. And back then, Eastern was just a dirt road; there was nothing out there. That was about 1952 or ’53, we moved into that home. And I lived there for many years, graduated from high school, in the process joined the Navy and went in the Navy, spent two years in Norfolk, Virginia. And, well, spent six months in the Mediterranean and three months in the Caribbean, and was separated from the Navy, came back here, lived at home for a short while. Then I went to work out at the Test Site, got an apartment—I’ve lived in various apartments. We’re buying this place. Got laid off there, went back east again for about three months, came back out here for two weeks. I moved to Los Angeles, went to work for Douglas Aircraft, and I was there for eight months, came back out here, went to work out at the Test Site again. How long have you been out there? Well, a total of about thirteen years. What were your first recollections at the Test Site? How long ago was it when it started? It was 1965. How long had the Test Site been there? A long time—since the early fifties. My dad used to get me up when they had the atmospheric testing out there. We used to get up at five o’clock in the morning, go out in the backyard—just pitch black, you know—they’d set that thing off and just light up just bright as day for about ten UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 5 seconds, and then the sky would turn different colors, and go back to darkness again. About ten seconds later, you could feel the shockwave come through. It was a very impressive sight. Those things are powerful. I imagine. Were they doing any nuclear testing at that time? That was all nuclear testing, yes. Okay. Atmospheric testing. What made you decide to go out the Test Site? Money. (Laughs) (Laughs) What else? (Laughs) Gotta have a job. When you were in high school, were you involved in any sports or any? Yes, I was a pole vaulter on the track team. Take any awards—Olympics? Not for that, no. No, when I was in high school, my strongest suit was art and drafting. In 1962, I won the Nevada State Brotherhood Poster Contest. That was about the only thing I did. (Laughs) (Laughs) But that was quite an honor. We won it three years in a row, different artists. And I think we won it one time since then. But I followed the footsteps of some very good artists. I was very proud to receive that honor. Are they still here in town? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 6 Jim Arnold, the one that won it the year before I did, I believe, is still in town. He is probably the best I’ve seen. He’s really good. What was it like to live in Las Vegas twenty years ago? Better than it is now. There’s too much crime going on now. Years ago, when my folks first came out there, you know, they’d take walks at night with no fear, and now you’re afraid to walk across the street, afraid to get mugged or raped or—but back then, there wasn’t any of that stuff. It was a smaller town, a lot smaller. Where was the main street? Well, when my folks first came out here, the main place to go was the Silver Slipper. That’s where they spent their Saturday nights: Silver Slipper. So, yes, that was the end of the Strip. That was it right there. The El Rancho Vegas, later on—but they never cared too much about Fremont Street. It was always the Strip, but the Strip wasn’t like it is now. The old McCarran Airport, which is now Hughes Exec Air—we used to go out there at nights and just watch places land and take off. It was fun. Yes, it was really exciting. Dad would say, “Oh, we gotta go out at that airport again?” I’d say, “Dad, I wanna go.” (Laughs) Oh, many years ago, Benny Binion decided he was gonna drill an oil well out in Paradise Valley. So he drilled; he got water. So that was the end of his oil well. We went out there a few times watched them drill for oil. How far out was that? It was out, oh, right around Wayne Newton’s place now—I forget the exact location, but it was, well, at that time, it was way out in the Tules. There was nothing out there but desert then. Who were the big people around town back in those days? Well, the Lambs were here, of course—Binions, Kerkorians. Hughes wasn’t in here yet. The Gaughans—mostly gaming. UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 7 What are some of the other things you used to do when you were growing up here, you and your friends or family? Oh, a lotta swimming, roller skating—done a lotta water skiing, a little snow skiing. Took up the famous sport of jumping out of airplanes—made 154 sport parachute jumps, didn’t get killed—banged up a little, but didn’t get killed. Had a lotta fun doing that. I used to drag race cars—had a ’67 Corvette. It’d get down the road pretty good. Where’d you use to race at? Here and St. George, Utah. Did they have Craig Road at the time? They had Craig Road, but that’s a stock car track, not for drag racing—race outta Stardust and St. George. Where did you use to water ski? Lake Mead. Was it a lake there or? Oh yeah, it’s been a lake since the thirties. (Laughs) Ever since they built Hoover Dam. I’ve had one boat, got friends with boats. Every once in a while we go up there and water ski, camp out, SCUBA diving. Is it the same as—? Pardon? Same as it looks now, pretty much? It varies each year, depending on how much water they get. Some years it’s low, some years it’s high. I’ve seen it really low and seen it really high—depending on the rainfall and snowfall. UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 8 You mentioned swimming—where did you use to swim? Do you remember a specific place or something? Oh, yes. I learned to swim at the municipal pool, and it’s part of Doolittle Center now. That’s where I learned to swim. Funny thing about it—well, it’s not a funny thing, but Doolittle Center was named after a police officer that as killed in 1955 or 1956. He and his parents and aunt and uncle and nephews all lived right across the street from me. He used to take us for rides in his police car. Everyone just really loved him. They had a television show called Code 3 back in those days showing, you know, law enforcement. Was it a local show? Yes, local. It was on channel 8, I believe. And he was a motorcycle officer at that time, and he was on an emergency call, going through the intersection of Fifteenth and Fremont with his red lights and siren on, had a green light, and carload of kids ran a red light and hit him. He landed on a car and the motorcycle came down on top of him, killed him. His name was Robert Doolittle. They named Doolittle Center after him, at Las Vegas Boulevard and Bonanza. That was quite a shock in the neighborhood. I imagine. You mentioned the Old Ranch; what are your recollections of the Old Ranch? Well, I almost drowned there. First of all, where is the Old Ranch—or where was the Old Ranch? The Old Ranch was right around where Fantasy Park is now, over around Cashman Field, towards North Las Vegas. They used to have a swimming pool. I guess it was a natural spring or something. And we used to go swimming there quite often, and an old friend of mine was in an inner tube—I figured I’d be smart and dive through the inner tube with him in it and kinda got caught in it upside down—had a hell of a time getting out. UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 9 Do you know why they called it the Old Ranch? It was the original Mormon settlement in Las Vegas. Is that where the Mormon Fort—? Yes. Is over around there. Was it privately owned at that time, or (unintelligible)? I have no idea. I imagine the city had it. Are there any other landmarks or such you remember? Oh, well there was the old Union Pacific Railroad Depot, which is now the Union Plaza. That was there; that was kind of a landmark—a lot of people came through there. Did you go down and watch the trains? Oh yeah, we used to go down there all the time, watch the trains. We used to take a penny and set on the track and let it smash it, flatten that thing, you know. (Laughs) And, well, the old McCarran Airport; everyone used to go out there for excitement, watch planes land. Well, when you’re a kid in this town, you got a tough time—hard to have fun. Oh, and there’s always Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, Mt. Charleston—everyone’s been there. Another fun place we used to go is Warm Springs, out around Overton. That’s a real nice place. We used to go up there maybe two or three times a month. What about excursions around the desert and various other parts of Nevada? Oh, I’ve done a lotta rock hunting, found a lotta good geodes around Hoover Dam. We used to go looking for old mines, walk through some of those. What were they like, were they underground? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 10 Yes, they were underground. Been to a couple of ghost towns—Riley, in particular. We made a few parachuting jumps up there. They had some kind of party up there; we’d jump after that. Mainly, it was just rock hunting and looking for arrowheads—stuff like that—rabbit hunting, bird hunting. Did you ever run into miners that were up there, the old timers? Never did, never did. We used to go out and look for cathouses, too. Any one in particular? Any one we could find. (Laughs) You worked out at the Test Site. What are some of your first recollections of the Test Site when you were (unintelligible)? A lot of talk about it at the time, or? No, not a great deal of talk. I think the first recollection I have is, like I said, before the atmospheric test. It’s the first thing I heard about or knew about. And in the later stages of the atmospheric tests, they televised them (unintelligible). You could, you know, watch it on television and see the windows light up. But that was my first recollection. I was in grade school then, and had no idea that I’d be working out there eventually. But I’d go to school the day of the shot, and came out of recess, we’d look afterwards at the Test Site and see a big mushroom cloud out there. It’s really hard to believe. Were there a lot of parents or fathers of schoolmates or things that worked at the Test Site? I never knew of any, no. I knew of one, yes. My dad worked for Sears at the time and never had too much to do with—or knew any people that worked at the Test Site. It wasn’t as big an operation as it is today? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 11 I don’t know. It was mostly military at that time. And then they got into more civilian jobs out there. But that they had thousands of troops out there at one time. [Recording ends, side one ends] What was the first job out at the Test Site? Well, I was a draftsman at the nuclear rocket development station in 1965 through ’68. They were testing the Phoebus and Kiwi nuclear rocket engine then. It was a very impressive thing; they’d run tests out there. Since then, that has shut down, since 1968. I guess they had put that on the shelf—wasn’t feasible, or something. But they shut that down. That’s when I went back east and went to work for Douglas Aircraft and came back out here for the underground testing. Are you doing the same job now that you were doing back then? No. The job out there then was more architectural—a lot of piping. What I’m working on now is drilling and mining for the underground tests. We drilled shafts anywhere from 1,500 feet to, well, like on Amchitka Island for Cannikin—that was over 6,000 feet deep. So, about an eight-foot hole diameter, 6,000 feet deep. It’s a big hole. And some of the mining goes back about a mile or so, we’ll do a mile. Do you have to design the holes or? Well, we have engineers that design the holes, drilling engineers, mining engineers. Then, once the holes are drilled, their cased with steel casing, one inch-thick wall thickness. And they’re cemented in, and the device is put down, and they’re stemmed with cement, dirt, rock, to keep it from venting. In other words, so no radiation gets into the atmosphere. Everything’s contained underground. What are your recollections of Boulder Dam? How old were you when you first saw it and what were your thoughts of it? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 12 Well, the first time I saw it, when Mom and Dad took me out there, I guess I was about, I don’t know, five or six years old, maybe younger than that. And my dad picked me up, stood me on the wall, hung on to me, and I looked down there and I was scared to death. It was a long fall. And some friends of my mother’s in the service came up next time that saw it and took me out there. That was probably two years later. And it’s breathtaking; it still is to me. I can jump out of airplanes and everything, but looking over the side of that dam is—I have more fear of that than jumping out of an airplane at 13,000 feet. You haven’t got a parachute on, and nothing but concrete down there. It’s just a different feeling completely. What are some of the key points in your life that you remember? Some of the key points—it’d probably have to be my mother and father, first of all. They wanted to give me all the education I wanted, and they didn’t force me into anything. But I think the key point was my drafting teacher, Frank (unintelligible). Everyone hated him, but I got along super with him. I made straight A’s in drafting. And the other one is Al Peterson. He’s also, in the summertime, a tour guide at Boulder Dam. He was my art teacher. And there’s a (unintelligible) he gave me my first job. I worked for nothing, just trying to learn architectural drafting, just trying to get a foot in the door. And these days, right now, it’s tough if not tougher to become a draftsman. And Ron (unintelligible) really got me on the start there. And from then on, I’ve been able to make a living. If you could think of one thing that stands out most in your life about Las Vegas, what do you think that one thing would be? One thing that stands out most—well that’d have to be either the atmospheric tests at the Test Site or the day the Old Frontier burned down. Do you remember the Old Frontier? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 13 Yes. It happened so fast that the dealers didn’t have time to get the money out. And they went in the next day, and silver dollars were just melted together. It happened that quick. Where was the Old Frontier at? Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard. Was it where the Sahara is now? No. Or across the street? As you go down Sahara, turn right on Las Vegas Boulevard, there’s the big vacant lot there, and that’s where the Old Frontier was. What started the fire? Nobody knows. Did they ever know? What year, do you remember? Late fifties, early sixties. Was anyone hurt in this fire? Not that I know of, no. Everyone got out in time, but they were just grabbing cash and, you know, running, getting outta there. But you could see it all over town—see that fire. The whole casino burned up. What about the El Rancho? Do you remember it or the fire? I’m sorry—that’s what I was talking about. The old El Rancho. Oh, instead of the Old Frontier. Mm-hmm. El Rancho Vegas. And they never rebuilt or reopened? UNLV University Libraries Robert M. Fisher 14 Mm-mm. At that time, Kirk Kerkorian owned it, and when it burned down, he didn’t want to rebuild it. They had the hotel there—they were cottages, and those stood for quite a while before they finally tore those down. It was quite a blaze, though. You mentioned the Old Frontier. Was there an Old Frontier, and what was that like? The Old Frontier was something like Knott’s Berry Farm in California. They had shooting galleries, they had rides and stuff. It was a lotta fun for kids. We used to go out there—they finally closed that down, tore it down. That’s when they made the New Frontier. And as a kid at the time, we didn’t like that. But they used to have a Helldorado Village at Las Vegas Boulevard and Bonanza back in those days, too. And that was a lotta fun. It was like a big old wooden fort, and it was about like the Last Frontier—you’d ride horses and they had shooting galleries and stuff like that. That stuff is long gone now. There’s a gas station there now and batting practice cage, (unintelligible) across the street. That used to be one big wooden fort. We used to have a lot of fun at the Old Frontier. It was the Old West, and that was the motif. It was a lot of fun. Was there a lot of locals, a lot of visitors, tourists? Oh, everyone. Everybody? Mm-hmm. I still can’t understand why they shut that down—well, probably for the gaming. They wanted to build a big hotel there, and the Frontier, at that time, wasn’t that big. So, they took down the Old Frontier, destroyed that, made parking lots out of it. In fact, there’s still, I think, one old drilling shed there on Sahara. I think it’s still standing. That’s the last of it. Thank you.