Transcript of interview with Harold R. Hunter by Philip John Mile, March 19, 1978

UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter An Interview with Harold R. Hunter An Oral History Conducted by Philip John Mile 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 Harold R. Hunter © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 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 Harold R. Hunter Abstract On March 19, 1978, Philip John Mile interviewed former chef, Harold R. Hunter (born 1901 in Norwich, Kansas) about his life in Southern Nevada. Hunter discusses his different experiences working in early Las Vegas restaurants during the thirties and forties. Hunter also discusses the rapid growth of the Mormon community during this time.UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 1 Name of this project is the Local History Project, Oral Interview: The Life of a Las Vegas Old-Timer. And the person I’m going to be interviewing is Mr. Harold R. Hunter, and the date is March 19, 1978, it’s around five o’clock. I’m going to be interviewing Mr. Hunter in his home at 7425 West Helena Avenue, Las Vegas Nevada. Now— About my birth? The name of the person that’s doing the interview is Philip John Mile. And I’m going to start asking Mr. Hunter what year he came here in. What year did you come here? I came out in 1936. Nineteen thirty-six. October the seventeenth. October seventeenth. Okay, can you tell me a little bit about how it was here in Las Vegas when you first came? Yes, there was only eight thousand sixty-nine population, according to the statistics at that time. And, do you want me to go ahead? Yes, just go ahead and tell us how it was in Las Vegas when you first came here. Yes, and it was only small town—there was only about three or four clubs Downtown. Called a Pioneer, and the, (unintelligible) That’s okay. Oh and the Boulder Club. And the Northern Club and the Las Vegas Club. About the only four there was. There was only four or five restaurants, and, do you want me to tell you about the Dam? No, I’ll just ask you questions. UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 2 And the, the town was very enthusiastic and it got to the point now where there’s a three hundred thousand population and it’s the thirty-five times in population was when I came here, on account of the popularity of the people of America, were pleasure seeking people. Did you come here by yourself? No, with my family. Your family? Yes. You were married then? No, we had three children then. You had three children then? Now we got seven. What kind of business were you in when you first came here? I was in the restaurant all my life. Been in a restaurant all your life? Yes. You’ve been a cook, haven’t you? Yes. Restaurant man, and worked in ‘em, and proprietor and everything else. Where—what was the location that you lived at when you first moved here to Las Vegas? Well sir, we moved, well we had no place to sleep at all first. The real-state office there, by the name of, oh I forget the name of it now. And he had a place down on 321 North Eighth Street that he rented out to railroad men. He left it without notice and he was glad to have us take it over, and it had a tank of gas on there that he’d left, and we were able to cook our meals on. And I told him I didn’t have no money, but I told him, I have my family, and he says, “Well, you look UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 3 like a good man, I’ll trust you, don’t worry.” So I even went by the next day or two and paid him so much down, and I stayed there, till let’s see—till five, you see that was in thirty-six, I stayed there till ’42, six years. Stayed in that house for six years? Yes, and we only had two bedrooms. We had one bedroom, one big one, we had the double racks for our children, and then we had a front room that we made into a bedroom and altogether, when we left there, there was five, children—the other two were born over there in the other house we moved to. We built on that new addition out here in the Biltmore district, and we there, clear up until today, the last two years ago. Lived at 915 North First Street. That’s where you moved to in ’42? Yes. It was a, you know, (unintelligible) and all that. He was building his homes, and you can buy one, you know, federal, federal building? Oh yes. And I took it and paid down—I got a whole home room with the two bedrooms, the lot, and a house, and everything, for four thousand dollars in those days. And then I put on additional rooms in the back. It cost me eight thousand to put that addition on, twice as much it did the house a year or two later. ‘Cause we had to have four bedrooms and all for our seven children. Where was—what was the town like back in ’42 when you first moved into that house? What was the town like? Yes, had it grown much since ’36? 1936, had the town grown a lot between ’36 and ’42? It had grown, I’ll tell ya’ how much. Now, I can tell ya’ the population, there’s just about exactly. I’d say probably, it probably doubled in those six years there. About eighteen thousand people? UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 4 Huh? About sixteen thousand. Sixteen thousand people? Yes, sixteen. And then when they got, when the country became more established, the people became more plentiful, and there was more people with money, and it just became to be noted by them at the Dam. But why did people come here? Why would people come into Vegas and settling? To gamble! To gamble? Pleasure. (Unintelligible) All these clubs, all day and night. They were coming here for pleasure to stop— They do today! I know but, I mean, were they living here then? I’m talking about the people who came here and lived here, like yourself. Oh no, they, a lot of ‘em come he to live and to work as, work in the gambling houses. Oh. But the others, worked, they lived here, were servants you might say, and all these clubs calls for employees, and they had to move here and stay. So the more clubs there was, the more, less (unintelligible) restaurant people and everything else. It goes right along together, housing you might call it for the citizens themselves. There was a lot of people too that came to live here just to gamble the rest of their lives. There’s that weakness in gambling in the people. They liked it so much ‘cause they’re always looking for that big strike, you know. UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 5 So when came here, when you first came here, back in ’36, what was the first job that you had? Do you remember? Yes. Very plainly, there was the one though, a man by the name of Cliff Reddy, and he was a man that fed the people from the Dam, during the building of the Dam. Oh I see. And he had a place there right back in the Pioneer Club, had sawdust on the floor. Money was so scarce, such a depression year in the thirties, that he had what they called a pounder. A pound hamburger steak, with bread and butter potatoes and a cup of coffee for twenty-five cents. Mom used to make that? I worked there. You worked there? I didn’t own that one. But I worked there for this man. That’s who you were a cook with, for—oh, I see. Yes, then I went from there, I went to the—dozens of them I can make. The Little Trail—do you know where the Golden Gate is? Yes. Do you know what it used to be called? Oh the, South Seggy—the South Seggy Club, owned by Miller. Oh yes? Abe Miller and his father. There were even people up in Canada, rich people in Canada, and they came and built that here. It was called the South Seggy. And then they changed the name when they leased it out, they leased it out for twenty thousand dollars a month for the rest of their lives. Oh yes? UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 6 Can’t really become that popular. Then they changed it to the South Seggy and on the alley by that was a little trail, on the alley of that same building, there was a little place there, with a trail cape, run by a Greek. Ted (Unintelligible) was that fellow’s name. He was a very good man in this town, even with the bar there, and he even donated his property, he owned here, he donated to the, these men, oh the very popular people in town. But they, he donated this to the Elk’s Club— Oh yes? He was a member of the Elks, and he liked him. And went to the bottom of the hill on Fifth Street— Yes? Right cross from there, all that land, he donated to ‘em. They used it for their, used it for, what do you call it, marriage grounds? Things like the circus, and things like that. Right. He donated that with plenty of money. And even his own people relatives over in his home country are mad at him. Where—is that over by the Mormon Fort Way? Yes right across towards the street there. That’s where—there’s a park there now, right? (Unintelligible) Yes, he donated, Ted (Unintelligible), he give to ‘em free, and I worked for that man. That man worshipped me. Oh yes? ‘Cause he had that trail cape, and I did a cookie, and I built up his business there. And a waiter’s all I’ve been, so you couldn’t even get a job. He’d go away to the coast and went over to you. UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 7 He used to own that land back there right where Fantasy Park is today? Yes. Across from the Mormon Church? Yes. Right across from the Mormon Church? Yes, right across from the Mormon Church. I mean— Ted (Unintelligible) I mean, the Mormon Fort, that’s from the Mormon Fort? Huh? That’s right, Mormon Fort, right next to that. And right next to that is the Elk’s Club? Yes, right there. He donated all, ‘cause he was an Elk. If you look up history here, anybody, and you’ll find a Ted (Unintelligible), very popular known in the Las Vegas—why the Elk’s Club itself, they’ll verify that. Yes. Ted (Unintelligible) he was a Greek. He donated all that and he owned that Hoff Brow Bar, that’s what the name of the bar was. Right across of the alley there, between that alley and First Street. And he had a lot of business there, and you know what happened to that man? No. They found him hanging, he committed suicide. Really? Nobody could figure why. He had two sisters he was going with, Greek girls I think it was, and he liked them. UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 8 Oh yes? ‘Cause I know he used to go to coast with them. He left the place to me to run it. What year was that? That was in (unintelligible) exactly. That was exactly the year—thirty-eight, two years after I come here. Is that when he gave that land to the Elk’s Club? Right he gave it to ‘em about the same year, thirty-eight or thirty-nine. He donated it to the Elk’s Club. Yes, all that land around there is very important land because that’s where— Yes! You could trace it, I’m telling you, you could find out. That’s where they had the Mormon Fort there? Yes. Right across there, he donated all that to the Elk’s. It’s over on Washington and Las Vegas Boulevard, right? Yes, right. ‘Cause he was what you called a man that, he was a very good man, he loved people. And he became that there club, they all loved him, so to be a good member to them and he appreciated them so much, that he had all that land that they just donated to ‘em. I forget now, he did tell me how he got it, but I forgot just exactly how he got it, he told me one day, how he got that land. The majority of the people that were coming here into Las Vegas and settling, were they mostly Mormons? That were coming from Utah? Is that the mostly people that were coming here in (unintelligible) No, no, I’d say no, because (unintelligible), I’ll tell you why now, there’s only five hundred people. First ward I was here, the first ward by the Mormons, was only five hundred people. UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 9 There were some yes, but not the majority, because they don’t believe in gambling you see. So they don’t back it up, they don’t make it right. More people are losing money, and (unintelligible) so they don’t go, they can’t go about it, as far as I’m concerned, Madam Frazier was—it was a free country. But anyhow, why, ‘cause I know we had a meeting in our church at one time, that one of their members, a Bryan Booker, why they were ‘gonna have the welfare program, and he said to ‘em there, he wanted to have it. And he was a fellow, he’d point his finger like that, very determined you know. Revelations you know, to take care of their own people, welfare. And Ira Earl, a great well-known family here, he got two or three brothers here, and he died well afterwards. But he was one of ‘em there, and he was a broad man in mind. And then he says, “Brothers, we ‘gotta have this welfare business, because this gambling ain’t ‘gonna stay here. It can’t, there’s no foundation to it.” Mm-hmm. So then Ira Earl in all coolness, he got up and he says, “Mr. Bunker,” his name was real big. (Unintelligible) His name was Earl, Ira Earl was talking to Bunker. Is that the same Bunker brothers that has the—? That’s right, they own the mortuary, Brendan Bunker and he was just one of them, and then that Byron—what was his name? He was a governor, was a (unintelligible)—he was in the government, he was a senator or something here, Bunker. Here? One of the Bunker brothers. Was the senator here in Las Vegas? Yes, in the— UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 10 Nevada? No, in the government! Oh. Oh sure, I’ll give you the name before you leave here. Everybody knows it. And he has worn on me every day or two, I’ll take him a day in a minute. But anyhow, this here Bunker, he was a determined one, he loved his religion so much that he taught that way, and the foundations will be run out of here, and it just ain’t what it’d be, so we gotta take care of this people, welfare and feed them and this and that. And we’re gonna establish this the farms and everything else, but they have. It’s a great thing right today. They went for it more than other, we believe in the laws of the country, yes; well as the law was, that we state that you could have gambling. So we were supposed to abide by the laws as a country. (Unintelligible) Did you know that indirectly, you and I all the people here in Nevada, we’re making our money, but some people come here and gambling, they have to have schools, and houses and restaurants and that and we’re all in that industry, and we make our living from these people that bring in the gambling. Now we don’t have to believe in, we don’t have to indulge in it, but at the same time, they have the right of the government to put in gambling. You say that learn out samely—well, first of all, don’t try to condemn ‘em. You haven’t earned that right, they were making that money indirectly. Not to weigh you true lines, but you’re in that business, you’re in that Bunker business, you’re right here to better the people in this town, he made them shut up. (Unintelligible) Yes. So how about it? Don’t you make your money on the people who come here to die and gamble? He had ‘em cornered, might quick. Cause he was a man of words and wisdom. Tell me about when you first, after, didn’t you start your own little café? UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 11 I had four at one time. Four at one time? No, only had one at a time. The first one I had myself, I leased it out, right across from the, on Second Street there, and it was called a Bowling Club. The Ted and Pin Bowling, and it was run by (Unintelligible) the fellow that had owned the Coca Cola Company opened up over here. (Unintelligible) he owned that building, and he put in, he liked building, he put that bowling in there. And he had a play party in there, but the running people took it all and they went broke. And— He knew how to bowl there. So he says, “Harold, to god, do you want to take”—he knew how to bowl there, so he said, “Harold, to god, do you want to take this place over?” He says, “I’ll give it to you for just four thousand some dollars, you can pay it to me ten dollars a day, and I won’t rush you, I’ll work with you.” I knew he was a good guy, so I had to, I had to go on and visit for myself. This was on First Street? Yes, on Second Street. On Second Street? What was the cross street? It’s tore down now. Oh yes? Oh yes. What’s there today? Well no, it’s been so long, I actually don’t remember. Can you tell me the exact location? Well sure. UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 12 It was on—? It was on, in between Fremont and— Stewart? Oh no, the other way? No, Stewart is the other way. Oh, Carson, First and Carson, beyond the street there. Oh it was between Carson, First Street, and Fremont. And built this out of there, called a “Tempen Alleys,” the name was— What year? He built that there in—I’ll tell you exactly, because I was in the micros there, right around the same corner. And he opened up the first shopping center in town, Jim McMichael, on the First and Carson, he had all of it in this town. I’ve been working on that Ted (Unintelligible) like I told you about for extra pay? Yes. And he heard about the extra—that I was the greatest cook in town and all that, so he enticed me to come over there, ‘cause he paid me, he started me out at fifty dollars a week, and now he’s getting about thirty-five there, and Ted was about ready, I think Ted committed suicide right about that time— What year was this? That was in thirty-eight. I know it because I went to my boat club later. Anyhow, he wanted me to come over. He opened up a fountain, and there was this fountain and lunch. And I took it away on twenty school counter, that’s all, and you couldn’t, the place was always full of customers. We did a (unintelligible), but I mean, all during the day it was full. He treated me very good. And then I went from there, I got the (unintelligible) down on eleventh and Fremont. And I delivered salad, homemade salad—potato salad, macaroni salad, spaghetti and meatball thing, UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 13 right in Boulder City. I delivered to Henderson all over, (unintelligible), I couldn’t even, couldn’t even make enough salad. And I made a good salad and made it cheap, ten cents a pound. How many years have you been here? In Nevada, or Las Vegas? Forty-two. You mean forty-two years in Las Vegas? Thirty-six, since seventy-eight, thirty-two years. Thirty-two years on top of thirty-six meakes that seventy-eight. How big is your family? Huh? How big is your family? I’ve got seven children. Seven children? And twenty grandchildren. Twenty grandchildren? And they’ve all got families. Most of them live in Nevada? All of them except one. He lives in San Bernardino, California, he’s coming this weekend to visit. Just up here, a couple hundred miles. Working for Sears, years and years and years, he’s one of their (unintelligible) there. He’s contributed about thirty people to Nevada? Thirty people, your family, live in Nevada now. Oh yes, they— Including you and your wife? UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 14 Oh yes. Oh yes, so you’ve contributed about thirty citizens to Nevada since you’ve lived here. Yes. That’s pretty good accomplishment. And furthermore, the (unintelligible) now had (unintelligible) that had left Fremont just before I retired two years ago to see a hundred and ten people. And then I stayed with him about two and a half years, and I left and went to Tonopah, and then I leased it out, and then he went to about tails-up, and he got a fellow sucker from Salt Lake to take it over and he got fifty-seven thousand out of it. He opened it with fourteen thousand but he didn’t put in any fixtures. He was so cheap that he didn’t even pay half of them off. And when I was three years there, he made a lot of money out, made them in three and a half years. When I left to come back, the other guy that bought it from me from Salt Lake, he was a Mormon, happened to be. And I was a Mormon. He heard about me. HE wanted me to come over and help him out, but at that time I wasn’t doing nothing. I come over and took his place, I took it over in July, and so I got to put a good menu out there, and I’m pretty well known in town, and so the—I changed his menu around, and he was doing about two hundred a day in the summer. Two hundred. Mm-hmm. And right in the middle of the summer, a hundred-fifty to two hundred a day. And it wasn’t very low, he was hardly able to operate anymore, (unintelligible), so I didn’t appreciate business to where you couldn’t even get a seat. And I lowered the price a little bit and put out better food, and he got action. He paid so much rent, and he couldn’t get much business. I got it up to eight hundred to a thousand dollars a day. He had to pay rent for five days before to get the amount of business I got to it, that’s what he got out of the rent. He (unintelligible) power and lights, out of UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 15 that time when I was in there per day. He got more out of his help, that he made money, by me getting (unintelligible) five times as many people in there, and one day, as he did in a week, I’ve got five times in one day than he would get in five days. So (unintelligible) one fifth of month’s rent to get the same amount of money in the register. He used five times as much power and lights to get the same amount of business that I got him. And everything, you name one thing, and so, he made money. So, he’d been trying to sell it, he was trying to get out of it. He was a cheap man up in Utah, he was a rich man. So his name was, what’s his name now? ‘Cause he had his wife and his wife’s sister there, she worked there. I don’t remember. He was well known up in Utah. He came down there and sold it for fifty-seven thousand dollars. I mean he bought it for---then he made money out of it, then he left town, going on building something else. But finally he went about bankrupt, and he heard that I was a success everywhere, and he heard that I was a Mormon. He got me over there, and I took it over and helped him out as a manager, right away it creased that way, he wanted to get rid of, thought, maybe that I might want it. So I says, “Oh, I want to work for somebody else, I better—“ but my son in law, I’ve owned him three thousand dollars, and I know it. And he sold his, his part of the Downtown of the garage around fifth street to his own brother, another fellow went and took his place, and he sold it for about ten thousand dollars. So, for his half, so then he, he wanted to put a little money in my place, and he had about fifteen hundred dollars available, and he didn’t want to do any work, and he married my daughter, so he was my son in law. Right. So then he want me, my daughter kind of wanted to do it, I thought that I made money everywhere, so here’s a chance for them to make some. So I took over with heft. Right away he didn’t do nothing, he’d come there and eat and that was all. My daughter, she thought big about UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 16 it, but she didn’t want to do nothing. But I hit a rock there. But anyhow, I still went ahead and built it up. I was probably doing eight hundred to a thousand dollars a day, and I paid twenty-five thousand dollars for it, but it took her five years to pay it, to be able to put fifteen hundred dollars down payment. This is over on Fremont? Eleventh and Fremont. Eleventh and Fremont? It’s right there today. Kings. Right there today. (Unintelligible) And so then I (unintelligible) Tell me how Las Vegas has changed through the years from when you got here back in thirty-six until now? You know, is there any high points? It just jumped leaps and bounds every year. Just grow stronger and stronger every year. There’s no way to stop it. I remember when El Cortez was the end of the business district, it was all housing from the El Cortez on down. Nothing but housing. Nothing here at all. Yessir, I remember nothing down there (unintelligible) there ain’t nothing down there all. (Unintelligible) On the Boulder Highway there? Yes! Nothing? It was even hard enough to get motels, I was there at the beginning, I took it. In fact I read a billing there (unintelligible) UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 17 Yes, well looks like this side is just about over with, so I’ll just end it right here, for this side, and then we’ll flip it over and do some more talking, okay? Tomorrow? No we can do more today, can you do some more today? Sure. Okay. You just got to get the good part of it. Flip over to the other side. (Tape one ends) Okay I’m ‘gonna be interviewing Mr. Harold R. Hunter on March 19th, 1978, around five o’clock. At his home at 7425 West Helena Avenue, in Las Vegas Nevada. And Philip Mile is gonna’ be doing the interviewing, he lives at 3109 Demetrius in Las Vegas Nevada. And this is for a Local History project, and it’s an oral interview on life of some of the old-timers that’s been in Las Vegas for a long time. Mr. Hunter is, was born September 5th, 1901, and he’s been in Las Vegas forty-two years. He came here in 1936 and that wasn’t the first time he had ever been here though. The first time he’d ever been here was in 1921— When I was a boy. When he was a boy, and he’s going to tell us a little about that when he came through here with a couple other people, so go ahead, tell us how it was in Las Vegas in 1921 when you first came through here. Well, there were no paved high ways coming in from the, where you come in. You could sit down (unintelligible) little tiny town, there was no pave in the road, they were all wood walks, and there was only one or two little places like a bar, and even the Horse Shoe Club was even UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 18 one of the main stops they had water troughs there for the cowboys and for their horses. And the bars were in there, like in the olden days, in the gun smoke days, and the man sat in there and two of ‘em playing cards and a dog laying on the floor, and a bar with a spittoon there, and it seems funny, but it wasn’t exaggerated what none so ever. ‘Cause I saw it and I was there, and so we ask ‘em, and they said there was none— How many people were here then, would you say? I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t say, I wouldn’t say it was over two hundred, the most. Because they just had at one, hardly, even had a filling station too and there was only one policeman there, and he kind of urged the people to go on, because nothing that that they’re doing— You were about twenty years old? Yes, about twenty or twenty-one. See, I was travelling in this here old car of mine, and there was a fellow there that wanted to ride with us, and he was practically—but we didn’t have a dime. So we said, “Well you can ride with us if you want to, but we ain’t got no gas,” and he says, “Oh, I’ve got enough for that,” and it was a very fun situation we wound up in because we had the—tires were all worn out, and went to weathered the dirt road between here and California, it was all dirt roads. So we got down a few miles, and then a tire’d blow out and he had spend some for there— How long did you stay in Las Vegas? 1921—just for a day? Just that one day. One day. Your first good look at Las Vegas? Huh? It was your first look at Las Vegas? That’s right. UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 19 Where were you born? Where were you born? Well I was born in Norwich, Kansas. In Kansas? My father ran the Oklahoma Strip. Oh yes? 1889—he’s a pioneer there, he’d lined up along the canvas line of the Oklahoma Strip, and lived with, lot of times you heard, the Cherokee Indians, twenty miles out of the Kansas line. Then, where did you go from there? What do you mean? Kansas, after you were born? Well I was born in Kansas—see my father, he ran in the Strip and we lived at Norwhich, Kansas, just not too far from the line, and he ran the Strip there, and I was born there in 1901. But he went and ran the Strip in 1889, before I was born, he ran the Oklahoma Strip and settled us in that there territory. They had a line up for miles and miles and miles along there. And when they popped the gun, they all (unintelligible) cages and bars, and any way to get there. How long did you live there? Where, Norwich? Yes. I think he brought me down after, he settled that country and built his home there, I’d say he brought me down about 1903. 1904 at the most. Where did you go from there? Where? From Norwich—? UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 20 You mean from Oklahoma? Oh, you mean Norwich? Yes. Well that’s what I say, I was born in Norwich. Right. Then, where did you go after—you lived there for how many years? When you were a kid? Well he brought me down to Oklahoma at about three years old—that was his home there. Norwich, Kansas, his father was in the lumber yard business. Okay, and then you went to Oklahoma? He moved me down there in 1903 or ’04, after he had run the Trip in 1889 to settle the territory. Then he sold it in town. So I was out really at Oklahoma, raised there from when I was three years old on till I left. How long were you there? You were there until when? (Unintelligible) I left and come west when I was nineteen years old. Where did you go? What part of the west did you come from? First of all, I went with my brother, we were on the way and we stopped in Colorado, and worked on farms and went to Salt Lake and worked in the ice painting plant, and then moving on to Salt Lake to Los Angeles, that’s where we stayed. That’s when you went through Las Vegas? That’s way before I come to Las Vegas, ‘course, No I mean when you went through Las Vegas in 1921? On your way to Los Angeles? Yes. Yes. I went back home first you know. No, I went back home and then, ‘course, that’s after nineteen—when I was twenty-one years old, that’s when I left the first time, you see. I was there UNLV University Libraries Harold R. Hunter 21 in California, Los Angeles, in Hollywood in the movie actor days, 1920. 1920, before I come on the trip, twenty-one that I told you about. Right. I was there in the Hollywood days. Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairfax, Ben Turpan, and all those (unintelligible) all up. Mary Pickford, the sweetheart of the movies. I even worked serving it. I was in the fountain business for a long time before I become a cook. But where did you go when you left Los Angeles? When did you get married? Well I left there, I went to Phoenix first in ’27. The year that (Unintelligible) crossed the ocean. (Unintelligible) that would be Wall Street. And then I left t and come back to California and then I went to work in (unintelligible). And then I always liked Phoenix, Arizona, so I went to work at the water company there, and my boss, he was told run a drugstore there, why he wrote me a letter and he said, “Hunter, if you can find it, if this ever reaches you, why, you come back and name your price.” ‘Cause when he first got me, I was at Fountain Fitness, and he ran this drugstore on Central Jefferson, the tallest building in Phoenix. And all of his crew walked off and left him shorthanded. So he called over to the big, oh the big, and said, “Say, my crew went down here and two blocks, and opened my crew and took all my crew, and I’m on alert.” And he says, “Oh, I need a fountain man.” So he said his here, and you know the big found fountain men, I can’t think of the same. I think he referred (Unintelligible) so they said, “Well, the only one I know of, available to move around seventy foot to counter. We had a seventy-two horseshoe, both