Transcript of interview with Joanne Imprescia by David Furbush, March 20, 1978

UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia i An Interview with Joanne Imprescia An Oral History Conducted by David A. Furbush 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 Joanne Imprescia ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 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 Joanne Imprescia iv Abstract On March 20, 1978, David Furbush interviewed Joanne Imprescia (born October 10th, 1927 in Keokek, Iowa) about her life as a hairdresser in Las Vegas, Nevada. Imprescia discusses the growth of Las Vegas and the local social climate of the fifties. The interview concludes with Imprescia explaining her experiences as a Las Vegas business owner and the hairdressing industry in Southern Nevada. UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 1 This is a local history project, oral interview, for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The narrator is Joanne Imprescia. The date is March 20th, 1978. The time is 3:30 PM. The interview is taking place at Joseph and Joanne Hairstyle Shop, South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada. The name of the interviewer is David Furbush, address: 2949 Sandy Lane, Apartment E.3., North Las Vegas, Nevada. And now the interview. Okay first of all, I’d like to ask you: what brought you to Nevada, and when did you move here? We moved here in August of 1951, and we were a newly married couple starting out a new life. Okay, and, but you moved here for business reasons? Oh sure, we went into business right away. And what was Las Vegas like, basically, when you first moved here—as far as physical boundaries, the city limits, population? Was it very small? Small, probably about fifteen thousand people, and the Valley was very small. The residential area were much smaller, none of these surrounding big apartment houses like we’ve got now. I remember once, trying, thinking about renting an apartment on Saint Louis, and we thought that was way, way out in the desert. (Laughs) (Laughs) And we had Circle C Beauty Salon Downtown by the side of Trader Bill’s on Fourth and Fremont. And it is no longer there because Bill built way out to the street now and made it, you know, like a block this way and a block that way on Fourth and Fremont. And the second shop is still there on North Fourth, called the Beauty Box. It was my husband’s shop’s name in Syracuse, New York. And then we moved up here, we’re going into our twenty-fifth year at Joseph and Joanne’s on the Boulevard. UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 2 Twenty-five years in the same spot? We’ve been in Joseph and Joanne’s here on the Boulevard. We’re going into our twenty-fifth year. Well, what was, you mentioned that your first shop was Downtown. Mm-hmm. What was the town like at that part? Well, we had a lot of commercial stores, which is, you know, it’s going out now. Like the other night, I drove by between Fourth and Fifth Street and I couldn’t hardly believe it, that there was a theatre there now. And I don’t go Downtown too often, and that used to be where Ronzoni’s used to be, where the theatre is now, and then now Ronzoni’s sold out to Diamond’s, and then Diamond’s, you know, is out to the mall. What about the casinos? How many—were most of the casinos that are there today, were they there at that time also? Oh yes, oh yes. Predominantly, ‘course there’s a lot of new ones, the Mint, and the Fremont, and the California Club across the street. The Nugget is now just almost a good whole city block one way, all the way around, which was big in those days, but it didn’t look like it does now. Yes. You know. What about the area where the Union Plaza is? Was it there—? It was a railroad station. Big, big, long, you know, from where the exit street now—big, beautiful long, Greyhound Bus Station was South and it was a railroad station, but it didn’t look like the railroad station ‘cause the whole, you know, it was just all this beautiful lawn in the beginning, in the front. And people that would be waiting for trains or whatever, the Greyhound Bus Station, UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 3 I’m sure, they were sitting around, a lot of them around that didn’t have any, no cars, or anything to be there. Sitting around on the lawn, really. It was just a very small town look, you know, the way you’d visualize a small town railroad station to look. And now it’s a big skyscraper! (Laughs) Were the, was the Union Pacific it wasn’t mostly freight at that time? It was about passenger service—? No, no, no, passenger service, yes. Was it mostly from LA? Or was it all over? No, a lot of people who didn’t, and still do feel that way about flying would take a train. You know, three days and two nights, to go back as far as New York City. (Unintelligible) by the tourist traffic? Oh yes, yes. And I imagine that maybe the bulk liked some of the airline businesses now, but on the airlines, I bet you, a lot of it came, a lot of the tourists came on the trains from LA, sure. Yes. What about, do you happen to remember anything about the Old Springs? I understand that the Springs let—Springs, led from the Springs, down past the Union Pacific Station, and to the Mormon Fort. Do you recall that at all? Yes, I’m sure it did, but I don’t remember that. You mentioned that you moved here to your present shop twenty-five years ago, approximately. What caused you to move to this store from the previous one? Well, the small shop by the side of Trader Bill’s was called “Circle C.” And it was a very small shop, consisted of two wet stations, a comb-out booth, and I think we had four dryers. When we came here, after we put down our three-month’s residence to go to work, we went around to all the beauty shops to try to get a job. And nobody would higher my husband because most of the shops were owned by women and they were very afraid of a male hairdresser because they were UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 4 up on all the new haircuts, and we had just come from New York, you know, Syracuse, New York, and they were—that’s the best word I can say. Because I think they thought they were going to take all their business away, or get their business. So finally we ended up—we couldn’t get, everybody would hire me, but not my—Joseph. And so finally, we were able to lease this little beauty shop from a girl whose husband owned the dress shop, which was like on a second floor, right up over Trader Bill’s. Trader Bill’s is still there, but the dress shop was up there. We had, it was just a little side shop, and it was a real cute beauty shop. So we leased it furnished, and we spent about a year and a half there. Then we found that one of our customers, the Beckley family, who was a very prominent—(unintelligible) Beckley owns the club even now, where the Pioneer Club is. And in years and years ago, when he first came here, he was in the (unintelligible) business, and they owned a property, which when you went out of the door of our “Circle C” beauty shop, and you looked down, North Fourth, they were building a there. So we had the opportunity to go there and open a shop, and they built specifically for us, for a beauty shop. And it was really a lovely shop. And then my husband had some surgery and he was contemplating, after he was not getting too well, that he would go back east to live. And so then we sold the shop. We sold—in other words, we moved out of the Circle C to the Beauty Box for bigger quarters because we really became very busy—we didn’t have enough room. And we did very well there, and I think, not so much personal reasons, but health reasons, he was thinking, contemplating of going back east to live. And we sold the shop, and then in less than three months we decided that we would go back into business and then we came this far up, and as you can see, that this door, where—this is two stories. We started with just the one shop, Joseph and Joanne’s, and then we broke through into—we actually have two stories. We got—we were that busy and very successful. UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 5 Was the success and the increase in business due to just to you getting a new name? Or was it due to new people moving in? Gleaning a name, and of course, the town was growing, and we did establish a good name in those days—help was terrific. And second reason, most predominant reason, I would say, would be the hair goods business. And we were the first people in town to sell hair goods and we did very well, and then oriental hair came along, and in the beginning it was just good first quality, European hair, pony tails and little hair pieces, and then waves, and then of course, a lot of custom-made work, and then, as I said, the oriental hair came, and of course, we had to sell it, because more and more (unintelligible) shops were coming into sell it. Because of competition, we had to go and sell oriental hair too. And then in the sixties, synthetic came in very strong, and we decided after a while that we had to sell the synthetic hair too. So now we sell just about every kind of hair. I try not to buy or have the reputation for having very cheap, any of the three (unintelligible) of hair. Like you can go into a grocery store and buy the (unintelligible) for five dollars—I can get them, and I sell them, but my type of clientele that come usually aren’t looking for it. They’re usually either looking for something a little better quality, or possibly something that’s going to really match or something that’s going to be ordered or custom-made for them. And that’s the kind of reputation you build, and we, you know, you hate to have too many things that’s going to not—you know, everyone doesn’t come looking for the best hair. Either because they don’t care or maybe they can’t afford it. Everyone can’t afford to have the best, in any commodity that you’re selling. But, when you work very hard for a good reputation, you rarely—you have to bend with competition of course and you have to bend in a lot of things. But when you have a good reputation, when a customer comes for something that is classified as good European hair, and you’re going to stand behind it, you’re like, that’s the way we wanted UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 6 our reputation to be, and we do have it. A lot of people come from out of state, and they’ll come maybe only once a year. Maybe they don’t buy something every year, but they do come back to us. So your reputation is a major factor, but you still had a lot of new customers constantly because of the growth? Yes, oh yes. How, how has the growth—it’s affected you very well apparently, your business has increased but how has it affected the town? Do you think that it, the town was better when it was smaller? Has the population caused problems, or—? Lots of problems. Some are good and some are bad because we women, are not free like we used to be. You can’t go any place by yourself, you get in your car, you lock it, and you are told to live this way. You lock your car in your own driveway, you can’t walk around too many places with a dog, or even with another girl. It’s just a prohibited thing nowadays. And of course, it isn’t only just in Las Vegas, it’s all over the country. But in the fifties when we came here, we found that it was, we worked very long hours, you walked up town and had dinner, and when you were walking to a restaurant, there’d be a lot of local merchants around, and it was a friendly atmosphere place. Small town yes, but yet, big, because the Strip was there—not as big as it is by any means. But it was there, the El Rancho, the Flamingo, and I think, I can’t remember what year the Desert Inn and the Riviera went in, but then, you know, all the other hotels built after that. It was an element of supposedly of the underworld, the mafia, or whatever you want to call it, and we felt very safe, and no one was ever killed here, and no one was ever found here, and I’m sure things did go on, but whatever the element of the people that were in control, not so much of politics, but of the gambling. They controlled the gambling and that element that we do UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 7 have to face is our biggest—its our biggest industry, yet. Even now, it’s our biggest industry. And whatever, whomever, or whatever controls it, it made it a terrific place to live. So to a large degree, the, for lack of a better word, the organized crime handled the local problems as well or better than the gaming commission, I guess? Much, much. You preferred it then? Oh, yes. Yes. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I’m sure local people, who have lived here as long as I have, or were born here will agree. It was—it’s like prostitution, when it was taken away, and it was taken away because of politics. That’s not my opinion— There was a time it was legal in the entire state? Oh, yes. What—? The sheriff owned Roxie’s, which was the biggest place we had. Yes? (Laughs) Sheriff Jones owned it, and it was very well organized, and it was very well handled, and we used to have them for customers, and they were as much ladies as anyone else in town. Paid their bills, had their work done, never any trouble, never any drinking, like some of the people that worked, after they got their work, they’d have to have a drink, they’d be drinking all the time they’re getting their hair done and everything. It was not that—controlled medically, they had to go to the hospitals and whatever the accommodations were in those days, and it was very well done, very well supervised, and I’m sure the people that aren’t connected with the politics part of it would agree. But whatever it was, it got welded out, and it’s never been since. And I think it’s a mistake. UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 8 Was it actually voted out? Or was it forced out by the politicians? Oh, yes. It was forced out by the politicians and it was voted out, oh, sure, yes. In those days we voted on politics. Was this due mostly to the new, the large number of new voters that didn’t understand the situation or did the old-timers have anything to do with it? Oh, the old-timers controlled it. I—I don’t know how to answer it really truthfully, ‘cause I couldn’t tell ya’, I wouldn’t want to mention names on that, but I do know that other people that controlled it and they, the old-timers definitely controlled it, and they’re still controlling it to keep it up. Do you know their reasons that any of these people have for voting it out? Or were they personal reasons? Their own personal reasons and their own religious reasons, I would say, predominantly. But not necessarily for any business reasons or—? No, because I think— To protect the tourists or anything like that? Well, I think it was done to protect the tourists, and make the tourists feel comfortable, and certain things were not going to be—but I mean, gee, it’s a known fact that they’re walking up and down the boulevard and they solicit people in the hotels, so I don’t think the control has been all that wonderful. With the growth and population—how has the surrounding area grown? Like Henderson, and (Unintelligible) City, they’ve increased also? Oh my, yes, yes. Oh my, yes, I’m sure. I can’t give you any figures— But you’ve seen them growing? UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 9 Oh yes, it’s unbelievable. I mean, when my husband was living, we—I mostly stayed in the shop, and my husband helped me run the shop and later years, as he retired, and he used to do all the errands for me, so consequently, I was in here eight hours a day and not getting out driving very much. Now I have to get out and run and it’s just hard to believe, it’s hard to really realize how the—just like out the boulevard way. In the areas around, all surrounding—within the Valley, you can’t, it’s hard to believe what has happened in the beautiful, beautiful places that we have, and I happen to live in a residential area out around the back of the beauty shop, which is state, nice area. It still is a nice area, where in some cities some areas just go down very bad, but around Oakey Boulevard and Fourth—I mean Fifth Place and all the way up to Maryland Parkway, all that area around where I live, around Eighth Place, it’s all still beautiful residential area. People do keep up well, but out in the surrounding areas, where a lot of the show people and things have built—gorgeous, gorgeous places. It’s kind of hard to really realize it; it seems like it’s just almost sprung up overnight. What about the further outlying areas—like Overton, and Pahrump, and—? That I’m not—no, I know that they’re—I don’t get out that way, that Overton, I know they’re building and they’re growing, and I, but I’m not that— Did they have a fair population even back when you first moved here? Or where they even in existence (unintelligible)? Oh, yes, they were there, but they were very small. Those little towns just stayed small but they, I’m sure— So they aren’t, they haven’t popped up because of the Las Vegas growth in town? No, I think they were there and they’ll you know, Searchlight was a big place at one time, I don’t think it’s anything now to speak of. It was big prostitution there, and night club, and beside UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 10 whatever else went on, their mining of any kind, it was a neat place to go certain times of the year. It didn’t exist solely for the mining? No, not when I came here in the fifties, no. It was gambling and girls and a place to take a nice Sunday drive too, if you wanted to just mingle by the pool, or just for a nice ride, and I’m sure that the prostitution was very heavy there, but we didn’t see it; you just went and had either a drink or dinner in some of these places. It was a very nice place. Death Valley is still a beautiful place to drive to—it’s not really all our state, all our, in our state, in Nevada; but, it’s one of the places that we used to go to a lot. You mentioned the area where you live now, behind the beauty shop, it’s—? Well, when I say behind the beauty shop, you go out our back door, and you come on Fifth Place, which is starting Fifth and Sixth and Seventh and Eighth Street, all the way up till Maryland Parkway, you know. I live on Eighth Place near, off of Oakey. It’s a nice residential area. But that area when you first moved there, was—? Nothing, nothing. Was way out, it was on the (Laughs) Way out, nothing there! What were the general boundaries of Las Vegas on either side, you know, inside the city I mean, like you mentioned Oakey was like one boundary—? Well, Oakey, you know, it well, probably until the White Cross Drug Store went up on Oakey and that big food store, and that big mall was built there. It’s not really a mall, it’s a shopping center, and that made it—that’s a tremendous landmark in that area. UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 11 So that wasn’t—that’s not a recent development, it’s been there quite a while? In the sixties, in the sixties, yes. They were Downtown and they weren’t up there. So many local people that were in business downtown, I think most every shop that I can think of that was considered a good shop, I think Trader Bill’s was still one of the best landmarks we had, and of course his place is still there. And he was one of the most colorful figures that was in Las Vegas. He was, had a beautiful place to live out, and he was a very successful business man, and married many times, and befriended some people, and some people we didn’t, and he’d either be getting married or getting divorced, or being very much by himself. I think he died somewhere in the early sixties and the gentries which were people that worked for him, and as the years went by, and they now own it with one of his ex-wives. Did Trader Bill, was he a major influence in the area? Or was he just a prominent businessman? Both. I think he was a good influence in many things if he were meant to participate, and what he was actually into, in many things, I don’t know. He would, he was sort of a private person in many ways, yet he befriended Joseph and he’d go into our little beauty shop, which was really his property, and he’d come in and get a haircut. And he loved to talk to Joe—whether he was drunk or sober, and he was drunk a great deal of the time. (Laughs) (Laughs) He was. (Laughs) What about the North Las Vegas area? Did it develop pretty much because of the Air Force Base, or was it already there? Did it have a substantial population already? UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 12 Yes, but not like it is now. It’s really fantastic now that it’s growing. I go do a vet for my dog, I can’t hardly believe how it’s growing up out there. And I don’t really drive that much, I mean I just drive right to, in North Las Vegas, but it’s really grown an awful lot. So North Las Vegas can extend all that far from the Downtown area, originally? No, no. What about out on the area of West Charleston? Was there anything out there at the time besides just the springs out there? No, nothing. What about—? And not even any landmarks that I can even think of to tell you. I’m sure other people could, but nothing that I can think of. What about West Las Vegas? Because I understand that it’s had fairly large Black population all along? Yes, always was from the time we came here. West Las Vegas was definitely Black predominant, but yet they built a housing thing, not a housing thing, but they built some beautiful big ranch type homes out in that area, but it was close to Washington, and yet it wasn’t. I can’t remember the name of the area. I had a friend that had a beautiful big house out there, and we came in ’51. It was, you might say you had to go through part of the Black area, and yet the Black area has moved down here into the Boulevard here and, I can’t think of the name of the streets up here, even before you come to Oakey. That area has gone Black now, but before, when I came here, there were no Blacks, just on the Westside. What about in the other direction, out towards Sunrise Mountain, as I imagine there wasn’t too much out there at all? UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 13 Nothing, nothing that I can think of to tell you the truth. Did that area pretty much develop along with the businesses in the area? Or for other reasons? The Showboat, I imagine, didn’t have too much to do with the development of the area, except for those small hotels. Oh yes, I’m sure, but they’ve also had quite a lot of rooms of their own. Well, I suppose business houses would eventually move to that area because of the—an area where you were going to get people, even after their business hours, if they see your business, and they’re interested, and they’ve got something that you want, and you happen to go to the Showboat in those days, I’m sure that was many good reasons for people to open up in that area. What about that area where you live in Boulevard Mall—did the Boulevard Mall provide the impetus to growth of other businesses? Or were there other businesses already? Oh my, yes. No, I don’t—I couldn’t tell you. It was pretty much residential? Pretty much nothing. Pretty much, well most of the apartments in that area, and of course, in back of Sunrise Hospital, built up in the sixties, maybe not in the sixties as much of the seventies, ‘cause beautiful residential homes, you can go right in the next street over, back of Sunrise Hospital, beautiful, big residential homes. There was nothing there. The Boulevard is like Sahara Boulevard—(unintelligible) I said that maybe you know, from now on, from like 1978 on, I have a feeling that the Sahara Boulevard, especially after across the street from the Sahara, I’m ‘gonna tell ‘em that, oh what’s that—northwestern, north east corner there. Huge, big, empty place there. When there’s a mall or some big hotel builds there, that’ll start—my feelings have always been that Sahara one day will be like Los Angeles, like Wilshire Boulevard of Las Vegas, because Bertha went there, Christianson’s went there, and a lot of real good shops UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 14 that were Downtown, and I’m sure they’re feeling it’s been that way too. That if we can keep them out of the little, you know, not necessarily chains, chain restaurants, I think like that because they have to go along the other one. I don’t think it’ll be restaurant row, the first few blocks are like restaurants row, there are some small shops, but I mean, out in the area near where (Unintelligible) is, and then on—I really think it’s ‘gonna be a beautiful street eventually. (Tape one ends) You mentioned the area around the corner of Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard. That brings me back to the El Rancho Vegas, which you mentioned; do you remember very much about it at all? Yes, the original owners, I was never around that much. But we came in ’51 and putting in our three-month’s residence to go to work, we just spent a lot of time at the El Rancho because if you didn’t play golf or did a lot of things, you’d just really live like a tourist for three months if you could do it financially. And you went to shows and gambled and slept all day and then you went out every night ad yes, the El Rancho was one of the most prominent places. They had wonderful shows there, Liberace I think played there in the very beginning for maybe about $500 a week. And I saw him, and many, many great people. Was he already fairly famous at the time? This was just a low salary, or—? No, not really, I think he was with his brother in those days, and he wasn’t you know, fantastic—he always was a terrific showman, but not like he is now. I mean, his show I saw, not very—about five weeks ago I think, at the Hilton, it’s a fantastic show. It’s just so super with the costumes and the pianos and the backdrops, and he has a different piano for each number that he does. (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 15 But in those days, we thought he was terrific, even before he was on television. Because when we came here in ’51, there wasn’t any, any television. Oh really? Until ’53. How did the El Rancho (unintelligible) to how it was today? Differ because— You know, the country club atmosphere—? I mentioned because mostly local people gathered there. I think the Thunderbird really had the reputation for the local people to go, when (Unintelligible) was there. You would see people in the cocktail lounge, and it was a gathering place when people went out in the evening, to maybe just a dinner. Or they would end up there, and you would see anyone you’d see in there, would mostly be people that you know, with the exception of course, you always had to have some tourists. And like when we used to have dinner Downtown at the Nugget and a few other places that were there. The Horseshoe and the Nugget—you didn’t eat dinner in those places but you could look around the room and you knew about half, maybe more than half the people, they were local people. And the El Rancho was the first place in probably, I think the last place where I saw Howard Hughes, and he looked much like what they say. He had a sport shirt outside of his pants, he had sneaks on, he was carrying around a sport-coat, and he looked just like anybody else, and what we were told, or when we found out who he was, and he played on the crap table usually up until the show time and then he would go in and sit with people at a table, and then he’d look and act much like the rest of us. He wasn’t as much of a recluse at the time—he wasn’t trying to hide who he was? UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 16 No, he wasn’t hiding then. And I don’t think he made, I think he made light of himself—didn’t push himself around, or make scenes, or do anything to attract attention, but we would be in awe even in those days. He was not a (unintelligible) character like he is even now, after he’s dead. He’s not—you know, even now, a very colorful character. But you would see many movie stars, Elizabeth Taylor was married to Michael Wilding, and I can’t think of the other people that were with them that night, and they were without—they ended up at the table with Howard Hughes. He came in and sat there with them. And—but it was fun to see people like that in those days. You don’t, you look at people that are in show business now— (Audio begins mid-sentence) you saw a lot of movie stars, and you still see show people around, but it’s sort of taken for granted. I’m sure some people, when the people come out to Caesar’s and tape, you would get a chance to see, but I’m not out there, but many local people get to see, you know, all the big stars, even now a days. Were they pretty much at the El Rancho and some of the other areas where the stars gathered? They were allowed to mingle without being bothered so much as they would be today? Yes, I would say yes, and I think at the Flamingo there were a lot of very prominent people seen around, and as you say, I don’t think we were all anxious to look at them and see them and see what they were really like. But I don’t think people bothered them as much as they might now a days. You mentioned the Flamingo—do you recall Bugsy Siegel and this (unintelligible)? No, no. I—well, I’m sure he was around there in ’51, I don’t remember what dates about him— He wasn’t too major a character in those— UNLV University Libraries Joanne Imprescia 17 If he was, if he owned it in those days, I don’t know the figures of the dates. If he owned it in those days, he was probably around but we didn’t see him. My husband and I, we didn’t see him. My husband and I, I don’t remember seeing him. And if he wasn’t around there, he probably spent a good deal of his life in Los Angeles, which I guess he did. I don’t know much about Bugsy Siegel, except what I’ve read in some of these books that people have written through the years. (Unintelligible) Jungle, or whatever it was. I don’t really know that much about him. I don’t know much Howard Hughes except I think he did us a lot of good. And we’re very—local people who are very gratified (unintelligible) and merchants, when you think about it, the place was built you know, like from carpet. Right on up to drapes and could possibly think of that would go into a hotel, and the merchants were all stuck to all that money. It was a very, you know, if you were a merchant, especially, we consider ourselves merchants to a degree, because we sell—when you think about pouring all your money into a (unintelligible) it’s a very sad thing, and it sat there for so many years. And when, you know, you go to all the other hotels before that, but when you go off that, we felt that he really—I mean, he paid up every debt, right down to the penny. And you felt like he was really with us as far as making the town a nice place to live, and (unintelligible) of all the hotels, but I couldn’t see any difference in my opinion, different from organized crime or whatever you want to call it, happening. What could he do wrong? You can’t do anything in this town unless it’s approved by the Gambling Board. As far as running, and that part of that, I approve of, I approve of the Gambling Board very much so. It would be very sad if anybody could come in and get their license here. And probably investigate it, but that’s the way it should be. Because we should—Las Vegas should be at a high standard now that we’re big. More so than in those days, it ha