Transcript of interview with Maxine James by Danny DiGiacomo, March 2, 1977

UNLV University Libraries Maxine James i An Interview with Maxine James An Oral History Conducted by Danny DiGiacomo 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 Maxine James ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 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 Maxine James iv Abstract On March 2, 1977, Danny DiGiacomo interviewed office manager, Maxine James (born September 6th, 1925, in Hayti, Missouri) about her life in Southern Nevada. The two discuss the ease with which people could find jobs in early Las Vegas. The interview provides an overview of James’ occupational history in Las Vegas and concludes with a discussion on the rapid growth of the city in the fifties and sixties. UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 1 Right now. Okay, today is March 2nd, 1977, I’m interviewing Mrs. Maxine James, wife of Donald James of 3239 Bluebird Street. This is Dan DiGiacomo of 3545 Sandhill Road, and this is for Nevada History. Mrs. James, can I call you Maxine? Oh Certainly. Can you give us a little bit of brief history of, before you came to Las Vegas, where were you born and maybe bring us to the time you came to Las Vegas? Okay. I was born in Hayti, Missouri, September 6th, 1925. My father worked for a dried line company, did river (unintelligible) work on the Mississippi River so we moved quite often to go along with his job. He worked for the same company for fifty years but we worked, lived in many different places there. I lived mostly in Mississippi and Texas and then I migrated to Savannah, Georgia, when I was oh, thirty, thereabouts. I met a musician, very nice man, and followed him out here in 1958 to marry him, it didn’t seem to be the thing to do, so I changed my mind. About marrying or living—? About the marriage. It was a twenty-four hour time and he worked nights and daytimes, he played golf and slept and I am a daytime person and had a young daughter, and would rather have daytime hours for her. So I immediately knew this nighttime musician wasn’t my man. A very good friend and a very nice man, but not for me. So I left home in a blaze of glory to go to Las Vegas and get married and I couldn’t just turn around and go back. So I looked around, I went to a local employment agency, jobs were—let’s see, I decided to go to work in May of 1960. Jobs were very plentiful, experienced workers were at a premium out here. This was a little cow town; this was a very far out place at that time. UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 2 What experience have you had, did you have, prior to coming here? I had worked for a discount furniture company. I was a full charge book keeper and office manager and salesman, jack of all trades, six days a week, very hard job. Hard work. And— Did you want to try to find anything along this line? Not very rewarding, no. I wanted a book keeping job but I didn’t want to get into the sales end of it because I began to lose my hearing, and I tried to get away from personal contact with customers. What I think I hear is not what I hear, so I went looking for clerical work and there was a lot of book keeping work available, at very poor wages. I went to four interviews my first day, and would have been accepted at every one of the jobs, but I took at the Stardust Hotel in the book keeping department. And I can’t recall exactly, I think it was about, the job paid about four hundred and seventy-five dollars a month, but I didn’t take it for that. Now when did you start this job, what year was this in now? May of 1960. And I was called back to that office to be interviewed three times the first afternoon I looked for a job here, and finally, (unintelligible) up on the salary with the boss, went to work the next morning at the Stardust. Although the Stardust and Desert Inn belonged to the same people and the hiring was done at the Desert Inn. So I worked there for two weeks in accounts receivable, got glowing reports from my immediate superior, and she made the mistake of telling the boss, so he transferred me right over to the Desert Inn, to work right next to his office with his people. And it was not bad, except the people weren’t all that great to work with. They were jealous of their jobs, they wouldn’t tell you enough to let you do your job for fear you’d take theirs. And I worked there for three months and I heard about a private contracting company that needed a book keeper. I went there for an interview and they hired me for a great whopping some of a hundred and thirty five dollars a week, which is more than my boss made at UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 3 the Desert Inn. There’s one girl office, I did full payroll and all union reports, all federal reports, office manager, full charge book keeping job. I liked it very much. When you were working at the Desert Inn now, was there any of the unions like there were, there are now today? Oh absolutely—for unions of all kinds. That Culinary ‘course, that’s very powerful there, and the entertainers were in the, what are they in? They’re— They have a union. They have a union, I don’t recall right now what it is, but I did make out checks for some top stars. It was a thrill to me. And oh, they had teamsters, they had engineers, they had— Did you have to belong to the union? No. I had to have a sheriff’s card with my fingerprints on it, it’s the only clearance they made. They took me strictly on what I told ‘em, they didn’t check my references, and they put me to work there. And you didn’t have to be bonded? Didn’t have to be bonded. I was put in charge when they transferred me to the Desert Inn, they put me in charge of accounts payable and I had a check-writing machine and I verified the accounts, and wrote the checks, they signed ‘em and gave ‘em back. They never looked at the bills to see if something matched it, they trusted me on site. It’s strange because there’s certainly not that trusting now, I understand, but I did the best I could for ‘em and they had very small book keeping department then and they had bought a computer system, which was warehoused in Las Vegas, but they didn’t have room in their office to set it up, and there were no computer operators here then. It was hard to get that kind of person here to work, they didn’t have any trained computer operators and they never had, got this computerized system off the ground. So UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 4 it was rather primitive, everything was done manually there, this little check writing machine was very insignificant type when I look now, back now, and consider all the, you know, the expenses and things they had in the hotel. We had very primitive book keeping system. And it worked, I guess. Now your other job, you were alone in your office there then? Yes. You were your own boss then? Mm-hmm. Now what were your duties in this office? Anything connected with office and book keeping. I did full payroll and accounts payable and accounts receivable, I did all the contract billing, I did all the cost accounting, and all of the union reports which get to be something. You have plumbers, teamsters, laborers, and everyone has a different pension plan and trust and all these reports have to be done. I did every bit of that, I had signed the checks, I paid everything, I was trusted completely with the check book, I never had to accounts, at the end of the year the auditors came in and did a complete audit on us. We had IRS audit several times and they wrote us a letter which is framed on the wall down there saying what nice clean books we kept and how nice it was to work with us. Did the construction company work with any of the hotels, like—? Oh yes, we did. It was the biggest plumbing contractor in this area, and we did, all of the Sahara remodel, we did the Caesar’s Palace, we did the Union Plaza, did all the work at the Mint, built the Four Queens, and what I mean—construction plumbing, it wasn’t a remodel. We did the Horseshoe Club, all the major jobs. Was the Strip really on the grow then in the early sixties? UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 5 Oh it was growing night and day, it was really booming. Do you remember when the El Rancho burned? Wasn’t that in the early sixties? I walked to work from New York Avenue; at that time I was working at the Desert Inn. I walked past the place the morning after it burned, didn’t even look on that side of the street (Laughs) and this was about August of 1960. I walked about two miles to work every day and I rode a bus home because it was too hot to walk home at night. That was my exercise, to walk from New York Avenue to the Desert Inn. Was that the most populated part of the Strip then? Were the Sahara and Thunderbird and El Rancho were? And people—you just saw swarms of tourists out walking back and forth from the hotels then, because it was just one little spot right in there, where they were. If anyone was going to go as far as the Tropicana, and the Hacienda, they’d get a cab, or the busses were quite popular then. So those two kind of sat way out by themselves then, then? Mm-hmm, that’s right. And let’s see, it was all desert out past the Dunes—between the Dunes and the Hacienda, it was practically nothing. A few little motels back in bushes there and across from the Sands, there was a little club called the Sand’s (Unintelligible)—and a little pancake house, and that’s the big Castaways, which was really a beautiful plush place, it just never really has gone over big. In entertainment or anything, it’s never been anything, but it’s a beautiful place. We did the plumbing on that place and let’s see what else we did—the Stardust off the Nevada Royal, or the Royal Nevada, and made a convention hall out of it. Was there a lot of then growth coming into Nevada at this time? Were people coming in to get the jobs? UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 6 Mm-hmm, I think that’s when it really started, in 1960. And the Test Site was going full force; they had had atmospheric tests up there, which they haven’t had since I’ve been here. But I don’t know what the payroll was there, but it was quite sizable. The Test Site was an important part of Las Vegas. Did you have any interest of going up there and going to work? No, I was interviewed for a job up there, but there again, I had my young daughter I wanted to bring with me. She was staying with my mother and I wanted her to make a home with me, and I didn’t want to go back and forth to the Test Site. Either had to live up there or ride a bus back and forth and drive back and forth, and they called that highway the Widow-maker in those days, when all those men were driving back and forth. So many men were killed on it. And that was offered a fairly good job up there, but I didn’t like that part of it. I’m a homebody, I want to stay at home. So you didn’t find too much trouble then when you came looking for jobs? No, jobs for people with any ability at all were very easy to come by. And actually, they, you can’t believe—they had such little regard for these clerks in these hotels that they didn’t check us out, they didn’t bother with us too much. A girl had worked in my job, or in my office where I worked at the Desert Inn and she had counted the money, by herself, down in the casino cage, and she just took a pen and marked through the envelopes what they had on it and put her own totals there, and took the cash out. So finally, when several of the gift shops and registers started turning up way short, you know, on heavy days, they called her hand on it, and they ran some envelopes through and checked them on her and caught her. And all they did was pay her off and turn her lose. They didn’t prosecute her, they didn’t reprimand her, and she two days later, went to work a similar job at a hotel down the street. Just that. UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 7 ‘Cause nowadays they blackball you, don’t they? Oh, I’m sure they would. I’m sure—their systems have improved so much that I’m sure they, you wouldn’t have that opportunity. What other kind of jobs, or what were you really duties at the Desert Inn in the accounting department? Well, I was in charge of accounts payable, and as a little sideline, they sent girls from out department to the casinos to cash, to count the cash every day to balance the receipts from all the hotel cash registers. Pro-shops, restaurants, showrooms, room receipts that people would mail in, checks and whatnot. After it’s balanced in every department, it goes into the casino, those days that did, and they would send two of us to count it. This is to counteract the girl putting money in her pocket, send a big brother with ya’. And balance that money, ready that deposit by listing all the checks and turn it over to the (unintelligible) man. And that’s where I made my little boo-boo my first day. I counted the money with my partner, did a good job, she left while I listed checks, and I said, “What do I do next?” and she said, “Well, report back to your superior upstairs.” So I finished and buzzed the buzzer and I was let out of the cage, the man shook my hand and thanked me for a good job, and I went on upstairs with the day’s receipts from the Desert Inn hotel tucked into my arm and turned it into my boss. And with all of their security, there’s no way in the world that should’ve happened. Now how much money are you talking about? Do you remember? I can’t remember, it was such a fantastic amount at the time that it doesn’t stay with me now, but it was a lot of money. In those days, we had an awful lot of cash. If you remember, credit cards were coming in pretty strong, but that was a different department. When you were counting the money, you were counting the money, not the credit. And the security men came racing up the UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 8 stairs to get it when they were called, but it was just a fluke that I was the little clerk for some five, six-hundred dollars a month. And that their security was so lax, I was allowed to walk out of the cage with the day’s receipts. And I still went back the next day and counted the money. I went there almost daily, on my shift and counted money because I was fast at it. I had worked at a bank many years back and learned to handle money fairly well, so that was part of it. Did you work with the chips at all? No, when we got chips out of an envelope, each cash register had its envelope you checked out, and when there were chips in there we set them aside and we cashed ‘em in immediately when we got ‘em all stacked out and tallied. We buzzed the front cage and they would come in and swap with us. Then they would take these chips out and all for each hotel was separated. See, in 1960, you could use chips almost as money, and they had, I don’t know if they called ‘em runners, that’s what it sounded like to me, and a man would go around and trade chips . He’d bring the Desert Inn’s chips back from the Sahara and he’d trade ‘em even and I don’t know if they ever paid any cash differences or if they traded what they had and held ‘em or what, but they went around all over town trading chips back to the hotel they belonged to. In restaurants and everywhere, as I said before, the collection put chips in it because they reused the money. And they, I guess today, you have to cash in practically where you get ‘em, I don’t think they’re interchangeable anymore. Each hotel, you have to keep ‘em within the hotel? Yep. But in those days, they, I came to work in a job like that, where they put me down their accountant money and they thought they had me under such security that there’s no way I could do anything. I had a girl in there with me, but I get unconsciously walked out with her money in UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 9 my hand, my intentions were good to take it back to my boss, seemed like the book keeper should make the bank deposit, and an armored car was coming to get it. What kind of night life after you—you were more of a day person. Did you do a lot of activity at night time? Or frequent the Strip at all? Well I came out here with a girlfriend. Her husband had a job waiting for him when he got here, and we went out almost every night. We went out on the Strip. We were comped; she had worked for the Chamber of Commerce as a secretary in prior years and they comped us everywhere. We went to dinner shows and cocktail shows at the Dunes and the Tropicana, and they had lounge shows in those days that were just lovely. We had Louis Prima, Ray Anthony was very good, that’s where we first saw, oh, who’s that comedian that puts everybody down? Don Rickles? Don Rickles, he was on the stage in (Unintelligible) bar lounge at the Sahara, which was only two blocks from where I lived. That was our neighborhood bar, it was to walk over to the Sahara. There were apartments right around the Sahara then? There still are; they’re older, but they’re much in evidence there still. Were they the newer apartments at that time then? Oh yes, they were fairly new and fairly decent apartments. And they had nice rounds and were all kept up and nice swimming pools. What did you pay for rent back then? Eighty-five dollars a month. And something else that you might like to know, back in those days, from ’55 to ’60—I don’t know when it changed, but when I tell ya’ acts, some of the stars played at the big hotels. They had trailers parked outside the hotel. I remember one that was parked by the Sahara and the colored, the Black musicians and entertainers—that was their dressing rooms UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 10 and their quarters. They didn’t go in the casinos and they didn’t go in the restaurants and their dressing room was never the other peoples’ dressing rooms. Like Louis Armstrong would have to stand in a trailer? I’m thinking of Belafonte— Uh-huh. Harry Belafonte. I’m quite sure had a mobile dressing room, and it was nothing in the world, but discrimination. They were, they didn’t come in after their act, they didn’t mix in the hotel, now this is between ’55 and ’60. And it started to change about then. But that is something to think about how recent that was. And how well enforced it was. Did you find Las Vegas a good city to live in with being young and with a child? It was lovely— It’s not like they say now, that it’s just a big pick-up area for young girls to come to, to—? No we never found it that way, and I still don’t think it’s that way in the residential areas. We don’t worry about our kids any more than you do in Des Moines, or my mother back in Dallas, Texas, is a lot more concerned about security than we are here in our house. And Kathy used to walk to school, across the Strip, when we lived there, two blocks from the Sahara, she walked all the way over to Maryland Parkway, right off Maryland Parkway to her school. And we didn’t worry about her. Now, I guess, grown people are afraid to walk on the Strip. Right. But in those days, it was a fairly family type town. Now where was the town mostly located at that time? Where was the urban area at? Oh, back of the Strip, I’d say between Las Vegas Boulevard and Eastern. Or even beyond Eastern, in that direction, and Sahara to oh, Oakey. Now, other than the apartments, now UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 11 apartments were stream work, and all these apartments back between Industrial, on the other side of the Strip, between Industrial and the Strip and between Oakey and Sahara. A lot of apartments, they’re still back there, and a lot of family people. We lived in a ten-unit apartment, the owner lived on the premises, and they were nice people. The bartender, a showgirl, one of Rex Bell’s sons and his wife lived in the apartment downstairs briefly, and it was neighborhood people, all different shifts, and all different work, but they were still nice people. We met in the laundry room and we ran into ‘em over at the Sahara, and we had a beer. We went down to the laundry mat at Honest John’s, which is where the Centerfold is now. It was a big meeting place and a nice beauty shop and a little coffee shop, and this little residential shopping center there. So—? Now it’s a big, new, splashy attraction there, I don’t know what it is. So we’re sitting out, like, out here in Paradise Valley? This (unintelligible) Nothing out here? Nothing but desert. So that was most of the shopping area? Or did they have anything down on Charleston for shopping? Oh they had the—shopping was scattered, but out shopping was Downtown on Fremont Street. Department stores, Sears, Penney’s, Diamond’s, which was Ronzoni’s at the time. And the mens’ shops and ladies’ shops, they were down on Fremont. The Boulevard wasn’t—? Oh no, Boulevard wasn’t there, that was Desert. Wonder world wasn’t there, none of that was there. Was Maryland Parkway a four-lane at that time? Or? UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 12 No. No, that was quite a controversy when they made Maryland Parkway four-lane and they took out a big line of elm trees or something that people had in their front yards. They put—like those old residences in there, god, I remember very well when they planted those palm trees on (Unintelligible) Street. So your night life was—? Oh it was very nice, it was, it wasn’t crowded, and you didn’t stand in line, ‘cause you didn’t have to have reservation. Entertainment for the price of a thirty-five cent beer, and they had beautiful food. You couldn’t beat the food in the restaurants. They had midnight smorgasbord for a dollar, that was the food that they just serve in the showroom, for what, in those days, $6.75 an entrée or something. And— What were the showrooms, the cocktails, what were the prices of those? Well, there was always a minimum. And I think like a four to eight minimum because they always bring you two doubles. You wouldn’t leave there long enough before. Whatever the price was that—I’ve done a show with the tax, might be from four to six dollars. I mean now done a show, a cocktail show. And dinner. With the entertainment tax and everything, with a few drinks, but ten dollars a person wasn’t hard to get out at all. Now a lot of people say that the Strip has cheapened a lot, you know, like you get such small portions— It has, the quality of the food is not good, and the, I don’t know, the parking facilities and everything has changed. You go there and you’ve got to plan your whole day differently. We used to park right there where you were, and how you have to give the car to a valet if they’ll take it, if they still have room for you. And some of the people are a little surly, everybody was so friendly and nice before— UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 13 Was there a valet at that time? Oh yes, the valet was a fantastic job. When I came here, I mentioned that a friend of mine back home had just bought a Thunderbird. And my musician friend that came out to marry and changed my mind, he said, “Oh, that’s what the bellboys and the valets drive here,” (Unintelligible). And those were, they had guys, bellboys and valet parking made a lot of money, and we parked with the valet, just to be big shots, and we’d give ‘em half a dollar, or a silver dollar, that was great, they give us silver dollars for change, and you’re just awfully apt to give a silver dollar where you wouldn’t give a green back. But the food was cheap enough and the shows were beautiful, and the drinks, right at the main bar, in the Sahara, thirty-five cents for a beer, and that’s the same thing it cost us over at a beer bar. Well, you said the showrooms, like, that’s where a lot of these stars go their starts? In the lounges— In the lounges, right? That’s where Shecky Greene started out, at the Tropicana, in the lounge, and we saw Keely Smith, Louis Prima, oh, who else, Donald? All the big stars, just for the price of your drinks in there. Now, if you want to go in and just have a drink, there’s no entertainment. There’s a cover charge, and you have to have a reservation. Working at the DI, did you see any of the big stars there? I guess that was the big place to stay with, the plush place that you said—? That was, and they had very good jobs, the headliner were the best. My second or third day there, as I walked through the showroom, to the employee’s lunchroom, which was downstairs, in a little dungeon, Danny Kaye was rehearsing, so I stopped and watched him instead of lunch, and I did that three days. And something else—I grew to knew the lady up in the office who was in UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 14 charge of comped tickets downstairs, and when they didn’t have a sell out on somebody, rather than have an empty showroom, they’d call upstairs and they’d let us girls in the office. We could go in and see the show. They wouldn’t serve us drinks or dinner, but they’d let us in on the condition we dressed nice. If we would come in, we could see the show for free. Try to make a good impression? Well, certainly right, and it was nice. It was very good. The tables were sitting there empty, the reason we couldn’t order is that they would send the help home if they didn’t need ‘em, so it would be stupid for us to come in and order drinks and make more work. But they were very nice in those days, all the employees on the Strip would get a discount at other places. We went to the dress shops and (Unintelligible) and the other places out there—they were on the Strip then. Then they gave us a twenty percent discount for working the hotels, all we did was show our little hotel ID card. And now they don’t care where you work, as long as they get the money. The whole tone has changed, I think. But it was quite an experience. (Tape one ends) What were your reasons for leaving the DI? I found a better job with more money. So assuming— Didn’t really like the job up there but it wasn’t that bad because they more or less had me on my own terms. I had a boss, but as long as I did my work and nothing backed up, they turned me lose, I did as I pleased. Seems like you progressed then, with money-wise, it seems like it was—? Yes, I had that arrangement made with my, with the man in charge before I took the job. And I felt like I had gone as far as I would without fighting for it, but it wasn’t that—it’s just that I got UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 15 a better job, a one-girl office with a construction company where I was my own boss and my set amount of work to do. In the hotel, you wait for somebody to pass the work and you do your part of it and you pass it on somewhere else, you can’t balance the payables until the other people have sent the bills in and everything, so this was a much better job and better money. You were more day oriented in clerical work, were you ever interested with the nightlife, being a cocktail waitress or working in a casino? No, I didn’t care for that. I’m a day person, I’m afraid I always have been. I had never seen a twenty-four hour town before. When I came out here, I didn’t think, had never thought about taking a night job. And I was very happy at the plumbing company. It’s a very big, modern company. Very nice, wonderful people to work for, I was there thirteen years. And we worked with all the hotels and even there, I had offers for jobs. I could’ve gone into engineering and any of the hotels where they always have their own book keeper and the girl that takes care of the maintenance orders and what not, I had several offers like that. I had offers at some of the hotels as construction book keeper when they had construction going on, but I never even considered them. I had such a much better job where I was. My life was pretty good—daytime, and finally, got enough of the nightlife on the Strip and quit going out, and we still go occasionally, but it disappoints us now. Was there anything really unusual about your job other than being a clerical worker—was it Hanson Plumbing? Yes. We did all the remodeling and all the, well not all, but we did most of the new construction on the big new hotels and we of course, put in some very plush installations. I got invited by one our foreman to go up to Caesar’s Palace Penthouse to see a six thousand dollar bed-spread which turned out to be mink, and they were, our plumbers were putting in a Jacuzzi in their bathtub up UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 16 there. Plumbers thought that was a little too fancy a place for a bath, but I thought it was lovely, gorgeous apartment. And quite impressed by a six-thousand dollar bedspread. It had fur pillows and satin and lace all over that gorgeous place. Did your company ever have any run-ins with Howard Hughes? No, we did some work for Howard Hughes. In fact, a good friend of ours said they were doing some work at the Sahara one day and it was rumored that Howard Hughes was going to buy that hotel and take the top three floors for its own use, so they—a whole troupe of security guards came in and cleared the men off the floor where they were working on this VIP suite, and had ‘em all moved down to the floor below and all the work stopped, and they were getting paid by the hour. And this plumber friend said this skinny little man in dirty tennis shoes came up with all these people around him—this had to be in, maybe sixty five, sixty-six, I’m not sure of the time, but he said they escorted this little man up to inspect the premises, and we’ve always assumed that was Howard Hughes. This was before he completely went undercover at the Desert Inn and bought the Silver Slipper so he could turn the lights off out of his eyes, so they say. But Charlie really believes that Howard Hughes came up personally that day in that elevator in the Sahara. Do you know anything about the land next to the Sahara? There seems to be like, a lot of empty land there and then where the El Rancho was, was there a racetrack at one time? Joe Wells used to own the Thunderbird, he built it, I believe. He built a racetrack there, but it never went over, it never did go. I don’t know why, the state didn’t accept it or didn’t approve it, or what happened, and then Joe Wells died later, so it’s been there in that state of disrepair ever since, they never did a thing with it. Yes, ‘cause I’ve noticed that the bank—there are some banks in there—it’s banked and it was made in—I don’t know if it ever had, I believe it did have UNLV University Libraries Maxine James 17 an opening and had one or two races, but I don’t think it ever got its final approval and was shut down. And of course, the Thunderbird was changed hands several times, and Caesar’s Palace bought the Thunderbird, and I believe they still own the racetrack. But it never did make a go. Now, a couple years after you came to Las Vegas, then you did become a housewife, not by the man that you first you came out to marry, right? No, I met a man out here, in Las Vegas, and married him, and we bought a house and watered grass and grew a lawn and lived in the same house we’ve lived in ever since. I worked at the plumbing company for thirteen years and quit there, worked a couple of other little jobs, and then stayed at home to keep house and I liked it. How have you noticed your area of change now? We lived, we’re not too far here from the Sand Hill—now that’s a pretty populated area right now— Sand Hill was more or less a little hard-top trail. Until they started building these houses out here—I have a friend that lives up on Sand Hill and he wa