Gene Leavitt interview, February 28, 1979: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 1 An Interview with Gene Leavitt An Oral History Conducted by Monte Leavitt 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 Gene Leavitt 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 3 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 Gene Leavitt 4 Abstract On February 28, 1979, collector Monte Leavitt interviewed Gene Leavitt (born October 6th, 1923 in Mesquite, Nevada) at his home in North Las Vegas, Nevada. In this interview, Mr. Leavitt talks about his career as a truck and bus driver. He also talks about the life in Southern Nevada, the soldiers stationed here, and gambling. UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 5 Alright now. Say it to me again. First, maybe could you tell us just where you were born? I was born in Mesquite, Nevada in 1923. Okay. How many children are in your family? Fifteen. I was the fourteenth. Which didn’t—wasn’t too happy a situation for me. I think none of ‘em were very pleased that I’d come along at the time I did, me and my brother. Because we all felt, except my mother and dad, they all felt that the family was big enough I'm sure before we’d come along. Let’s see, your mom and dad came down there. How long ago did they come down to Mesquite, Nevada? Well, mother was born in Hebron, Utah, this little town that was outside of Enterprise, Utah. But all there is there now is five or six graves, headstones that’s left. My mother was born there, and of course, they came down to Mesquite when the pioneer families moved in there to settle it on each side of the river to try to make (unintelligible). My dad was born in Gunlock, and so he came down there from Gunlock with his father. Okay, now, your dad’s (unintelligible) right? Yes. Now, his dad's dad, my great grandfather (unintelligible) yes, he, understand he came with Jacob Hamlin. Unknown: Yes, Jacob Hamlin was assigned to come from Northern Utah to Southern Utah as a missionary to the Indians and tried to work with the Indians, and educate them as best possible with the—in the white man's ways and to try to convert them to the gospel—gospel of Jesus UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 6 Christ. Although he found, I think, in most cases at the end, the Indians already believed in God and that there was a supreme being. And so, but he chose to come with him. He chose Dudley Leavitt and then two or three others to come on as his counselors to help him with his missionary work. Was Dudley in any way related to Jacob? Not at that time. Dudley later was related through marriage because Jacob Hamlin married one of Dudley’s sisters. Now, Jacob had a lot of wives and so did Dudley, right? Yes. I don't know how many wives Jacob had (unintelligible) but he had more than one wife and Dudley and my grandfather had five wives, fifty two children. Okay, so your dad was one of those 52 children? Yes. And not all those lived and settled down around Mesquite then, did they? No, not all of them, but most of them settled in this area and Mesquite and Southern Utah. Of course, later years and because of economic purposes, (unintelligible) but there's still a lot up in this area too. And then Las Vegas had a great deal population. Might be relatives, huh? (Laughs) Yes. A lot of the population of Las Vegas is descended from Dudley but there's also another family of (unintelligible) that they're descended from Dudley's brother John and Lamb. And UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 7 they're not really that closely related to Dudley's children and grandchildren until you get back to the two or three generations. Were you ever around when Dudley was ever telling stories? Were you old enough to be around or? No, I was born in ‘23 and grandpa died just before I was born. But my Father told me of all the—all the stories that came to the Dudley that his father had told him. His dad was born in 1868. And this was of course, the same year that the railroads across the country and the (unintelligible) was at Promontory, Utah and worked the railroads. Now, can you remember any of the any of the good stories that your dad told? Maybe, especially about those Indians, about settling in with the Indians that maybe Dudley was involved with? Or Jake Hamlin, can you remember any stories that stick out in your mind or? Well, it's hard to remember specific. And yes, I can remember stories, but it's hard to hard for me to remember all the details. But he got along well with the Indians. The Indians were afraid of him because he—he was fearless. As I understand it, he was fearless. And so when he asked the Indians to do anything, and they knew he meant it, they did it. Because they knew— Now this was Jacob Hamlin? This is Dudley. All right, maybe we can just move into Vegas then. What time did you come to Vegas? Approximately what day did you come to Vegas from Mesquite? Well, I didn’t come to Vegas till 1941. UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 8 Oh, that's right first you moved to Boulder City, didn’t you? Yes. But that was in 1941 also that I went to Boulder City. What did you go to Boulder City for? I went to Boulder City to work for the Bureau of Reclamation of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam). I was a diamond driller in Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam), a diamond drill helper. I worked way—the reason they use diamond drills in Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam), they’d drill back to the concrete into the rock to find—this goes on continuously to see if there's any water seepage around the dam. Then they drill into these water pockets. And then they put grout—concrete grout in there to seal these off. And so this is a continuing process and never ceases out there, unless it has in later years that I know nothing about. At this time, this was going on continuously. I'll bet you associated with some—did you ever associate with any of the original men that ran on the building of the dam while you were out there? Yes, I do. Lots of individuals. Did they ever have any stories to tell? (Unintelligible) on the other side. One of my uncle's, born on my mother’s side, he was a painter on the dam, (unintelligible) painting the dam and he was a painter, so he never got in on the actual concrete pouring. But I knew men that did. This was—this was a great engineering feat (unintelligible). I heard hair raising stories about that. Do you remember any of ‘em? UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 9 Not specific that could be considered absolute truth (unintelligible) I got you (laughs). Now, so you were in Las Vegas around the year 1941? And mostly after that, also? Yes. I was in Las Vegas long before 1941, because at that time between, let's say ‘36 and ’41, at this time the population of Las Vegas was not very great, because this was between the time the dam was finished between that time the war started. And so the population at one time probably dropped around seven thousand people and so at this time, I was in high school in Bunkerville and there was no such thing as triple A and double A and A basketball and football teams. And so our school would come play Las Vegas at the different competitive sports. Do you remember what the valley looked like when you used to come in those games? Oh yes. The town ended—let's see, the town ended around Eleventh Street—around Eleventh Street. There was very little east of Eleventh Street, and south of Charleston was hardly anything. There was nothing south of Charleston, except on the old LA highway which is Main Street. And I remember that the markets—all the fruit and everything—that it was really something for us, the fruit in there. All of this stuff was piled out in front of the stores in boxes and nice shells, and coming down here from Mesquite, because we was always way behind times up there. This really looked like something to us. Oranges and different citrus fruits and different grapes. We never had that there except seedless and so many grapes each season, so this really looked beautiful to us. What made it so hard to get things in Mesquite? Well, this was—this was before transportation as it is now. In fact, at this time, there was nothing bigger than what we call a ten wheel truck run. There was no, there was no semis as we know UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 10 them today, that is eighteen wheel trucks, or ten wheel trucks. There was a few truck and trailers. There was one or two cross country carriers that use truck and traders that started about this time. But it was hard and very expensive to get fruit from Imperial and from San Joaquin Valley into them little areas because the trucks would load and they wanted to go straight through to Salt Lake City and the big markets and they decided they stopped there and unloaded produce or anything else was awfully high. You might buy an orange, two or three oranges for a nickel, but that was high when you didn't have a nickel. Well, now this time did the horse drawn wagons—were they still being used? Oh yes. In the 30s? I should say. The way we controlled the river and the water in the Virgin River, with horses but maybe way down at the river, we hold brush in the river with horses and then we’d haul rock from the heels and put on the brush and raise the water level enough to put it on the irrigation canal, put it on the fields. Yes. In fact, I remember when it was all dirt road between Las Vegas and Saint George. And most of the vehicles that would’ve been on that road would have been more strong at that time? No, there was no horse drawn vehicles on the road. Although we would see horses. For instance, horse traders going through (unintelligible) horses going through that they would trade in each community they come to. UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 11 Just looking back again, I remember hearing a story you were telling, or somebody was, when your father, now he was a teamster between Bunkerville, or Saint George, or somewhere to here, wasn’t he? My father—his his first job as teamster was from Bunkerville to Milford, Utah because that's where the railroad ended. At Milford. And so to get any supplies at all, they called him from Milford, Utah, which is up above north of Salt Lake or Cedar City. They called it by wagon down to Bunkerville. And my father did this, he would set up for Florida, we called it Florida. This would be four horses. Two horses on the lead and two horses in back to haul freight from the rail head down. Do you remember what they called that kind of wagon back then? Well, it was just a freight wagon. There was a difference between freight wagons and for instance, a wagon you’d haul hay with, because hay was paying at the—that time very little (unintelligible) and we’d call them hay racks, because all the hay would be thrown on the wagon with a pitchfork. And so wasn't (unintelligible) Now, did he ever—the story I remember was about him going down to the river. Somewhere in the (unintelligible) the Colorado River with one of the ferries or something like that. Yes. At this time he was doing some framing from the railhead and he went clear through to the—to Nelson or as we know it—we know it as Colorado Canyon now. As he crossed the Colorado, ‘course it's all under the lake now, but he crossed the Colorado in what we call Benelli’s ferry. He knew Benelli personally, and he crossed there on the ferry and then he went on the Arizona side down to Nelson, and then he would have to stake his horses out on the UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 12 Arizona side of the river, and then I went in a little rowboat across the river over to the mining camp. You say there's a mining camp and there still is? There still is. But of course, a lot of it now—that used to be when dad went there, was underwater. But there still is the mines and— What mines were they? You know, what did they mine there? Well, I don’t know exactly. But he was supplying food to those miners? (Unintelligible) Now, did he ever come this other direction go to Potosi Mine? No dad—my grandfather went to Potosi Mine, same time with Brigham Young and the Mormon church. And they thought they was going to have to fight, and armies of the government (unintelligible) to get land to make money through. And so my grandfather Dudley worked at Potosi Mine and Indian stole his horses. He had to walk back to Southern Utah from our territory today. Now this old Mormon Fort up here, do you remember very much about it? Do you remember what it looked like oh, say back then? Did you ever see it on one of those high school trips or (unintelligible)? Oh, the earliest memory that I remember the Ford was when it was very rundown. Well, it wasn't so rundown that it couldn't be lived in. Because one of one of my brothers Evan, and his young UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 13 family, lived in the fort for a little while, for little or no rent. They just had to have a place to stay. And during this time, housing was just almost impossible to find in the valley. Especially right after the war started, right after 1941. This is the time they lived there, and people were living in anything they could, they could find to live in. In fact, the tents were scattered especially in North Las Vegas and east of town towards where the Green Shack is, and where the Silver Dollar, whatever it is. Saddle Club is east of town. You see tent cities and people living very—we call the (unintelligible) although we know that they weren't, Hoover don't really represent poverty binomial but that's what we call them because every one man was strictly a Roosevelt fan. Nearly everyone. Can you describe one of those tents? Yes. It would be a regular tent, let's say twenty, oh fifteen by twenty. This is just hypothetical, of course. But they would board up the side maybe four feet. Put a good ridge Pole, and make the tent so it would really stand up in the wind. But all the roof and the sides were canvas to keep the water out. Some people live down without even wood floors in ‘em, and all they had was dirt floor. So you usually had about a four foot wall around that was wood and the rest was canvas? It was wood but he was still canvas. The wood just made it more substantial. Back to that fort. Did you ever visit Uncle Evan when he lived there? Oh yes. Well, he’s my brother. I spent a lot of time in the old fort. Can you describe anything? UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 14 One thing that really made me wonder then and it does now is that the walls are so thick I know they were over a foot thick or maybe even eighteen inches. I don't know exactly. But I wondered then how they made them adobes to green and walls, and I wondered how the pioneers or the builders, the effort they had to go to with nothing but a horse to make their adobes, going around an adobe mill. I've also seen them work. The horses have gone to a pole and the pole goes in and turns another pole that goes straight down into the mud with spike—little spikes sticking out on each side. And this disturbs the mud, and mixes the mud out of clay. There's a certain mixture that them old timers knew just exactly how to mix to make the adobes. I think they still do it in Mexico. I think they still do it that way. And they put a certain amount of straw with the mud and then take them out, put them in boxes and, set them out to dry. And I wondered then, and I wonder now just where they found exactly the right materials to make these adobes to build that fort out. Because it's quite a process. Those materials can be found in this area very much? Yes, sir. I'm sure they can. But I've wondered just where they had put part of the valley they were in. Now what name do you remember that ranch as—? I first heard it as Stewart Ranch. We called it the old ranch and it was Stewart's own (unintelligible) of course, I remember a racetrack on the ranch. I remember a quarter mile race track. This wasn’t back quite that early, I think this would have been later in the 40s. And each weekend they race horses and Stewart's had two or three good fast horses. I remember I used to (unintelligible) bet a few times. I wouldn't had very much money so we didn't have money but it UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 15 was a lot of fun to just go watch these horses around the ranch. They had a quarter mile estate. Nice track to go down. Now did they—now is there still the big meadow there? Oh, yes. I remember the old ranch when there's a cornfield on there. I never seen prettier corn husking. And also a (unintelligible) I’d seen my first—my first real high bred (unintelligible) Now those springs, where did they come out around the ranch? I know there were springs (unintelligible) There was a—there was a creek. It started up about where Twin Lakes is now, where the pawns are. If you know where the Recreation Area is at Twin Lakes. They call this a Vegas Creek and these—these springs run live, they started from up in that area and they run live down right through the old ranch. And it was very good water because it was well water, and it wasn't contaminated the way we know it today. And of course when it would storm, that that creek would run high. But I don't ever remember really flooding. It wasn't a flood area at that time. It's been made a flood area since that time. But of course it could have flooded too, and me not remember that. But this is where most of their work as in Las Vegas Creek. You know back to those Adobe walls, about the time they were building them, were they in good condition in good shape? Excellent condition. The north wind could blow and no matter how severe the weather got here, (unintelligible) Now what—what year were you saying that was probably? I was probably around ’45, ‘46 toward the end of year. UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 16 Can you remember any of the old trees? Yes, I remember old cottonwood trees that would be five foot at least in diameter. You think if you walked onto that area today, and one of those trees wasn't there, we could put him in the spot where those trees was? Yes. But most—the last of those big cottonwood trees with those (unintelligible) when they built the Elks Lodge in there. And so, yes, I know exactly the area there. What do you remember the use of the property as a gravel testing laboratory for Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)? This was a little bit before the time that I come down here. I don't remember the old ranch at all when the government was using as a testing. I'm sure if the government was testing there it because of the water. That water was planted for favorable conditions such as shade because we didn't have air conditioners and everything the way we have now. Not even electricity the way we have it now. So as the government was doing this, there was a matter of convenience rather convenience of demand of having a favorable place to work, rather than the materials being there. They would rather bring the materials in there probably because the conditions were for better for worse. Where's the first place that you lived in Las Vegas? I lived first—well, mother and I come down here first. This is after I worked at Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam). We got married, and then we come back around here for good. And we went out on East Fremont Street and there was a little trailer out there. There were just nothing to rent. But as I said before, people are living in tents wherever they can live. There was nothing to rent but UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 17 we found a little trailer that a man had. And he said we could rent this for—I think it was five or ten dollars a month, I don't remember exactly. But we'd have to clean it up and fix it so we could live in it, because it was filthy. So I remembered it so plain, we worked hard. We worked for about a week and just like camping, cleaning this trailer up, and we got all ready to move, in and we painted it and man thought it looks a nice that he moved in it in himself and he wouldn’t let us rent. And so we moved about 1800 North Main Street (unintelligible) the Italian, a real good friend of mine, it turned out to be a real good friend and neighbor, Tony Green. We rented that for two or three years. Where were you working at this time? I was driving the bus all this time, and buses and trucks. Now would that be during the war? Yes. The reason I wasn't in the war is when they first started drafting for GI’s in the first draft and I went to Salt Lake City. And at that time you went, you was examined, you’d come back and stayed home twenty one days while they (unintelligible) and anyway, the horse fell on me and crippled me and I wasn't able to go back and actually be inducted. And so I went to work here as best I could work. What were you doing there? Involved with the war effort still? Yes. At that time, Basic Magnesium was being constructed and nearly everyone working here—of course Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) was completed, and that was an ongoing thing. That was Bureau of Reclamation taking care of that. And this was steady employment for some men, but the construction part of the valley then was Basic Magnesium, which is still out there in Henderson now. And thousands of men were employed there. That would have been one of the UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 18 first cost plus job coming to Southern Nevada which is great. Basic Magnesium Complex of energy. And of course, this practice (unintelligible) speaking of the cost of tent cities. Then it was Basic Magnesium that brought these tent cities here? Yes. The later tent cities. The original tent cities were over there. But the tent cities I remember was Basic Magnesium (unintelligible) Men didn’t commute as far as Boulder—from here to Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam), did they? Oh yes. Many, many men. How did they—what kind of transportation did they have then to—? Well, for instance, 1936 Ford was probably as good as the automobile has ever been, ever been produced. 1936 Ford and, of course, this was in ’41. Ford, Chevrolet General Motors, even Chrysler. Plymouth was a good car then. They were a lot of people owned cars then? Oh, yes. Now, back in my days in Mesquite, like I said before, Mesquite was—just hadn’t progressed like this area. Then we didn't have so many cars, although we had—we had the Model A's, the Model T’s over there. I remember the T Model, one of the first T models to ever come in the valley. I would have been around, I don’t know, four or five years old, but I remember. So if a person was working, he had a car just about, can you say that? UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 19 Yes, but I never had a car until we'd been married for four or five years. It was—it was hard for a young couple then to get started, I'd have been better off if I could have tried to get an education, rather than come down here and try to work. Because at that time, I think after you did at least get a full year of higher learning, you had a far better chance of getting a job than even a man now with a bachelor degree has. Because then if you had this four years college education, you could just go out and take your pick, but now that's not so easy. Now you're (unintelligible) but the war effort that I was involved in was, of course, hauling ammunition. For instance, I remember one of my jobs was hauling ammunition from this origin stop at Nellis to Indian Springs. I've taken a full truck and trailer load ammunition up there many (unintelligible) you know practice. Was there a camp or something at Indian Springs (unintelligible) now from what I understand you used to haul soldiers in and out of this camp. What was the name of the camp? Well, there was a—there was a desert camp between Needles and Searchlight, right out in the middle of the desert. And I drove a semi bus between Las Vegas and that camp, driving those soldiers into Las Vegas. It would be illegal today, it was illegal then. But I—anytime I started Friday evening and never stopped till Sunday night. Hauling the soldiers back and forth to give them a weekend leave. These—this was, oh I think they call them artillery. Anyway, they had—they had tanks and all the heavy artillery down there. And that's where they was training these soldiers. I'm sure they're trying to be good (unintelligible) it was a common thing that we would leave Searchlight, heading towards Camp Ibes was the name of it and see soldiers at two or three o'clock in the morning, hiking twenty or thirty miles from camp. And of course, when they were up that for they had to hike back. And they were a tough—they were a tough group. Them UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 20 soldiers down there were trained. When they came to Las Vegas, I also hauled soldiers from, from Nellis at that time, because Nellis was really going strong. And of course, there was no automobiles like we have now. At that time, gas was rationed and people didn't use cars. They used public transportation almost exclusively for this type of transportation. None of the GI’s had cars and so they moved on buses. Trucks like I was driving, driving—that actually wasn’t a bus, but it was a semi-truck (unintelligible) sides on it and on top. But there was as much difference between those soldiers that came from Nellis that was in the Air Force, and those soldiers that came from Camp Ibis out on the desert, was day and night. They were training for two different things and they really showed. It really showed the difference. They just weren't trained to that high degree of, well, I’d call it toughness at Nellis, that they were down there on that desert. Can you now—this, what years are we talking about again here? I think in the early war years, ‘41 through ‘44. If you were ever to go out onto that camp, could you remember how it was laid out? In detail. In detail. I can even almost walk to the street where I went and had bread and cheese with one of the—oh he was, he was probably Colonel. We just went—we went in there with embassies, we were treated very, very well. There's nothing they wouldn’t do for us. And the bus, I have sixty-five past years and I've come out of there many times with a hundred and five bachelors. I would load them on the top, on the sides on the fifth wheel, anywhere to get ‘em to Las Vegas. Of course it was slow then. Buses didn't try to travel fast like they do now. And then men would do anything to get out of that desert for a few hours in Las Vegas. Now what would there be in Las Vegas for them to come to at that time? UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 21 Just the same as there is now. Gambling— (Tape one ends) (Unintelligible) We didn't have hotels that we know today. We had two hotels, the El Rancho and the Last Frontier because it's the Last Frontier then, now it’s the New Frontier. Now, can you remember when those two were built? Were you—? I sure can. I wasn't here, but I was in, let’s see—maybe I was here when the Last Frontier Hotel was built. I’m not that sure. So that means they were building this 30s? Is that right? Very late 30s and the very early 40s. What was—what were some of the places that those guys used to like to go to? All we had was called the Boulder Club and the Miner Club, and the Las Vegas Club and I believe the Golden Nugget was there. They called it the Million Dollar Golden Nugget. Million dollars in gold, it’s not—but it did (unintelligible) Can you remember where these—these clubs were? Sure. Where was the Boulder Club? The Boulder Club was right outside of the Apache Hotel. Of course, the Apache Hotel was on the corner of Second and Fremont, facing south. It was on the north—north east corner. On the UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 22 other side of that, then the Pioneer club is in the same place it is today. It was on First and Fremont, facing north on the southwest corner. And then the Las Vegas Club was across the street facing south between first and Main Street. And there was some others. The Sal Sagev hotel was there. Northern Overland Hotel, and then the Apache Hotel. A (unintelligible) type hotel. Now with these GI’s, when they come into town would they ever stay in a hotel? Or would they be out on the town? Mostly, if you have (unintelligible) but mostly they were just—they’d just drink and (unintelligible) and when they run out of money and run out of everything else, we took ‘em back. So I doubt they wasted too much money on the hotels (unintelligible) how long did the trip between that camp, the other camp was called—? Ibis. Ibis. How long did that trip take you? Well, it would take me—let’s think about that for just a minute—from Searchlight to here, it would take about two hours from the camp at Searchlight, maybe about three and a half hours traveling time with a load. But going south, well, if I was loaded both ways, it probably takes six, seven hours. And how much would—how long would that take now? Oh, four hours. They'd be cut almost in half because of the horsepower. We have a better quality road. (Unintelligible) UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 23 How many horsepower’s in one of those little busses? Well, for instance, your Ford V-8 for years and years, about 90 horsepower. Some of these buses might have 125. So the gear—the differential and your transformation in your gear—gear boxes, made them so that you make good time. But in order to make good time, you have to go a little bit downhill. But they were geared high once you started downhill, then you could really travel. Going uphill was very, very slow. Kind of changing the focus here, do you remember the time when Clark Gable and his wife’s plane crashed? Do you remember? Yes. Yes. In fact, Gilbert—my youngest brother was bellhop at the El Rancho Hotel at the time of this crash, and Clark Gable would come into the El Rancho. Carol Lombard was killed in that plane. I remember the night it happened. And I remember the man—I remember one man in particular, Vin Midnight is his name, a good friend of mine. And he had a horse and he was one of the posse that volunteered to go up and help bring these bodies down. I was working too steady at the time to get in on this, and I didn't have a horse here at that time anyway. Yes, I remember this very, very well. Do you remember any specific thing about—that stuck out in your mind or any of that? The thing that sticks out in my mind more than anything else is listening to Gilbert talk. (Unintelligible) really seeing Clark Gable come and go as how it affected him and said he said it really tore him up. Really—this man really grieved over here. He was deeply in love with him. He was a great loss. It was it was a great loss to the entertainment world. These great actors. I remember. They say that you could still see that plane up there. UNLV University Libraries Gene Leavitt 24 Yes. When the sun is just right in the afternoon, you can still see that plane on the side of the mountain. (Unintelligible) Now have you ever been in politics or anything like that really? Only to get the man I want elected. (Laughs) Have you ever gambled much or anything like that? Did you ever use that as a real recreational activity? Gambling to me, I've been around it all my life and it's always been a big bore. I was never able to gamble. It wasn't because I was too stingy. It always bored me. When people would come down here from Utah and they want me to entertain them and they want me to show and show them all the night spots and, of course, I'