Las Vegas is luckiest city in the nation
Las Vegas. This gay and carefree desert city might lay just claim to being the country's luckiest. It never has had a depression and "even in the bleak years following 1929, Las Vegas never experienced anything more serious than acute growing, pains. Las Vegas has been a boom town for so. long it now accepts the condition as normal. Right now, it's almost a boom town. Boulder Dam is the answer to the town's prosperity in the midst of depression. In 1930, Las Vegas static population was 5,177. There was a certain amount of tourist trade, quite a divorce and marriage business and some agriculture, stock raising, and mining. But all in all, it was just another Western desert town. Then, the dam builders moved in with more than 5,000 workmen, lusty well gents for the most part, who found Las Vegas liberal, outlook on life very attractive indeed, especially on pay day. And Las Vegas first major boom was under way. By the time the Dam was completed, and the workmen moved out, Vegas had become a tourist center of national repute. Nevada's easy-going divorce laws had long been on the books and people desirous of effecting a quick "cure," as they call it here, had discovered that the statutes rapplied in Las Vegas as well as in Reno. Then some unsung genius discovered it also was an ideal place to be married, so another source of important revenue developed. Reno is still well ahead both in marriages and divorces, but we're gaining on her," says county clerk Lloyd Payne cheerfully. Right now, though, Las Vegas marriage business is mighty slow. Gas rationing is one prime reason, and -repeal of California's three-day marriage law is another. 'California until 'recently required a three-day wait between 'applying for' a license and the marriage ceremony, so impetuous young Californians had formed the habit of barging across the line to Nevada where you can obtain your license and get married in a matter of minutes. Payne has figures which show graphically how this type of business has fallen-off. During the first nine month's of 1942, 16,053 couples were united for better or worse in Las Vegas. During the same period this year the figure Was, 6,775.
All the divorce trade and a lot of the marriage business is 'handled' by district judge George E. Marshall, a big, strapping western jurist who has grown just a bit cynical about the whole thing. Marshall first as justice of the peace arid later on the higher bench, has married about 8,500 couples in the last five years. As district judge he has granted about 5,500 divorces. My record is 56 in one afternoon,' he recalls. "That isn't a record for the court, though. My predecessor granted more than 70 in one day, they ''tell me." But to get back to Las Vegas luck the town was doing all right with its tourist trade, 'gambling and the like and had grown to around 18,000 or 19,000 when the war broke put. That gave the tourist business a terrific kick in the teeth, and for a while the town's future didn't look so bright. Then along came the government with $140,000,000 and on a harsh, sun baked tract 10 or 20 miles from here, built Basic Magnesium, Inc., the largest plant - of its kind in the world, to extract from ores which abound in the forbidding country vast quantities of material used in construction of airplanes, bombs and the like. When this job was at its peak, 13,618 men were employed and they like the Boulder Dam gangs, were salty characters who hold Las Vegas gambling tables and other diversions in the highest esteem. The plant is finished now, of course, but many thousands of men are employed it here and the payroll is tremendous, which all adds up to more prosperity for Las Vegas. Gambling was and is an important part of that prosperity. The call letters of the town's radio station, the only one in southern Nevada, are KENO, which, as you probably know, spells a popular game of chance When Maxwell Kelch established the station in 1940, he applied for these call letters and some tolerant official grinned and granted them. You can literally, gamble for pennies here. There are any number of slot machines which will accept the modest sum and sometimes give you back a few. There also are nickle, dime, quarter, half-dollar, and dollar slot machines.
For the record, however, there are, none in the post office or the courthouse. Scores and scores of quiet calm-faced men are employed in the numerous gambling casinos. One of them, he's a Blackjack dealer, bears the highly improbable name of Brice Clinkscales. He's 72, Smokes cigars of awe-inspiring length, and has been a gambler for 40 years. "I've been here' since 1931," he said as his practiced hands flipped out the cards. "I. expect to stay until I retire. Then I'm maybe around here, maybe in southern California. "These gambling casinos are picturesque places. You find dignified, gray-haired matron and bejewelled girls lined up at the tables alongside grizzled prospectors from the adjacent hills and portly dignified business men and working cowboys with blue-denimed, saddle-warped legs, all rubbing shoulders. These games of course are the reason why Nevada's taxe are so low. Craps and roulette tables are licensed by the state at $150 per quarter, and in Las Vegas the city puts the finger on them for an additional 10 per cent. The big casinos pay $1,600 to $1,800 in state tax quarterly. Law enforcement isn't nearly the problem one would imagine it to be. People drink a lot out here, but they manage to stay on the sober side, even when they're' out for a gay evening. The city and county officers are uniformly courteous, but one gets the impression they could get tough if the situation demanded. For many years Las Vegas had a restricted, regulated red light district, but the army put a stop to that, although their exists a well-founded suspicion that not all the girls left town. Very little pulpit oratory is expended in the eight or nine churches here on the evils of the gaming table, possibly because the pastors realize i wouldn't do any good. I`m opposed to gambling as a matter of principle, explains the Rev. C. H. Sloan, pastor, of the First Baptist Church. But there isn't much we can do about it.
"After all gambling is legal in Nevada, so the games don`t involve the element of lawlessness. The 'situation isn`t nearly as serious as one might think. Las Vegas for all its last frontier reputation is a very law abiding town." Many of the gamblers and their families are regular churchgoers; and some churchgoers have been known to take an occasional fling at the green baise-colored tables. "There isn't much of this, however rin fact few permanent residents do much gambling as they know full well that the games, honest though they are, can't be beaten in the long run. Las Vegas problems are the problems of any war-boomed town: housing, education, things like that. But Las Vegas is on the road to solution of all of them. A year ago all regular housing facilities were crammed and a huge overflow had taken refuge in a hideous collection of shacks, tents and packing cases under conditions so congested that a fastidious sardine would have moved out. Since then the government has come through with a series of housing projects, hotels have expanded and new ones built. The incredible shanty district inhabited mostly by negroes still exists, an anomaly in a town which otherwise is spick and also rather span. But the cure is at hand in a government established series of housing projects. The problem is, says Mayor E. W. Cragin, to induce the quarters for the modern structures. They aren't' taking advantage of the opportunity as rapidly, as Mayor Cragin would like and he intimates something is going to be done about it. As far as the government is concerned, A. C. Grant, executive director of the federal housing authority for Clark Bounty, says the housing ' problem has been whipped. Within six months three big projects have been completed with accommodations for more than 5,000 persons. Ninety per cent of the units are furnished and rents range from $40 to $47.50 monthly.
All the divorce trade and a lot of the marriage business is 'handled' by district judge George E. Marshall, a big, strapping western jurist who has grown just a bit cynical about the whole thing. Marshall first as justice of the peace arid later on the higher bench, has married about 8,500 couples in the last five years. As district judge he has granted about 5,500 divorces. My record is 56 in one afternoon,' he recalls. "That isn't a record for the court, though. My predecessor granted more than 70 in one day, they ''tell me." But to get back to Las Vegas luck the town was doing all right with its tourist trade, 'gambling and the like and had grown to around 18,000 or 19,000 when the war broke put. That gave the tourist business a terrific kick in the teeth, and for a while the town's future didn't look so bright. Then along came the government with $140,000,000 and on a harsh, sun baked tract 10 or 20 miles from here, built Basic Magnesium, Inc., the largest plant - of its kind in the world, to extract from ores which abound in the forbidding country vast quantities of material used in construction of airplanes, bombs and the like. When this job was at its peak, 13,618 men were employed and they like the Boulder Dam gangs, were salty characters who hold Las Vegas gambling tables and other diversions in the highest esteem. The plant is finished now, of course, but many thousands of men are employed it here and the payroll is tremendous, which all adds up to more prosperity for Las Vegas. Gambling was and is an important part of that prosperity. The call letters of the town's radio station, the only one in southern Nevada, are KENO, which, as you probably know, spells a popular game of chance When Maxwell Kelch established the station in 1940, he applied for these call letters and some tolerant official grinned and granted them. You can literally, gamble for pennies here. There are any number of slot machines which will accept the modest sum and sometimes give you back a few. There also are nickle, dime, quarter, half-dollar, and dollar slot machines.
For the record, however, there are, none in the post office or the courthouse. Scores and scores of quiet calm-faced men are employed in the numerous gambling casinos. One of them, he's a Blackjack dealer, bears the highly improbable name of Brice Clinkscales. He's 72, Smokes cigars of awe-inspiring length, and has been a gambler for 40 years. "I've been here' since 1931," he said as his practiced hands flipped out the cards. "I. expect to stay until I retire. Then I'm maybe around here, maybe in southern California. "These gambling casinos are picturesque places. You find dignified, gray-haired matron and bejewelled girls lined up at the tables alongside grizzled prospectors from the adjacent hills and portly dignified business men and working cowboys with blue-denimed, saddle-warped legs, all rubbing shoulders. These games of course are the reason why Nevada's taxe are so low. Craps and roulette tables are licensed by the state at $150 per quarter, and in Las Vegas the city puts the finger on them for an additional 10 per cent. The big casinos pay $1,600 to $1,800 in state tax quarterly. Law enforcement isn't nearly the problem one would imagine it to be. People drink a lot out here, but they manage to stay on the sober side, even when they're' out for a gay evening. The city and county officers are uniformly courteous, but one gets the impression they could get tough if the situation demanded. For many years Las Vegas had a restricted, regulated red light district, but the army put a stop to that, although their exists a well-founded suspicion that not all the girls left town. Very little pulpit oratory is expended in the eight or nine churches here on the evils of the gaming table, possibly because the pastors realize i wouldn't do any good. I`m opposed to gambling as a matter of principle, explains the Rev. C. H. Sloan, pastor, of the First Baptist Church. But there isn't much we can do about it.
"After all gambling is legal in Nevada, so the games don`t involve the element of lawlessness. The 'situation isn`t nearly as serious as one might think. Las Vegas for all its last frontier reputation is a very law abiding town." Many of the gamblers and their families are regular churchgoers; and some churchgoers have been known to take an occasional fling at the green baise-colored tables. "There isn't much of this, however rin fact few permanent residents do much gambling as they know full well that the games, honest though they are, can't be beaten in the long run. Las Vegas problems are the problems of any war-boomed town: housing, education, things like that. But Las Vegas is on the road to solution of all of them. A year ago all regular housing facilities were crammed and a huge overflow had taken refuge in a hideous collection of shacks, tents and packing cases under conditions so congested that a fastidious sardine would have moved out. Since then the government has come through with a series of housing projects, hotels have expanded and new ones built. The incredible shanty district inhabited mostly by negroes still exists, an anomaly in a town which otherwise is spick and also rather span. But the cure is at hand in a government established series of housing projects. The problem is, says Mayor E. W. Cragin, to induce the quarters for the modern structures. They aren't' taking advantage of the opportunity as rapidly, as Mayor Cragin would like and he intimates something is going to be done about it. As far as the government is concerned, A. C. Grant, executive director of the federal housing authority for Clark Bounty, says the housing ' problem has been whipped. Within six months three big projects have been completed with accommodations for more than 5,000 persons. Ninety per cent of the units are furnished and rents range from $40 to $47.50 monthly.