From The Felt Top Table

Las Vegas turns 100 years old on May 15th 2005. It's hard to believe a city that lives and parties as hard as Las Vegas does would make it to 100. With all the drinking and smoking and carrying on you'd think Vegas would have died in the 40's or 50's, that if nothing else all the atomic bombs dropped 90 miles north on Frenchman's Flat would have killed everyone by now. Scientists predict that it was all the booze that kept Las Vegas immune to radiation, heat, land grabbers, Southern Californians. We're pretty tough and surrounded by unforgiving desert, Las Vegas has managed to swallow up the bad guys and party on as the conquerors die in the desert, a victim of their own greed. But we're dealing with a fairly new city that has made a mark on the world that no one had managed to do before or since. We took a crusty old ancient sea bed in the vast expanse of the Mojave Desert that was settled by the Piute Indians only because of the fresh water springs that came up from deep underground in the place that is now the site of Bonnie Springs Ranch. It has long since dried up but thanks to the foresight of the Hoover administration that funded the Boulder Dam, later renamed the Hoover Dam, that captured the great power of the Colorado River and Lake Mead was born, the largest man made lake in the world. It provides the entire city of Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, Overton, Logandale and Mesquite as well as other small towns with its water supply as well as its main power supply, without it Las Vegas couldn't exist. But it's merely a matter of time until the demand exceeds the available supply when Lake Mead can no longer supply the entire southwest and wars may start over the rights to the Colorado River, but nobody wants to mess with Las Vegas, after all, where would they fly off to on their weekends if they dried up Lake Mead and shut down the city forever. Sin City? YOU BET, AND YOU LOVE IT!!! p.s. don't forget we have Nellis Air Force Base, one of the largest nuclear ordinance in the U.S. Just incase.

In the early 1800's the main trail from the Texas-New Mexico area to Southern California traveled down the Old Spanish Trail that ran through Las Vegas where the only attainable fresh water flowed out of Bonnie Springs. A portion of the Spanish Trail still exists and can be found in the Valley of Fire area and runs across the Lake Mead Recreation area. In the 1840's John C. Fremont mapped the Old Spanish Trail through the Bonnie Springs area that was used by the immigrants to find their way to the gold fields in central California. Las Vegas became a major stop for fresh water, food and horses. In the 1850's the Mormons came into the valley and built the Old Mormon Fort (that still stands next to Cashman Field). It was from their they would go out each day, door to door in suits and ties trying to convert the Piute Indians by handing out free bibles and candy for the children. How do we know this? Out in the Valley of Fire there are friezes on the wall of a canyon of two Indians throwing two suited figures holding what looks like a brief case out of their teepee. By the 1860's all the Mormons were gone, tired of being thrown out of every teepee in town they abandoned the fort. Octavia's Decatur Gass built a ranch near the abandoned fort and later sold it to Archibald and Helen Stewart which sold it in 1902 to U.S. Senator William Clark the owner of the San Pedro-Los Angeles-Salt Lake Railroad Co. which also purchased the rights to the Bonnie Springs, the only water supply to fill their locomotives. That set the stage for the land sale that would create the town of Las Vegas three years later. Here is a brief history from there.

May 15th 1905- The San Pedro-L.A.-Salt Lake Railroad Company began the auction early in the morning. They announced the name of the town would come from the Indian name for the area nestled in a valley surrounded by the tall Red Rock Mountains it was called Craps. Auction took place from the railroad platform on the site which is now where the Plaza Hotel stands and a fellow called John Vegas bought the largest parcel, however after suffering huge losses he changed the name to Loss Vegas, later turned to Las Vegas, a little more up beat.

1906-The Golden Gate Hotel is completed as the first hotel in Las Vegas right next to the train station. The Golden Gate stands on the corner of Main St. and Fremont St. a night in the hotel is a step back in time with only the television and telephone to remind you you're in modern times. Small octagon bathroom tiles and old sink fixtures. (The Golden Gate had the first telephone in Las Vegas, however the lines were long and the long distance rates so high only rich people would use it. The bathrooms and beds and furniture are all original and a wash basin in the room completes the feel of being in old Las Vegas. It's a great place to stay and a great value. From the rooms you can sit and watch the Fremont St. Experience light shows as the entire hotel sits under the canopy.

1907-The first telephone lines are installed in the hotel making it the only place to make a phone call. The first phone call was to a Domino's Pizzeria which had a reputation of delivery within a day of calling. The pizza was kept warm by putting the pizzas under the delivery boy shirt.]

1908-Clark County is founded in honor of William A. Clark saving us the embarrassment of having to name it after the town bully, Peter Niss, saving us from the name P. Niss County.

1915-The first 24 hour electricity service is established in Las Vegas making it easier as all the gambling at night was in total darkness making it impossible to beat any of the towns casinos after dark as they somehow managed to win just about every hand in the dark. And thus fair play was almost established, or as close as you can get to fair play back then. The casinos were pissed. No wonder.

1926-Western Airlines begins service to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. Before that only mail planes would make flights to a tiny strip that once stood on the corner of Sahara and Paradise where today you can find a bronze plaque commemorating the site. A few weeks later a passenger by the name of Ron Bouley Vard pulled out a bottle of whiskey on the flight from L.A. thus commemorating the first party plane to Vegas. He was himself commemorated by naming the dirt road outside of town after Mr. Vard, first called Las Vegas Bouley, but Mr. Vard was upset that they just wanted to use his middle name only, so after some dispute they renamed it Las Vegas BouleyVard. He said on his death bed that he finally got even with his sister back in New York City, a Mrs. Wally Street.

1928-Congress passes the Boulder Canyon Project Act opening the way for the Damn Dam project. The project was commemorated by Mayor Goodman of Las Vegas and the Governor of Nevada and many dignitaries. (This was a great photo op., they couldn't care less about the Boulder Dam. The Governor broke a bottle of fine champagne on the rocks and to end the festivities he removed a softball sized rock to throw it into the Colorado River but when he removed the rock a rock slide started, everyone scrambled. Fortunately no one was injured but the Governor when asked for a comment could only say "GOD DAM!"

1931-Congress sneaks the gaming act through legalizing gambling in Nevada. They also legalized quickie divorces. On hand for this event were 85 dignitaries from the states counties, however they all came without their wives, the odds were 4 to 1 that the whole lot of them could be divorced by the time the license office closed at 5. The Horseshoe covered the action and promised free rooms for anyone that had to wait another day. It proved to be a fortunate day as twenty two of the divorcee delegates met other women and the next day the wedding line was almost longer than the divorce line. The Horseshoe would only pay the divorces that took place after midnight, and thus the first twenty four hour casino was now open.

1934-The first Elks Heldorado Days parade takes place. It was short lived when the cattle and bulls decided to stampede down the streets of Boulder City never to be seen again. Although the next day in the town of Overton a huge barbeque was staged by the hunting group "Mormon Hunters Of The Purple Sage" The specialty was steak, porterhouse, NewYork Strip steaks, beef ribs, next to the rib stand was a leather good stand which was doing an extremely good business in cowhide jackets and leather shoes. They even found the cow's tongue was a great delicacy.

1940 The towns' population swells to 16,000, though after happy hour one hot August night at the All-American Bar & Grill, the patrons decided to attack the British at the Dog & Ale Bar down the street, when the smoke cleared, an American with a bottle of black ink crossed out the sign and filled in the 15,999 underneath. However two days later, the missing Englishman turned up still drunk holding a bottle of rum singing "God Save the Queen" (Queen was a stripper at the Real Crazy Horse downtown)

1941 The Army established a gunnery school in Las Vegas, later to be called Nellis Air Force Base. The base however was established a little too close to the town limits and the population sign would have to be updated daily, except for New Years Eve and the 4th of July when the population sign was updated hourly. Hundreds of dollars were won and lost betting on the final body count. It was even said that casino managers were seen handing their sports book manager a .45 telling them to "get the count right" But who knows? In that same year the El Cortez was built, and thus "The Smell" is also born. When it was apparent only days after opening that the toilets didn't work, not that they didn't work properly, they just didn't fucking work at all, and so the name "El Commode" was stuck to the casino that still lasts to this day, so does the smell. The El Rancho Vegas was opened this year also. It was completed on Las Vegas Blvd. before Bugsy Siegel even hit town. It was a huge success until a fire ravaged the hotel and in its place the Thunderbird was built bigger and better.

1942 Film Star Carol Lombard, wife of film star Clark Gable, and 21 others are killed when their plane in foggy conditions failed to clear the top of Mt. Potosi. It took three days to bring all the bodies down, Mr. Gable was there to help the recovery operation even after Mrs. Gables body was brought down from the crash site.

1946-The Golden Nugget is opened downtown on Fremont St. making seven casino hotels on Fremont St. making it Las Vegas's first Strip. Weekends would see hundreds of kids cruising the strip although at 10 pm. were curfew time and by 10:30 the strip would be left to the gamblers. By 3am. The "gamblers" would be cleaned up off the street so they would be sober enough to enjoy breakfast at the Clark County lockup which was known as one of the best breakfasts in town. It was difficult to serve each prisoner in their cells and so the first buffet was started in Las Vegas as the prisoners lined up to take a bit of whichever they wanted and it was a requirement that they take seconds on the eggs and meat (the request being firsts, the gun upside the head being seconds) and so the term "does anyone want seconds?" was begun. This same year saw a young Benjamin Segal hit Las Vegas. Bugsy, which he hated to be called, saw a piece of land next to the cross streets of Bon Air Blvd. which was dirt from Paradise Rd. to Las Vegas Blvd, and Las Vegas Blvd. which was also a dirt road where Bugsy wanted to build. He pitched the idea to the mob, he would need almost three million dollars. It was a lot of money in those days, even the mob didn't want to part with that much money for what could be a stupid idea in the middle of the desert. He brought two of the mob leaders to see the site. They were hot, they were ready to kill Segal right there on the spot. He pulled out the blueprints and showed them how everything would look laid out there on the desert. It was feasible. He would begin charter flights as well as gambling trains from LA. The work started in February and was completed in late September. The rooms weren't completed but the casino was ready to open. Bugsy flew in a plane load of celebrities. Rose Marie (Sally Rogers on the Dick Van Dyke Show) was the headline entertainer. In an interview Rose said "I was driven to the plane in a limo. Dick Powell, Joey Bishop, Jimmy Stewart and his wife, Jimmy Durante, the whole plane was a who's who of Hollywood. When I got to the hotel we drove through desert and we all said to each other "who the hell would build a casino out here." Jimmy Durante was the one that said "This place better be a big hit or Mr. Segal will be the late Mr. Segal." A premonition for sure.

1947-Mr. Segal joins the immortals, assuming room temperature in Ms. Virginia Hill's Hollywood home. At his eulogy the only thing they could say about Bugsy Segal was "He sure filled out a three piece suit."

1950-Clark County's population tops 48,000…give or take a few out in the desert. (Does open holes in the desert count as a future voter?) Hank Greenspun starts the Las Vegas Sun. A Sunday paper that grew into a daily paper within two years. That year Wilbur Clark opened the Desert Inn. Bragging that he had the tallest building in Las Vegas at THREE STORIES.

Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee opens a five month probe on organized crime in Las Vegas and California. The hearings take place in Las Vegas. The Yesco Sign Company has its best quarterly earnings ever as the population sign has to be replaced almost hourly. The final tally is still unknown to this day as "voters" keep popping up out in the desert.

1951-The first Atomic explosion takes place on U.S. soil at Frenchman Flat out at the Nevada Test Site only 90 miles north of Las Vegas. It is determined the radiation cloud should disperse to the south east towards St. George Utah rather than Las Vegas. It is also determined that the loss of a few Mormons should help to curtail the amount of clean-cut kids in black suits and ties showing up at their doors at all hours with the Book o

In this same year Benny Binion opens the Horseshoe Casino. Benny, new to Las Vegas has been running from the local police, the county police, the sheriff, the state police, and even the Governor of Texas is chasing Binion for a hundred bucks he won in a poker game that Binion said he was good for. Las Vegas welcomed him with opened arms especially when the open arms opened two suitcases with $1 million dollars in each suitcase.

1954-Billionaire Howard Hughes acquires 22,500 of land in the northwest section of Las Vegas through a deal with the federal government. Although Hughes envisions a private airport with grounds for testing his helicopters and planes. But the county won't rezone the land for that usage so he begins laying out plans for a master community called Summerlin. One of the largest and most successful planned communities in the country.

1955-The Moulin Rouge opens on Bonanza and Main St. just blocks from Fremont St. It was built to house black entertainers on the strip. An embarrassment to the city to have to admit that Las Vegas was a racist town until the 1962. The black entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Earth Kitt, Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, Sidney Portiere, every black person that came to Las Vegas was welcomed to entertain, to drink anywhere in Las Vegas, but they still couldn't eat in the restaurants or sleep in the hotels, so the Moulin Rouge was built so the black people could stay and play in luxury in Las Vegas. It was so popular that after the Strip shows were over around midnight or 1am. Everyone would go down to the Moulin Rouge to listen to the many black entertainers that would play there for free. On opening night Joe Louis hosted the festivities and stayed as the ambassador until it closed. From there Joe Louis was hired by Caesars Palace as a host where he remained until his death in 1982. In a 1979 interview with Sammy Davis Jr. he said "I would sing and dance my heart out, there were always plenty of entertainers that wanted to come on stage, not just Sinatra and Bishop and Dino, but one night Etta James and Shirley Bassey and Duke Ellington who were playing at the Tropicana finished their shows and came to the Sahara to see my show which started an hour after most of the other shows started so by the end of my show they would all be there in the audience and when the show was over it was like a march on Washington all the people were piling into cabs and limousines and over to the Moulin Rouge for a jam session, imagine Duke Ellington sitting on the same piano seat with Ray Charles. It was just magic man."

1956-The Riviera opens boasting the tallest building in town at 9 stories. The Fremont Hotel opens the same year, at 12 stories it is now the tallest in town. Plans are in the mix to erect a four story high statue of a $100 bill complete with an elevator to take you up to the two top zeros. The first plan called for a statue of GOD, but no one could come to an agreement as to weather GOD has a long beard or just a goatee with a stylish moustache, and just how long would his hair be? Then of course the women working on the property insisted GOD was a female and wore a red tank top and a rather short skirt, but even the women couldn't decide on the shoes or makeup so the whole thing had to be scrapped for the $100 bill which everyone agreed on. That same year the Fremont Hotel opens downtown. Its 12 story hotel tower is the tallest in the city. Now the big losers can be sure they won't have to pay that last gambling debt with a 12 story free fall to look forward to.

1959-The Las Vegas Convention center opens on Paradise Rd. and Riviera Rd. The University of Southern Nevada holds their basketball games there as well as the many conventions. The first convention in town is Comdex. There weren't even computers then and Comdex is already taking all the rooms in town. The local McDonalds doe's record business as lines are formed starting at 2am and snaking around the building and down the street awaiting for the 7am McGriddles sandwiches. Local restaurants and casinos are empty. Seven-Eleven experiences record sales of their 2 for 99cents hotdogs. And still the restaurants and casinos are empty. Gamblers experiences sold out hotels thanks to Comdex and are forced to seek refuge in the homeless camp on Bonanza Rd. That same year the Nevada Legislature creates the Nevada Gaming Commission to oversee everyday casino operations to make sure everything is legitimate. Three of the gaming agents are stricken with a strange disease that can only be cured in a cold region. Casino owners kick in thousands for a one way ticket to the Antarctic for the three. The remaining agents are healthy and living well beyond their means. No investigation is planned…honest.

1960-Is a major year for Las Vegas. The cities population reaches 127,000, three of whom are black and threaten a march on the strip to desegregate the strip hotels. The Rat Pack debuts at the Sands. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop who are in town to shoot "Ocean's Eleven" also headline the Sands show at night drawing huge audiences. But Sammy Davis Jr. is not allowed to stay at any of the Strip hotels as Las Vegas is still a segregated city and only the Moulin Rouge Hotel/Casino is open to blacks. When Frank Sinatra hears that Sammy Davis isn't allowed to stay at the Sahara where he was appearing, he refuses to stay at any hotel that refuses Sammy Davis's business and the five of them head for the lounge at the Moulin Rouge. Duke Ellington who was appearing at the lounge plays piano for the five. Crowds overspill trying to get into the lounge. For the next six days the Moulin Rouge gains a great reputation and black entertainers appear nightly with Pearl Bailey headlining the first week followed by Ella Fitzgerald. Six months later the hotel mysteriously burned down. It was rebuilt three different times and burned down each time. It still stands on the Bonanza and Main St. site still charred from the last fire in the late 90's fenced in with only the name remaining to remind us of those six months of musical magic 45 years ago. Sinatra called his friend Sun publisher Hank Greenspun who called Gov. Grant Sawyer and local NAACP officials and by the end of 1960, Las Vegas hotels and casinos are desegregated for good. The next time Sammy Davis Jr. appeared at the Sahara he was given the Presidential Suite which was renamed the Sammy Davis Jr. Suite and remains in his name.

1961-Housing developer and then owner of the New York Yankees, Del Webb buys the Mint Hotel downtown. He adds a 24 story tower, then the tallest building in Las Vegas. Tommy Gorgino christened the tower with a 23 story dive to Fremont St. The wind was blowing out of the west and Mr. Gorgino made a graceful decent to the overhang on the first story. He was heard to say on the way down "SO FAR, SO GOOD!!"

1962-The Las Vegas springs which flowed from underground springs and established Las Vegas in 1905 stopped flowing to the surface. The stage is set.

1963-Above ground nuclear testing at the Test Site is finally halted. The only mushrooms to be found now in Las Vegas is at the Albertsons and Vons grocery stores.

1964-The Beatles perform at the Las Vegas Convention Center and stay at the Sahara Hotel. It was their only performance in Las Vegas. The Southern Regional Division of the University of Nevada, which took so long to say that they changed the name to UNLV. Muuuch easier. They graduated their first class of twenty students. All of whom got the hell out of town after the graduation. Elvis Presley releases Viva Las Vegas with Ann Margret which becomes the definitive swinging Las Vegas movie. Besides Oceans 11 (the 1960 version) it is the only good thing filmed in Las Vegas.

1966-Howard Hughes arrives in Las Vegas. The city would never be the same again. He stayed at the Desert Inn which should have been imploded 40 years sooner when he was watching Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights. From the sale of his Trans World Airlines he gobbled up casino after casino just because he could. See my January column "The Last Aviator" for the whole story.

1967-Elvis and Priscilla Presley are married at the Aladdin Hotel. He should have married Ann Margret, better legs. Hughes buys the Frontier Hotel for $14 million, he could have stolen it for $10 million but that was without the sign.

1968-Evil Knievel jumps the fountain at Caesars Palace but crashes on the landing. Viewers are given a slow motion look at the crash live on ABC's Wide World Of Sports. Twenty one years later ABC pays Evil Knievel's son Robbie Knievel to land the same jump. But Robbie, the better motorcycle jumper lands the jump successfully at Caesars Palace.

1969-Kirk Kerkorian opens the International Hotel, now called the Las Vegas Hilton. Barbara Streisand is the opening headliner for the first four weeks, only to be replaced by Elvis Presley who begins a long run of sold out shows. The population tops 273,000. But only 125,000 can be found at any one time. The rest are "out"

1970-The World Series of Poker begins at the Horseshoe. Benny Binion opens the WSOP by saying "Deal 'em up." With almost three hundred entrants the WSOP was off to a great start, it would be ten years before ABC Sports considered airing the event. It drew one of the largest audiences for a non-sporting event for ABC. It's been a mainstay now for ESPN for 13 years.

1971-The Las Vegas Water District begins pumping water from Lake Mead. The only problem was the water pipeline was so large that small fish are popping out of many faucets in Las Vegas's water; it would take thirty five years before the water would stop smelling fishy, or is that the bartender?

1972-The city of Henderson agreed to sell Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun 4,700 acres of land that along with another 3,300 acres acquired from the BLM Greenspun begins his master planned community called Green Valley. Pockets are greased, backs are turned as many get rich hitching a ride on Greenspuns tails. Contracts are awarded to personal friends and people on the city board that approved the deals. Most of the people involved in Greenspuns deals often left their city positions and began business in the home building businesses. To this day they won't even talk about the deals that were made to build Green Valley.

1977-Culinary Local 226 boss Al Bramlet's body is found in the desert. Holes in the Nevada desert are going for ten times what they were in the 60's. Bodies are often stacked on top of each other to save on hole digging fees. Only the Chicago mob is getting discounts often making the New York and Kansas City mobs angry. Las Vegas obliges the other mobs by starting a carting service for the bodies thus saving thousands of dollars in digging fees.

1980's-1989 The mob, thanks to Sheriff Keller as well as others and the help of the FBI due to the money laundering as well as skimming from the cage and income tax evasion had piles and piles of evidence to put them all away. Each boss did none less than 6 years and that was for stealing a $500 check from a player. The rest got 25 to 50 years, most couldn't do the time as they all died in jail.

1989-Las Vegas was reborn thanks to Steve Wynn and Michael Milken who came up with $900 million dollars to build the Mirage. The initial blueprints were seemed insane taking up valuable gambling room to put in a lake with a huge volcano including pina colada scent to make the experience so pleasurable the did the same thing in the casino. With the building of the Treasure Island next to the Mirage a pirate ship as well as a British war ship were a last minute build, which everyone seemed to take great pleasure watching the British ship sink daily. Now days the Treasure Island is now called the T.I. (they really think this is cool) then instead of the British, Pirate battle everyday, they put in the "Sirens of the Caribbean." Which includes scantly clad women. Somehow I don't seem to remember women doing battle on pirate or British ships ever.