| General Fiction posted September 29, 2020 | Chapters: |
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Viva Las Vegas
A chapter in the book Attack of the Fifty States
Attack of the 50 States: Nevada.
by Bill Schott
Let me just start out telling you that neither Las Vegas nor Reno are the capital of Nevada. It's Carson City.
Nevada has come into my life a couple times, though I was more a spectator in both occurrences.
When my family drove out West in 1969, Las Vegas was a place that we spent the night. Since we entered the city during the daytime, the swanky light show was not available. We did pass all the big hotel/casinos and found a motel on the outskirts of town. I recall the portable marquee stated there was NO POOL FOR CONSERVATIVE LODGERS. I wasn't sure that meant that the lack of a pool was good for cheapies like us, or that the person who proved to be too stingy with his money would be barred from the pool that existed. I just know that there must not have been a campground close by.
There were slot machines in every available space. We stopped at a local grocery store. Where you find an ATM today, there was a trio of "one-arm bandits". I was eager to give it a try, but it seemed you had to be twenty-one to drop a coin in. I practically begged to lose my quarter in the fun machine, but my parents felt that would be breaking the law. I was already feeling the gambler monkey climbing on my back. There were slot machines in the bathrooms as well.
When I was in the Corps, and we would travel to Twentynine Palms, California, when the post exercise liberty was sounded, buses would take mock war-weary troops across the state line to Nevada to party in Laughlin. I recall one of our artillery men got off the bus, entered the door of a casino, put a quarter in a machine, and won $5000. He collected his winnings and called it a night. I heard he slept in the bus.
After researching Nevada, I have decided to just pop a few things in that interest me.
The Comstock Lode. Silver everywhere. Bonanza!!
The Ponderosa. The Cartrights. Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe.
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository
Hoover Dam
Harold Robbins wrote The Carpetbaggers; one of the characters was Max Sand; his backstory included his changing his name to Nevada Smith; that backstory became a screenplay with Steve McQueen called Nevada Smith; that character and his name inspired a George Lucas character named Indiana Smith, which was eventually changed to Indiana Jones.
Nevada is mostly desert, so it was not that attractive to potential growth. The state decided to liberalize their laws to get people and industry to move there.
There is no sales tax or corporation tax in Nevada. They legalized gambling, prostitution, and marijuana. None of that is as big a deal today, since what were our vices are now our habits.
Tax laws were so lax that there were no necessary records needed, therefore no government scrutiny. That sounds like a perfect place for organized crime to move in.
Bugsy Seigal, a gangster, opened up the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in the 1940s, in Las Vegas. He interested the Chicago mob in the idea and the city took off and became the gambling mecca. His reward was a bullet in the eye.
Quicky marriages. Quicky divorces.
I end this attack by telling you that Nevada means snow.
Let me just start out telling you that neither Las Vegas nor Reno are the capital of Nevada. It's Carson City.
Nevada has come into my life a couple times, though I was more a spectator in both occurrences.
When my family drove out West in 1969, Las Vegas was a place that we spent the night. Since we entered the city during the daytime, the swanky light show was not available. We did pass all the big hotel/casinos and found a motel on the outskirts of town. I recall the portable marquee stated there was NO POOL FOR CONSERVATIVE LODGERS. I wasn't sure that meant that the lack of a pool was good for cheapies like us, or that the person who proved to be too stingy with his money would be barred from the pool that existed. I just know that there must not have been a campground close by.
There were slot machines in every available space. We stopped at a local grocery store. Where you find an ATM today, there was a trio of "one-arm bandits". I was eager to give it a try, but it seemed you had to be twenty-one to drop a coin in. I practically begged to lose my quarter in the fun machine, but my parents felt that would be breaking the law. I was already feeling the gambler monkey climbing on my back. There were slot machines in the bathrooms as well.
When I was in the Corps, and we would travel to Twentynine Palms, California, when the post exercise liberty was sounded, buses would take mock war-weary troops across the state line to Nevada to party in Laughlin. I recall one of our artillery men got off the bus, entered the door of a casino, put a quarter in a machine, and won $5000. He collected his winnings and called it a night. I heard he slept in the bus.
After researching Nevada, I have decided to just pop a few things in that interest me.
The Comstock Lode. Silver everywhere. Bonanza!!
The Ponderosa. The Cartrights. Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe.
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository
Hoover Dam
Harold Robbins wrote The Carpetbaggers; one of the characters was Max Sand; his backstory included his changing his name to Nevada Smith; that backstory became a screenplay with Steve McQueen called Nevada Smith; that character and his name inspired a George Lucas character named Indiana Smith, which was eventually changed to Indiana Jones.
Nevada is mostly desert, so it was not that attractive to potential growth. The state decided to liberalize their laws to get people and industry to move there.
There is no sales tax or corporation tax in Nevada. They legalized gambling, prostitution, and marijuana. None of that is as big a deal today, since what were our vices are now our habits.
Tax laws were so lax that there were no necessary records needed, therefore no government scrutiny. That sounds like a perfect place for organized crime to move in.
Bugsy Seigal, a gangster, opened up the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in the 1940s, in Las Vegas. He interested the Chicago mob in the idea and the city took off and became the gambling mecca. His reward was a bullet in the eye.
Quicky marriages. Quicky divorces.
I end this attack by telling you that Nevada means snow.
Nevada has come into my life a couple times, though I was more a spectator in both occurrences.
When my family drove out West in 1969, Las Vegas was a place that we spent the night. Since we entered the city during the daytime, the swanky light show was not available. We did pass all the big hotel/casinos and found a motel on the outskirts of town. I recall the portable marquee stated there was NO POOL FOR CONSERVATIVE LODGERS. I wasn't sure that meant that the lack of a pool was good for cheapies like us, or that the person who proved to be too stingy with his money would be barred from the pool that existed. I just know that there must not have been a campground close by.
There were slot machines in every available space. We stopped at a local grocery store. Where you find an ATM today, there was a trio of "one-arm bandits". I was eager to give it a try, but it seemed you had to be twenty-one to drop a coin in. I practically begged to lose my quarter in the fun machine, but my parents felt that would be breaking the law. I was already feeling the gambler monkey climbing on my back. There were slot machines in the bathrooms as well.
When I was in the Corps, and we would travel to Twentynine Palms, California, when the post exercise liberty was sounded, buses would take mock war-weary troops across the state line to Nevada to party in Laughlin. I recall one of our artillery men got off the bus, entered the door of a casino, put a quarter in a machine, and won $5000. He collected his winnings and called it a night. I heard he slept in the bus.
After researching Nevada, I have decided to just pop a few things in that interest me.
The Comstock Lode. Silver everywhere. Bonanza!!
The Ponderosa. The Cartrights. Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe.
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository
Hoover Dam
Harold Robbins wrote The Carpetbaggers; one of the characters was Max Sand; his backstory included his changing his name to Nevada Smith; that backstory became a screenplay with Steve McQueen called Nevada Smith; that character and his name inspired a George Lucas character named Indiana Smith, which was eventually changed to Indiana Jones.
Nevada is mostly desert, so it was not that attractive to potential growth. The state decided to liberalize their laws to get people and industry to move there.
There is no sales tax or corporation tax in Nevada. They legalized gambling, prostitution, and marijuana. None of that is as big a deal today, since what were our vices are now our habits.
Tax laws were so lax that there were no necessary records needed, therefore no government scrutiny. That sounds like a perfect place for organized crime to move in.
Bugsy Seigal, a gangster, opened up the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in the 1940s, in Las Vegas. He interested the Chicago mob in the idea and the city took off and became the gambling mecca. His reward was a bullet in the eye.
Quicky marriages. Quicky divorces.
I end this attack by telling you that Nevada means snow.
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