A Last Frontier: Las Vegas, 1950

[Music] [Music] Nevada to the gold rushers of 49 was a state of extreme horror it was a hot tail piece of an unearthly Blood on the surface of the universe and where none by choice should ever tread but as the calendar has rolled off the years it has come to mean many things to many people today thousands from all parts of the globe flocked to this Frontier state by plane train and car and all f something either soothing startling delightful or beguiling within its gay but heated bounds daily and hourly romantic elopers and divorce Seekers along with numerous others continue to keep the steady line of mass migration flowing this is the one state that attracts like a magnet and whether they come by car rail or Circle the city and drop in by plane their eyes pop wide open open with their first glimpse of Las Vegas for here truly is the last brink of a bold and Frontier Freedom uninhibited and unregenerate a city whose head is wreathed in garlands of neon signs and a city of storybook West infinitely gay and definitely alluring gambling is legalized and its casinos are open to the tune of 24 hours a day here one may have his choice of gambling roulette that Wheel of Fortune poker and Pharaoh for the hard shell Blackjack Kino and Chuck are only a few of the many slot machines those one-armed Bandits are a drawing card for many unusually played two-handed with Nightfall one beholds a vast carpet of twinkling gaming lights and it is then that Las Vegas blossoms to a scene of gayety on a lavish scale gamblers and tourists alike are attracted as moths to a flame and all are eager for the games stacked high are the chips and at every table a mange of drugstore Cowboys in butterfly boots jigal be diamonded divorces sprinkled with Desert Rats and rattis in their rags and for those who come out losers there's always the pawn shops where one may pledge his property for a final fling or that for doomsday the most popular spot in Las Vegas the courthouse for it is here the tide come in and the Untied go out the total of 261 cases were granted in March of 52 trials are run off on a Beltline system allowing no time out between the cases and the 3 minute speed with which they are granted leaves many a bystander not only patting but dazed as they walk away free with no further do and and if the divorce happens to be an average case the divorce next husband in line will have been waiting for her outside the courthouse or maybe even have her new license already for in Las Vegas speed is the word and anything can happen and does with monogamous if not monotonous regularity it is also a happy hunting ground for those who seek new mates and if one is in a hurry to Wed a County cler oig You by piling out of his bed at any and all hours and if Las Vegas be a place where good marriages go to die it is also a place for those who lost to try again and this one is game to try it famous indeed are the names of those who were weared in this Chapel a bride again and living up to the true l Vegas traditions for Las Vegas has never been against remarriages from the very beginning she took her stance on a stance that is paid off well in dividends and to what amount nobody knows during the month of March alone over 14,000 marriages were performed and with 90% of them non-residents to the Trailblazer John Charles Fremont Nevada was a great unknown land and one to be explored and to that Golden Army who treed their way across the continent it was an accursed stretch of heat and Alkali to the Mormons those daring Pioneers it was a short-lived Outpost to Zion no one then would even have believed that the desert Inferno could become such a quick change artist and Blossom into the Shangrila of sparkling water on arid Sands and the beauty of greenery that we see today the whispering of her palms and her blue silver pools are a flavor that distur the enchanting to The Honeymooners who flock here in search of the unusual it is a spot of hypnotic lure a treasured Ecstasy of golden hours to be filed away in memory's chest and sought again when years grow dim and to those glamorous stars who glitter on stage and screen it is a favorite reant for hiding away or one for gambling and fun and it is a Rendevous too for the gay divor while taking her 6 weeks cure to the many others who may wish to lose themselves or their problems for the moment then Las Vegas is the place they can do it for here is the lure of the past in all her colorful traffics and here is the festive today in the vast of her range country and be it dude or that of cattle the song of the thresh and the Mocking Bird too is still a ritual to be enjoyed and the hospitality which is a Heritage of the old west still flourishes today as of your its ranches still puls with Cowboys as it does with a bucking Bob Bean its men are still men all bronzed and strong but sweated lean from the riding of roundups and their years of hard work on the rain in contrast to the men time has changed their women for they no longer stick to Calico nor Sun bonnets as of your They Ride Bronx instead and keep Pace beside their men ah but maybe there is a reason nbada is the one state in the entire Union where the divor is the honored guest and one who Reigns Supreme and for her there are parties at duded ranches which are always in full swing ranchers and their families from far and near ride over and if you happen to be one of the many who might have thought the old west had died in her high-stepping prime then witness this Snappy Contraption of horses and buggy or maybe I'm wrong it could be a sorry but nevertheless its occupants are dressed in much the same fashion as their fathers before them and they attend the same sort of pioneer hot ch here one may do and dress as he individually pleases and for as long as he pleases and Minds his own individual business aside from one's individual freedom in Las Vegas there is also a freedom from a state tax and many a tax weary millionaire with one foot in his grave will put his other in Las Vegas and he'll have a high healed time of storming the Queens with a swing your partner and a doy do or though Las Vegas be a Last Frontier it is not an outpost of civilization nor has the Old Town ever been known to KN herself in sleep far from being a jumping off Place she's Rough and Ready and her aim is to please please them all for the would be divorce Whose desire is to shed an unwanted mate her zero hour for the filing of her papers is that of her [Music] arrival anywh you look at it there's plenty of Freedom even to sharing one's groom ah but come on girls and Put Your Little Foot Right Out where someone might want to make a change and in Vas that wouldn't be hard to do for Parsons here keep their boots handy and respond like firemen to the calls of cupid so if this be the moment for that divorce or to rewet then in nothing short of jig time you can have it or even a talkative lawyer here still doesn't have time to waste on questions and should your mate want to contest your case the heat will melt his fighting feathers so you see he still can't win for losing and when he does this lovely Blossom of feminine beauty could make any other look like a low down weed so just swing a partner anybody's partner with an alamine left and an alamine right and you'll hold that pretty girl good and tight what no bride yet and the chances are she's seeing her attorney well this is the last dance folks so everybody prominade and swing your partner for a pretty sachche not bad even for the masterminds of Hollywood who delve into the unrealities no set like the Fantastic mixture which is Las Vegas today could ever have been conceived for it was one of those rare flashes of Illumination that could come but once in a lifetime it is a fabulous and tragic West but one where the spirit of all that is passed still lingers in its Frontier saloons and gaming houses to be combined with the gala today and its Olden traditions of poers saches and Cowboys are not a thing of the past today the city still bustles with a word the larat spin but there was a period when such was interrupted for Nevada was once a dreaded Outpost for the followers of Brigham Young and it was a Crossroads for the tides of an Empire that swept the West in their feverish search for gold those who were cowards never got started towards Nevada and the weak were lost on the way it was only the strong who survived to build and to hold this last [Music] [Music] frontier [Music]