AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTHUR MARSHALL
An Oral History Conducted by
Claytee White
The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project
Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ©The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project
University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014
Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV - University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Editors: Maggie Lopes, Melissa Robinson Interviewers: Claytee White
ii40 The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of
Dr. Harold Boyer. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish.
The transcript received minimal editing that includes 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. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews.
The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project.
Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas
iii40 PREFACE
Arthur Marshall was born in 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio, son of a roofing contractor and housekeeper. In 1953, Art met his wife, Jayn, who was also from Cleveland, and the couple moved to Las Vegas where she already lived with her family. Art joined his father-in-law in the family's retail clothing business.
Soon after moving, Art's father-in-law retired, and he alongside his brother-in-law, Herb Rousso, took over and expanded operations as Marshall-Rousso stores. At a time when doing business in Las Vegas was based on handshakes rather than contracts, the two opened three stores on Las Vegas Boulevard, before opening their first hotel shop in the Sahara in 1964. From there, Marshall-Roussos spread across the Strip, opening stores in seven additional hotels.
Art quickly became very active in the Jewish community upon arriving in Las Vegas. He served as president at Temple Beth Sholom, and sat on its board together with people like Hank Greenspun, Jerry Mack, and Jack Entratter and was instrumental in the Anti-Defamation League formation. He worked with other Jews in the city, many who owned and managed the hotels at the time, to build a strong Jewish community in Las Vegas - and to make the city a great place to live. Art is still a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
With the support of Bill Boyd, Art served as the chairman of Nevada State Bank. In addition, he spent 12 years on the Nevada Gaming Commission. Art wrote a book to record the stories he has amassed over the years, those that include the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Adnan Khashoggi.
iv40 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Interview with Arthur Marshall on February 11, 2014 by Claytee White in Las Vegas, Nevada
Preface iv
Talks about childhood in Cleveland; meeting wife and moving to Las Vegas in 1953. Discusses work in wholesale clothing business, women's retail clothing stores, working with in-laws; open stores across town, including in Sahara Hotel, the first of many hotel shop outlets. Talks about becoming active in Jewish community, serving on board at temple, alongside Jerry Mack, Hank Greenspun, Jack Entratter, Mel Moss, Harry Wallerstein 1-4
Continues talking about his friends from the community, including Bill Boyd; Boyd's influence on his career, particularly at Bank of Nevada. Mentions American Israel Public Affairs Committee; moving to different homes, eventually to Las Vegas Country Club; Sheldon Adelson. Describes serving on Nevada Gaming Commission; the organization's control of gaming industry, from casino owners to dealers; changes in industry over the years 5-11
Describes financing of Las Vegas casinos; Bank of Las Vegas; Bank of Nevada. Talks about social life when first moved to Las Vegas; fashion during that time; becoming active in the community; vacation spots. Mentions customer service standards in stores; Nevada pension system (PERS). Discusses love for art; describes various pieces in his home 12-16
Compares Jewish community in Las Vegas to that in Cleveland; differences in local organization. Talks about Jewish community's impact on city's development; casino ownership dominance. Discusses family's current involvement with Marshall-Rousso stores; changes seen overtime in downtown area; growth of Strip. Speaks about Lou Ruvo Center; collaborations with Cleveland Clinic; vision to see Las Vegas providing world-class healthcare 17-22
Lists some of the other individuals to interview for the Jewish oral history project. Mentions fundraisers during the Six-Day War. Talks about Frank Sinatra's effect on city; mobsters' commitment to community-building. Recounts a story told by Moe Dalitz, hosting Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Considers the future of Las Vegas; Steve Wynn's vision. Discusses local black community; the breaking of racial barriers on Strip; Anti-Semitism 23-30
Speaks about friend Eugene Warner; unsuccessful attempt to start Middle Eastern library at UNLV; contribution to lecture series at Anti-Defamation League. Recalls story of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, a meeting with Jewish doctor in Las Vegas; another of Senator Chic Hecht
v40 working to get Russian Jews released from Russia. Declares that city was the center of the world; many international dealings. Tells story of Sammy Davis Jr. shopping at Marshall- Rousso at Sands Hotel. Mentions his book The Marshall Plan (2013), with additional stories 31-38
Index 39-40
vi40 This is Claytee White. It is February 11, 2014, and I'm with Mr. Art Marshall in his home in
Las Vegas.
Could you please spell your first name for me?
A-R-T-H-U-R.
And Marshall is spelled the usual way?
The usual way, M-A-R-S-H-A-double L.
Thank you so much. Mr. Marshall, could you start by telling me just a bit about your early
life, where you grew up and what that was like?
I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Life was just a normal growing up.
What did your parents do for a living?
My father was a roofing and sheet metal contractor. Mother was a housekeeper.
Did you work as a young boy?
Yes, I worked. My first job was in a drugstore, and I worked in my cousin's hardware store for
many years.
Brothers and sisters?
No brothers or sisters; I was an only child.
Did you go away to school, college?
I went to Kent State University for two years.
How did the family come to Las Vegas?
My wife was from Cleveland originally and she had moved to Las Vegas with her family in 1945.
She came back to Cleveland on a visit in 1953, and we met and became engaged. That's how I
happened to come out here.
Which year were you born?
140 1929.
What was Las Vegas like in 1953?
A lot smaller. Somewhere around 50,000 people. It was lovely.
Where did you live?
We lived near 15th and Oakey on a street called Griffith, right below Temple Beth Sholom.
That's not that far from the John S. Park community?
Very close.
What kind of work brought you to Las Vegas, as well?
I was in the wholesale clothing business and my in-laws had opened a small store here called
Sara's of Las Vegas. We helped them get the store started.
We?
My wife and I. I came out to join my father-in-law in the business. He retired shortly afterwards.
They invited my brother-in-law, Herb Rousso, and his wife, Estelle, who was Jayn's sister, to move from Los Angeles and join us. That was the beginning of our company.
Tell me about the evolution as it grew.
We started out with one little store called Sara's of Las Vegas on 1404 Las Vegas Boulevard
South. We then opened a second store in the Francisco Square Shopping Center, which was across from the Sahara, where The World's Largest Gift Shop is now. Then we opened a third store across from the Stardust on the corner of Convention Center Drive. Then we got lucky enough to get into the Sahara Hotel. That was the beginning of our hotel shops. We got into the Sahara
Hotel in 1964. From there we went to the Sands Hotel, and from there we went into the MGM
Grand. And from there we went into the Riviera, the Desert Inn, the Stardust, Caesars Palace, the
Dunes and the airport, eventually. I'm giving it to you quick.
240 Yes. Tell me why women's clothing and who did the buying?
At the beginning, my brother-in-law, Herb Rousso, and myself did the buying. But I had been in
the wholesale clothing business before that.
How did you get started in the business?
In the wholesale?
Yes, clothing.
My wife's uncle owned a company called Bobbie Brooks. He offered me a job as a sales trainee. I
became one of the stars of the company.
What about women's clothes were so fascinating? If I remember correctly, these are
younger women.
Bobbie Brooks was younger women. They were called juniors, which meant they were sized in
the odd sizes—3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15—and they were for younger women.
As Marshall-Rousso grew, you continued to cater to the younger woman?
No. We became a full-fledged store. We were normal, regular.
Did your wife have an active role in the business?
Jayn was a very experienced interior decorator and she helped us decorate the stores, but neither
she nor her sister worked in the company. They were part of the company, but they took care of
the kids and helped us decorate the stores; in other words, refurbishing.
Being in a place like Las Vegas, we are really away from a garment district. How did it
operate? How did you get the clothing in? What was the process?
We would go to Los Angeles regularly to buy, and traveling salesmen would come here all the
time. Eventually, when we got into the hotels, we started to go to New York to buy as well. So
we bought in both coasts. In fact, we actually went to Europe to buy a couple of times.
340 Did you go to the shows as well?
We went to all the shows.
Tell me more about the business end of it here in Las Vegas. Who were some of the people that you got to know? I want to know about people like Thomas and Mack and other people who were the business people in Las Vegas.
We got to know the Greenspuns really quickly, Hank and Barbara and their children. I got active in the Jewish community and before I knew it I was on the board at the temple alongside Jerry
Mack, Hank Greenspun, Jack Entratter, Mel Moss and Harry Wallerstein. Most of the business people in the community, I got to know them really quickly. Billy Weinberger and I became close friends. He ran Caesars Palace. I was very active in the Jewish community. I was president of the temple, president of the federation, involved in Israel bonds. I put my time in.
Tell me about the Israel bonds.
I don't know what to you tell you. It was a thing. There was a branch out of Phoenix that was close to the Greenspuns; they introduced me to Israel bonds and we got involved. It was an investment to try to help the state of Israel. In fact, I was given the prime minister's medal by the
State of Israel bonds.
You just listed a series of businessmen. Can you start from the beginning and tell me about those men and who they were, for someone listening to this having no idea who those people are?
Harry Wallerstein had a furniture store. He was active in the community. Jerry Mack was Bank of
Las Vegas. Hank Greenspun was the Las Vegas Sun. Mel Moss was a contractor and a builder. I think he built the Riviera Hotel if I'm not mistaken. Moe Dalitz ran the Desert Inn. Parry Thomas was the Bank of Las Vegas. Who else did I mention?
440 Entratter.
Jack Entratter was president of the Sands Hotel. We became very good friends.
Tell me about any interactions with Greenspun because he really had a great tie with Israel, got into some problems at one time. Were you a part of any of that?
That was before my time. We became very close with the Greenspuns. I think I was introduced to all the national, world Jewish organizations through Hank and Barbara. I became active in all those issues with them. I was a member of AIPAC for a while. I still belong to AIPAC.
Tell me what that is.
AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
And what does it do?
It lobbies Washington for the state of Israel.
Can you tell me some of the issues that you have lobbied for?
I don't think there's any particular issue. You lobby for the continued support and a good relationship with the state of Israel. We lobby to try to get the Russian Jews out of Russia. I became very friendly with Chic Hecht. He became a United States Senator and one of my very best friends.
What kind of a businessman was he?
Chic had a little dress shop downtown and was also a member of the board of directors of Nevada
State Bank. It was through Chic Hecht that I became a director of Nevada State Bank.
One of my earliest friends in town was Bill Boyd.
Tell me about Mr. Boyd.
Mr. Boyd is probably one of the best people in the world. We had heard that the store at the
Sahara Hotel was available, the dress shop. We didn't know anybody there. Milton Prell ran the
540 hotel. Bill Boyd lived across the street from us when we lived on Griffith. I went over and
knocked on his door and said, "Could you get me an appointment with your dad's associates?" His
father had a piece of the hotel. He said, "Of course," and he set up an appointment. Herb Rousso,
Bill Boyd and I went to meet with Milton Prell. Obviously, we think that Hank Greenspun put in a
good word because when we got there, Prell said, "I know all about you guys, but I don't know if
you know enough about a hotel shop." Remember, we had the street stores. I don't know where it
came from but I said, "Mr. Prell, the president of every major department store in the United States
starts out in a bargain basement, and when this was Club Bingo I wonder if they thought Milton
Prell could run Club Bingo?" He said, "Thank you." He ushered us out. He said to Bill, "I like
what the kid said; I'm going to give him the store." That was the beginning of my career and Bill
Boyd was responsible for that.
That's great. What was the difference in running an independent building, store, and a
casino store?
You just fill it with a higher level of merchandise.
Did you find that there was a difference?
There was definitely better merchandise. We got more into the fashion business.
That's interesting.
Bill Boyd has had a lot to do with my career. He's the one who made me chairman of the Bank of
Nevada.
How did he make you chair?
He was the major shareholder. He had the votes. It's easy; when you have the votes, you have the
say-so.
Wow. So being the chair of the Bank of Nevada meant that you became, then, close with—is
640 it Thomas or Mack?
No. Bank of Nevada had nothing to do with Thomas or Mack.
Which bank did they have—
They had Bank of Las Vegas.
Bank of Las Vegas, okay.
We became close to them when we got the dress shop at the Sands Hotel and we were raising the
financing for the construction of the store through Valley Bank. I became close to Jerry Mack in
the Jewish community. He and I were involved in federation together. He eventually became our
neighbor. We lived in the Las Vegas Country Club together.
When did you leave Griffith to move into the country club?
We left Griffith in 1963 or 1964 and moved to a street off 15th called Maria Elena Drive. We
probably left there in 1985 and built a home in the Las Vegas Country Club, two or three doors
away from Jerry Mack.
Was Entratter in the country club at that time?
No, Entratter never lived there. He always lived in the Sands Hotel. But (indiscernible) lived in
the country club. Eventually Sheldon Adelson bought the house next door to me. He's one of my
dearest friends.
Wonderful. Thanks for the introduction for the library.
You're welcome.
Great. Why did you think that was good for the library to meet him?
Because Sheldon is a shaker and a mover that makes the world change. He's a remarkable man, a
remarkable man, generous, great. You can't have a better friend.
What do you think of as your major accomplishment in Las Vegas?
740 Well, I spent 12 years on the Nevada Gaming Commission. I was appointed by Governor Bob
Miller, reappointed twice by Kenny Guinn and actually offered the fourth term by Governor
Gibbons. But by that time Mrs. Marshall had become ill, and I had decided to retire from the bank and devote my time to her.
Tell me about the gaming commission. Tell me how it works and what it does.
The gaming commission controls and approves and licenses everybody who has anything to do with the gaming industry, whether it's an employee, a dealer, an owner, a manufacturer. It's the life and breath of the gaming industry.
When you say dealer, what do you mean?
A dealer is a person who deals and works in the hotel.
Right. So what does—
They're all under the control of the gaming industry. In other words, they all need permission.
They have to have a work card.
Okay, I see. It's the work card.
To get a work card, they're all subject to gaming commission control. If they misbehave, if they do something in their home life that's wrong, they can lose their work card and unable to work in the gaming industry.
You have that much control over a dealer.
They have control over everything.
Give me an example over the years that you can talk about.
That's the example. Someone who's a dealer that works in the hotel and gets into some incident with narcotics or they shoplift or they get into some kind of a dispute and they get arrested, they can lose their work card. They can lose their permit to work. Didn't you know that?
840 No.
Of course.
I didn't know that it was to that level. I thought you were only at that top level.
Everything that has anything to do with gaming.
Walk me through the—if I am going to buy a new hotel here in Las Vegas, walk me through the procedure. What would I have to do?
The first thing you have to do would be to hire a very good gaming lawyer and fill out applications, giving your total history, all your sources of income; everything you're done probably since you were a small child; probably every check you've ever written, look at all your records; how you pay your income tax, whether you pay your income tax appropriately. They'll even evaluate your income tax returns to see that you paid them correctly. They look at your arrest history if you have an arrest history. They look at everything you've done, who you've associated with. In other words, whether you associate with people who are of bad worth.
So that's me as an individual.
Individual to get a license to own a hotel.
If I'm a corporation, what happens?
Then your key employees have to be examined. In other words, your board of directors, your key employees, everybody, for example, at Boyd Gaming. Mr. Boyd, all of his major partners and all of the directors of the board of directors have to be approved, licensed.
If a new person joins the board of directors—
They have to be licensed.
Wow.
They have to have a complete investigation.
940 And the investigation is paid for by me as the individual or the corporation?
Generally by the corporation. But if you're an independent operator and you're going to open your own hotel, you pay for it yourself. This investigation cost up to $300,000 or more.
Wow. Amazing. So what kinds of changes did you see in the gaming industry from that beginning of your appointment to the time when you decided to retire?
One of the first changes that happened during my tenure was the work permit situation. When I got on the gaming commission, they had a five-year rule. In other words, you had a one-year period of time in which you could reapply for your card if you lost it for whatever reason. If you were not granted the card in that one-year period, you had to wait five years before you could reapply. I thought that was too severe. So I finally got it changed to where it could be five years or less, so we could judge each individual case. I believed very much in second chances. I kind of initiated that.
There's a Gaming Control Board consisting of three full-time members. They first opine and make a judgment of yes or no on every issue. From there it goes to the commission and the commission sits over the control board. So the control board, if they vote yes, the commission can vote no by majority. If the control board votes no, the commission has to vote unanimously to overrule it. That's how that works.
How many people are on the commission?
Five.
Give me examples of other kinds of changes you've seen over the years.
The corporate change; we went from individual owners to corporate. The big investment company changes. In other words, we were able to change the rules that would allow us to only deal with major shareholders and their major operators. In other words, we couldn't possibly look at every
1040 stockholder at MGM.
We also went through the changes where MGM acquired Mirage and Mandalay. I was part
of that.
We also made a change where we went into private salon gaming so we could take care of
the high rollers, what they call whales.
Explain to me about a private salon. What is that like and the purpose?
The purpose of the private salon is to allow people to gamble privately. But we had to put in
supervision with cameras and equipment so we could monitor everything and they had to get
permission to open a salon. The rules have been changed since I've left. There were restrictions as
to the minimum amount of gaming, of the wagers. There was a minimum wager. So the private
salon would not just be open for just anyone because it's an expensive thing for the hotel to open,
but it's where a lot of the baccarat play goes.
What is the minimum?
I think it's now $500. At one point they wanted a minimum bankroll, I think, of somewhere
around $300,000, but I don't remember that clearly. I'm not clear on that anymore. Some of that's
changed.
Tell me what happened—we've been watching Caesars change—the Barbary Coast, we've
seen that go to Bill's Gambling Hall. Then we saw something happen a few months ago. Did
the gaming commission have anything to do with what happened with that property?
No.
No say-so whatsoever?
No, not that I know of.
But now that it is going to continue, it's going to become a hotel now under a different name,
1140 The Cromwell, you will license that as parts of Caesars so Caesars doesn't have to do anything under the commission?
I'm not quite sure how that will work. When they open a new facility, we will have to license the key employees. In other words, whoever the president of the hotel is. But all the key employees will have to be licensed. But I would think they're licensed—if I remember correctly, it will go under Caesars's license, the license of the corporation.
I want to learn a bit more about the banking system. At one time casinos had to get private loans to build a property because banks wouldn't finance them. So I want to know more about banks, like the Bank of Nevada and the Bank of Las Vegas, turned that around and decided to start financing.
It takes major banks to finance casinos. A Bank of Nevada does not finance casinos. As big as we are that just isn't where we go. It's probably Bank of America that does it and Wells Fargo,
Deutsche Bank and some of the big New York and worldwide banks. They have the assets and they have the funds.
Didn't the Bank of Las Vegas, though, help to put together some of those—
Bank of Las Vegas was very active in the gaming industry here. Parry Thomas and Jerry Mack were very much involved in helping arrange financing for the Dunes and the Riviera, and some of the other hotels. They probably helped most of the hotels get started, but it became larger than what they could supply. Then, of course, they sold Bank of Las Vegas to the Bank of America.
Bank of Las Vegas became Valley Bank and then it went to Bank of America.
Why doesn't Bank of Nevada engage in financing the gaming industry?
It was larger than our capacity. Bank of Nevada started out as Bank West of Nevada; it was formed by Bill Boyd, myself, Don Snyder, Marianne Boyd and a handful of people. We started
1240 with eight million dollars. Today we're almost a ten-billion-dollar company. Big, ten billion.
Yes. I'm listening. I'm impressed by that. So tell me about—
Cute little anecdote. My granddaughter was probably about six or seven years old and we were driving from dinner one night. She was in the car with her mother, my wife and I, and we drove past the bank. I said, "Isn't it wonderful? We're only three years old and we've gone from 8 million to 300 million. We're a 300 million-dollar bank in three years." And this little kid says,
"Is that how much it holds or is that how much it's worth?"
That's great. So tell me about some of the fun things that you did when you and your wife first got here. What did you do for entertainment?
We played tennis and we socialized. But we had some more kids at that point, so we were mother and father. We played nursery school. That's what we did when we first got here. We socialized.
I became active in the community very early. I felt being active in the community was a good way to introduce myself to the community and it worked. It was to my benefit because eventually when I went to go to see a hotel owner about if a shop was available, it was somebody that I had worked with in one sense or another in the charity community. My reputation preceded us as the fact that we were very careful with our pricing. I remember one day at the Sands Hotel, Carl
Cohen, who ran the casino, said to me, "I don't want anybody being overcharged. I don't want somebody coming in here from Los Angeles and losing money in the casino and then being overcharged for a blouse or a bathing suit or a dress." I said, "Our prices will be exactly the same as Los Angeles." And we kept it that way. That was one of the reasons we thrived so quickly because the hotels liked that we did that.
The other thing is the customer was always right. If somebody came in and bought a pair of shoes or a dress and wore it to the dinner show and came back the next day and said this doesn't
1340 work, it doesn't fit, they hurt, we took it back. They never had to go upstairs to the hotel desk.
Over the years it never amounted to anything, really.
Was the pricing the same in the hotel shops as they were in your private locations?
Exactly. In other words, we were competitive with Los Angeles.
In both locations?
Everywhere. And that was one of our great secrets because the hotels appreciated that we weren't
trying to gouge the customer. They would bend over backwards in the old days to make sure
somebody had three-minute eggs in three minutes, and they certainly didn't want them going in
and buying a bathing suit for ten dollars more than it would cost in Los Angeles. We were a
branded name, a label name.
Did your wife wear the clothes in the shops?
Yes, she did.
When you first came here, did your wife dress to go out to the casinos if you were going out
to dinner?
Oh, yes. We always dressed.
So what did it look like in the Sands and the Dunes when you would go out to dinner or to a
show?
It was wonderful. People were well dressed. Women wore mink stoles if they had them. They
wore furs, depending on the time of the year, of course. Men always wore a tie. You never saw jeans or things like that. You saw suits. You'd see sport jackets. You didn't see a lot of long
dresses, but women wore dresses. You never saw many slacks, women's pants. The town dressed
very nicely in those days. But it's changed. That's all gone.
When it came to getting away from town, did you ever go to Mount Charleston, to
1440 recreational areas in Utah or other places?
We went to Mount Charleston. We went to Red Rock often. We went up to—where is that little ski place up north, just up in Utah?
BARBARA: Brian Head?
Brian Head. We'd visit. We'd take the car and drive up there. About 26 years ago we bought a condo in Coronado, California. So it's summer there. We would travel to Europe every summer, for the month of June. We brought a lot of antiques in and put an antique department in the store.
We trimmed our dress shops with antiques.
Oh.
To give them flavor.
I was also on the board of the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). Governor
List put me on that board.
Tell me what that is.
That's the PERS, the pension system for the state of Nevada. You're probably a PERS member.
No, I'm not PERS, but I know a lot of people who are part of that, probably half of the campus.
I'm sure. I was on the board of PERS for several years. When Richard Bryan took over, Chic
Hecht went to the senate and I took over his responsibilities at Bank of Nevada on that board of director's job.
You were just talking about antiques in your stores. Do I see some of the artwork here, as well?
Yes, you do. These wooden niches—we have five of them in here—came from Hearst Castle.
So who is the art lover, you or your wife?
1540 We both were. She's been gone about four and a half years. We both were. We collected Russian art.
What about the horses? I see a lot of horses.
The horses are all done by a Russian artist except that one over there. That one over there is the
French retreating from Moscow. You can see the wind blowing through his coat. That's a bronze.
Wonderful.
The bronzes behind you, the greater percentage of them, the ones on both sides, not in the center, were done by Paul Troubetzkoy, who was a Russian prince. Even though we happened to buy them on a quirk, we collected Russian. Because he was a Russian prince and a Russian sculptor, his bronzes were sold in the Russian auctions at New York. So even though they were cowboys and Indians, they all came by a Russian artist. We never collected cowboy art. Eventually we did get into some western art. This is Pavlova, the ballet dancer.
That's beautiful. I love that and that one.
Larry Christianson.
Beautiful.
That's Tolstoy, the best of Tolstoy, Tolstoy on horseback. The two cowboys are in a book called
Great Bronzes of the American West. On the other side of the fireplace there are some [Native
Americans] by Troubetzkoy and above there there's a very famous bronze, Alexander, Czar
Alexander the Second.
I'll have to look at that when I get up.
You'll have to look at that. It's a great bronze.
Tell me where your family is from originally.
My father came from Divinsk, Latvia, a little town on the Russian border. My mother came from
1640 the Ukraine, in the center of Russia. They met in Cleveland. They immigrated in the early 1920s.
So during World War I?
They were in Russia. They left after the revolution.
Amazing. As you probably know, the university including the Oral History Research Center and other entities on campus, we're getting ready to do a look at the Jewish experience in Las
Vegas.
And Barbara, as you probably have heard, Barbara has been married to a Jewish person for—
Thirty-something years. I never converted, but we raised our children in the Jewish faith.
Good.
Yes. I contributed.
So Barbara is going to be collecting a lot of the interviews that we are going to collect from some of the people whose names you've given us or will give us.
So Barbara, are there any questions that you want Mr. Marshall to answer so that you will have a great foundation to some of the questions that you want to ask?
Yes, there are. Thank you.
Meeting people that you've listed who have a stain in the community and all of that but still the idea of being Jewish anywhere, being Jewish in Las Vegas in the 1950s, how would you describe that in comparison perhaps to being Jewish in Cleveland?
Cleveland happens to be one of the most organized Jewish cities in the world. In the early 1900s
Cleveland had orphanage, a senior citizen home and a hospital; all the care and attention a Jewish community could possibly offer. When we came to Las Vegas there was one synagogue called
Temple Beth Sholom and that was the gist of the whole Jewish community. Carl Cohen invited us
1740 from time to time to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) luncheon at the Sands and tried to get
some contributors. The Jewish federations would come in and try to raise money for Israel. But
we really didn't have much of a Jewish community here. The hotels were mostly Jewish owned.
As far as I can remember, every hotel with the exception of the Tropicana had Jewish
management. The Tropicana, even though the owners were the Housells family, the Tropicana had
Jewish management, as well. They had some Jewish executives.
Did you ever feel any Anti-Semitism?
Never. I never experienced Anti-Semitism in my entire time in Las Vegas; never.
Why was that do you think?
I don't know. I don't think the Mormon community had a problem with the Jewish community.
Everybody worked hard. It was a wide-open cowboy town. Everybody was friendly with
everybody. I never had an experience, ever.
The Jewish community here grew and became a huge number. When we moved here it seemed like
they could not put a number on what the Jewish population was.
I've heard estimates as high as 70 to 80,000.
Yes, I have, too.
Which is comparable to a city like Cleveland. But the difference is the organization. For example,
a city like Cleveland, the same number raises over 30 million dollars a year for Jewish Federation
and welfare aide for Israel. Las Vegas raises under five, somewhere closer to three million. That's
ten times the amount. But cities like Cleveland are already established with established wealth.
Here we have new, younger people. There's a great deal of wealth here, but it's not spread out
among the whole community.
How did it happen that Jewish ownership was so dominant on the Strip, do you think?
1840 Because that was the business they were interested in. Bugsy Siegel built the first legal hotel. He
was Jewish. The Cleveland group came in and rescued Wilbur Clark with building the Desert Inn
and ran out of money. These people had been in gambling around the country legally or illegally,
and it was natural for them to gravitate to Las Vegas when the opportunities presented themselves.
As far as I can recall, every single hotel had Jewish ownership from the El Rancho to the Sands,
the Desert Inn, the Sahara, the Stardust. The Stardust was started by a man by the name of Tony
Cornero, but he died, I think in the hotel one evening, and the hotel was taken over by the Desert
Inn group, Moe Dalitz and that group. But these guys were great for the community. They built
the town. They built the Home of the Good Shepherd. They built the churches. They did
everything a community needed. They made a community out of it. They were not bad guys in
the sense of civic duty.
Hospitals.
Sunrise Hospital.
So it's part of the Jewish culture?
It's part of the culture, right, to give back.
I found it interesting—just a side note—my husband's family were all in the garment industry for a
long time and two brother-in-laws started a chain of women's clothing stores back in the Midwest.
What city?
Des Moines. It was Iowa. They were in Waterloo andDes Moines. But women's clothing, retail,
it changed a lot, too, over the years. How did your business evolve and change with the times?
Well, I retired from the company many, many years ago. So it's a whole different world than what
it used to be. Of course, people don't dress the same way anymore.
Right.
1940 When I go into the store now that I think of as Marshall-Rousso, your family has nothing to
do with it anymore?
No, that's not true. My son, Todd Marshall, is still chairman of the board. He has investor partners
and he no longer owns the company. He has an ownership interest, but he's no longer the major
owner of the company. He took the company when it had eight stores and now it has well over a
hundred. So he made the right decisions. He brought in some financing and some people from the
East Coast. It's interesting. It's a minority-owned company. The investors are from Harvard
Business School, but they're minority owners.
Tell me about downtown. What kinds of changes have you seen downtown? Bill Boyd was
involved in the downtown area for years and still is.
Downtown used to be the center of the community. When you came to Las Vegas, you spent your
time downtown. The Strip hotels were really motels. They weren't these giant palaces.
Everybody went downtown. Then you'd stay at one of the hotels, but you'd still go downtown,
Boulder Dam and downtown. As soon as they started building the mega resorts, like Mirage,
Mandalay Bay and Bellagio, and the big Desert Inn and the Hilton, downtown started to lose its
impact because there was no reason to go there. When they started building the shopping malls on
the Strip that affected downtown to a great extent. But downtown seems to be coming back now.
Talk about that.
I don't really know much about it. I haven't been involved in it.
Have you been downtown to see any of the changes?
I've seen some of them, yes. One of the big changes in the community is the Lou Ruvo Center,
really a great institute. I was somewhat involved in bringing it here. Because I came from
Cleveland, I knew all about their history. I got a call one day from Burton Cohen, who was
2040 president of the Desert Inn and a very close friend of mine. He was also chairman of Sunrise
Hospital. This is probably eight or nine years ago. Sunrise was thinking of partnering with
Cleveland Clinic for a urology department. There was a doctor here by the name of Scott Slavis,
who was a Cleveland Clinic trainee, fellow, and he was operating, doing kidney transplants here at
Sunrise and at UMC. Then the Cleveland Clinic people that he had trained with were interested in
coming west. So we started working on an arrangement. Burton went to his close friend, Kirk
Kerkorian, who immediately pledged a very substantial amount of money to help bring the clinic
here. Then he asked me to help him work on the project. I was on the gaming commission at the
time. So we contacted the Greenspuns, Bill Boyd, the Fertittas and some other families, and
everybody agreed immediately to sponsor the clinic, an investigation, start-up idea. For some
reasons, the people at Sunrise kind of changed their mind about the politics of it and they walked
away from the idea. But we hadn't. We thought it would be a great place for that. We wanted
Nevada to become a health center for the world. Imagine people coming from all over the world,
staying in our facilities and having their physical exams here or their procedures done at a
Cleveland Clinic facility? So it was going along. Unfortunately, Dr. Andy Nowak, the head of the
Cleveland urology program, had a sudden heart attack and died. And then the economy went bad.
In the meantime, Larry Ruvo had built the brain center. Scott Slavis and Lou Ruvo were well
acquainted; they had a patient-doctor relationship. When Toby Cosgrove, who ran the clinic, came
out here to meet with me at our bank, Scott arranged for Toby to meet with Larry. Toby went and
looked at that building, which Frank Gehry designed. That was the beginning of the Cleveland
Clinic. We now have the urology department, as well.
That dream you had about people coming here for medical care, what is the future of that?
The dream is to try to get more specialties from Cleveland here. We need better medical care. We
2140 have good doctors here. There's nothing wrong with our doctors. But we can only take them so far. We only have limited resources and the ability.
So do you see a medical complex down near the Lou Ruvo Center someplace?
We're hoping to bring more specialties from Cleveland here. Right now, with the insecurities of what's happening with the Affordable Health Care Act, the other additions, I'm not sure whether they're that anxious to run. But they did open the urology department and it is doing well. It's my understanding that you can't make any money in the treatment centers. In other words, the Ruvo
Center is not a profit center. But you make money on procedure, surgeries, et cetera, et cetera.
That's where the money in medicine is and that's how you can afford to operate the facilities. So the urology center is supposedly already doing well. They built a beautiful center. It's out by La
Canada behind Sunrise. It's amazing what they did. It's state of the art, which is typical of
Cleveland Clinic.
I agree.
They're doing remarkable things in Cleveland. My granddaughter has Crohn's [Disease] and she's a patient at the Cleveland Clinic. A relative of mine who trained at the clinic as a colorectal surgeon recommended us. He said there's one particular doctor at the clinic who is world famous.
His name is Feza Renzi. He's been taking care of her for the last couple of years. Actually, at this point she has literally no colon left. Eventually they're talking about a small bowel transplant.
They're doing that kind of thing. It's just amazing what they do. They do open-heart surgery laparoscopically. They replace heart valves laparoscopically. It's the largest employer in the state of Ohio. They have 40,000 employees. They have thousands of the doctors. It's a world all its own. Their motto is Patient First.
So in your most optimistic daydream, can you see that here?
2240 I hope to see it here. I had a conversation with one of my closest friends and one of our major hotel owners—this was eight or nine years ago—trying to convince him that he should be involved in the clinic. His first answer is to me is, "Well, Art, you know I have a plane." I said, "I know you have a plane, but let me ask you a question. Suppose at two o'clock in the morning in this house if the hot water heater breaks, do we call the plumber from Beverly Hills?" He said, "You made your point."
[Laughing] Oh, wow. Mr. Marshall, who are some of the people that we have to interview as part of the Jewish experience in Las Vegas?
You certainly have to interview Irwin Molasky and Susan. You have to interview rabbis.
Axelrod, of course. Rabbi Goodman. You've got to interview Sheldon. You have to interview
Ellis Landau, who's currently the president of the ADL. You're going to interview Flora Mason, whose husband was a president and built most of the hotels here. You should interview Jerry
Conntess, who's a man from the past. He was the former executive director of the federation. He's a wonderful guy. Henry Kroneberg is a long-time survivor of the Holocaust and very active member of the community. There are a lot of names. I'm sure you'll have the list.
Okay, good. I just don't want us to miss anybody because this is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to allow the community to be involved with the university in this way.
It's a good idea.
Oh, yes. I think so, too.
There's a lot of history involved.
Definitely.
I still remember all the fundraisers during Yom Kippur War and the Six-Day War. It's amazing place. I wasn't here for the Six-Day War, but I was here during the Yom Kippur War. I remember
2340 Red Skelton and Jack Entratter. Red Skelton and Frank Sinatra made substantial pledges. The
town was a great town. It was a lot of fun. Red Skelton and I became very close friends. We
were friends for 40 years.
Do you see it as a great town today?
Yes, it's a great town. It's got some great people who do wonderful things.
Why did you decide to move out of the country club?
We were getting older and we thought that—security was one of the reasons. Taking care of the
property, the grass and the lawn. Houses are often more responsibility than an apartment. We had
a New York apartment for 25 years. We got accustomed to locking the door and going away.
Then we bought the Coronado apartment 25 years ago. It's lovely. You just shut the door and go
away. You don't have to worry about the grass and all the other things.
Yes, the water. I agree.
Barbara, any additional questions?
I might ask one more. You touched upon it a little bit. But if you were trying to get someone to participate in helping to get the Jewish history who's reluctant to share their story, what would you
say to them to get them to participate in this collection of stories? Why is it important?
I don't see it. Who would be reluctant? It's up to the individual if they want to contribute to the
history, not so much of their participation, but what happened around them.
[Colloquy not transcribed]
Let me think of what else I can tell you about Cleveland, a lot of things. I've been through all of
Sinatra's bad boy days and good boy days. He was remarkable. I think he did as much to help
build this town as anybody ever did.
Give me an example.
2440 When he would come to town, it would be New Year's every day. He was good for the community. He was really good for it. He was a superstar. I did not know him well. I knew him but not intimately. He did good things. He was generous. He was charitable. He was a wildcard sometimes.
I remember once he had moved from the Sands to Caesars Palace. He had a restriction when he was working that there should be no jackhammering construction before noon. One day they started at ten to twelve. So he got on an airplane and went back to Palm Springs. They got him back on the condition that there would be no j ackhammering before three. So Frank got what
Frank wanted when Frank wanted it. But he was good for the community, really good for it.
It's interesting. The mobsters were really not mobsters. They were just people who made a living in a different way. Moe Dalitz built the Home of the Good Shepherd. He bought the gin rummy tournament from Temple Beth Sholom and paid the temple mortgage. These guys built the sanitation district. The Desert Inn owned the sanitation district. They contributed to Harley
Harmon when he was the chairman of the county commission and gave it back. These guys understood what it meant to build a central community and they did a great job. So I never thought of them as bad guys.
Have you been to the Mob Museum?
Yes.
What did you think about it?
It was fun. It was Jewish. It was fun.
Yes. What are your favorite stories about Las Vegas that you tell when you and your friends are sitting around at night?
My favorite story was a Moe Dalitz story that he told me, and that was one of the reasons I wrote
2540 the book was because we had a lot of stories over the years. There was a wedding one night at the
Jerry Mack house and it got rained out. So we all had to run downtown in buses to, I think, the
Golden Nugget. Jayn and I were sitting with Moe at his table, and he started talking about the old days. He talked about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor coming to Las Vegas as his guests. They had dinner. They always dressed formally, the Duke and Duchess, for dinner. They had a nice dinner and then they gave her a rack of chips to play. She preferred baccarat.
Moe and the Duke went into the casino to kind of watch the action and watch the crowd.
They were sitting at a roulette table that there was no play at. There was a dealer, but there was nobody playing. And they just sat at a non-used table and were watching the action going on. And all of a sudden, Nick the Greek, a famous gambler, walked in. He sat down at their table, nodded to both of them, and started to bet large amounts of money. So the Duke nudged Moe and said,
"Who is that guy?" He said, "That's Nick the Greek." He got very excited and he wanted to get her attention and he ran over to her. He couldn't catch her eye. He ran over to tell her that Nick the Greek was with them.
In the meantime, Nick said to Moe, "Who's the guy in the monkey suit?" He said, "It's the
Duke of Windsor." He said, "Oh, no, don't BS me."
It turned out that they had a wonderful evening, but Nick the Greek was less impressed with them than they were with him. That was typical of Las Vegas. Here was the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor. It didn't mean a thing to Nick the Greek, and they were impressed that they had Nick the Greek with them. That was one of my favorite Las Vegas stories. I got it from Moe and I never forget it.
The other great story, cute story...I collected Russian art for a long time and I collected
Faberge for a while. As a result, I would go to the auctions in New York at Sotheby's and
2640 Christie's. One of the big customers was the Forbes family, Malcolm Forbes. They had the major
Faberge collection in the United States. When they first published the first 400 Richest People in
America, Moe Dalitz was listed. Somebody said to him, "How does it feel to be in the Forbes
400?" He said, "Who said (indiscernible) doesn't pay?" That's a true story.
[Laughing] Oh, my god.
That's a true story. I told that to Kip Forbes, one of the sons. He said, "It's not printable." He said, "My father's going to love that story."
So what do you see as the future for Las Vegas?
I don't really know. The gaming industry is not as independent as it used to be. It's all over the world now. It's tougher and tougher to make it work. I really don't know what the future holds. I think we're going to hold our position because we're so unique. We have the best entertainment, the best facilities. The convention industry kind of saved us. It's interesting, isn't it? When
Sheldon first came to town, everybody said we don't need conventions, we don't need Sheldon
Adelson, we don't need any of that. It wasn't that they didn't want Sheldon; we don't need that kind of stuff. He saved the town. He turned it all around. Today everybody has a convention department.
The only name you haven't mentioned so far is Steve Wynn. What do you see as his contributions to Las Vegas?
Steve Wynn...It's interesting to me. Steve Wynn has an eyesight issue and has more vision than anybody else I've ever seen, along with Sheldon. Steve Wynn has enormous vision. Steve Wynn, in my judgment as a former gaming commissioner and as a merchant, changed the community from a gambling town to a destination. Steve Wynn's responsible for that.
Wow. Because I still walk into the Bellagio and I'm in awe.
2740 The way he builds a facility is remarkable. Go to Encore. They're unbelievable, just the
finishing touches. I had the privilege walking through all of these facilities when I was on the
commission with Steve. We're well acquainted. Sheldon is one of my closest personal friends in
life. But I have a huge regard
for Steve, huge regard. Bright. He knows what he's doing. I think he is responsible for much of
the success.
There are some good people in the industry. Bill Boyd happens to be one of the best. He's
what they call a handshake guy. It was interesting. Some years ago, I think it was at Carl Cohen's
funeral, Jackie Gaughan was sitting next to me and he said, "There goes one of the last of the
handshake guys." Did you know Bobby Siller?
No.
Why I asked, Bobby Siller was former head of the FBI here.
And the gaming commission.
He was on the Gaming Control Board.
Okay, yes.
He and I served together. We agreed to disagree a lot, but we were good friends. We are still
good friends.
Is he still here?
No. He lives in Virginia or somewhere back east, somewhere in that area. I'm not sure if it's
Virginia or North Carolina. Good guy. I used to explain to him that everything here is a
handshake. You didn't have to have a piece of paper. Today the signing of a contract is the
beginning of the negotiation. The world has changed. Everything was a handshake. We built our
hotels shops without leases. When we built the hotel shop at the Sands, the lease came later. We
2840 built that hotel shop with Bill Bennett at Circus Circus and Excalibur without a lease. The lease came later, just like it's supposed to. We made a deal with Ed Torres at the Riviera without a lease. The lease came later. In other words, you didn't have to worry about it. If they said it, it was as good as gold. It's not quite the same anymore. Corporate world changes. You've got a lot of smaller people go get involved and they don't have the authority nor the moxie to do it that way.
What else do you want to know?
What kind of relationship have you had with the black community over the years?
That's an interesting question. Not very much. When I was active in the retail clothing business, we became friendly with a couple of the black county commissioners. I came from Cleveland,
Ohio. When I grew up my neighborhood was probably—my high school was probably 40 percent
African American. We were always a Jewish/African-American neighborhood. Every basketball game was a fight. It was us against the other schools. So I grew up in a totally comfortable atmosphere. I don't want to say that old tread thing like black people were my best friends because that's not a fair statement. But I never had an issue of any kind.
But there was not much of a community active here in Las Vegas when I first came. There were some people—by the way, Sinatra broke the color barrier. Did you know that? The entertainers were not allowed to stay in the hotel. Sinatra broke the color barrier. He made it possible for Lena Horne and Sammy Davis. Once they broke the color barrier, it broke open for everybody. They could stay in their own hotel; otherwise, they had to stay somewhere else, which was outrageous. I think we've done a pretty good job in the black community here. When I say done a good job, I think it's comfortable. I'm not aware of a difficult community anymore. Is it?
You would know better than I would.
It's probably like it is in the rest of the country.
2940 That's not a plus.
[Laughing] There are still some things that need to be done.
There are always things that have to be done. There are always things that have to be done whether it's the black community or the Jewish community. We have more difficulty now in the
Jewish community than we did before. We're aware of people here who are Anti-Semitic now.
We're aware of people here who want to kill blacks and Jews and do things of that nature. We have information from the ADL offices here. There are some hate groups here. We didn't have that originally.
Yes, sometimes I look at the statistics from the Southern Poverty Law Center and they have those statistics, as well.
Somewhere I have a little two-second—three-minute videotape and it's a little African-American girl in a tutu dancing, going to her grandfather and asking why somebody would say something derogatory. The Anti-Defamation League had a program called No Place for Hate. When I heard about that program, I was very active in the ADL, on the national commission of ADL. We started a No Place for Hate program in Las Vegas, which we've gone to all the schools and we've been teaching it now for 15-20 years. Isn't that terrible that there's a place for hate?
Yes.
This is such a marvelous little program. The video is precious to watch. Her grandfather had to explain to her why somebody would make a nasty remark.
Tell me about Edith Katz. Do you know her?
Very well.
Yes. I think that's one of the names that we didn't get to. And we'll start with Edith Katz.
What do you want to know about her? Her husband, Lloyd, was a remarkable guy. He and I were
3040 very close friends. I liked him very, very much. Unfortunately, he passed away a long time ago.
What about Gil Yarchever?
A nice man, but I never knew him well. But I knew Lloyd very well. We were socially friendly
with Lloyd and Edith. We did not remain socially friendly with Gil for no reason whatsoever; it just didn't happen. If I'm not mistaken, Lloyd was president of the temple. I'm sure Lloyd was
president of the temple at one time, Beth Sholom. I know he was head of the federation. He was
always involved. He was a dedicated guy.
How many temples are there now?
Something like 17 or 18. Way too many.
Why is that too many?
I'm just kidding. It's an old joke of mine. (Indiscernible) on an island with two other people and
they need to have three temples because they can't get along.
[Laughing] That is a wonderful way to end this. Any other comment you'd like to make?
Well, I hadn't really told you very much. We did something here that was never done before. We
had a guy here by the name of Eugene Warner, who's not alive anymore. There's a fountain at the
university near The Flashlight, the Eugene Warner Reflective Pool. Eugene was one of my very
best friends. He was from Cleveland; he was older than I was, and I knew him from Cleveland. It just so happened that he was Adnan Khashoggi's man on the ground in Las Vegas. Adnan
Khashoggi, if you remember, was the big arms dealer who used to come to Las Vegas all the time.
Eugene wanted to start a Middle Easterner library at UNLV. Dr. Goodall was the president at the
time. Eugene arranged for some mementos from Saudi Arabia. There were some swords,
paintings and pictures, et cetera. A major contribution was made, somewhere in that
quarter-of-a-million-dollar range initially. For whatever reason, it didn't get well handled at the
3140 university and some of the stuff disappeared, and Eugene got very disenchanted with the whole
thing. He finished out his completion; he completed the fountain and I think he built one of the
homes for the dormitories. I think it's the Warner Home for the dormitory or one of the offices. I
said to him, "If you want to get involved, why don't you do something at the Anti-Defamation
League?" As a result of that, he made a very substantial contribution for a lecture series. We
brought everybody. We brought Edward Teller. We brought Bibi Natenyahu. We brought
(Edward Sholom). We brought Ed Koch. We brought Dick Cheney. We brought probably half a
dozen luminaries from New York and Europe to UNLV. We had a remarkable program. It was
during the years of Bob Maxson. It was remarkable. It was probably one of the best lecture series
in the world. Can you imagine Edward Teller? He invented the atomic bomb—or the hydrogen
bomb.
So has that now become—
That program is defunct now because Warner's gone.
Did that become the Barrick Lecture Series?
No. It was on its own and separate from Barrick Lecture. It was a remarkable program and we
had stars. Part of the problem was Warner was a guy that wanted to go high on the list. After that
list of names, they couldn't find any that matched into the program.
Wow. When you said that you had not told us a lot today, this combined with your book will
be—
I'll give you the book.
Fantastic.
I can get you a book.
Good. We're going to want to—
3240 You're going to read about Sheldon and you're going to read about Khashoggi. You're going to read about a lot of stuff that couldn't be told. For example, I got a call one day from Eugene
Warner. "I need Hank Greenspun's private number." I said, "I can't give it to you." He said, "I've got to have it. I have to connect with Khashoggi." I said, "Okay," because I knew Warner was serious. Hank disappeared for a week or ten days. It's interesting. He went with Adnan
Khashoggi to Taiwan to sell Israeli jet air fighters to Taiwan, financed by the Saudis, when everybody thinks they're at war. They were not. There was a private position and a public position. The Saudis made a private statement and a public statement. There was always an area of great corroboration. In other words, they had to have a public face for the people, for the
Middle East, for that whole thing, and they had a private face, which they understood how important it was to save, keep Israel alive. The Saudis knew that without Israel the Egyptians and the Syrians would have taken Saudi Arabia away, taken their oil. The machinations of the Middle
East are unbelievable, unbelievable. We saw a lot of it.
This isn't in the book—there was a doctor. I went into the Sands one day. I was sitting and
Adnan Khashoggi was in the middle of the Garden Room at a booth. His wife, Lamia, who was absolutely gorgeous—she made Sophia Loren look like a boy; she was gorgeous—was sitting on one side of Adnan in another booth with a very swarthy, dark-complexion man, and my friend
Eugene Warner, Bob Shaheen, who was Adnan's secretary, and Muhammad Khashoggi were sitting at the other end beside Lamia. I went and sat at the booth with the three of them. I said to
Warner, "Who's the guy with Adnan?" He said to me in Jewish, "He's one of us." He was the number-one urologist in the Middle East, treating the king of Saudi Arabia's prostate.
(Indiscernible) everybody hates everybody. That's how convoluted it all was. Of course, everybody knew who everybody was. It was that wide-open new. I'm sure that Adnan wouldn't
3340 dare bring a Jewish doctor into Saudi Arabia without the king knowing exactly who he was. There was a lot of stuff that went on and there were a lot of meetings here. A lot of good, important meetings took place in Las Vegas and they resolved in Las Vegas.
Chic Hecht was responsible for the release of the Russian Jews out of Russia. That's a story that needs to be—it's in the book. I'll give it to you quick, the story.
What time do you have to leave?
I'm good at 12.
Okay.
Chic Hecht got a phone call by a man by the name of Guilford Glazer. Guilford Glazer was a friend of Armand Hammer and a very successful real estate developer in Los Angeles. He had received a call from the Russian ambassador. He asked Glazer to take the red-eye and come to
Washington. Dobrinen had decided to leave the Russian embassy after many, many years and go back and work with Gorbachev on Perestroiki, but they had an issue. The issue was the thing called the Jackson-Vanik amendment. "Scoop" Jackson, who was a friend of mine, and Charlie
Vanik from Ohio had given—passed the (indiscernible) Jackson-Vanik as long as there was no free immigration. You couldn't have favored nation status. If you didn't have favored nation status, you couldn't really trade. For example, if I bought something from Russia during the
Jackson-Vanik, the tariff would be 50 percent. If I bought it from Great Britain, the tariff would be three percent. So one of the things they had to do was arrange for favored nation status. But the politburo wouldn't let the Jews out. So the deal was struck. Dobrinen went to Glazer and Glazer went to Hecht. Hecht was a close friend of Paul Laxalt, the senator, and a close friend of Ronald
Reagan, the president. Hecht was one of our republican senators. Hecht went to Admiral
Poindexter, and they had a meeting with Ronald Reagan. I understand Hecht told the president
3440 what had to be done. Hecht took the president a list of 2500 names of refuseniks. Reagan gave that list to Gorbachev in Iceland. It was all arranged. Gorbachev went back to the politburo and said, "The President of the United States personally handed me this list of names." They guys let them out. That was the beginning of it. Chic Hecht changed the world, a guy from Las Vegas.
I said to him when he told me what he was doing—because he also gave up an arms sale group, which was also a political game. There was an arms sale going for review to Saudi Arabia, which had been approved by everybody. But it became intramural sports between the Democrats and Republicans. It started a thing and Reagan needed some votes and Chic agreed to give some votes, help get some votes for the arms sale, which had been approved by AIPAC and the Israelis.
The fuss started and the Democrats made an issue out of it. I said to Chic, "If you do this, you'll lose the re-election." He said to me, "If I lose my re-election, I've done the right thing for our people." He did lose the re-election, but he did the right thing. That was the beginning of opening up the Russian floodgates for the Russian Jews.
Chic went on to be the ambassador to the Bahamas. I remember when Reagan went to the
Bahamas, they talked about the issue. It's a much more—Las Vegas is the center of the world, really. You have no idea. It was the center of the world.
More than just entertainment and gaming.
Oh, yes. There was so much going on all the time. Khashoggi was the world's biggest arms dealer.
Exactly.
I had a meeting with him once. I was supposed to meet him at 11 o'clock in the afternoon or 12 o'clock. Mrs. Khashoggi had picked up some antiques. He finally showed up at 11 o'clock at night from 11 o'clock in the afternoon. He had had a busy day at Lockheed. If I remember
3540 correctly—this is not quotable—I think his commission that day was 90 million dollars. He
bought airplanes for Saudi Arabia from Lockheed and he got a commission. Everything was
always distributed; it didn't all go one way.
I'll never forget. I came into the suite and it was like watching a movie. They had already
been here for a month or two and they were getting an airplane ready. They had their own planes,
of course. They had trucks to take all the stuff and they were deciding how they were going to go
back to Europe. They decided they'd fly to Switzerland first, and then go from Switzerland to
Paris because customs would be less in Paris. They could get it through Swiss customs easier than
they could get it through French customs. So they make the trip of coming out here right here in
America. It was just astounding. You couldn't believe what would happen, what people would
buy. It was quite a town. Las Vegas, as I said, was the center of the world.
And now?
I think that's not the same anymore. It's a different world. Of course, we're still doing a big tourist
business.
Exactly.
In fact, I'm not even aware of their business anymore. Of course, I've been out of gaming for a
while. But I don't think we have the same kind of—when Khashoggi came, most of the Arabs
used to come.
Yes, you don't read anything about it anymore.
No, you don't. It's changed. You don't have the same celebrities coming anymore. You have a
different kind of celebrity. Celine Dion is a different kind. I mean, she's marvelous. I'm not
demeaning her in any way. But it's a different kind of entertainment. It's not the same like the
Sinatra day—Sammy Davis, Sinatra, Lena Horne, Nat King Cole. It's interesting you asked about
3640 the black community. Many of the headliners were black.
Exactly.
They were either black or Jewish. And Sammy was both.
[Laughing] Yes. Oh, my goodness.
Sammy came in one day. They had opened the Sands Hotel, and Sammy was the first act before
Sinatra came. He came in with (indiscernible) into the store. I wasn't there. I think it was the first day we were open. He picked out some stuff and said, "Send it over to the suite." We called.
This is a private story. We called for permission to room charge. No room charge. Sammy was notorious for being slow to pay, but because he was so generous. He had this huge entourage. He was supporting a hundred people all the time. Everybody was leeching off of him. He was a very nice man.
So I happen to arrive at the store and the phone rings and it's Sammy's guy. "Where are the sweaters?" I said, "We're going to send them right over, but we need your L.A. address." Why? I said, "Because we're going to bill it directly; we don't have a room charge arranged with the hotel," which was true at the time. Ten minutes later a credit manager came in and said, "What did you say to Mr. Davis? He's not doing the show tonight. He's offended; you offended him." I said, "I did exactly what I was told to do, no room charge." So I took the sweaters and went back to his suite and I said, "Look, we're open one day. You want me to fire the girl that said no to you? Is that what you want me to do? Should I fire her?" I said, "I don't have a room charge arrangement with the hotel. We haven't set it up yet. Your credit is perfectly good." "Your credit is perfectly good. We'll charge it to you and you'll pay us directly." He did go back on. But that was the town. It was a great town. He'd sit in the coffee shop and sign autographs, couldn't be more friendly.
3740 Red Skelton would come to town. He'd take a handful of coins and walk around with a cup full of change. He'd watch somebody at a machine for a long time. They'd go away and he'd play the machine and fill the thing and say, "Jackpot". They'd say, "Oh, my god, I played that machine for three hours and you got a jackpot." It was a great town.
Wonderful. I really appreciate your memories. Thank you so much.
You're welcome. Now I'll get you a book.
I would love it.
3840 INDEX
Encore Las Vegas, 28 A Entratter, Jack, 4, 5, 7, 24 Excalibur Hotel and Casino, 29 Adelson, Sheldon, 7, 23, 27, 28, 33 Affordable Health Care Act, 22 F American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 5, 35 Anti-Defamation League, 18, 23, 30 Forbes, Malcolm, 27 Francisco Square Shopping Center, 2 B G Bank of America, 12 Bank of Las Vegas, 4, 7, 12 Gaming Control Board, 10, 28 Bank of Nevada, 6, 7, 12, 15 Gaughan, Jackie, 28 Barbary Coast Hotel and Casino, 11 Gehry, Frank, 21 Bellagio Hotel and Casino, 20, 28 Gibbons, Jim, 8 Bennett, Bill, 29 Glazer, Guilford, 34 Bill's Gambling Hall, 11 Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, 26 Bobbie Brooks, 3 Goodall, Leonard, 31 Boyd Gaming, 9 Gorbachev, Mikhail, 34, 35 Boyd, Bill, 5, 6, 9, 12, 20, 21, 28 Greenspun, Barbara, 4, 5 Boyd, Marianne, 12 Greenspun, Hank, 4, 5, 6, 33 Brian Head, Utah, 15 Guinn, Kenny, 8
C H
Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino, 2, 4, 11, 12, 25 Hammer, Armand, 34 Cheney, Dick, 32 Harmon, Harley, 25 Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, 29 Harvard Business School, 20 Clark, Wilbur, 19 Hecht, Chic, 5, 15, 34, 35 Cleveland Clinic, 21 Hilton Hotel and Casino, 20 Cleveland, Ohio, 1, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 29, 31 Holocaust, 23 Club Bingo, 6 Home of the Good Shepherd, 19, 25 Cohen, Burton, 21 Horne, Lena, 29, 37 Cohen, Carl, 13, 18, 28 Cole, Nat King, 37 I Conntess, Jerry, 23 Cornero, Tony, 19 Israel, 4, 5, 18, 33 Coronado, California, 15, 24 K D Katz, Edith, 30 Dalitz, Moe, 4, 19, 25, 26, 27 Katz, Lloyd, 31 Davis Jr., Sammy, 29, 37 Kent State University, 1 Desert Inn Hotel and Casino, 2, 4, 19, 20, 21, 25 Kerkorian, Kirk, 21 Deutsche Bank, 12 Khashoggi, Adnan, 31, 33, 35, 36 Divinsk, Latvia, 17 Khashoggi, Muhammad, 33 Dunes Hotel and Casino, 2, 12, 14 Koch, Ed, 32 Kroneberg, Henry, 23 E
El Rancho Hotel and Casino, 19
3940 L Ruvo, Lou, 21 La Canada, 22 S Landau, Ellis, 23 Las Vegas Country Club, 7 Sahara Hotel and Casino, 2, 5 Las Vegas Sun, 4 Sands Hotel and Casino, 2, 5, 7, 13, 14, 18, 19, 25, 29, Los Angeles, California, 2, 3, 13, 14, 34 33, 37 Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, 20, 22 Sara's of Las Vegas, 2 Saudi Arabia, 31, 33, 35, 36 M Shaheen, Bob, 33 Siegel, Bugsy, 19 Mack, Jerry, 4, 7, 12, 26 Siller, Bobby, 28 Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, 11, 20 Sinatra, Frank, 24, 29, 37 Marshall, Jayn (wife), 1, 2, 3, 13, 14, 15 Six-Day War, 23 Marshall, Todd (son), 20 Skelton, Red, 24, 38 Marshall-Rousso, 3, 20 Slavis, Scott, 21 Mason, Flora, 23 Snyder, Don, 12 Maxson, Robert, 32 Stardust Hotel and Casino, 2, 19 MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, 2, 11 Sunrise Hospital, 19, 21 Miller, Bob, 8 Switzerland, 36 Mirage Hotel and Casino, 11, 20 Mob Museum, 25 T Molasky, Irwin, 23 Moscow, Russia, 16 Temple Beth Sholom, 2, 18, 25 Moss, Mel, 4 The Cromwell Hotel and Casino, 12 Mount Charleston, Nevada, 14, 15 Thomas, Parry, 4, 12 Tolstoy, Leo, 16 N Torres, Ed, 29 Troubetzkoy, Paul, 16 Natenyahu, Benjamin, 32 Nevada Gaming Commission, 8 U Nevada State Bank, 5 New York, 3, 12, 16, 24, 27, 32 University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 31, 32 Nick the Greek, 26 Nowak, Andy, 21 V P Valley Bank, 7, 12 Vanik, Charlie, 34 Palm Springs, California, 25 Virginia, 28 Pavlova, Anna, 16 Phoenix, Arizona, 4 W Prell, Milton, 5, 6 Public Employees Retirement System, 15 Wallerstein, Harry, 4 Warner, Eugene, 31, 32, 33 R Washington, D.C., 5, 34 Weinberger, Billy, 4 Reagan, Ronald, 34, 35 Wells Fargo, 12 Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, 15 Wynn, Steve, 27 Renzi, Feza, 22 Riviera Hotel and Casino, 2, 4, 12, 29 Y Rousso, Herb, 2, 3, 6 Russia, 5, 17, 34 Yarchever, Gil, 31 Ruvo, Larry, 21 Yom Kippur War, 23
240