Saturday, April 11, 1998 | 2:04 a.m.
BRIAN GREENSPUN is editor of the Las Vegas SUN.
Editor's Note: When The SUN'S founding publisher Hank Greenspun wrote his Easter column on April 21, 1957, he talked about an earlier Las Vegas when families gathered together by the only two hotels in town. In 1957, Las Vegas had tripled its size from only a decade before.
Today, we are a metropolis, dozens of times larger and well on our way to even more growth. What we are missing, though, is the warmth of those early days. On this Easter Sunday, Hank's 41-year-old message should have a special meaning to people of good will who dream of the good times to come. With our best wishes for a Happy Easter, his column follows:
By HANK GREENSPUN
"In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it."
Words and music by Irving Berlin and how beautiful it was, but he had a good subject to sing about.
Berlin amassed many thousands in royalties on this number, and the hat designers of the nation eagerly await the time of year when milady goes shopping for her Easter bonnet.
Along with the idea that Easter was a time of year when all the dolls, big and little, should don their finest and parade along the Fifth Avenues of the country, came other symbols.
The Easter Bunny -- that fantastic rabbit who has the faculty of producing multicolored chicken eggs -- is an important part of the legends of the season.
In the early days of Las Vegas, when the resort hotels were few in number and the competition was less keen, no Easter went by without a gigantic Easter egg hunt on the spacious lawns of the old Last Frontier, given by Bill Moore for all the kiddies in town. At first, maybe 50 young ones turned out for the affair. At the last one, I recall over 5,000 youngsters, each clutching a bag of Easter goodies.
The Flamingo also had egg hunts, and the pleasantest task we fathers had in those days was shunting the kids back and forth between both hotels to hunt the bright colored eggs.
The best part of the Easter egg hunts was renewing old acquaintances -- stopping to talk with friends whose kids had inveigled them to the hunt as did ours. Occasionally the conversation would be interrupted to comb the remnants of shell and partially cooked egg out of one of the kids' hair. Seems like there was always some lusty youngster who disbelieved the gravity theory of Newton, who had to sail an egg into the air and where it fell he didn't care, and inevitably it would come to rest on top of some sweet little gal's curls. Sometimes it resulted in the respective fathers becoming slightly peeved over the antics of the young ones, but it never quite came to blows. The gentleness of the season prevailed and somehow the episode would be laughed off.
It was all in fun, and I would never take it away from the kids.
Basically, however, Easter is one of the holiest days of the year for those of the Christian faith. It marks the Resurrection of the Saviour, and is celebrated as one of the most joyous occasions in the Christian calendar.
There's a certain quality I like about Easter, it matters not one's religious faith. A sort of feeling of joy, of newness, of life being reborn. The celebration itself falls during the time of year when everything is beautiful. Flowers are beginning to bloom, grass is getting green, the sun starts to shed a warmer glow as each day passes. It's a time for feeling good.
Children and family life come into their own on this holiday because it gives the child its proper place in the world's society. It's almost like the angels descended and brushed each little one in their bright Easter finery.
Since men have lived on earth, their feeble intellects have struggled to realize the majesty of God. The Easter season brings close this realization.
May this Easter Sunday find everyone -- no matter what religious creed -- in a joyous, happy mood. This is the time to hold the head high and face the future with courage.
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