Where I Stand — Hank Greenspun: A past and present tribute to a Las Vegas favorite

Friday, April 24, 1998 | 10:50 a.m.

Our community lost a beloved citizen with the passing this week of Peter Lind Hayes.

We are reprinting a column written in 1966 by my late husband, Hank Greenspun, in which he pays tribute to Peter and his beautiful wife Mary Healy.

Not only does the column extol the virtues of these two talented stars, but it provides a historical context for new SUN readers to learn about the men and women who pioneered show business in Las Vegas. -- Barbara Greenspun, publisher

By HANK GREENSPUN

The crossroads of the world.

It used to be said if one stood on Broadway in Times Square in New York City long enough he would meet a friend or neighbor from back home.

That's probably still true, but in my recent travels I discovered so many people have connections, friends or experience in Las Vegas that our city at least qualifies for the title of "cross-trail of the world."

All of the major stars of the show business world have been here and have fond memories of our town. Some of them have deep roots because they either own property, or have close friends or relatives in Las Vegas.

During my trip East it was my pleasure to appear on the WOR radio talk program hosted by Peter Lind Hayes and his wife, Mary Healy, and that was quite an occasion. Three Las Vegas boosters were there and we spent most of an hour extolling the virtues of our city. This program is the most popular show of its kind in an area populated by 17 million people. Judging from the ratings most of them listen to Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy.

To say they have a warm spot in their hearts for Las Vegas is putting it mildly.

They pioneered the big time entertainment industry in Las Vegas, performing here when they had movies as well as personal appearances going for them.

I had with me a copy of "Las Vegas Life," which was my first publishing venture in Las Vegas, featuring Peter's mother, Gracie, and her opening of "Grace Hayes Lodge," which was across the street from the Flamingo.

The caption under a picture of Gracie was "Lady Courageous," and it's hard for anyone who lives here now to get the real significance of that title.

Her lodge was the old Red Rooster, which was miles out of town on what was then known as the "LA Highway." What is now the Strip was far from that when she pioneered the nightclub business.

The "LA Highway" was a two-lane black ribbon of a road that wandered through the desert, veering around giant hummocks of sand, which collected in the huge clumps of mesquite trees that dotted that area in those long ago days.

Tommy Hull's El Rancho marked the beginnings of what we know as our Strip but it seemed like it was miles from Gracie's venture.

Both Peter and Mary enjoyed the pictures in the magazine, especially one that had Gracie, Mr. and Mrs. Van Heflin and Peter and Mary at the opening night festivities of the Lodge.

Mary enjoyed the quotes from Gracie who described her as "a gifted angel" who had made her son very happy by becoming his bride.

They both love Las Vegas and we discussed at length the virtues of our town. We also talked about the "skimming" charges and that big radio audience got an entirely different image of our town than has been presented in news media and TV shows.

But Peter and Mary are still very big in the show world. They had just returned from the Truman Capote bash at the Plaza Hotel which has been so well publicized.

But we didn't talk about best-selling author Capote because Las Vegas was the topic and incidentally my book, "Where I Stand," which just happened to get mentioned more than casually. I think I will always be grateful to Grace Hayes' son Peter and the lovely Mary Healy for the fine tribute they paid my first literary effort before their vast listening audience.

Despite all our detractors and seemingly concerted efforts to present us and our resort industry in a bad light, Las Vegas still arouses much interest in the East, largely favorable.

Troupers like Gracie Hayes, her son Peter and his wife, Mary, need never feel ashamed of the close identification they have with our area.

They and others like them made Las Vegas the "entertainment Capital of the World" and we owe it to them to always make them feel their efforts were worthwhile.