Thursday, Sept. 9, 1999 | 9:40 a.m.
Ruthe Deskin is assistant to the publisher. Her column appears Thursdays. Reach her at [email protected].
"I desire no future that will break the ties with the past."
-- George Elliot.
It must be a part of the aging process. The older one gets, the more a tendency to dwell on the "good old days." In some cases they weren't all that good, but time has a way of smoothing out the rough spots and leaving us with only happy memories. It's that way for me when it comes to Las Vegas.
I liked our city better when it was smaller, with few cars on the streets, less crime and a Strip where hotels were set back from the highway instead of crowding the sidewalks. Living in the old Huntridge section was a family affair. Everyone knew the neighbors and few homes even had keys for the front door. The more affluent residents lived in Rancho Circle or in some of the gracious homes in the area of the old Las Vegas High School. Charleston was a dirt road past the county hospital (now UMC) and Sahara was San Francisco Street.
Those were the days, my friend, but along came progress and the bustling metropolis we call Las Vegas; the old Strip has been turned into an incredible place of massive hotels, casinos and entertainment to suit every mood. Comparing the old Strip to the new is like pitting a sourdough biscuit against a croissant. Being a biscuit gal myself, I do miss the old resorts, most of which have either been imploded into oblivion or remodeled past any recognition.
All of which brings me to a series of three videos produced by the Las Vegas History Foundation. Bill Morse, Don Payne, Frank Wright and many others had a hand in the production, which came about after several years of painstaking research. "Remembering Las Vegas" has three volumes on video -- "In the Beginning," "Hoover Dam" and "The Glamor Years."
The first includes data confirming the presence of prehistoric animals, the Anasazi, early explorers, the Mormon influence and the beginning of Las Vegas, when early pioneers like the Von Tobels bought property at a land auction held in 1905. The story of the taming of the raging Colorado river is told in the second video, using footage made available for this purpose. It includes interviews with men who were among the brave souls who built the dam. The third video begins with the 1940s when the Strip was an infant and Helldorado Days, sponsored by the Elks lodge, was the big event of the year. Interviews with old-timers add spice to the tales of those days when Las Vegas emerged from its cocoon to become a full-blown butterfly.
I commend the men and women who have been toiling over this project for such a long time in order to assure authenticity, and those who lent financial assistance. I haven't had the opportunity to review the videos yet, so I must believe others when they say this is the story of Las Vegas as it has never been told before.
A recent column about early dining spots in Las Vegas brought a query from a reader, Irene Huff, who wants to know if anyone can remember a small ice cream shop that was open from 1933 to 1935.
"For a very special treat," she writes, "my family would walk to the shop near 5th and Fremont for a malt. It was a wonderful treat during the Depression." That was a bit before my time. Can anyone supply the name of that ice cream parlor?
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