Page 81 - 2006 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e

Featured Article
Las Vegas in Prohibition.................1

Special
Excuse me?......................................7

Departments
News & Notes..................................2
November 2006 Programs & Hikes...........................4
Desk Schedule................................6
Bulletin Board................................8

Las Vegas in Prohibition . . . It’s party time! an old friend visiting from San Fran-
cisco? Kane assured the skeptic that
by Jack Ryan he was merely on a scouting mission,

no harm intended. They’d tour the
“Las Vegas is an ugly rotten little town.” making a mockery of the 18 Amend- best bars with Uncle Sam picking up
th
— Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior ment. It had to stop, the Bureau told the tabs. Kelly’s thirst became acute.
during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. its San Francisco office; “We intend to He grabbed his derby and jacket and
close Las Vegas if it takes the United began a monumental pub crawl.
eventy-five years before Las Ve- States Army to do it.”
gas was internationally known The unlikely choice to put Las First on the itinerary was the elite
Sas “Sin City, USA,” it was cas- Vegas in its place was Robert Kelly, LaSalle bar with two white-aproned
tigated nationally as that “ugly rotten probably the only failed real estate bartenders, 20 patrons. Quality whis-
little town.” It was certainly little, a salesman in a town that the Great De- key at 50 cents a shot. Next came the
way stop on the transcontinental rail- pression had missed. A
road of Union Pacific. How, then, did family man, Kelly had
this brat become known in all 48 states been a deputy sheriff
as “ugly” and “rotten?” It earned it, in Oregon and a game
that’s how, and an incident from 1931 warden in Wyoming.
illustrates just how. On February 18,
It was the era of Prohibition, when 1931, he was sulking
American bluenoses tried to reform in his office longing
American rednoses by outlawing for a stiff drink and la-
alcoholic beverages. Americans kept menting his abandon-
guzzling, though, getting their booze ment of law enforce-
in clandestine speakeasies. A glaring ment when, magically,
exception: Las Vegas, Nev. There, Wayne Kain entered Las Vegas speakeasy, 1931
you simply walked into a saloon and, the office.
alongside the chief of police or a coun- Kain was poised,
cilman, indulged yourself. handsome and attired in the latest elite Motor Inn, service by membership
Las Vegas’ notoriety was spread Wall Street fashion in a town where only (Kelly was an honored member).
endemically by sightseers to the Boul- bib overalls were de rigueur. He intro- The odyssey spilled downward with
der Dam project and by rail travelers duced himself as an undercover agent the Bull Pen dance hall (pitcher of
who filled up empty hip flasks and told for the Bureau of Prohibition which beer, $1), the Fish and Shrimp in the
the envious folks back home, “We had had been impressed with Kelly’s law redlight district (10 private rooms)
a refreshing stop at Las Vegas and, enforcement record. Having inflated and in the wee hours, the Blue Haven,
ahem, took on some water.” Kelly’s flagging ego, Kane came to where a patron had been murdered
Las Vegas’ reputation infuriated the point: Would Kelly introduce Kane recently. But by then, who cared?
the dry’s heading the Prohibition En- to the saloonkeepers of Las Vegas,
forcement Division. Those hicks were most of whom he knew intimately, as Prohibition, continued on p. 6