It Was A Very Good Year

During the past week, I've been thinking about 1966. The reason is that I've uploaded some 1966 big band radio broadcasts and a Frank Sinatra/Count Basie performance from Las Vegas to The Palomar, my big band broadcast (and podcast) blog.

I remember 1966 as if it were yesterday, yet it was 40 years ago. I turned 26 in September 1966. My life changed abruptly just before my birthday because Big John's was closed by the powers that be.

Big John's was a blues club in Chicago's Old Town where I worked for two years, my first job after college. I loved that club. I heard great music there and met some wonderful people. Big John's featured the best blues bands in Chicago, black and white. Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield, Muddy Waters with Jimmy Cotton and Otis Spann, Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall, Howlin' Wolf, Harvey Mandel, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

Those were great days, a time I'll always cherish, a place I'll always love. Old Town was mainly an artist colony in the early- and mid-1960s, then yielded to the Yuppie invasion. Cheap rents gave way to high-priced houses and apartments, and apartment buildings became condominiums, or "condos" for short.

The powers that be in Old Town and Chicago did not want a popular, mixed-race club like Big John's in their midst. Our customers were mostly white, but when bigots see a few blacks mingling with whites, all they see are blacks. A few months after the powers that be (Mayor Richard J. Daley and his cronies) closed Big John's, the City condemned the building that housed it as well as the two buildings just north of it. Mayor Daley's personal attorney already owned the lot on the southwest corner of Eugenie and Wells Streets. Until 1967, he used it as a parking lot where, ironically, many Big John's customers parked their cars. In 1967, a high-rise apartment building called Americana Towers rose in their place and still stands there today. It quickly became a condo.

Forty years ago. The closing of Big John's meant I was out of work. I couldn't afford to stay in my apartment, so I took a room at the Lincoln Hotel, two blocks north of where Big John's had been. I had wanted to work as a writer since my college days at Northwestern. It took me a couple of months to find a job, but I landed a good one in December, as feature writer/editor for Institutions Magazine, the leading hotel/restaurant or food service and lodging trade publication in the country.

My boss, James Ward, was the editor. I learned a great deal about writing and editing from him. After James left in 1968 to head up the editorial services division at R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, he invited me to join him, and I did in early 1969. My writing career was on its way.

In April 1967, while working at Institutions, I received a call one day from John Ascuaga. I didn't know him. He introduced himself and told me he owned the Nugget Casino and Hotel in Sparks, Nevada, just outside of Reno. He invited me to visit with the hope that I would write an article about the Nugget.

When I told James about this, he said I should accept, and I did.

This happened shortly after Howard Hughes acquired four hotels and casinos in Las Vegas. While visiting with Ascuaga, he said that Hughes' acquisitions and plans would revitalize Las Vegas and be a boon to the entire Nevada economy. John said that if I would like to meet Hughes' top executives and other key execs in Las Vegas, he would be happy to arrange it. I asked James and he said to go for it.

Before I knew it, John's secretary gave me my itinerary for the next week, filled with meetings, names, and phone numbers.

I stayed at the Desert Inn, one of Hughes' properties. His key executive, Robert Maheu, spent a couple of hours showing me Hughes properties and discussing their plans. "What we want to do is to make Las Vegas the travel destination for everyone visiting the Western United States." Maheu said. "Jumbo sets and supersonic transports can fly here from Chicago or New York or London or Tokyo, and our McCarran International Airport has plenty of room for expansion."

Maheu also talked about building cushion air rail service from San Francisco to Las Vegas and from Las Angeles to Las Vegas. "Indonesia already is using a cushion air rail system," Maheu said, "and its trains can travel at a couple of hundred miles per hour. Angelenos could be in Las Vegas in no time."

I spent the rest of the week visiting executives at Caesars Palace and other hotels and casinos and at the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Everyone was ecstatic about Howard Hughes' plans for Las Vegas.

When I returned to Chicago, the first thing I did was write my story about my Nevada trip. My boss liked it so much that he made it the lead article for that issue. It was a straight-ahead piece about Las Vegas and Reno. No puff, just the facts, m'am, and plenty of photos.

Listening to the music from Las Vegas in 1966 on The Palomar reminds me of that great trip 40 years ago. The executives I met, especially John Ascuaga and Robert Maheu, treated me fairly and honestly. They knew how to treat people, making them feel welcome during their visit. The two of them taught me a lot about the hospitality business.

George Spink
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Los Angeles