Beyond the Mafia: Italian Americans and the Development of Las Vegas

154 Pages·1996·4.69 MB·English

by  Alan Richard Balboni

Beyond the Mafia
Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities
Beyond the Mafia
Italian Americans and the Development of Las Vegas
Alan Balboni
Foreword By Jerome E. Edwards
Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities No. 37
Series Editor: Jerome E. Edwards
Alist of books in the series follows the index.
University of Nevada Press
Reno, Nevada 89557 USA
Copyright © 1996 by University of Nevada Press
All rights reserved
Jacket design by Erin Kirk New
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper used in this book meets the requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Binding materials were
selected for strength and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Balboni, Alan Richard
Beyond the Mafia : Italian Americans
and the development of Las Vegas / Alan
Balboni ; foreword by Jerome E. Edwards.
p. cm. — (Wilbur S. Shepperson series
in history and humanities ; no. 37)
Includes bibliographical references
and index.
ISBN 0-87417-243-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Italian Americans—Nevada—Las
Vegas—History. 2. Las Vegas (Nev.)—
History. I. Title. II. Series.
F849.L35B34 1996 95-51534
979.3’13500451—dc20
CIP
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
5 4 3 2
This book is dedicated to the memory
of my maternal grandfather,
John Scanga
Contents
Foreword
by Jerome E. Edwards
Preface: The Interviewing Process
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One
The Early Years: From Laborers to Successful Entrepreneurs
Chapter Two
The Rapid Growth Years: Italian Americans Come to Las Vegas
Chapter Three
The Corporate Era: Italian Americans Prosper
Chapter Four
Italian American Organizations: Preserving Ethnic Heritage in a Time of Assimilation
Chapter Five
Conclusion: The Immigrant Upraised
List of Interviewees
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Foreword
Las Vegas is the largest city in the United States founded in the twentieth century. For a quarter century after
1905, it remained a sleepy railroad town. But beginning with the construction of Boulder Dam and continuing
with the economic opportunities provided by World War II, and especially by the existence of legalized gam-
bling, its growth was striking—rising from 5,165 people in 1930 to 127,016 in the metropolitan area in 1960,
to approximately a million in 1995. At the same time Las Vegas gave a flamboyant new culture to the
American scene.
Within this context, Professor Alan Balboni of the Community College of Southern Nevada narrates the story
of Italian assimilation. The spectacular, late growth of Las Vegas certainly affected the nature of this assimi-
lation. Since the high tide of Italian immigration to the United States had occurred many years before the gam-
bling mecca’s rise, immigrants did not arrive in Las Vegas directly from Italy; they had already gone through
some process of assimilation. Then, too, with such instantaneous growth and the new housing splattered all
over the landscape, there could not develop any Italian neighborhoods to conserve traditional values. As
Balboni reminds us, Las Vegas was an exceptionally open and mobile society, and Italian Americans were
important to its growth. Their assimilation was rapid.
Particularly interesting is Balboni’s demonstration of the indispensable Italian contribution to the develop-
ment of gambling in Nevada in the 1950s and 1960s when “The Boys” (his preferred term for the Mafia or
Mob) held sway. The Mob provided much-needed construction and investment money for the capital-starved
gambling industry and expertise in running its casinos.
The Jews and Italians who made up “The Boys” were able to develop the burgeoning gaming industry to the
point where it eventually became a significant influence on the American scene. In turn, gambling rewarded
Italian Americans in Las Vegas with quick upward mobility and hastened their assimilation into the wider
American culture.
At the heart of the book are Balboni’s interviews with well over 150 Italian Americans in the community con-
ducted since 1988. Most of these individuals have had successful careers, and many were important to the
history of Las Vegas. Their story is a positive one; their lives were filled with hard work, and they contribu-
ted much to their city. Balboni relates their experience with sympathy and understanding. This book therefo-
re recounts Italian assimilation from an Italian-American point of view; it provides a window into the Las
Vegas Italian community that can be obtained from no other source.
JEROME E. EDWARDS
EDITOR, WILBUR S. SHEPPERSON SERIES IN HISTORYAND HUMANITIES
i
Preface:
The Interviewing Process
Soon after beginning my research in October 1988, I conferred with colleagues who had studied Las Vegas’s
history. Eugene Moehring and Ralph Roske of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas History Department,
Roosevelt Fitzgerald of the Anthropology Department, and Candace Kant of the Community College of
Southern Nevada Social Sciences Department urged me to interview senior Las Vegans who might recall
some of the Italian-American pioneers. After reviewing U.S. Census records and early issues of theLas Vegas
Age, I followed Ralph Roske’s specific advice and contacted Richard Ronzone, a longtime resident and reti-
red public official. Ronzone, in considerable pain during the interview, provided me with information about
Las Vegas “old-timers” who might shed some light on the Italian-American role in Las Vegas’s development.
Ronzone’s death in January 1989 was a reminder of the importance of proceeding with the interviews, even
as I conducted more traditional research.
Many potential interviewees I sought out regarding the pre—World War II history of Las Vegas were not
listed in the phone book. Contacting many of them required perseverance and occasionally creativity. It was
not unusual for me to contact two or three present or former associates of a potential interviewee before I
obtained a mailing address and/or a telephone number. Some were impressed by my persistence; others
dismayed by it, feeling, I suspect, that I was a prying journalist. The latter refused the interview opportunity.
Initially, my interviews were rather formal. I had a list of questions and taperecorded the responses. With
experience, I took a less formal approach as I noticed that interviewees provided more information when I
initially asked openended questions, and then followed their sometimes lengthy responses with more speci-
fic questions. Soon, after a few interviewees asked me not to record their responses, I stopped bringing the
tape recorder. This was a positive development, as it allowed me to meet interviewees in restaurants. Although
I conducted most interviews in homes or offices or occasionally by telephone, I found that several Italian
Americans enjoyed talking at length after an Italian meal. It was a worthwhile investment, as I had no hesi-
tation in telephoning these five men and one woman later to gain additional information.
I always asked if the interviewee could tell me how to contact others who might substantiate or perhaps even
give me a different perspective on the events described. Rarely was my request refused. Nothing succeeds
like success, and with each interview my credibility with potential interviewees improved. Publication of my
article on Las Vegas Italian-American pioneers in the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly further enhanced
my credibility. An article on the colorful Tony Cornero, a convicted felon, which appeared in the Sunday
magazine of the Las Vegas Review-Journal was not as helpful, as some past and potential interviewees que-
stioned why I wrote about a criminal. They were concerned that, my protestations to the contrary, I was plan-
ning to write yet another sensational book about the Mafia in Las Vegas.
Often, an individual whom interviewees identified as a great source of information was not. Sometimes,
because his memory was poor, he did not understand the purpose of my questions, or he was suspicious of
my intentions and chose not to talk with me. On the other hand, I experienced more than one worthwhile inter-
view with an individual who began the session by saying, ‘’I don’t think I’ll be able to help you.” On the two
occasions that spouses attended formal interviews, they were quite helpful in refreshing the memories of their
partners.
Some interviewees had both excellent memories and an appreciation for my research. Most notable were
Tony Allotta, Al Bossi, Phil Carlino, Angelo Cassaro, Phil Dioguardi, and Guido Testolin, all of whom are
mentioned in the text, as well as Dr. Russ Anderson, now deceased, formerly a professor in the Resort and
Marketing Department at the Community College of Southern Nevada, and Dr. Herman Van Betten, dean of
the Henderson campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada from 1984 to 1995. I met with each
at least three times and had numerous telephone conversations with each. Anderson’s father, a dice manufac-
turer in the Midwest, came to Las Vegas in the early 1940s and opened a business, Nevada Club Room
Supplies. His avocation was gambling. Van Betten was a member of the Clark County School District
Trustees in the 1970s and active in Democratic Party politics while an associate professor in the English
Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
I am particularly grateful to those Italian-American interviewees who worked in gaming in the 1950s and
1960s. As my interview requests of some so employed often met with the response “We don’t talk to no one,”
I recognized that the respondents were overcoming a broadly held distrust of outsiders by consenting to be
interviewed. One longtime gaming manager, a man who began his career in the Chicago area, told me during
our third meeting that a couple of his contemporaries, one of whom refused my several requests for an inter-
view, advised him that he was making a big mistake by talking to me. Some of the men who came to Las
Vegas in the late 1940s or early 1950s, having become casino hosts, were reluctant to give me an outright
refusal for an interview, preferring to stress again and again that they were just too busy. One, apparently exa-
sperated by my persistence, said, “The only time I have to talk with you is at 3:00 , during my break.
A.M.
“When I responded that I would meet him at the Strip resort where he was employed at 3:00 the next mor-
A.M.
ning, he paused and then replied, “OK, I don’t want to talk to you.”
Several Italian-American entertainers who resided in Las Vegas were most informative interviewees; some
others either refused to be interviewed or professed extraordinarily poor memories. Not surprisingly, two
comedians whose routines included social commentary, Peter Anthony and Pete Barbuti, were not only hel-
pful in identifying Italian-American entertainers who performed in Las Vegas (many of whom had changed
their surnames), but also insightful regarding the leading roles played by Italian Americans and Jewish
Americans in the entertainment business.
Five of the eight top casino executives whom I sought to interview consented, although in some cases it took
more than a dozen phone calls and several months before I could meet with them. In each case I sent in advan-
ce an article I had already written, and in one instance the executive directed his lawyer to review both my
article and my unpublished manuscripts before he consented to an interview. Each answered all my questions
and two offered, off the record, their views on the extent of organized crime influence in the Las Vegas casi-
nos in the 1950s and 1960s. The one executive who explicitly refused my request explained bitterly that every
time he had given an interview in the past, the reporter had distorted it to make him look like a mobster. My
efforts to explain that I was a professor, not a reporter, were to no avail, even though he had read my article
on Italian-American pioneers. Another executive, Al Rapuano of the Riviera Hotel, instructed his secretary to
tell me he was too busy to talk with me during the three-month period when I called more than a dozen times.
Then he resigned just prior to a Nevada Gaming Commission hearing to consider his suitability for a perma-
nent license as a casino executive. He left me no forwarding address.
Thoughtful perspectives on organized crime in Las Vegas, particularly the Italian American and Jewish
American role in such activities, were readily available to me. Interviews with two men who had been asso-
ciated with organized crime were useful. The opinions of one, who must remain anonymous, appear in the
text; the other, Willie Fopiano, recently the author of a book about his experiences, contributed almost all of
his considerable ill-gotten gains to the Las Vegas economy on his visits to Las Vegas from Boston in the 1970s
and 1980s. Equally illuminating was an off-the-record discussion with two law enforcement agents who had
considerable experience investigating organized crime in Las Vegas. They and I agreed on some matters and
disagreed on a few others. Ralph Lamb, Clark County Sheriff from 1961 through 1978, was reluctant to give
me a firm no to requests for an interview, initially saying he was too busy and then directing his secretary to
tell me that he could not take my calls. His predecessor, Wilbur “Butch” Leypoldt, readily answered my que-
stions. John Smith’s columns in the Las Vegas
Review-Journal were an excellent source of information on the activities of reputed organized crime figures.
He assisted me in contacting Willie Fopiano, shared with me his perspective on the issue of Italian-American
predominance in Nevada’s Black Book, and commiserated with me regarding our respective failures to con-
tact Al Rapuano.
Particularly as at least eight interviewees had died by December 1994, I have no regrets about having active-
ly sought out interviewees so as to greatly enhance my knowledge of the Italian-American experience in Las
Vegas. They shared with me both a wealth of knowledge about particular aspects of the development of Las
Vegas and a variety of perspectives on issues such as the Italian-American role in the post—World War II
growth of the Strip, the nature and extent of organized crime influence in Las Vegas, relations among Italian
Americans and Jewish Americans in the gaming industry, and the history of Italian-American organizations
in Las Vegas. They brought life to what would otherwise be an informative but narrow study of Italian-
American migration and employment patterns.