The Dunes Hotel and Casino was built in 1955, opening on May 23. It was the tenth resort on the strip and the owners were from out of state. The original owners were gone by August and the property was leased to Sands Hotel and Casino. The new hotel and casino continued to struggle for numerous reasons. The resort was one of four resorts to open within six weeks of each other and the competition for customers led to overspending for marquee performers. Its location at the northern end of the strip isolated it from the walking traffic and they also were following behind with construction payments. Over the next two decades, the property changed owners faster than the public and the Gaming Board could keep up with. Some owners operated without the casino, building three hotel towers and a world class golf course. Some of the buyers included men with ties to the Mafia so the merry-go-round continued like a carnival ride stopping for new riders. Potential owner Howard Hughes spent a year looking at the numbers, before deciding it was a bad gamble. Finally, the property, valued at 3.5 million, was sold to one of the original construction companies, at a Clark County sheriffs auction, to satisfy their lien against the casino. The price, $115,000. This was at the end of 1957 and the previous owner group of Gottesman, Sullivan, and Gettinger bought it back in November of 1958. Major Riddle took over as the operations manager, and the resort began to turn a profit. The specter of the continued mob presence caused more turnover, and the casino was sold in 1972 to Irvin Kahn, a San Diego developer, and his partner Morris Shenker, a lawyer from St Louis. After the longest and most thorough investigation in the history of the Nevada Gaming Commission, the two were licensed as owners. Unfortunately, Kahn passed away before the decision and Shenker gradually bought full ownership of the resort. By 1975 the resort was overrun with mob figures and the Dunes became their private playground, according to some reports. The casino orientation was organized, and my group was given a guided tour of the property before we split up and were turned over to our different departments. There were three other new employees for the slot department, and we had made introductions before the start of the tour. We had not talked much and that continued as we were briefed on our duties and given our schedules. The three change girls were assigned to days, swing shift, and graveyard, and I was assigned to swing shift with the other floorman.
. Nola was about five feet tall and barely 100 lbs. Her blonde hair trailed to the small of her back and from the rear, let’s just say she was shapely. Her blue eyes and dimples compensated for her small chest, and she brought the total package together with her personality. She was outgoing and flirtatious, all of which I picked up on while were having lunch in the employee dining hall. The dining hall was huge and could easily service an entire shift in two, thirty-minute periods, with a half-hour break in between for replenishing the buffet-styled service line, and minor cleaning. Glancing around the tables, I could see that many of the employees brought food from home or had take-out delivered by spouses or significant others.
“Hey, this tastes like shit! I’d rather grab a coke and go pollute my lungs. You in?”, Nola was already getting up ang preparing to grab her tray.
“Ill take that for you ma’am, and be with you in a minute.”, I said.
I caught up with her at the basement doors that led to a designated smoking area for employees. The walkway to the doors was dimly lit and the stairs and walkways were made from heavy-duty sheet metal, perforated to make it easy to clean with a hose.
“I’m sure glad you came with me. This is some spooky shit.”, Nola said.
“I’m glad you’re here to protect me “, I answered. I pulled out one of the folding chairs from one of the card tables and we raced to see who could smoke two cigarettes in the short time we had left. She smoked two Kool filter king cigarettes in the time it took me to finish one Kool regular.
“You win, I’m getting dizzy from just pulling on the one I finished.” “One of these days I’ll show you how it’s done.”, she pulled hard on her butt, smoking it down to the filter. She grabbed my arm and locking us at the elbow, she rubbed against me at every opportunity as we made our way to the elevators. I learned that Nola had migrated from a small town in Indiana with the father of her two young kids. They were currently separated for three months now, but he used the kids as leverage and was supposed to join them at their small apartment this weekend. He was a deadbeat dad and the vocal abuse had turned physical. I told her about my marriage to Cheryl, and the Kyoko disaster I went through, but made no mention of Melissa. Her apartment was near the weekly rental I was staying in and Nola offered to give me a ride after our shift. I had lost my car because of my gambling and was wondering how I was going to move to a place closer to the Dunes. I declined her offer to pick me up for work the next day and made my way to my room, dreaming of Melissa during a restless night.
Nola was all smiles as we worked the next day. She knew I was attracted to her, but I played it off. I really did not want another workplace romance and kept our conversations to a minimum if it was not job related. Because of the experience I had from working at the Circus-Circus I was assigned to mentor her. For two-weeks our schedules were aligned, and she was my shadow. I was surprised that she could muscle six racks of dollar coins when we had to reload a carousel or change bank. She said that it was easier than carrying a child in each arm because the racks didn’t cry or ruin her clothes with all manner of bodily fluids. The rest of the crew were a mixture of know-it-alls and inexperienced new hires. The change girls were like the ones at the Circus, just better trained in customer service and overall work ethics. The shift boss was an Italian from the Bronx. He had the New York accent and talked with his hands moving constantly. We got along great once he found out that I was a diehard Yankee fan and that I knew a lot about the teams he grew up with in the fifties and early sixties. He knew his job and was a firm but fair guy to work for. He impressed me with his willingness to jump in and help with the most menial tasks. I had checked operations for any holes or weaknesses and had found nothing so far. I also did not connect with any of the slot team that I felt was a good fit in a skimming operation. I joined a bowling league sponsored by the Dunes and other casinos and one of the team members was a black girl from the slot department. She was a “church girl” but not the snooty kind. Another black lady worked one of the change booths and was a mother hen to the change girls. She was heavily into church and was always telling me to change my ways and inviting me to church. I spent a lot of time at her booth during slow periods. If you wanted to hear the latest gossip from anywhere in the casino, she knew it all. Cleo preached humility and funding God’s kingdom, but her nails gave her away. Her expensive designs and colorings were not cheap and despite using her hands all the time, she was always professionally manicured, and I never saw a chipped nail on either of her hands. One day a young pregnant girl was at Cleo’s booth, and she was counseling the girl about her upcoming delivery. The girl was going to be a single parent and wondered if she should give her baby up. Her first child was lost to crib death, and she wondered if she was mother material. I listened in but said nothing. The rest of the team were faceless, and change was constant. The life of a change girl; was on the feet, legs, and back, and they received low tips compared to the other hotel and casino employees. I begin to focus on the finances of my fellow workers believing greed and need would be the things to look for. In the meantime, I started my campaign for best employee.
To be continued,
Barron Broomfield
