Biggest Little City In the World (1950s) 

Things change or they get worse Signed, a guy from a small town in the Midwest who moved to Reno because there was nothing left in my hometown

@@setco6536 If you weren't already there, then I wish you could have seen in it in the 80s and 90s. It used to be so much better than it has become.

I knew every junk car up Keystone Canyon, Drank my first beer at Smokie and Dees, Bought cigarettes from the vending machines, cruised Virginia on the weekends and learned to ski thanks to the city.

Reno looked so clean at this time with new neighborhoods and classic 50s houses. I started going to Reno-Tahoe in the mid 80s and, you're right, that time was so much better from looser slot machines to a busy, festive environment. It's a shell of what it was back then and after the Great Recession it was a literal ghost town in downtown Reno where the casinos are. And when Harrah's closed a couple years ago that was pretty much the end of an era with so many great memories of a happening little city in its prime. You're better off nowadays staying at the GSR, Atlantis or the Peppermill for a nicer experience. Tahoe will always have a special place in my heart and it really hasn't changed that much except the casinos aren't nearly as busy as they used to be in the 80s and 90s - but the beautiful lake never changes. 😍🏔

I agree. I moved here in 1980, and I knew even at the time how special downtown really was. The vibrancy, the charm, and even some of the closed up buildings had a quaintness that's difficult to put into words. The old slot machines in the Nevada Club; the gun collection at Harolds; the open air curtain at Harrahs, the burgers at Kiah's Squeeze Inn, or, if you preferred, the Awful Awful at the Nugget. The girls ontop the PrimaDonna. A short away, a Woolworths. Anyone remember Lincoln Alley? What happened to all this? Downtown is a tomb now.

If by ‘innocence’ you mean segregation by race and exclusion of Indians after dark, maybe. The moniker ‘Mississippi of the West’ was no accident. It is a mixed bag. At the same time, Governor Grant Sawyer (1959-1967) guided passage of one of our nations first open housing laws. Additionally Mr. Probasco did not include race covenants in the property deeds for his Greenbrae and Elmcrest subdivisions of the late 1940s & 50s.

@@dabfan6924 - Here's a little "present day reality" for you, LOL, you're probably in some other country and your sole purpose on this video, is to instigate problems. Most that do research, which you're not one, would know that most western states, were not segregated. In 1954, for example, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware had some form of segregation occurring, however, Nevada is not included in this list. So, if your "deductive reasoning" is functioning, the census numbers and the fact that Nevada was not involved in segregation in the 1950's, should debunk your odd claims.

Hi Norman, My Mom remembers you! Layne Stephens.

@@AA-ve9sy I remember Layne well, think she knows my wife also. Sandra Ramsey played a lot of tennis in Reno. Tell Layne hello.

I was born at St. Mary’s in '58.

My parents were married in Reno too, but later in the early 60's.

The United States library of Congress never mentioned Lake.... it’s always Fullers

In the short time that Myron Lake owned the land it was referred as Lakes Crossing but was never officially recognised.

I remember Kai’s very well. Best burgers you ever tasted. Don’t remember Tony’s, though. Where was it?

Right next door to the old Riverside Parking Garage, not Riverside Hotel. Someone could take me there blindfolded,to Tony's, and I would know exactly where I was. What I would give for one of his "Poor Boy Sandwiches"!

Definitely Kiah's original Squeeze In. "In", because there were only 9 stools at a counter and you had to flatten yourself against the wall to squeeze by any patrons already sitting on them. If a small group came in, they were seated on "the mezzanine" at the bar next door to be served.

Excellent food, You literally had to "squeeze past" others to get to your seat, it was so narrow. A sign on the wall " BRAINS and eggs".

@@sakibear4478 and a pickle from that strange barrel

So sad my mom and dad had there wedding dinner there in 1955

The building could not be occupied. The floors were sagging, and it could not be sprinklered. Implosion was always its future.

Same

Is it really hot in the way people say

I meant haunted

Exciter ehh not really it’s the 21st century and it’s brighter and better but there’s is classic

Out of business

Yes where McCarran blvd crosses south Virginia Street today, I remember the Hash Lane sign at the corner. Hash Lane was a pretty country lane with white rail fences along it in the old days.

@@tracygallaway36 Correctamundo!

What’s the difference you are making? In his bio, Harold Smith talks about a bar in downtown that was for Indians only. And fierce about it. Their idea. Do you know what that was, or where it was?

​@@HooDatDonDar excellent question. IDK, I have never read Harold “Pappy” Smith’s book “I want to quit winners” & don’t know his intent in that comment. However, I have seen Nevada Historical Society pictures of Indians gambling on blankets by the train tracks - presumably east of the “Red Line” and thus segregated. Maybe the point Smith was making was self-serving: that is, if Indians “want” segregation in drinking, they must “also want” segregation in gambling, thus justifying the existing racial exclusion by the casinos. What do you think? Was it a white-owned bar nearby - but off -the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony [on E. Second east of Kietzke]? Was it a white-owned business on the reservation, such as existed at Sutcliffe (which is not in town)?Considering the historical context - things like “gifts” of smallpox-tainted blankets - it looks like exploitation to me rather than representing jovial self-segregation. But IDK. Harold’s Club was the first casino to offer good casino jobs to women. He wanted women to feel comfortable in casinos and introduced glass fronts and good lighting. Before him gambling clubs were dark smoky speakeasies. He was an historical figure, and I am not condemning him. My only point had to do with whitewashing by the film maker, painting a picture of Jim Crow as a technicolor nirvana. The Nevada & Reno Historical Societies are a great resource, and the Reno society has a website which documents (among other things) the multi-racial history of Reno, including a lot about Black Springs [north of Lemmon Drive on N Virginia St. The Tribes have a library at the Colony on E 2nd [by the pedestrian overpass]. Reno and Nevada get both demerits and credits for desegregation. It’s not simple, but the WCSD schools I attended were all segregated, de facto & de jure.