The Washington times., 1938-02-07
Calico POrtrayS
Busting Reno AS
Town of Contrast
Mining Camp in Fancy Dress Describes
Strange DiUOrce Capital of U. S.
paul Calico roOing reporter of International Neo0s
Service has Uritten series of sr articles OhGt he
terms The most amazing city in the United StateS the
Reno, Men,. of todGy'O
By PAUL CALICO
RENO New" Feb (INS THE first impression of Reno
New. 1888 will your hair It's the greatest show in

1t is the city of a thousand con-
trasts. Wide open, life rides high,
wide and handsome. The red,
blue, green and purple neon lights
of the clubs and palaces burn
their messages of pleasure and
excitement into your brain, and
blind you to the fainter glow of
pathos and tragedy, the undercur
rent Of the town. 1t is the city of
the women who have failed.
MINING CAMP DRESSED UP
1t is fresh. salty and naive as
a mining camp in the roaring for
ties, and as smart and Sophisti-
Gated as Fifth Avenue or Michigan
boulevard.
1t is tough and crude and hard,
and yet full of strange gentlenesS
and tenderness and sympathy for
the female flotSam of the coun-
try washed up onto its shores in
search of freedom from marriage,
escape from life.
1t is almost impossible to break
the law in Reno, because there are
so few laws to break. You cannot
expose the city because there is
nothing to expose. All the human
and animal passions are legalized.
When you come to the line in one
of our national anthems-"let
freedom ring" you must think of
Reno because it is the last strong
hold in the United States where
the tocsin of liberty peals twenty
four hours day.
CITY OF CONTRASTS
It is a clean, orderly, gentle,
wicked, bawdy, joyous, manly, un-
pretentiouss unregenerate little
city, that admits frankly and
without sham or hypocrisy that it
lives on divorce. on the golden
grist ground by the best oiled,
sweetest moving divorce mill in
the world.
Twenty.four-hour drinking, gam
bling and prostitution are legalized
in Reno. But Reno, too, has six
teen churches.
Reno Is known all over the
world for its Six-week divorces.
But Reno annually celebrates three
times as many marriages as di-
vorces. If Reno is a divorce mill,
it is also a marriage hopper. Reno
is the solvent for the inhibitions
of other States. The three-day-
"gin-marriage"-law of California
sends thousands of couples into
neighborlng Nevada to be united.
ONE BUILDING FOR ALL
The marriage bureau is in the
same white marble courthouse
that frees the miserable who have
tired of their mates.
= An airline out of San Francisco
runs all-expense wedding trips
to Reno at $50 and $75. This in
cludeS two-round trip fares, mar
riage license, fee for marrying
judge or minister (any sect, any
creed included. wedding supper
or breakfast, overnight in the
bridal suite of the best hotel, and
the necessary number Of whiskey
sours the next day to enable the
newlywedS to reach the airport.
Reno IS a masculine town and
conceived and operated by men
for women
No woman need be lonely in
Reno during the taking of "the
cure" And no woman need worry
about being annoyed or molested.
The divorce colony in Reno is as
closely guarded and exclusive as a
private club and harder to crash
than most. Gigolos are. not
wanted. Fortune hunters and
phonies are run out of town.
LIQUOR is PLENTIFUL
Liquor, the Divorces anodyne,
is cheap, good and plentiful, and
available at any hour. The bar
in the Riverside Hotel and most
Of the other big bars and clubs
works on 24-hour shifts.
The hotel also provides a nurse,
a big, comfortable woman who is
handy when the new arrival
begins to come out of it, sober
up, and for the first time look
herself in the eye.
The secrets of most Of the un-
happy women who come here are
locked beneath the white jackets
Of the bartenders of Reno. The
sympathetic friend hears one side
of the story, the attorney hears
another, but the bartender even
tually hears it all.
LADY CHANCE REIGNS
Wealthy spenders who want to
gamble and have money to risk
can play practically without limit.
But the best clubs in town will sell
you roulette chips for a dime
twenty for two dollars,-and most
of the gambling houses on the
main dragS will take nickel bets.
The city is full Of professional
gamblers, ranchers, sheepmen,
miners and cowboys. One rarely
sees a policeman, and rarely sees
disorder. But don't walk into a
gambling house with your hands
showed down into your pockets.
You might get hurt.
The thing you are most apt to
be arrested for in Reno is walking
across a street against a red light.