By Rolando Larraz
Women are proud to dress like Raggedy Ann with torn jeans, while even paying an arm and a leg for old-looking jeans full of holes even if they are brand new. Famous athletes make millions for running after a bunch of other guys with a ball shown on national television in cut-offs and running shoes; in the old days that would be like disrespecting the host/hostess of the national televised show.
Movie stars showing up at events where their talents are being recognized while they are in jeans and tennis shoes with unshaven faces like they have awakened just minutes earlier with maybe not enough time to even brush their teeth.
Maybe the no-class behaviors comes with the lack of class or the lack of respect for the audience or the fans, but what about the television reporters and news anchors appearing on camera without tie and in some cases even without a jacket.
Are we moving into a world of classless professionals and disrespect for the rest of the community? I remember when people used to get dressed up to go see a show in a casino showroom or would even wear a sport jacket to see a lounge show.
In fact I remember when guests without a suit and tie were not allowed in the showrooms and the lounges used to keep several sport coats to“loan” to the customers that dared to show without a jacket; even the locals used to get dressed up to go on their rounds to different casino coffee shops or restaurants.
Many times I criticized former County Commissioner Tom Collins for showing up to the by-monthly commission meetings without a tie and wearing a cowboy shirt and jeans; once I even suggested that if he wanted to be a cowboy he should go meet with the cows somewhere else otherwise wear a suit and tie to show some respect to his constituents “after all, the rest of the commissioners dressed appropriately for the occasion,” I wrote once.
Even the Commission Chairman, who used to dress impeccably all the time, appeared at his last two commission meetings without a tie, as if his new title as Nevada Governor gave him the right to disrespect his constituents and campaign donors, by imitating his predecessor and showing up to a public event in shorts and boat shoes.
Of course some of the city officials are no different than their colleagues; Councilman Bob Coffin, now that he is no longer running for re-election, has been showing up to city council meetings in a western jacket and jeans, again disrespecting his constituents and campaign donors.
Soon he may be running for a new office because he, as well as fellow councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, cannot be without a government paycheck; they are government leeches who don’t know how to do anything else but sit on a political board and pretend to be honest hard workers, but of course now that he and another city councilman, Steve Siroka, have been officially branded “corrupt” it may be a little more difficult to win another election.
I am definitely too old for this new world and the new living style. I am the boss in my office and I wear a suit and a tie all the time; do I like to dress like that every day? Of course not; I love my jogging suits even if I don’t jog, but I believe that everyone that walks into my place of business deserves the respect of seeing me dressed for business.
Many times I don’t agree with some of the judges, but I don’t walk into a courtroom, regardless of whose courtroom it is, without tie and suit on, but now I have seen attorneys appearing in front of a judge in a sport jacket and t-shirt without a tie and the judge allows it because she thinks that he is “very wealthy,” according to her court marshal.
No question about it; I am definitely too old for this new world where people with money dress like poor people and treat others with disrespect. I am used to the era of big people, important people like Carl Cohen, Sandy Waterman, Ash Resnick, former Las Vegas Mayors Oran Gragson, Bill Briare, Ron Lurie, Oscar Goodman, and former Governor and Senator Richard Bryan and many others — who always dressed impeccably in a suit, with perfectly starched and ironed shirt, and with a fashionable tie — walking the casino floors, through City Hall or the State building.
That, my friends, is the Las Vegas that I knew, the Las Vegas that I remember and the Las Vegas that I miss.
My name is Rolando Larraz, and as always, I approved this column. Rolando Larraz is Editor in Chief of the Las Vegas Tribune. His column
appears weekly in this newspaper. To contact Rolando Larraz, email him at: Rlarraz@lasvegastribune.com or at 702-272-4634.
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