Las Vegas myth fixed: Late Nevada senator faces re-election bid
This is the second myth-busting of the series, something screenwriters Ed Reed and Ovid Demaris reinforced in "The Green Felt Jungle." Her 1963 New York Times bestseller was the first to reveal the secret criminal ownership behind most casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, but it distorted many of the facts.
Rumor has it that during the 1940 election, Pittman's aides and Democratic officials froze his body in Tonopah's Mizpah Hotel. That way, the coroner wouldn't be able to determine the time of death before the election, and Nevada Governor Edward Carville could appoint another Democrat to replace Pittman.
In their 1995 book "A Brief History of Reno," authors Barbara and Myrick Land trace the myth of the frozen senator to an offhand remark made by one of his staffers, according to It said he told reporters the reason the senator was so impersonal was because his staff "kept him on ice" in his final days on the campaign trail.
Senator Steve-O
A tall, lean, upright Southern gentleman who retained the gifts of his Mississippi origin, Pittman rose to become president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate and chairman of the prestigious Committee on Foreign Relations during President Franklin Roosevelt's first and second terms. Several laws are named after the senator, including the Pittman Act of 1918 and the Pittman-Robertson Federal Wildlife Restoration Assistance Act of 1937.
But it was his alcoholism that really affected Pittman's life and career.
As part of the delegation representing the United States to the 1933 London Economic Conference, which included President Roosevelt, Pittman acted more like Steve O in "Jackass" than an American official. He was reportedly spotted by a waiter at Claridge's Hotel one night, sitting naked in the kitchen sink, pretending to be a fountain. Another night, Pittman amused himself by walking along Upper Brook Street and extinguishing street lights.
Pittman's reason for attending the meeting was to promote the cause of silver, a cornerstone of Nevada's mining economy before tourism. Judging from a report that came after a U.S. representative dared to question Pittman’s view that silver should be monetized again, this directive of his was a bit too much. Pittman pointed a gun at the poor guy and chased him down Claridge's hallways.
SHOCKING FACT
Pittman's staff, accustomed to spinning stories about his drinking, correctly told reporters on Election Day 1940 that the senator's absence was due to exhaustion when he was taken to the hospital. The 68-year-old was hospitalized Nov. 4 after suffering a massive heart attack at the Reno Riverside Hotel.
"He came back to Nevada to campaign and drank heavily," said Michael Green, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Sometime before the election, he felt ill, drank too much and suffered a heart attack. "
Although his wife, Mimosa Pittman, visited him at Washoe Hospital on Election Day and wrote in her diary that he seemed "happy," doctors had told her that his death was imminent. Come, the senator wouldn't even survive the trip back to Washington. , Washington, D.C. In fact, Pittman fell into a coma on November 10 and died early the next morning. After Pittman won his sixth election fairly, he was finally able to name a successor.
Despite being debunked by more than a dozen prominent Internet history blogs, conspiracy theorists still refuse to believe the story of Nevada’s re-elected “Senator on Ice,” even though the true story is only slightly less than myth.
"The people of Nevada didn't elect a dead man to the Senate, but they did elect a dying man who had no chance of survival and whose condition was kept secret," Green said. "The facts are interesting enough even without the legend."
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Source: www.casino.org
