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In 1931, Nevada was a large patch of dry desert land with one of the smallest resident-per-acre ratios in the country. Prohibition was in full swing and police in the two main centers of population, Reno and Las Vegas, were cracking down on the speakeasies. At that time ranching and the railroads were two of the largest industries in the state, and railroads were fast losing ground to the automobile.
That year, however, the Nevada state legislature re-legalized gambling (it had been outlawed in 1910, though underground clubs continued to operate) and relaxed the state marriage and divorce laws, dramatically altering the future of Nevada in general and the town of Las Vegas in particular. The new laws changed the residency requirements for divorce from 3 months to six weeks, and allowed a couple to marry with nothing more than the payment of a license fee–no waiting time, no blood tests.
Around the city of Reno locals began to open ‘divorce ranches’–renting accommodations to people waiting to establish residency to get a quickie divorce (one of these ranches, actually established outside of Las Vegas, was called the D4C). Famous fighter Jack Dempsey divorced his wife, Estelle Taylor, in Nevada that year. And while Reno became the place to end a marriage, Las Vegas became the place to begin one. The combination of Nevada’s romantic, last of the Old West atmosphere, legalized gambling and the easy marriage and divorce laws were irresistible to another relatively new American phenomenon–the Hollywood celebrity.
Las Vegas was a small desert outpost then, with a few popular nightclubs and several underground speakeasies. Most of the nightlife was concentrated on Fremont Street, while the now famous strip was just a dark road out of town. Even then, however, the night club revue shows drew large audiences and quality performers.
In December of 1931, two of Hollywood’s hottest properties were married in Las Vegas in a hush-hush late night ceremony. The judge was sworn to secrecy because the bride-to-be, silent film star Clara Bow, was on the verge of a nervous breakdown from enduring years of relentless media pursuit. Her groom, movie cowboy Rex Bell, had carried her away from Hollywood and brought her to his Nevada ranch, about an hour and a half outside of Las Vegas, to restore her failing health.
The ceremony was so secret, in fact, that today little is known about exactly where and when it occurred. Judge William Orr, who wed the couple, kept his word, but rumors that the couple had wed were all over town. Several days later, when Clara was seen at one of the popular local clubs wearing a wedding ring, the rumors were confirmed. Newspapers halfway across the world carried the story, and the first trans-Atlantic telephone call to Las Vegas was put through to the Bow Café, run by Clara’s father, from a London reporter.
The little desert oasis of Las Vegas grew in popularity, especially after prohibition was repealed at the end of 1933. The gambling, wild frontier atmosphere, and the entertainment were even then major attractions, drawing people from all over the country, but especially from Hollywood and San Francisco. Las Vegas was one of the last wild west outposts that also boasted the best civilization had to offer.
In the 1940's, two small chapels were built near the Clark County court house in downtown Las Vegas (near the Fremont Street area). These chapels were located for convenience and designed for quick, quaint, quiet weddings. The Wee Kirk O’ The Heather is today the oldest continually running wedding chapel in Las Vegas, having opened its doors in 1940. The Little Chapel of the West, opened in 1942, has seen perhaps the largest number of celebrity weddings in Las Vegas history. Beginning with Mickey Rooney, who married Ava Gardner there the year the chapel opened and continued to return every few years until he wed his eighth wife there in 1978, the chapel has seen a long procession of stars including Judy Garland, Fernando Lamas, Dudley Moore, and most recently, Academy Award winning actors Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie.
In June of 1931, the deputy county clerk recorded that a record 117 marriage license applications had been processed that month. Today the marriage license bureau often processes that many applications in a single day. The marriage bureau has its own separate office, open from 8AM to midnight during the week, and 24 hours on weekends and major holidays.
Weddings are the second largest industry in Nevada, and gambling, of course, is the first. The city is home to large numbers of wedding planners, wedding accessory stores, and 24-hour wedding chapels. Many of the chapels offer particularly Vegas benefits, such as being married by an Elvis look alike (Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu were married at the original Las Vegas Aladdin Hotel in 1967). Helicopter or hot air balloon ceremonies, hotels that offer wedding packages including limousine ride to the marriage license office, and even Camelot theme weddings are just a few of the reasons celebrities, and regular people from around the world, continue to wed there.
Few Las Vegas celebrity marriages, however, endured like that of Clara Bow and Rex Bell. The couple remained married until Bell’s death in 1963, while he was running for governor of Nevada.
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