WEBVTT - Divorce Ranches 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:13.760 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.680 Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And this topic came 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.400 to my attention while I was working on research for 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.760 our recent Harrison Dyer episode. In that episode, we talked 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.840 about how Dyer's paramore, Wileska Allen, moved to Reno, Nevada 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.280 in the early nineteen twenties to establish residency so that 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.559 she could divorce her imaginary husband, Wilfred P. Allen. That's 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:38.720 a whole story. If you don't know it, you can 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:40.600 go listen to that episode because it's too much to 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.839 explain it an intro. It's a hall journey. And another 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.920 podcast subject head a hopper start in a movie in 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.839 nineteen twenty seven called a Reno Divorce, And all of 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:53.960 this has kind of been playing in the background of 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:56.720 my brain and going we should talk about Reno and divorces. 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.440 Reno and Nevada have long been wrecked as divorce friendly, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.240 so I got to think about how that happened. And 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.280 the topic that we're talking about today specifically sort of 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.600 we're talking about a lot of it is divorce ranches, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:15.119 which didn't really come about until after Wilesca's time. There 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.680 there were things like it going on, but they weren't 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.440 really like pitched as this is a divorce ranch. Divorce 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.080 ranches sprung up in the nineteen thirties when the state 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:30.200 relaxed its laws even further regarding divorce and residency. So 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.600 today we will talk about the state's relationship with divorce, 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.640 how it became the divorce capital of the country, and 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.360 why this unique and controversial style of resort, the divorce 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:45.560 ranch was so popular for several decades and then became obsolete. So, 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.160 as Holly just mentioned, divorce was part of Nevada's identity 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.800 well before the nineteen thirties, but it was definitely not 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.920 the first place in North America to allow or even 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.080 be known for the availability of divorce. And like a 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:03.080 legal system context, there was divorce in the colonies. The 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.920 first was a bigamy case in the Massachusetts Colony in 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:10.040 sixteen forty three, and as the United States was formed 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.480 and people moved west from the Atlantic coast, the places 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.640 at the edges of westward expansion tended to be the 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.320 most hospitable for a legal breakup of a marriage. It's 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:27.240 kind of a pattern in social expectations and moving west. Yeah, 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:31.519 in some cases that was far away from established communities, 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.080 so it was easy for someone to start a new life. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.919 In other ways, it was just a place that was inhospitable, 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.480 so people were worried about other stuff. You want to 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.919 get divorced, go crazy. We really need to make sure 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.480 that everyone eats enough. It was it was just not 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:50.360 a priority to really be particular and clamped down regarding divorce. 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.839 So when Nevada became a territory in eighteen sixty one, 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.200 it quickly became a divorce haven. Virginia City, which sits 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.520 to the east of Lake Tahose northern Sure, became known 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.320 as the City of Divorces. When Nevada gained statehood in 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.720 the eighteen sixty four the state constitution included the same 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:14.080 relatively liberal laws regarding divorce that the territory had. It 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.200 also included the same requirement for residency that the territory 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.079 had had, which was six months. Because Nevada's legislature was 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:26.160 amenable to relatively quick and easy divorces, it, like other 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.360 territories and states with similar laws, became very attractive to 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.040 legal firms from the East Coast. Those firms would set 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:36.760 up outpost offices in these places so that they could 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:41.280 enjoy the steady business of divorce cases. This helped establish 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.200 the idea of divorce mills. In addition to the legislation 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:47.960 that was in place, lawyers and places like New York 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.520 or Chicago or other big cities would often encourage their 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.240 clients who were seeking divorce to go to one of 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.280 the places where it was easier to get one. They'd 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.279 spend the required amount of time there to declare themselves 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.720 a resident, and then get their divorce. Even with this 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.480 wait time to establish residency, this often was a much 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.080 faster process than it would have been back home, as 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:15.440 many states had really long waiting periods after filing. When 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.200 we say it was easier to obtain the divorce, it 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.640 was a lot easier, and a lot of states, including 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:24.840 New York, to get a divorce you had to have 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:29.159 proof that your spouse had committed adultery, things like cruelty 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.159 or abuse. They were not enough. Nevada had a lot 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.800 more ways that you could claim that a divorce was 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:38.960 a necessity. Yeah, we'll talk about some of those in 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.520 just a bit, but this all quickly led to high 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.520 profile people hoping to rapidly move on from unwanted marriages 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.599 in the state. We'll talk about several of these today, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.400 but one of the first was Bertrand Russell's older brother, 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:56.160 John Francis Stanley Russell, who was the second Earl Russell. 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.400 He may be an episode topic in the future. He's 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.719 quite a t to me. His divorce saga is long 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.520 and kind of intense. Both he and his wife Mabel 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.120 wanted out of the marriage and they found it impossible 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.839 within the British legal system. For a long time, the 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.280 two of them pretty much lived separately and they kept 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:20.440 trying through the British courts to gain a divorce without success. 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.880 But then when Francis fell in love with Molly Somerville, 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.839 who was also married at the time, he decided that 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.120 he wanted to hasten a dissolution of his marriage and Molly's, 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:36.600 so he and his mistress went to Nevada. After spending 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.400 six months at Lake Tahoe, Molly and Francis each got 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.880 divorces from their spouses who were back in England, and 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.200 then the two of them got married in Reno the 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.640 next day. These divorces were not going to be recognized 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.039 as legal in Britain, and both Francis and Molly knew that, 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.520 But in Francis's case, he was hoping this would create 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.880 a scenario where his wife, Mabel, could and show clear 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.560 evidence that she had been abandoned by her husband, so 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.840 their divorce would finally be granted. He even set aside 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.039 a sum of money for Mabel to keep the whole 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.640 thing as smooth and simple as possible. That did not 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.880 work out as planned, though, While Molly's husband had also 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.440 filed for divorce and they were able to settle this 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.680 matter uncontested, and while Mabel wanted a divorce as well, 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.840 Russell was arrested and tried for bigamy. That is its 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.599 own whole story about why he was arrested. It was 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.080 not very common to prosecute bigamy in Britain at the time, 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:42.320 but that's a different story for another day. Reno really 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.880 did become a big destination for would be divorcees after 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.080 a woman named Laura Corey spent time there before receiving 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.599 her divorce from William Ellis Corey, who was president of 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:57.360 US Steel Corporation. This was a divorce that William wanted 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.440 he had started an affair with an actress named Mabel 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:02.880 Gilman and he wanted to be free to start a 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:07.040 life with her. And Corey paid his wife Laura one 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.760 million dollars for a divorce. This was in the early 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.920 nineteen hundred, so that was a lot of money, and 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.480 he asked her to travel to Nevada to live for 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.680 the requisite six months at the time to declare residency 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:22.480 and file, which she did. And this was another high 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.760 profile case that was covered in papers across the country 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.720 and it ended up with Laura getting full custody of 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.080 their son and a whole lot more money. And because 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.160 this was a very wealthy, stylish family from the United States, 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.560 it helped create this sort of halo effect around Reno 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.600 in particular as the place where wealthy and important people 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.960 would go to get their divorces. Soon, Reno and Nevada 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:52.000 overall were the preferred destinations among the options for relatively 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:57.120 expedient divorces in the United States. Divorce tourism grew so 0:07:57.360 --> 0:07:59.840 rapidly in Reno in the first decade of the night 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:02.880 teen hundreds that much of the city was built to 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.760 accommodate it. What had been a relatively small town of 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.320 several thousand residents suddenly had a need for housing for 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:16.480 this constant influx of not quite permanent residents. This included apartments, hotels, 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.800 boarding houses, and in some cases private homes that were 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.480 rented out by the room or in their entirety. There 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.600 was also a boom and entertainment venues and restaurants to 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.720 keep all these newcomers fed and occupied. In the nineteen twenties, 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.840 dude ranches started to dot the suburban landscape. They would 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:39.480 offer a variety of amenities alongside outdoorsy activities like horseback 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.840 riding and shooting. Most of their visitors were women waiting 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.560 out this residency rule. All of this led to Reno 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.400 taking over the nickname of divorce capital of the country. 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.760 People started referring to the act of going to Nevada 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.400 for a fresh start as the Reno cure. That title 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.040 of dev capital was not one that everyone who lived 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:07.680 in Reno appreciated, and because of ongoing complaints and campaigning 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.559 from various groups, including churches and women's groups, the length 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.160 of time required for residency was lengthened in the nineteen 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:19.559 teens from six months to one year. This, of course, 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.840 resulted in fewer divorces, which was the goal of those 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.080 groups that had been lobbying for this change, But it 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.240 also meant that the city that had built an economy 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:32.160 on wealthy divorce seekers over the prior decade was suddenly 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.160 left struggling financially because people were not willing to go 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.080 somewhere for a year the way they would for six months. 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.320 That law was changed back to the six month wait 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:46.280 period for the economic needs of the state. The next 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.840 divorce of the rich and famous to put Reno in 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.600 national headlines was that of Silent film star Mary Pickford. 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.640 We talked about Pickford in one of our eponymous food 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.520 episodes when we talked about Fetccini Alfredo. We mentioned that 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.160 she and Douglas Fairbanks fell in love with the dish 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.319 on their honeymoon. That marriage happened after Pickford got a 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.920 quickie Nevada divorce from her first husband, Owen Moore, which 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.480 she did in nineteen twenty. Nevada also gained a revenue 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.480 stream from quickie weddings around this time. That started in 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.040 the late nineteen twenties because while other states were tightening 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.640 their laws and establishing things like waiting periods and blood 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.960 tests before a couple could be married. Nevada required none 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.960 of that. Still, after the nineteen twenty nine stock market crash, 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.520 the revenue from those dropped off, along with everything else. 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.600 That crash and the depression that followed ushered in the 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.760 time of the divorce ranch. We will talk about that 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:54.760 right after we pause for a sponsor break. Nevada economics 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.640 once again led to a shift in residency laws with 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.360 the hopes that divorce tourism would bring in more cash flow. 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.800 In nineteen thirty one, the Great Depression was in full 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.360 swing and the state's finances were really hurting. It was 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.760 harder and harder for people to come up with the 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.680 money for an extended stay in Reno or elsewhere in 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.640 the state just to get a divorce. In nineteen twenty seven, 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.000 the state legislature had already dropped the residency requirement to 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.920 just three months, so it was not as expensive as 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.200 it had been at six months, of course, but there 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:30.800 were still far fewer temporary residents patronizing their hotels, their 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.640 du branches, their restaurants, and their speakeasies. That year, Nevada 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.400 made two important changes to state law, which were intended 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.760 to improve the state's finances and lore tourists. The first 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.880 was the Wide Open Gambling Act, which, as its name suggests, 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.640 made gambling legal in the state, and the second was 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.400 that in March of nineteen thirty one, Nevada opted to 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:58.720 shift to a six week waiting period for residency, much 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:03.080 shorter than the prior three month period and way shorter, 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.480 way way shorter than the one year that most other 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.320 states required. It also added wording that a person could 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.200 ask for a divorce based on what was described as 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.920 extreme cruelty entirely mental in nature, but that was way 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:22.000 easier to claim than adultery or abandonment, which was what 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.720 was required in other places, and also other places required 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:30.760 proof of those claims. Yeah, that extreme cruelty clause gets 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.120 discussed a lot in anyone writing about this history, because 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.480 in some cases it was like not maybe what you 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.560 would think of as something extremely cruel, but like things 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.720 like my husband won't let me play the radio in 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.600 the house, or like, in some cases there was obviously 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.120 genuine cruelty, I don't want to downplay that, but in 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.400 some cases they didn't have to really come up with 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.520 anything heavy to get the divorce moved right through this 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.400 shift in divorce laws was recorded in the Nevada lature 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.000 as follows. Section twenty two. Divorced from the bonds of 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.200 matrimony may be obtained by complaint under oath to the 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.560 district Court of any county in which the cause therefore 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:14.240 shall have accrued, or in which the defendant shall reside 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.720 or be found, or in which the plaintiff shall reside, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.600 or in which the parties last cohabitated, or if plaintiffs 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.520 shall have resided six weeks in the state before suit 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.360 be brought for the following causes, or any other causes 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.720 provided by law so First impotency at the time of 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:36.040 marriage continuing to the time of divorce. Second adultery since 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:40.840 the marriage remaining unforgiven. Third willful desertion at any time 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.320 of either party by the other for the period of 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:47.640 one year. Fourth conviction of a felony or infamous crime. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.680 Fifth habitual gross drunkenness contracted since marriage of either party, 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.480 which shall incapacitate such party from contributing his or her 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.920 share to the support of the family. Sixth extreme crew 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.640 cruelty in either party. Seventh neglect of the husband for 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.560 the period of one year. To provide the common necessaries 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.240 of life when such neglect is not the result of 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.520 poverty on the part of the husband, which he could 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:16.440 not avoid by ordinary industry. Eighth, insanity existing for two 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:20.160 years prior to the commencement of the action. That last 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:25.880 one had additional language as well, requiring corroborative evidence. We've 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.720 talked about instances in history on the show where a 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.320 husband has declared that his wife was insane to try 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:36.080 to get a divorce without needing any other verification or 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.760 examination of that claim. This additional language was there to 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.360 prevent that kind of situation. The new version of the 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.440 Divorce Act went into effect on May first, nineteen thirty one. 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:52.960 A reported three hundred new divorce cases were filed that morning, 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.080 But the new law also kicked off a lot of 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.840 controversy around the United States. There were a number of states, 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.320 at least prominent judges within a number of states that 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.440 did not want to recognize Nevada divorces as legal because 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:12.440 of the looser regulations. Almost immediately, newspapers around the nation 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.160 included coverage of this issue and featured opinions and statements 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.359 given by various judges on the matter. Illinois, in particular, 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.760 was the first to challenge the validity of Nevada divorces. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:28.520 Maryland also would not recognize Nevada divorces initially, and Tennessee 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.600 was not happy about it, but had not had any 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.640 cases come up for them to really examine. And then 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.680 when Georgia authorities were question on the matter, they just 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.040 were not sure if Nevada divorces would stand in their state. 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.200 Just a month after the Nevada six week residency law 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.040 went into effect, the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News ran 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:53.640 a lengthy editorial on Quickie divorces. It read quote, lawyers 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.400 generally throughout the country know that citizens of one state 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.560 cannot legally escape the divorce laws of their own state 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:05.440 by taking temporary sojourn in another state. Nevada divorces are 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.320 good only as long as they are accepted by both parties. 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.600 But let one party to the marriage raise objection in 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.400 the state in which both parties are residents, and the 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:19.359 law will support the objection. Nevada divorces are founded on perjury. 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.920 Parties to divorce cases in Nevada are asked not only 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:25.720 if they are residents of the state, but if they 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.720 intend to be residents thereof. They always answer in the affirmative, 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.160 although at the time of the answer they have their 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.160 tickets purchased to go back home. The Nevada divorce mill 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.400 may lead to a national uniform divorce law. Protection of 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.960 the rights of women and children may require such a step. 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.120 Nevada's easy divorce laws may be all right in many cases, 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.440 but perjury is not to be approved, and neglect of 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.120 the rights of children are not to be approved. Ultimately, 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.480 Nevada divorces were deemed legal and were upheld by all 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.200 the other states by December of nineteen thirty one. So 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.560 the same year this law went into effect, divorce ranches 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:08.119 were hitting the papers. Many papers ran a story with 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.040 the headline divorce ranch established at Reno by Vanderbilt for 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:16.920 freedom seekers, decree and grand time, all for five hundred dollars, 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.360 So this literally was like syndicated in all of the papers, 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.680 and many instances of this article opened with what amounted 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.080 to kind of an advertisement for Vanderbilt's new business, which read, 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.360 in part quote, no longer need the ordeal of interviewing lawyers, 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.600 attending courts, and such tiring details prevent the freedom seeking 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.200 husband or wife from cutting loose from the unwanted partner. 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.800 Thanks to Cornelius Vanderbilt Junior, everything is now plain sailing 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:46.840 for the one who desires to be rid of the 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:51.280 marital shackles. Neely, as he is affectionately called, has opened 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.880 up a divorce ranch at Indian Springs Oasis near Reno, 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.480 where all one has to do is check in and 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.800 spend six weeks of entertainment while the manager attends to 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:05.000 all troublesome details of severing the tie that binds. It 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.560 goes on to explain that the small charge of five 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.679 hundred dollars covers quote, room and board for six weeks 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:15.560 plus entertainment horseback riding, tennis, swimming, and so forth. It 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.800 also mentions that Vanderbilt has hired a manager named Mary 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.560 Gratchy to handle all of the business, including talking to 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:26.040 lawyers for the guests, and that if this venture succeeds, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.040 the business will expand into a chain quote within a 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.960 convenient radius of the divorce mills at Reno. It touts 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.680 that manager Gratcy will quote do one hundred and one 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.720 of those annoying little jobs that take all the fun 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.680 out of divorce. This article was likely the first introduction 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.000 a lot of readers around the country had to the 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.200 concept of a resort for getting divorced, and it describes 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.320 how easy and pleasurable it will be for guests to 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.760 go on vacation and do all the things they would 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.359 enjoy and a regular ranch stay with the added legal 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.120 benefit of handling the divorce when this day is over. 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.560 Vanderbilt is quoted in the article saying, quote, give the 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.000 public what it wants, do it cheaply and with the 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.960 minimum amount of trouble to the customer. This first ranch 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.919 was called lazy Me, and it developed a reputation as 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.520 a place where not only could a person wait for 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.879 their divorce, but they could also potentially enjoy and no 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:24.720 strings attached dalliance with somebody from the staff. Vanderbilt, who 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.000 was an outcast from high society, got a book out 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.040 of the business. But it does not appear that he 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.520 stayed in there. No. I kept trying to hunt down, 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.560 like did he ever open up his chain? He just 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.560 kind of vanishes from this whole project after a while. 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.160 After he wrote his book. I think he was like done. 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.000 Most of the divorce ranches in the nineteen thirties were 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.159 in or around Reno, but that changed at the end 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.919 of the decade, and we'll talk about why after we 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:55.960 hear from the sponsors that keeps stuff you missed in 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:09.680 history class. Going prior to nineteen thirty nine, most hopeful 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.600 divorcees went to Reno. That was where the divorce ranches 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:17.480 were mostly clustered. But that year nineteen thirty nine, Clark 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.600 Gable's second wife, Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham, who went 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.760 by Riha, had a lengthy stay in Las Vegas to 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.520 establish residency so she could divorce her movie star husband. 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:31.880 The couple had gotten married in nineteen thirty one, when 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:36.200 Gable's career in film was just beginning. Ria was seventeen 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.880 years older than Gable and had just gotten divorced from 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.880 her third husband when the two met in nineteen twenty eight. 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.080 Their courtship was one in which the wealthy socialite Ria 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.960 took care of the younger Gable financially, helping him develop 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.680 his stylish image. But as Gable had become a movie star, 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.040 he had also been seen around Los Angeles with many 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.520 women who were not Ria and many of his cos 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.040 and it was apparent that this marriage was not a 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:06.880 happy one, so Ria moved to Nevada. But she went, 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.000 as we said, not to Reno, but to Las Vegas. 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.600 She asked only that she be given privacy, and in 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.159 exchange she gave an interview to the Las Vegas Review Journal. 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.200 This was a deal she arranged with the Las Vegas 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.879 Chamber of Commerce. That interview was accompanied by photos of 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:29.320 Langham having a wonderful time enjoying a variety of leisure activities, 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:33.480 including visiting the casinos of Vegas, and it put Vegas 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.520 on the map as a divorce resort. Soon the city 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.200 had its fair share of divorce ranches. The year after 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:43.880 Rea lanham stay an endorsement of Las Vegas, the Vegas 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.200 Strip was added to the city's offerings, and it cemented 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:51.480 its place as a destinations for weddings, divorces, and gambling. 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.760 While divorce ranches appealed to people with enough money to 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.359 spend five hundred dollars to while away their residency requirement, 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.119 there were also much less glamorous places popping up to 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:06.240 serve the needs of the less affluent in Reno in Vegas. 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:10.600 These were sometimes dormitory style boarding houses for women, where 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.879 they would share a room and a bathroom with you know, 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:17.080 anywhere from four to eight people. They were not really 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:19.720 having the time of their lives, but they were still 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.200 getting their divorces, and they were still boosting the area's economy. 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:27.200 By the end of the nineteen thirties, Nevada was home 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:30.440 to five percent of the divorces in the United States. 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.040 That may not sound like all that much, but its 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.240 population made up less than one tenth of a percent 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:40.040 of the country's total. There were still plenty of famous 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.120 and glitzy visitors to the divorce hub of the country 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:47.080 over the years. In nineteen fifty one, Rita Hayworth famously 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.600 went to Lake Tahoe for six weeks to file for 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:54.040 divorce from her third husband, Prince Ali Khan. The couple 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.119 had been together for two years when Hayworth left with 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:00.359 their toddler daughter to petition for divorce on the rounds 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:05.680 of extreme cruelty entirely mental in nature. When Kroner Eddie 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.240 Fisher decided to divorce Debbie Reynolds to marry Elizabeth Taylor 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:13.119 in a huge scandal that eventually cost him professional opportunities, 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:15.920 he went to Vegas to wait out the six week 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:21.080 waiting period. Fisher combined his Nevada residency accrual with work, 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.399 and he got a job singing on the Las Vegas 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:26.760 Strip at the Tropicana. Elizabeth Taylor was said to have 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.399 often been at his shows as the pair waited for 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.800 his divorce. The culture of these divorce ranches, at whatever 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.800 economic level a person could afford to stay, was really fascinating. 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:42.159 The six week stay afforded a variety of experiences for people, 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:44.439 and for many of the women who went there, it 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:47.639 was a taste of freedom that they really weren't accustomed to. 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.679 In some cases, divorce branches offered a sense of community. 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.000 People were all going through the exact same experience, and 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:58.760 there are a number of accounts that mentioned close friendships 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:02.480 that people formed there. For someone who wanted to experience 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:05.800 the freedom of a life unhindered by attachment, there were 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:09.840 plenty of diversions and places to visit. Some ranches and 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:13.560 boarding houses even assisted with childcare for mothers who had 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:16.359 arrived with their little ones, enabling mom to have a 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:20.040 night on the town whenever she desired. In twenty ten, 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:24.240 two sisters, Beth Ward and Robbie McBride shared their story 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:26.400