No story about the Last Frontier, or the succeeding Frontiers, would be complete without Mort Saiger who was known as Mr. Frontier. Saiger was afilliated with the hotel since it opened, and in 1979 was Executive Casino Host. The following is a combination of a 1979 and 1997 articles. The picture and the 1979 story was donated by Howard Klein.

Born in Opatow, Poland in 1903, he fled his homeland in 1920 ending up in Hollywood, California. Saiger had appeared in silent films including one role that had him working as a stunt double for Rudolph Valentino. He was also a champion ballroom dancer.

In 1942, He met R.E. Griffith, a Texas theater chain owner who was launching what was to become the Hotel Last Frontier. Saiger went to work there in 1942, handling a variety of jobs over the years.

He did just about everything at the Last Frontier, from running lights in the Ramona room theatre-restaurant, to maitre'd, to escorting horseback riders in the desert near the hotel grounds.

So popular were Saiger's outings on horseback that he would be joined by groups from the El Rancho. And sometimes several female guests staying at the El Rancho would be so impressed with Saiger that they wanted to switch hotels to be able to ride with his groups. However, since many of those ladies were staying at the El Rancho to complete their six week residency for a Nevada divorce, they could not officially check out.

"So I would take the station wagon over to the El Rancho late at night and pickup the ladies and their luggage and bring them over to the Last Frontier." - Mort Saiger

When Liberace appeared at the Last Frontier, he would point up to the control booth where Saiger was working lights and operating a record player and tell his audience that Saiger would play a recording of a classical piece of music recorded by an outstanding symphony orchestra. Liberace would then announce that he would synchronize his playing with that recording.

"He was great at doing that, playing in time with a record." - Mort Saiger

Saiger began at the El Rancho as a maitre'd and immediately moved over to the Last Frontier when it opened. When the New Frontier was built, he took up a brief residence across the street at the Desert Inn, but when the Frontier was opened in 1967, the new owners asked that Saiger return to the spot where he first started. Saiger was delighted to go back.

"The Last Frontier was at times a hit or miss operation in that we had to improvise and innovate. But now everything is computerized. Even though things are more businesslike today, the Frontier, I think, is the friendliest hotel in town. Our management is tops. I started out here and the Good Lord willing, I'll end here.." - Mort Saiger

In a 1981 interview, Saiger remembered once loaning a tie to Howard Hughes. It was a tie he said Hughes never returned.

A unique and historic service that Saiger performed for the Last Frontier earned him the title of the "Last of the Pony Express Riders." Saiger would actually deliver mail on horseback between the hotel and the downtown Post Office. His swift ride on his horse "Vegas Lady," a product of Kell Houssel's stables, had been immortalized on Saiger's personal logo, adoring his business cards as well as menus in Texas, California, and at the Frontier where his Mr. Frontier Sandwich was served.

During his long career with the Last Frontier, Saiger has had the opportunity work with some of the giants of the industry, including such hotelmen as Jack "Pappy" Walsh and Ballard Barron. Saiger remembered Barron, who operated both the Last Frontier casino and the adjacent Silver Slipper casino, as an outstanding example of the best of Las Vegas' casino executives.

"He was one of the finest casino managers around. He never hesitated to remind people how he started gambling, when he and Jakey Freedman, who later built the Sands, would spread out a blanket in some back alley and shoot nickel and dime craps." - Mort Saiger

Mort Saiger died in 1997, at the ripe old age of 93.