(waves crashing on beach)
- Quarter to seven, I'd open up every morning.
- And they'd be sitting out there
on the picnic benches, waiting for him to open
at seven in the morning.
- Yeah, Bombay used to be quite a bit bigger than it is now.
Oh yeah, there used to be five bars in this little old town.
- They were a real tight-knit community
that worked together and got along well.
Of course, now,
I think Wendell and I are about the only ones left.
It's kind of the last of the Mohicans.
- [Radio announcer] Here is truly a miracle in the desert.
A whole new outlet for the crowded millions in big cities.
A Palm Springs with water.
Here is where you can find the good life in the sun.
Today, the Salton Riviera, beside the blue Salton Sea,
is the place for you to take charge of your future.
At the Salton Riviera, there is never a let-up in progress.
This unusual city has a date with destiny.
- It was a good vacation place,
and you'd just drive out for weekends.
- Yeah, kind of like a weekend resort.
That's the way we started out.
That's how we got this place.
Something really had to be important in Riverside
in order not to come down here.
- I couldn't work on Saturdays or Sundays,
so we'd always come out here Friday afternoon.
- When we first came down here, it was busy.
We'd run from bar to bar
and we'd go jump in our dune buggies
and go out with our friends in the desert.
They'd have dances.
They'd have auctions.
They'd have benefits.
They always had something going.
- Everybody was busy, especially on a holiday or weekend.
Come out fishing or water skiing.
Matter of fact,
our two boys learned how to water ski out here.
- Well, I had a friend that worked up there at the Ski Inn.
And then, the owners that owned it then
were going to sell it to her.
Well, she didn't have the money,
so we put the money up so that she could buy it.
- But she drank a fifth of gin a day,
and he drank a case of Budweiser every day...
- And, of course that didn't work out.
So we take it over ourselves,
and then we had it on our own for 25 years.
- You know...we've had birthdays,
we've had weddings,
we've had...
...memorials,
all that stuff up there.
- Yeah, we're the only two that's left
out of that whole bunch.
- You know that little fin
that hangs down by the back tail...
tail of the fish...the fin...
sometimes the in the aquarium you
see food coming out?
Okay, that's an asshole.
So we give everybody a scalpel
and you have to...you gotta...
(motions)
real fast and drop it in the strainer.
If you go slow, the fish is going to bleed to death,
and you're going to have to eat him.
So you want to go real fast and drop it in the strainer.
You get a whole lot of assholes gathered up,
you take them and you wash them out really, really good,
you take the ones that you've de-assholed,
and you take them back to the sea,
and they'll grow new assholes.
And then you can re-harvest them.
And we put the labels on them and we sell them.
- Well, being here for 25 years, we've seen a lot.
And we've met a lot of wonderful people.
Wendell had a birthday last year.
The kids in town here got together
and celebrated his birthday.
It was standing-room only, which he was
overwhelmed by...the hospitality and everything.
- Yeah, I didn't know they thought that much of me.
(laughs jovially)
- If you ring the bell, you buy the house.
A drink.
You want to ring the bell?
- [Speaker] Nope. No.
(group laughs)