Abstract
The Las Vegas Sun Photographs depict significant events in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1948 to 1989 that were covered by the newspaper. The photographs partially document the gubernatorial, senatorial, mid-term, and local elections in Nevada in 1982. The photographs also include protests by African Americans for better wages and renters for fair housing practices, McCarran Airport, protests against the Nevada Test Site, the Las Vegas Strip and downtown Las Vegas, hotels and casinos, political events, parades, dedications of buildings, and aerial photographs of the city. The photographs also depict politicians during campaign events and fundraisers, including President Ronald Reagan; U.S. Senators Howard Cannon, Pat McCarran, Chic Hecht, Paul Laxalt, and Harry Reid; Nevada governors Mike O'Callaghan and Robert List; and Lieutenant Governor Bob Cashell.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Las Vegas Sun Photographs depict significant events in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1948 to 1989 that were covered by the newspaper. The photographs partially document the gubernatorial, senatorial, mid-term, and local elections in Nevada in 1982. The photographs also include protests by African Americans for better wages and renters for fair housing practices, McCarran Airport, protests against the Nevada Test Site, the Las Vegas Strip and downtown Las Vegas, hotels and casinos, political events, parades, dedications of buildings, and aerial photographs of the city. The photographs also depict politicians during campaign events and fundraisers, including President Ronald Reagan; U.S. Senators Howard Cannon, Pat McCarran, Chic Hecht, Paul Laxalt, and Harry Reid; Nevada governors Mike O'Callaghan and Robert List; and Lieutenant Governor Bob Cashell.
Access Note
Collection is open for research. Some collection material has been digitized and is available online.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials remain in original order.
Biographical / Historical Note
The Las Vegas Sun is Las Vegas, Nevada's second-longest running newspaper (behind the Las Vegas Review-Journal). The International Typographical Union founded the Sun in May 1950 as the Las Vegas Free Press, an event which was precipitated by the Review-Journal's lockout of the typesetters who had tried to unionize. Hank Greenspun, the publicity director at the Desert Inn, was an early patron of the paper, and he purchased it in July 1950 and renamed it the Las Vegas Sun. Greenspun remained publisher and editor until his death in 1989.
The Sun, led by Greenspun's front page column, infamously attacked the Las Vegas gaming industry and entrenched politicians, including U.S. Senators Pat McCarran and Joseph McCarthy. Greenspun won a federal settlement against McCarran and the casino owners after an advertising boycott in 1952. Bolstered by its more irreverent stories, the Sun almost caught up to the Review-Journal in the early 1960s, but a fire destroyed its building, forcing Greenspun to publish from Los Angeles, California until a new plant could be built.
The Sun never matched the circulation of the Review-Journal, and before his death in 1989, Greenspun approved his family's negotiation of a Joint Operating Agreement that allowed the Sun to stay editorially independent while circulation and advertising were handed over to the Review-Journal. After circulation continued to decline, the two papers altered the agreement in 2005 so that the Sun would be published daily inside the Review-Journal.
Source:
Green, Michael. "Las Vegas Sun." Online Nevada Encyclopedia. August 2, 2011. http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/las-vegas-sun
Preferred Citation
Las Vegas Sun Photographs, 1948-1989. PH-00051. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Processing Note
Materials were processed by Special Collections staff. In 2015, as part of a legacy finding aid conversion project, Lindsay Oden wrote the collection description in compliance with current professional standards.