Grace Hayes was born on August 23, 1896 in Springfield, Missouri. She moved to San Francisco, California at the age of ten, and began to sing at nightclubs at the age of fourteen. In 1912 Hayes married Joseph Lind, and their son Joseph Conrad Lind (better known as Peter Lind Hayes) was born in 1915. She married twice after Lind; first to Charlie Foy, then to Robert Evan Hopkins. Hayes is best known for her career in motion pictures from 1929 to 1950, primarily for King of Jazz (1930) and Zis Boom Bah (1941).
Award-winning poet and musician Norman Kaye was born Norman Kaaihue on September 22, 1922. He and his sister, Mary, were born into a Hawaiian show-business family, and played in their father's band, Johnny Kaaihue's Royal Hawaiians. After serving in the army during World War II, Kaye and his sister formed a group that evolved into the Mary Kaye Trio. They first played Las Vegas, Nevada in 1947.
David W. Emerson was born in Littleton, Massachusetts. His father, a mining engineer, moved the family to Mexico twice, once when he was one year old and again when he was seven. In 1938, his father retired to work on his apple orchard in
Littleton. Emerson helped with pruning, spraying and dusting for insects, and hauling apples to the cider mill.
Debra March was born November 25, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan. She is one of eight siblings, all of whom attended Catholic school as children and eventually went on to professional careers. March’s father worked for the city of Detroit, then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and was hired by the Clark County School District. March came to Las Vegas for the first time in 1973. Though she left for a couple of years, she eventually settled there and attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), earning an undergraduate degree in anthropology and biology.
"Bobbie, as she was known all her life, was born in Pasadena on February 11, 1928, the seventh child of Millie and Harry Johansing. She attended Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy and graduated from Immaculate Heart College. Bobbie was blessed with a beautiful singing voice. Inspired by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald, she excelled in theater and song. (During one of her many family trips to Europe, nine-year old Bobbie entertained passersby from the family's hotel balcony!) She had a crush on Frank Sinatra, but was swept off her feet by Bob Buckley.
E. James (Jim) Gans was raised in Seattle, Washington and Yakima, Washington before he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1950. Gans started in school at Bonanza Elementary, then to a new Hyde Park Junior High where he was part of the first class and on to Rancho High School where he graduated. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for 25-cents an hour.
"Born Julius Charles Reizner in Taunton, Mass., in 1921, he fell in love with sports as a child. He placed his first bet with a bookie -- on the Boston Braves -- when he was 16."
"The family moved to Las Vegas in 1970. Reizner went to work at the now-defunct Churchill Downs Race and Sports Book."