Oral history interview with Bruce Eaton conducted by James Maxon on March 6, 1985 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. The topic of the interview is the incorporation of Boulder City, Nevada as a self-governing municipality and the role that Eaton played in the eight-year process between 1951 and 1959. Eaton discusses the establishment of an advisory council that served as an interim government, the first Boulder City Act of 1953 in Congress, and long-reaching issues over who should take economic responsibility for costs associated with incorporation. Eaton then talks about the non-binding resolution of 1956 that highlighted the divide between the citizens of Boulder City and its business community, and the work of Eaton, Senator Alan Bible, and others to present a plan that met with wide approval.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Mary Eaton conducted by Dennis McBride on November 15, 1986 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. Eaton joined her husband Bruce in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1932, soon after he found work at the Hoover Dam building site. Within months of her arrival, the couple welcomed their first child and moved to Boulder City, Nevada. In this interview, Eaton recalls the early community formed by the wives of the dam workers, the establishment of the Grace Community Church and the death of the church's first pastor, "Parson Tom" Stevenson. She discusses the beginning of the school system in Boulder City and her career as an educator, as well as her involvement in numberous community projects and groups including the hospital and the Rainbow Club for young women.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Elbert B. Edwards conducted by Dennis McBride on November 12, 1986 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. A Nevada native, Edwards recounts the development of the school system in Nevada, with specific details on Las Vegas and Boulder City. He discusses state education law, early school districts, difficulties with establishing primary and secondary education in Boulder City while it was a federal reservation and the number and quality of students who were bussed from Boulder City to Las Vegas to attend high school. He continues describing the effects of The Six Companies departure from Boulder City after Hoover Dam was completed and the efforts to establish a permanent school district in that community after 1937 and through the war years that followed.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with James A. (Jimmy Gay) Gay III conducted by Joyce M. Wright in 1973 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. In this interview, Gay recalls details about his education in Arkansas and his training in mortuary science in Chicago, Illinois and discusses the nine-year delay in obtaining his license to practice as a mortician in Nevada because of racial discrimination. He recounts his move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1946, his experiences as a recreation director and as a personnel and communications director for the hotel industry, work that he took while waiting for his licensure to practice. He also talks about his career as a mortician with Palm Mortuary in Las Vegas, the atomic testing of the 1950s and 1960s, and his long involvement with the NAACP and the Freedom Fund. He closes by reciting two poems that have inspired him and express his philosophy.
Archival Collection
Oral history interviews with Elton Garrett conducted by Dennis McBride on November 10 and 11, 1986 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. In these interviews, Garrett talks about hitchhiking into Nevada in 1928, the beginning of his journalism career in 1929, and the development and construction of the Hoover Dam and Boulder City. He relates anecdotes about events and people during this early period and talks about the choice of The Six Companies, Incorporated to build the dam. He continues, talking about the impact of prohibition, bootlegging, and illegal gambling before 1931. Later he talks about his work as an educator in Boulder City, and the decision by the city to work toward self-government and incorporation.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Nanyu Tomiyasu conducted by Andrew Russell on March 22, 1987. In this interview, Tomiyasu discusses his father's large-scale commercial farm in Las Vegas, Nevada and the amount of produce the farm produced through the 1920s. He expands on the impact of the 1922 railroad strike, particularly in regard to the Japanese population in the city. He recounts the general lack of discrimination and segregation against Japanese residents in Las Vegas, how Japanese families integrated with the community and how they maintained their cultural traditions. Later, he begins to discuss the impact of World War II on Japanese in the people living in the western states, Las Vegas' response to its Japanese residents, and how relocation and internment impacted families.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Caryl Suzuki conducted by Linda Haido on June 3, 1999. In this interview, Suzuki discusses her background and family history from the 1920s, growing up in California, and the differences between her mother's and father's families. She talks about her grandparent's internment during World War II and the impact that had on the family's fortunes, socially and economically. She explains that after the war many Japanese-American families distanced themselves from their Japanese roots with a subsequent loss of traditional culture in the younger generations. This cultural loss did not begin to see a reversal until the 1960s, when teenagers expressed a greater interest in their cultural traditions.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Alice Hamilton conducted by Dennis McBride on December 20, 1986 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. In this library, Hamilton tells of how she met and married her husband, Albert and moved to Boulder City, Nevada in 1933. Because her husband worked for the California-Nevada Power Company, the couple had difficulty finding a place to live, moving eight times in the first two years of their marriage and including a several months stay in the men's dormitory constructed by the power company. She explains what Boulder City looked like when she arrived and her shock at the hot, windy weather in southern Nevada. Later, she discusses the various jobs she held, the first bank in the city, and the process of bi-monthly payroll brought in from Las Vegas in cars for distribution to the dam workers. Finally, she gives her opinion on the process of city incorporation and what she thinks Boulder City and Las Vegas will look like in the future.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Jim Kaufman and Larry Reeves conducted by Joyce Marshall on June 18, 1996 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this joint interview, Kaufman begins by talking about his start as a wardrobe dresser for Hollywood, California and Las Vegas, Nevada hotel-casino revues in the early 1970s. He relates a number of stories and comments on work, including the temporary nature and the potential safety hazards. Reeves starts to add his perspective as a "boy dancer" in the shows, and the two men continue trading stories and anecdotes about the small world of Las Vegas Strip revues.
Archival Collection
The UNLV Libraries Collection of Spanish Broadsides (approximately 1747-1930) consists of gaming-related broadsides published in Spain and Mexico. The documents are proclamations regarding the legality of gambling, owning and operating gaming houses. Many of the documents are signed or decreed by José María de Tornel y Mendívil, a 19th-century Mexican politician. The collection also includes examples of printed games from the early 20th century.
Archival Collection