Roundtable oral history interview moderated by Claytee D. White on November 1, 2014 for the West Charleston Neighborhoods: an Oral History Project of Ward 1. Participants include Nancy Johnson, Naomi Lytle Gibbs, Deborah Faye Bond Origer, Kacey Santelman Brooks, Olivia Brooks, Helen Dawson, Rollie Gibbs, Judy Lee Snyder Santelman, and Gary Gibson. They discuss growing up in the Pinto-Palomino neighborhood north of West Charleston between Campbell Drive and Rancho Drive, the focus on horses and horseback riding, the Helldorado Days parades, and serving as Rodeo Queens. They also talk about the culture and personality of the neighborhood, famous residents including Wayne Newton, coming back to live in the neighborhood after moving away, and forming the neighborhood association.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Bob Colucci conducted by David Schwartz on April 29, 2005 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Colucci discusses his early life in Brooklyn, New York and first job in the newspaper delivery business, his military career, and his return to work for the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. He continues talking about the newspaper business, his advancement, and his work with the union. He then begins talking about his interest in boxing and how this interest led to his involvement in the sport as a trainer and manager.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Shelley Bristol conducted by Barbara Tabach on November 10, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Bristol recalls moving from California to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend UNLV, returning to California and then back to Las Vegas in the 1980s. She discusses people and places, the Culinary Union, her podcast, and her parents' involvement in B'nai Brith in Southern California, as well as her own activities in efforts to control the spread of HIV/AIDS through education and outreach.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Mark Douglas conducted by Dennis McBride on May 16, 1999 for the Las Vegas Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Archives Oral History Project. In this interview, Douglas discusses his family and upbringing in the Mormon Church, his realization of his sexuality, first experiences with gay clubs and associations, and the conflict between his feelings and his faith. He continues talking about Church views of homosexuality in a modern and historical context and then details two organizations that offer support to LGBT members of the Mormon Church.
Archival Collection
Oral history interviews with Ralph Denton conducted by Donalene V. Ravitch on February 24, 1980 and March 16, 1980 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In these interviews, Denton recalls growing up in Caliente, Nevada. He talks about aspects and events in the community both during his life and before his birth, including the school system, housing, mining, the importance of the railroad, the stagecoach, the advent of legal gambling, farming, and the periodic flooding. He also discusses Caliente's population and the increase in ethnic minorities and Mormons in the area, the importance of politics, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's whistlestop visit to the town, and the economy during the depression.
Archival Collection
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