Breck Wall grew up tough and honed that toughness into solid business acumen. He also grew up talented and that talent took him to movie sets in Los Angeles and allowed him to produce shows in Dallas, New York, Tahoe, and Las Vegas. Though his family became nonexistent early in his life, he formed his own broad family from a group of faithful friends around the country. One special friendship makes this interview worth reading — the one with Jack Ruby. Wall's talent though is the primary reason that this interview is good history. He did many shows and had up to five running simultaneously. The creative process was the fun part that allowed him to produce Passion , Alias, and Night Beat among many others. Bottoms Up is his signature production and has been at several venues in Las Vegas for the past 40 years. Breck Wall is living a full and interesting life. A good example is a phone call from The London Times'. "Mr. Wall?" 1 said, "Yes." He said, "Are you aware that your best friend, Jack Ruby, just shot Oswald?" I said, "What" I was in shock. I said, "No I'm not." And I talked to him very briefly,and I hung up the phone." The phone continued to ring as calls came in from the Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, etc, etc.
William Dean Whitaker was born in 1925 and raised in a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Dean, as he is known, talks briefly about his parents and his brothers, for his youth quickly ended when he joined the Air Force and became an aviation cadet once he had turned 18 years old. The year was 1943 and World War II was raging. He became a member of the 398 th Bomb Group and flew twenty missions before being captured by the Germans. In this oral history, Dean talks with vivid recollection of the day he was captured and details of being a POW in Germany. Among his anecdotes are those of his mother's unwavering belief that he would return home, the humanity of a German soldier, and of meeting Gen. George Patton. Included are photos and excerpts from his personal history of his life during the war. Dean and his wife Lucille moved to Las Vegas in 1990.
The "Presidential Evening" event at Treasure Island was held to raise funds for the Nat Hart Scholarship Endowment Fund and General Scholarship Fund for the Meadows School in Las Vegas.
The UNLV Libraries Collection on the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe (approximately 1974-1990) contain oral history transcripts of Paiute community members from approximately 1974 to 1977 and reproductions of Bureau of Indian Affairs correspondence, legal documents, annual reports, and census information regarding the area formerly known as the Las Vegas Indian Colony located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The documents contain information about the original transfer of property ownership from Helen J. Stewart to the United States, who acted on behalf of the Paiute people in 1911, the establishment of the original site location, and annual reports which include a narrative about the community, census information, and health reports of the population living in the area. The collection contains no original documents.
Oral history interview with Mariteresa Rivera-Rogers conducted by Maribel Estrada Calderón on October 24, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Mariteresa discusses her early life in Concepción, Chile. She talks about her experience moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1965, the immigration process at the time, and becoming a Spanish language court interpreter. Rivera-Rogers recalls enrolling at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' (UNLV) Sam Boyd School of Law, and her involvement with the Latino Bar Association. Lastly, Rivera-Rodgers discusses the challenges in translating Spanish language to English.