Kent Carmichael, lighting engineer and artist, is responsible for many of the most iconic signs in Las Vegas history. Kent Carmichael was born in December 1933 in Burbank, California, drafted for Korean War as a football player for the U.S. Navy, and served overseas in Korea. After being discharged in 1956 in Long Beach he began working for Interstate Neon for Max and Mo Oggenblick.
Marie Jordon was born in Arizona. She came to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1954. She worked as a buyer in the bookstore at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
Photographs and correspondence document the history of Temple Beth Sholom, including the ground breaking and construction of the campus in Summerlin. Also included in this set of images are photographs of Rita Deanin Abbey fabricating the Wall of Creation installation for the Temple on Oakey Boulevard in the 1970s.
Maureen Elise Mackey was born in October of 1943 in Teaneck, New Jersey. She was a member of the Sisters of St. Mary, and later earned her bachelor’s degree and became a high school science teacher. After serving one of several missions to the Congo, she entered medical school in 1971 at the University of Texas. After several years as a respected physiatrist in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mackey returned to school in 1999 to earn her Masters of Divinity degree at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California.
Lance Burton delights in talking about his magic craft and the joyful memories of his early and swift rise to become a master magician. This oral history includes memories of his rise to fame from youthful phenomenon to an over-thirty year Las Vegas career that began in 1981. He believes in the extraordinary value of magic and shares a poignant anecdote of a young autistic boy’s reaction to his magic show.