Search Results
Rocio Rodríguez-Martinez oral history interview: transcript
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Oral history interview with Rocio Rodríguez-Martinez conducted by Elsa Lopez and Monserrath Hernández on June 21, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Rocio shares her personal history growing up in Bogotá, Colombia and how she immigrated to the United States. She talks about motherhood, her Latina identity, and her experiences raising her daughter in Los Angeles and Las Vegas with her husband. Rocio also discusses her employment history and how she was able to achieve her professional goals of becoming a Spanish and English teacher for the Clark County School District (CCSD)'s Family and Community Engagement Services (FACES) program. Her interview is conducted in Spanish. Subjects discussed include: Bogotá, Colombia; El Salvador; Family and Community Engagement Services (FACES).
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University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Fall 2020 commencement program
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Commencement program from University of Nevada, Las Vegas Commencement Programs and Graduation Lists (UA-00115).
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Meeting minutes for Consolidated Student Senate University of Nevada, Las Vegas, March 30, 1989
Date
Archival Collection
Description
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Untitled unpublished manuscript by Roosevelt Fitzgerald
Date
Archival Collection
Description
From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file. "Injustice Blacks Have Suffered…" ending with Naomi Long Madgett's poem "Midway."
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Mei Yang oral history interview: transcript
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Oral history interview with Mei Yang conducted by Jourdin Wilson on November 10, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) professor and graduate coordinator Mei Yang talks about her family and childhood in Shanxi Province, southwestern China. She shares her educational background pursuing her bachelor's and master's degrees in China before immigrating to the United States to earn her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Texas, Dallas. Mei Yang talks about her move to Las Vegas, Nevada, her work and professorship at UNLV, and her thoughts on pursuing a STEM (science technology engineering math) career as a woman. She shares how she raises her daughters in the United States away from her husband overseas, the Chinese community within Las Vegas, and traditions she celebrates.
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Pom Fritz oral history interview: transcript
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Oral history interview with Pom Fritz conducted by Kristel Peralta and Stefani Evans on June 8, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Pom talks about her family and upbringing in Udon Thani, Thailand and her immigration to the United States with her second husband, an American citizen, in 1972. She discusses living on Air Force bases in North Carolina and California before moving to Las Vegas and finding work at different hotels. Pom shares her experiences as a member, steward, and executive board representative of the Culinary Workers Union and what she recalls from the Frontier Strike. She also talks about her children and grandchildren, some of whom still live in Thailand.
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Sook-ja Kim, February 12, 1996 and April 6, 1996: transcript
Date
Archival Collection
Description
The Kim Sisters, composed of three sisters, Sook-ja, Ai-ja, and Mia, came from Korea to Las Vegas in February 1959. Their first contract in America was to perform at the Thunderbird Hotel for four weeks as part of the China Doll Revue, the main showroom program. This engagement led to a successful career. Their popularity reached was at its height at the end of the 1960s when they performed throughout the United States and Europe. Sook-ja Kim is the oldest of the sisters. After his sister Ai-ja died in 1987, Sook-ja teamed up with her two brothers and continued to perform until 1989. Now semi-retired from show business, with occasional performances in Korea, she is working as a real estate agent. In this interview, she talked about her childhood, her career, and the family she has built since coming to America. Sook-ja was born in 1941 in Seoul, Korea as the third child of seven in a musical family. Her father was a conductor and her mother, a popular singer. After the Korean War, her mother arranged to send the Kim Sisters to America. When they came to Las Vegas, there were virtually no Koreans in the area. They depended on each other to take care of themselves. Some of the difficulties they had to adjust to in American were language, food, and cultural differences. Over the span of almost forty years in America, Sook-ja became acculturated without discarding her ethnic identity of family priorities. Her life-long guiding principle has been to adopt certain American values while continuing to keep her cherished Korean ethnic values. Through their performances, the Kim Sister informed the audience about Koreans and their culture. As the oldest of the group, Sook-ja was entrusted the care of her sisters, and later her brothers, the Kim brothers. Once she settled in Las Vegas, she brought more than forty members of her extended family to the city, contributing to the growth of the Las Vegas Korean community.
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Photographs of MGM Grand signs, Las Vegas (Nev.), 2002
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Site name: MGM Grand Hotel and Casino
Site address: 3799 S Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: MGM Mirage
Sign details: The MGM Grand is host to several types and numbers of signs around the exterior of the property. These types include the MGM lion logo and text which adorn the tops of the towers, a multimedia pylon sign, a golden monument sculpture of a lion which serves as the main entrance, and several smaller textual signs that denote parking and entrances.
Sign condition: Structure 5 Surface 5 Lighting 5 Notes: The MGM's signage is excellent repair, being a less than a decade old. The structure is intact, as well as all the lighting, and surface.
Sign form: Pylon; Fascia; Porte-cochère
Sign-specific description: The property contains different types signs including Pylon, sculpted three-dimensional signs as well as building front logos. The pylon sits along the East side of Las Vegas Blvd, just north of Tropicana Blvd, and faces north /south. Constructed as if to appear as different sized towers from the emerald city, the double backed pylon contains the MGM Lion Logo in a backlit steel cabinet and the Letters "MGM" at the top in gold polished channel letters with horizontal bars of Neon. Directly beneath that sit two message centers one being an animated color LED screen on the left, and the one on the right being a backlit plastic advertisement screen. Located beneath the two screens the phrase The City of Entertainment in all capital polished gold aluminum channel letters with neon running horizontally across the diameter of the letters. The sculpted three dimensional lion structure sits on the North East corner of Las Vegas Blvd and Tropicana and faces to the Southwest. The statue appears to be made of polished gold and is surrounded by an impressive array of fountains, which are illuminated themselves. The statue is ambiently lit from underneath with spot lighting and the glow of the fountains. Serving as a backdrop for the structure, an impressive wall of multicolored incandescent bulbs form a concave geometric canvass that wraps the corner of the building. This wall is separated into different sized fields by square columns of similar height. Sitting atop each of the columns is a statue of a man holding a giant urn upon his back. The statuary is lit from underneath with ambient lighting similar to that of the lion sculpture. The bulbs animate in a subtle waving pattern that gently creates the illusion of a rippling of the surface.
Sign - type of display: Neon; Incandescent; Matrix; Backlit
Sign - media: Steel; Plastic; Fiberglass; Masonry; Glass
Sign animation: Chasing, flashing, oscillating
Notes: The V-shaped red channels on the silver main pylon chase each other downward toward the ground. The main text on the pylon animates as well. The letters light up one at a time with red neon from left to right as the arrows continue to chase downward. The logo/text sign located above the giant replica of the Harley Davidson, animate as well. The incandescent bulbs which fill the text, spelling the name of the establishment, oscillate, steady burn, then shut off, and then restarting the sequence. The letters that spell cafe on the lower portion of the sign animate in concert and with the same sequence as the main text.
Sign environment: The MGM Grand dominates the corner on which it sits. Headed west on Tropicana toward the Strip the property casts a green glow but not too electrifying. Once you reach the corner you can't help but be overwhelmed by standing underneath the looming golden lion and the bustling fountains. Facing the structure from the corner, the facade becomes a canvass of dancing light and water. Look up toward the strip the giant pylon booms the golden letters "MGM" and busy LED screens.
Sign - date of installation: Property was opened in 1993 but signage was changed in 1998
Sign - date of redesign/move: The original sculpted lion entrance was replaced in 1998 with a new trophy style sculpture. With the original sphinx structure, patrons passed trough the mouth of the lion into the main lobby of the hotel. Guests and visitors now pass around the pedestal on which the lion sits upon.
Sign - thematic influences: The exterior of the MGM Grand Hotel incorporates the themes of the movie industry for which the name is so prominent. Most specifically the Wizard of Oz's Emerald city theme. The structure is designed to look as such with the base color of the building being emerald green as well as the pylon structures and attached buildings such as the parking garage. The font and MGM lion logo are represented with gold coloring referencing Oz's yellow brick road. The statue is reminiscent of an Academy award also referencing the industry which the name is so familiar with.
Sign - artistic significance: The establishment joins the era of themed modern Vegas resorts with its front spectacle, super pylon and aesthetic which is entirely encompassed by its theme.
Surveyor: Joshua Cannaday
Survey - date completed: 2002
Sign keywords: Oscillating; Pylon; Fascia; Porte-cochère; Neon; Incandescent; Matrix; Backlit; Steel; Plastic; Fiberglass; Masonry; Glass
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