Roundtable oral history interview with members of the Las Vegas Media Group conducted by Lisa Gioia-Acres on May 26, 2009 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. Interviewees include Frank Mitrani, Dick Taylor, Rich Freeland, Don Payne, and John Ellem. Each participant identifies themselves and explains how and why they became members of the Las Vegas Media Group. They discuss the history of the group, how it came together, where they decided to meet, who qualified to join, and then talk about earlier members lost to death or departure. The remainder of the interview is various anecdotes and stories told by the participants.
During the early 1970s, the boom of Las Vegas included many single people following family who had already settled there. Among those was Martin (Marty) Wilner. Marty?s parents were Leo and Mickey Wilner. Leo moved to Las Vegas to become the Executive Director at Temple Beth Sholom, the only synagogue in town. Marty, who was born and raised in California, had recently earned his doctorate in psychology at the University of Houston. He became a counselor at UNLV. Not long after, Marty met Linda at a Jewish Singles event. Linda was a divorced, mother of three children, who had moved from California to find comfort in living near her parents. Robert Wilner is one of her three children. He was adopted by Marty and works with his mother in the real estate business. In this interview, they recall together the Las Vegas of the 1970s. For Robert, he remembers his bar mitzvah, and growing up with Jewish friends under the careful eye of his grandparents. As an adult, he has enjoyed a successful career as a real estate agents working with his mother. For Linda, the success of real estate was being part of one of the most robust housing markets in the country. She and Robert recall an extensive list of visionaries who developed the valley, as well as the inherent challenges of water, unions and maintaining their high level of ethics.
Ellis Landau is a member of the board of trustees of the Nathan Adelson Hospice in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Boyd Gaming Corporation and served as a financial executive in the gaming and hospitality industries for more than thirty years. In 2006 Landau was honored as "Man of the Year" by Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas. He served as the temple's president from 2009 to 2010 and is a founder of its Warsaw Memorial Garden.