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Tower of Jewels is one of those iconic Las Vegas businesses that continues to thrive. At the time of this interview, Jack Weinstein is in his nineties and “retired.” With him is his daughter Polly Weinstein, who in addition to being involved in the business management has her own custom designed jewelry line, aptly named The Jeweler’s Daughter. As the youngest of six children born to Jewish Russian immigrants Joseph and Pauline (Polly is named for her grandmother), Jack was raised in a dangerous neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. His youthful enterprise included collaborating and then splitting up with his brothers in a jewelry business, before eventually moving west to Los Angles in the early 1960s. On his own, Jack became a wholesale salesperson representing lines of watches to other businesses. Included in his list of clients was Al Sanford’s Tower of Jewels in Las Vegas. The two became friends and Al suggested setting up a partnership between Al’s son and Jack in 1964. Eventually
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Oral history interviews with Michael Chin conducted by Jerwin Tiu, Cecilia Winchell, and Stefani Evans on December 20, 2022 and January 12, 2023 for Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Chin describes growing up in a largely Americanized household. His paternal grandparents immigrated from China and owned a laundry shop that his father worked in as well. Chin discusses his education and his interest in creative writing, including editing the school newspaper and writing an a cappella blog with his friend while in college. After graduating, he worked at the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth as a resident assistant before getting into a graduate program and obtaining his MFA.
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