Jane Greenspun Gale-actor, activist, writer, magazine publisher, philanthropist, and farmer- has filled her life with accomplishments such as the Animal Foundation and Springs Preserve. It has also been a life filled with adventure - from “looking for John Lennon” during her time living and studying acting in London to learning to raise chickens on the acres of the Gilcrease Farm she owns with husband and photographer Jeff Gale. Everyone calls her Janie. Born Jane in 1949, she is the third of four children born to community leaders Barbara and Hank Greenspun. In this oral history, Janie captures the fun of growing up in Las Vegas under the watching eye of Hank. As a teen she and her friends cruised Fremont Street. Several years later she wanted to be arrested protesting the Atomic Test Site, when Hank diverted her into reporting about the event instead. Her Jewish foundation was at Temple Beth Sholom, where her parents were among the founding members. As the Jewish population grew, the tastes in synagogues grew to reflect the change. When Janie’s children preferred the Reform approach at Congregation Ner Tamid, a new family tradition began. She is proud of her background and shares loving stories of time spent with her grandparents as a child and pride in the heroic and dramatic story behind the naming of Hank Greenspun Plaza in Israel. Even her love story with Jeff is a tale made for movies. It unfolds in this engaging oral history interview along with anecdotes that are plucked from her personal history and preserve a reflection of growing up in Las Vegas, one of the Greenspun family of local fame.
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On March 15, 1976, Stephen Kalish interviewed Alfred “Al” Isola (born August 3rd, 1917 in Oakland, California) in his office about his garbage company and early Southern Nevada. The two discuss Las Vegas’ lack of a unified garbage system and how dumping sites have had to adjust their practices in order to limit their impact on pollution. Isola also explains the different disposal protocols for wet and dry trash. On the second tape of the interview, an unidentified woman enters the conversation.
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Progress report with copies of relevant correspondence regarding the creation of an irrigation district in the Moapa Valley. Project Number: State Office #172, Clark County #12
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After serving as a nurse in World War II in Hawaii, Okinawa and Japan, Dorothy returned home to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She experienced a particularly bad winter and she set out for California but stopped in Las Vegas to visit the family of her traveling companion, a girlfriend from her home town. The girlfriend returned to Wisconsin and George applied for a nursing license and got it within three days. She never left. Dorothy met her husband while working the night shift at Clark County Hospital. He would come in regularly to assist his patients in the births of their babies. Their occupations and their service in World War II drew them together in a marriage that has lasted over fifty years. From 1949 to this interview in 2003, Dorothy George has seen Las Vegas grow from a town that she loved to a metropolitan area that is no longer as friendly. She reminisces about the Heldorado parades, family picnics at Mount Charleston, watching the cloud formed by the atomic bomb tests, raising six successful children, leading a Girl Scout Troop, and working in organizations to improve the social and civic life of Las Vegas.
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