Karl Carsony was an Austrian-born acrobat and balancing artist who performed primarily in the United States and Europe from the 1940s-1970s. He was well known for performing a handstand on a cane while balancing atop the Sahara Hotel and Casino sign in Las Vegas, Nevada--a publicity stunt for the hotel's opening in 1952.
Edward “Ed” Goldman was born March 19, 1951 in Rochester, New York and spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Israel as well as Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his first bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University and a second in Jewish Studies from the University of Judaism. Goldman later received a master’s degree in political science from California State University, and then a doctorate in education and higher administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, focusing on educational law.
Deanne Alterwitz-Stralser (née Friedman) was born January 1, 1931 in Hammond, Indiana, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom. Alterwitz-Stralser spent her childhood in Calumet City, just across the state line in Illinois, and was raised with a strong Jewish identity. At the age of sixteen, she met her husband, Oscar Alterwitz, at an Alpha Zadik Alpha (AZA) dance in Gary, Indiana, and the two were married in 1950.
Jerry Fox (1937- ) is a Las Vegas, Nevada businessman who owned Foxy Dog restaurant, several gift shops, Lasting Memories camera company, and Vegas Threadz wholesale embroidery company. He was born December 29, 1937, to Abe and Ellena Fox in Los Angeles, California. The Fox family moved to Las Vegas in February 1955, where Abe opened Foxy’s Delicatessen, the city’s first Jewish deli. After graduating from Las Vegas High School in 1956, Jerry Fox worked at Foxy's Deli for about ten years.
Bonnie (Henley) Gragson was born February 8, 1913, in Mansfield, Arkansas, to James H. Henley and Elizabeth L. Cockrall Henley. She attended school in Mansfield, and married to Oran K. Gragson on December 21, 1934. The couple arrived in Nevada Christmas morning of that year, where Oran was employed in the construction of Hoover Dam. Except for brief periods in the 1930's when Oran was employed in highway construction in nearby Nevada cities, they lived in Las Vegas for more than 70 years.
Raymonde "Ray" Fiol was born August 22, 1936 in Germany. A Jewish Holocaust survivor whose parents were killed in Auschwitz, Fiol was hidden by a Christian family of Resistance fighters during her childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, France. She married American serviceman Phil Fiol and left Paris in 1957. The couple lived in New York City, New York where she worked in inventory control. Fiol retired to Las Vegas, Nevada around 2003 and became active in the local Holocaust Survivors Group.