Oral history interview with Cynthia Mun conducted by Vanessa Concepcion and Stefani Evans on March 31, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Cynthia Mun discusses her upbringing near Seoul, South Korea and her family's immigration to Los Angeles in 1974. She talks about her parents' employment as a seamstress and a janitor, as well as the educational mentors she encountered who helped her to succeed at Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena and later at Yale University. Mun shares her corporate employment history, including helping to launch the Pandora streaming service and creating an accessible platform for E-book use before the creation of Amazon Kindle. Mun talks about her career working at MGM International and how this opened the door for her mother to become an MGM employee and access better working conditions with union employment.
At top of map: 'United States Department of the Interior. Geological Survey. Open-file report 84-130, plate 5.' 'Prepared in cooperation with the Clark County Department of Comprehensive Planning.' At bottom of map: 'Base from U.S. Geological Survey, 1:100,000, Boulder City, Ariz.-Nev., Las Vegas, Nev.-Calif., Mesquite Lake, Nev.-Calif., 1978; Lake Mead, Nev.-Ariz., 1979.' 'Geology from Malmberg (1965); Longwell and others (1965); Haynes (1967); Bell and Smith (1980); Bell (1981) and J. R. Harrill, 1976. Thickness of valley-fill deposits by R.W. Plume, 1981.' Includes three profiles. Shows township and range lines. Scale [ca. 1:95.040. 1 in.=approx. 1.5 miles] (W 115°30´--W 115°00´/N 36°30´--N 36°00´). Series: Open-file report (Geological Survey (U.S.)), 84-130. Originally published as plate 5 of Ground-water conditions in Las Vegas Valley, Clark County, Nevada. Part I. Hydrogeologic framework / by Russell W. Plume, published by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1984 as Open-file report 84-130.
The Champo family, Jacinta and Manuel Champo and their daughter Stella came from Italy to Las Vegas in 1912. They lived in a room at the Union Hotel, which was located at Main and Bridger. In 1917, the Champo family bought a small ranch located about three miles south of what is Henderson today. Manuel grew fruits and vegetables at the ranch and sold them in town door to door. Stella began her education at Las Vegas Grammar School at Fourth and Bridger in 1918 and started babysitting for many of the local women when she was only ten years old. Jacinta’s death in 1927 was hard on both Stella and Manuel. Stella decided not to finish her education. Maude Frazier, who was the principal at the High School, tried to persuade Stella to stay at school. However, Stella had no more interest in school and at eighteen years old she started her career as a waitress. Her first job was at a small Italian restaurant at the Union Hotel where she learned the business. She worked as a waitress and cashier and when P.O. Silvagni opened the Apache Hotel at Second and Fremont she went to work there. Stella continued to work at the Apache until she moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a waitress for eighteen years. Stella had married John Iaconis in 1953 and they moved back to Las Vegas. Both John and Stella went to work at the Sahara Hotel. Stella was a showroom waitress and John was a tailor with his own valet shop in the Sahara Hotel. Stella worked in a showroom at Sahara for three years because it was physically demanding work. Stella went to work at Larry’s where she stayed for twenty years. Stella continued to live in Las Vegas until her death on January 18, 1998 . She was happily retired and always remembered the past and the lessons she learned from her hard work. Stella was a very optimistic and totally self-reliant woman.
Connie Hill Sheldon and her identical twin, Billie, also were members of Rancho High School 's first graduating class of 1962. Connie and Billie were born in 1944 in Oklahoma and spent their early years in southern California before moving to Las Vegas in 1956 with their mother, brother, and stepfather, Gerald Elmore. In Las Vegas Connie and her siblings attended Sunrise Acres Elementary School before going to Rancho, and the family was active with Homesite Baptist Church. While she was at Rancho Connie worked at the Huntridge Theater, and she continued working there after she graduated. In 1968 Connie married fellow Rancho '62 classmate Clyde Sheldon in Goldfield, Nevada. At the time of their marriage Clyde was an active-duty Marine. Over the course of his twenty-year USMC career the Sheldons lived in several places, but following his 1983 retirement they returned to Las Vegas and then moved to Pahrump. In this interview Connie particularly focuses on military life in New Yo
Narrator affiliation: Health Physicist, Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company (REECo), Public Health Service (USPHS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The UNLV Libraries Collection on the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe (approximately 1974-1990) contain oral history transcripts of Paiute community members from approximately 1974 to 1977 and reproductions of Bureau of Indian Affairs correspondence, legal documents, annual reports, and census information regarding the area formerly known as the Las Vegas Indian Colony located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The documents contain information about the original transfer of property ownership from Helen J. Stewart to the United States, who acted on behalf of the Paiute people in 1911, the establishment of the original site location, and annual reports which include a narrative about the community, census information, and health reports of the population living in the area. The collection contains no original documents.
For Leonardo Martinez, the United States was never meant to be a destination—it was merely a short stop along the way as he awaited the day he could safely return to his family in El Salvador. Now a man who embraces the occasional Big Mac from McDonalds but never turns away a Salvadoran pupusa, Leonardo has embraced both places as home with memories that took him from his humble upbringings in Santa Lucía to the bright lights of the city of Las Vegas.
Black and white image of the group of men who witnessed the pouring of the first concrete in Hoover Dam proper. From left to right: H. J. Lawler, Director of Six Companies, Inc.; Walker R. Young, Construction Engineer, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Frank T. Crowe, General Superintendent, Six Companies, Inc.; C. A. Shea, Director of Construction, Six Companies, Inc. W. A. Bechtel, President, Six Companies, Inc.; R. F. Walter, Chief Engineer, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Theodore A. Walters, First Assistant Secretary of the Interior ; Ed Clark & C. P. Squires, members of the original Colorado River Commission. Note: Boulder Dam was officially renamed Hoover Dam in 1947.
The Jack Kent Tillar Papers (approximately 1890-2010) are comprised of magic-related books, periodicals, pamphlets, ephemera, and artifacts from the estate of Jack Kent Tillar who was a composer and music editor for the film and television industry. Materials also include a small amount of Tillar's personal papers. Tillar was an amateur mentalist magician and wrote numerous books and articles on the subject of telepathy and mentalism including The Assumption Swindle, Trio: Three Complete Acts for the Mentalist, and Solo: The Walk-Around Mentalist.
The Sidney R. Whitmore Collection (approximately 1885-1970) contains land deeds and other documents about Mount Diablo, Nevada; documents detailing parts of his family history; and eight framed paintings of landscapes and portraits.