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Interview with Marie Elizabeth (Stever; Daly) McMillan, March 5, 2004

Date

2004-03-05

Description

Narrator affiliation: Secretary, Administrative Assistant, Holmes and Narver; U.S. Atomic Energy Commission

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Photographs of O'Shea's signs, Las Vegas (Nev.), 2002

Date

2002

Description

Daytime views of the O'Sheas Casino signs on the Strip. Information about the sign is available in the Southern Nevada Neon Survey Data Sheet.
Site address: 3555 S Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: Park Place Entertainment
Sign details: O'Shea's Casino is located just north across a small driveway from the Flamingo. The small but busy facade is a small, yet busy stop along the Las Vegas Strip. The exterior signage consists of two corner signs, a blade sign, hanging off of the west face of the building, a main entrance sign, backlit screens as well as various images laden with neon. All of these create a flashing display of luminescence all just above the pedestrian's head.
Sign condition: Structure 5 Surface 5 Lighting 5
Sign form: Fascia
Sign-specific description: O'Shea's Casino is located just north across a small driveway from the Flamingo. O'Shea's theme and signage is influenced by Irish culture and imagery, integrated into the forms of signage along the Las Vegas Strip. The building design itself is influenced by traditional European housing imagery, generalized with other elements of architecture also. One example of this is the coloring, exposed wooden beams and narrow rooflines over treated windows, which suggest styles seen in classic European architectural imagery. Examples of other elements such as sculpted windowsills and exterior molding are more akin to neoclassical than the Irish pub or cottage. A small blade sign hangs in the center of the structure facing north /south. Attached off of the building by two poles, the double sided cabinet is designed with a circular portion at the top that transforms along it's bottom edge into length portion of the "blade" that continues down to a rounded bottom. The Circular portion serves as the "O" in O'Shea's. The exterior of the signs width is finished in a polished gold aluminum surface. The top portion continues into a full circular space in the front where the backlit image of the O'Shea's leprechaun mascot resides in it's center. The image has a circular green neon border at the edge of the cabinet and is set into a field of incandescent bulbs, which occupy the remaining space in the face of the "O". Incandescent bulbs also run around the edge of a face on a gold raceway. Channel letters run vertically down the face of the blade spelling the remaining "Sea's" of the title. Each letter is filled with incandescent bulbs, and bordered on it's exterior in green neon. The remainder of the space, which comprises the surface of the sign, is a green material. The entire edge of the rest of the sign is also bordered with incandescent bulbs. Below the blade sign, the main entrance for the establishment is denoted by the large, arched, marquee logo, and wall sign for the casino. The arch shape is bordered by gold polished raceways, with the interior space where the O'Shea's logo is written in a bowed, horizontal arrangement with the "O" and "S" being the biggest letters in this group. The same back-lit leprechaun figure which is present in the blade sign, in seen in the "O" of the logo. The letters are of channel design and filled with incandescent bulbs. Gold scrollwork adorns the green background above and on the sides of the logo. An entablature, running the length below the arch, reads "casino" in channel letters filled with incandescent bulbs and bordered with green neon. The orange background in contained on the bottom edge with a gold polished raceway, which sharply curves into a downward point at the very center. All the raceway edges of the sign are lined with incandescent bulbs. Flanking the wall on either side of the main entrance are two backlit message centers with vinyl lettering. They also are bordered with incandescent bulbs, strewn upon polished raceways. To the south toward the Flamingo Casino, a corner marquee sign faces toward the southwest. The message center on the right of the main entrance essentially continues its shape wrapping in radius fashion all the way around the corner. As the entablature wraps the corner, the color changes to a section of black, containing the channel letters hung at a slight angle, spelling the words " Hall of Fame," in cursive text. Small stars in channel design adorn the black background. On the left of the text, O'Shea's is painted in red paint, in a cursive script at a similar angle as the premier text. Neon is shaped over the surface of the letters to allow it to be spelled in light. The word "Casino" is spelled on the right hand side, and treated in the same fashion. A top the black portion of pediment, the sign continues with it's corner finishing, rounded marquee, containing the text, "Magic & Movie," in a three lined arrangement. Putting the two signs together the appropriate title for the advertisement of the attraction is read "Magic and Movie Hall of Fame." The channel letters on the top portion are filled with neon and treated white on the interiors. The edge of the cabinet is treated with white bull nose borders, sandwiching a field of pink holding two tubes of contoured neon. At the peak of the sign a small element reminiscent of a fan, created using a multi layered box, uses different levels receding into space, with the center blade at the front of the sign. The sections are lined with gold raceways and incandescent bulbs, with the center blade being horizontally striped with tubes of neon. Two small gold finished gargoyle statues flank either side of the theatre-esque entrance. Underneath the overhang created by the corner sign, polished aluminum element creates a sloping drum shape above the door. This drum is divided into sections by gold polished raceways. The flat portion, which returns to the ceiling of the overhang is adorned with painted images of clovers, encircled in rings of green neon. This section is reminiscent of the top section of the corner drum of the Barbary Coast. The black pediment along the south portion of the building., abruptly changes to the orange color seen on the main entrance. Along the south wall section of the pediment green pan channels in the shape of clovers hang, lined on the interior with neon. A small sign denoting parking is also present. Another corner entrance is located on the north end of the property, facing northwest. It too has the rounded corner entrance and logo sign. Slightly different than the main entrance, the same "Casino text and structure is seen on the orange pediment above the door, as well as the channel logo with the mascot located in the letter "O." A three-sectioned panel with swooping wings and an arched center creates the field for the main logo. A more busy section of two dimensional scrollwork sits below the neon filled text. The wings of the top section a recessed panels with checkerboard design behind that. Each side of the entire top section is book ended with two small square posts. Three small miniature spires line the very top, and the same inverted drum shape sits underneath the door. Street posts reside on the sidewalk outside.
Sign - type of display: Neon; Incandescent; Backlit
Sign - media: Steel; Plastic
Sign animation: Chasing, flashing, oscillating
Notes: All of the bulbs, which reside in the fascia signs which designate entrances, oscillate rapidly. The entrance sign a bit closer to the north end of the property also contain the pan channel star shapes, with incandescent bulbs in the center. The bulbs which, reside on the widths edge of the small pole sign at the south end of the property, oscillate giving a twinkling effect. The main pylon's animation is rather simple considering the amount of lighting. Bulbs which create the dazzling background chase each other upward to the very point, then once they reach the top, each letter light up from left to right, one at a time, then off one letter at a time. The letters all turn on simultaneously while, while the background chases up, leaving the lights off in its trail. The text then shuts off as well. The small incandescent bulbs lacing the background of the main body of the sign oscillate subtly, twinkling themselves. Each letter of the text contains a single row of incandescent bulbs, just inside the border of the red neon. This row is always on in a chasing animation from left to right even when the letters are dark. The animation for the three sided, pole sign, at the north end of the property is adorned with sparkling animation as well. The purple bulbs, which create the border of the main base, chase each other from bottom to top, and the star shape in the center is filled with oscillating incandescent bulbs. The bulbs, which also encrust the bottom surface of the cabinet, oscillate as well. The incandescent bulbs, which adorn the background of the text portion of the sign, also sparkle with a soft random oscillating pattern. The stars which sit on top of the cabinet, animate in a random, non descriptive fashion. The inner star shaped pans oscillate with incandescent bulbs, and the neon borders flash on then off, in a clumsy random order. The three-sided sign also rotates, one of the few animatronic signs on the Strip.
Sign environment: Being essentially part of the Flamingo, O'Shea's is only separated by a small drive, producing the easy traffic flow from the north entrance of the former. The north of O'Shea's on the immediate vertical explosion of the front tower/porte cochere of the Imperial Palace. It is easy to say that O'Shea's is sandwiched in between two giants, assuming its place as the charming gap between the Flamingo and the Imperial Palace which is quite a bit more pedestrian friendly. Traveling north on the east side of the strip, O'Shea's is not hard to miss at all
Sign - date of installation: Original date of installation 1989. The southwest, and northwest corner signage were added at a later date
Sign - thematic influences: O'Shea's centers around the theme of the Irish pub, utilizing various imagery to get support the design. The color green is used extensively in the main signs color scheme while the ever-popular image of the folkloric leprechaun illuminated it a cartoon form upon the pylon. The green pan channels, which are shaped like shamrocks, are place along the exterior wall, an obvious reference to the St. Patrick's Day Holiday as well a reference to good luck. ( example: the four-leaf clover, luck of the Irish.) Luck is something synonymously associated with an industry such as gaming. Gold is also used extensively with the exterior referencing the infamous pot of gold associated with the lore of leprechauns. The actual structure itself is constructed with elements which suggest a European rustic cottage.
Surveyor: Joshua Cannaday
Survey - date completed: 2002
Sign keywords: Chasing; Oscillating; Fascia; Neon; Incandescent; Backlit; Steel; Plastic

Mixed Content

Transcript of an interview with Kenneth Fong by Lois Goodall on February 22, 2014

Date

2014-02-22

Description

Kenneth Fong reflects on growing up in Las Vegas and being the son of two successful and philanthropic community members, Wing and Lilly Fong. When Ken was born the family live in a modest home on 20th and Stewart. It was a close-knit neighborhood and era, kids played tag and roamed freely. When he entered third-grade, his parents moved their family to a newer subdivision near Rancho and West Charleston Avenue: the Scotch 80s. Their new custom home on Silver Avenue reflected Asian architecture and the family’s Chinese cultural heritage; it also included a pool and a small basketball court. Memories of the neighborhoods are distinct. He learned to be comfortable with his sister and he being the only Asian Americans in school at the time. He kept busy with community volunteering at Sunrise Hospital and tutoring younger children on the Westside among other high school activities. Ken speaks lovingly of his parents and their achievements, family outings to local venues such as Mount Charleston and Red Rock and to California, where they bought Chinese baked goods. His mother, Lilly was born into a large Chinese American family of ten children, each of whom achieved a college education. After her marriage to Wing, she moved to Las Vegas with plans to work as a teacher. Ken retells the story of her encounter with discrimination and overcoming that, and her trajectory to be the first Asian American elected the Nevada Board of Regents. His orphaned father, Wing, immigrated to the United Sates in 1939 to live with uncles. They worked as cooks in Las Vegas and established the first Las Vegas Chinese restaurant, Silver Café. Wing was merely thirteen years old and spoke no English. These were not to be obstacles. He would go on to graduate from Las Vegas High School, earn a college degree in business, have a successful career in commercial real estate and banking, building the notable Fong’s Garden. Ken calls his father his most influential mentor. Today Ken is also a successful in real estate management, active at Grace Presbyterian Church, involved in Rotary Club, and a proud father of two daughters.

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Transcript of interview with Robert C. Maxson by Dr. David Emerson, May 15, 2007

Date

2007-05-15

Description

Dr. Robert C. Maxson was president of UNLV for ten years, 1984 to 1994. When he arrived, discussions were already under way about developing an engineering school. Certain elements in the community, such as Summa Corporation, were lobbying for such a program here in southern Nevada. Dr. Maxson began receiving printed materials and phone calls about it, and he started putting his fund raising skills to good use. He believes that civic pride in the young university, as well as a sense that an engineering school would be good for business, led many individuals, hotels, and corporations to open their pocketbooks. Locally, Dr. Maxson found generous support from Tom Beam, Nevada Power, the Summa Corporation, and many other businesses and individuals. Since the legislature only meets every two years in northern Nevada, Robert and others made many trips to Carson City that first year to discuss every nuance of the project. He spent considerable time with Senator Bill Raggio, John Marvel, Bill Bilyeu, and other legislators convincing them that Nevada would get its money's worth. He also gives major credit to Las Vegas civic leaders for their influence and the fact that they had rallied behind this cause. Once the funding was approved, Dr. Maxson insisted on and facilitated the accreditation of the program. Faculty members enthusiastically got behind this push and accreditation was achieved in a remarkably short time. The next order of business was funding an honors program for deserving students. Dr. Len Zane was given this project and began recruiting students. Individuals in the private sector were invited to fund academic scholarships, and they responded generously. Dr. Maxson traveled the state attending high school commencements and recruited valedictorians on the strength of offering those students the honors scholarships. Dr. Maxson greatly enjoyed his time as president at UNLV. He feels he was privileged to be part of its growth and expansion, to have worked with enthusiastic, energetic faculty, and to have encouraged the community's desire to get behind the growth of the university.

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Photographs of Roadhouse Casino sign, Las Vegas (Nev.), March 14, 2017

Date

2017-03-14
2017-09-01

Description

The Roadhouse Casino sign sits unlit at 2100 North Boulder Highway. Information about the sign is available in the Southern Nevada Neon Survey Data Sheet.
Site address: 2100 N Boulder Hwy
Sign owner: Robert McMackin
Sign details: Roadhouse approved for gaming 1988, Robert McMackin bought the Roadhouse 1992, but it closed 2002. They planned to refurbish and reopen by 2010 but has been in legal trouble and has not reopened.
Sign condition: 2- reader board portion/plastic back lit portion is gone and paint has faded drastically
Sign form: Pylon
Sign-specific description: Big Letters on top "Roadhouse" below Is a Huge Letter "R". Still up but in horrible condition. Reader board is a frame and appears to be scrapped. No upkeep has been made to the sign. There is an array of colors behind the 'R' such as purple, white, yellow and green in a parallel plume shape.
Sign - type of display: Neon
Sign - media: Steel
Sign - non-neon treatments: There must have been plastic on this sign since there is a sign box that would contain it.
Sign environment: This location is on Boulder Hwy. near Sunset Road.
Sign - thematic influences: The letter R in the middle of the sign is remnant of the 1980's car/video game font.
Survey - research locations: Las Vegas Sun Article synopsis https://vegasinc.lasvegassun.com/business/legal/2012/mar/26/city-henderson-reverses-course-roadhouse-casino-li/ Review Journal article https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/casinos-gaming/station-casinos-henderson-settle-roadhouse-dispute/
Survey - research notes: The articles were helpful with finding information on this property since other avenues did not have any information on it.
Surveyor: Wyatt Currie-Diamond
Survey - date completed: 2017-09-01
Sign keywords: Pylon; Neon; Steel; Plastic; Incandescent; Backlit; Back to back

Mixed Content

Meeting minutes for Consolidated Student Senate, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, March 10, 2000

Date

2000-03-10

Description

Includes meeting minutes and agenda. CSUN Session 30 (Part 1) Meeting Minutes and Agendas.

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Nathalie Martinez oral history interview: transcript

Date

2021-06-24

Description

Oral history interview with Nathalie Martinez conducted by Rodrigo Vazquez and Barbara Tabach on June 24, 2021 for Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Nathalie Martinez, one of the original members of the Latinx Voices project team, dicusses her personal history and the history of her parents who immigrated to the United States from Colombia and El Salvador. She shares her educational background and experiences working as an interviewer for the Latinx Voices project before its culmination and her graduation in 2021. Nathalie also talks about her work on the project's podcast and her work linguistically translating the interviews from Spanish to English.

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