The UNLV Libraries Collection of Tropicana Resorts Publicity and Press Materials includes equity research reports, press kits, press releases, promotional materials, and newspaper and magazine clippings for Tropicana Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Tropicana Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey, dating from 1958 to 2010.
The Helen J. Stewart Papers (1869-1978) document the life of Las Vegas, Nevada pioneer, Helen J. Stewart. It includes correspondence between Stewart and her children as well as various family legal papers and certificates. The collection also contains Helen J. Stewart's 70th birthday scrapbook, a ledger, and a day book from 1904-1919, as well as several photograph albums and information related to the family burial plot.
The Del Webb Corporation Photograph Collection (approximately 1957 to 1988) consists of black-and-white photographic prints, black-and-white oversize reprints, negatives, and color slides focusing on the Mint Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. Images depict the construction of a twenty-six story high-rise addition to the property, its grand opening and anniversary celebrations, the Mint 400 Off-Road race festivities, interior shots of the casino floor, restaurants and lounges, and a salon. Also included are exterior images of properties on Fremont Street considered to be competitors of the Mint, advertisements and billboards, and photographs of Del E. Webb and associates.
Interviewed by Joanne L. Goodwin. Stella Butterfield's family, the Goldbergs, was Jewish, and she was born in the Bronx. During World War II she worked for the Coast Guard in the steno pool in Washington, D.C. Stella moved to Santa Monica a few years later while the war was still going on and worked briefly as a riveter for Douglas Aircraft and then as a teletype operator for the Air Force but at Douglas Aircraft. Because she had a hard time getting a job because of antisemitism, she changed her name to Gilbert. In December of 1948 she went to the Canal Zone in Panama to be the secretary of the commanding officer of the Panama Supply Depot. Stella was also a law reporter for court martials. She met Frank Butterfield, who was stationed there, and married him in 1952. He was transferred back to the United States, and they lived in Massachusetts. Then they moved to Los Angeles, and in 1953 they moved to Las Vegas, where she was a court reporter at Nellis Air Force Base. Then they moved to Mexico City, then back to California where she worked as a legal secretary. In early 1955 they moved back to Las Vegas, and Stella worked as a federal court reporter for Judge Roger T. Foley.
Born in 1936, architect Joel Bergman spent his childhood in Venice, California, the son of Edythe Klein and Harry Bergman, a baker who later turned to dealing in scrap metal. The award-winning designer of such Las Vegas projects as the International Hotel, the MGM Grand Hotel (later Bally's), additions to the Riviera Hotel and the Golden Nugget downtown, the Mirage, Treasure Island, Paris Casino Resort, Caesars Palace, Trump International Hotel and Tower, the Signature at MGM Grand, Rhumbar, Gilley's at Treasure Island, and the Tropicana Hotel and Casino first arrived in Las Vegas in 1968 to work on the International Hotel. In this interview, Bergman discusses his architectural career, which began with his graduation in architecture from the University of Southern California; he also discusses his work with Martin Stern, his sixteen years with Steve Wynn, and the formation of his own architectural firm, Bergman Walls and Associates. Throughout, he pays tribute to the three mentors who had the greatest influence on his work—USC architecture professor Carleton Winslow, architect Berton Severson, and client Steve Wynn—and the ways they visualized people moving through space. He acknowledges other professionals whose work he admired and talks about his wives Marlene Federman, Terrie Colston, Maria Nicolini, and Valentina Bogdanova as well as his children and stepchildren. Joel David Bergman passed away August 24, 2016, three weeks after he gave this interview.