Oral history interview with Judith Lee Johnson Jones conducted by Claytee D. White on February 22, 2007 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Johnson Jones discusses winning a contest that allowed her to be a showgirl at the Sands Hotel and Casino when she was seventeen, receiving a college degree in Houston, Texas, and performing in the Elvis movie “Viva Las Vegas.” She also talks about her twenty-nine-year career in education.
Oral history interview with Ethel S. Hatch conducted by P. Kohlman on November 24, 1975 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. This interview covers the history of Las Vegas from 1939 to 1975. Mrs. Hatch also talks about ranching in Nevada, Rex Bell, development on the Strip, the first hotels, and early local shopping culture. The interview concludes with discussion surrounding tree-lined streets, the Helldorado Club, and Fremont Street.
Oral history interview with Jacqueline MacFarlane conducted by Claytee D. White on February 04, 2010 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview Jacqueline MacFarlane discusses her early childhood in Las Vegas, Nevada, her move to rural Nevada because of the Great Depression, her move back to Las Vegas, and meeting her husband David MacFarlane, an Air Force Cadet, at the Nellis Air force Base. She then discusses family life, Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s, and the various jobs she held on the Las Vegas Strip.
Hotel Nevada after the addition of a balcony. Transcribed from photo sleeve: "by Florence Lee Jones ... March, 1969. Early Las Vegas History. The Hotel Nevada, at the Southeast corner of Main and Fremont Streets, is the oldest continuous hotel business in Las Vegas, although it has been known as Sal Sagev (Las Vegas spelled backward) since 1928. The hostelry started as a tent in 1905, but the late John Miller soon erected a permanent building, shown above, which provided the most luxurious accommodations and the best food in Las Vegas for many years. In the 1930's the Sal Sagev Hotel had one of the three elevators in town. A private dining room was a popular place for private parties for the elite of the town. The hotel is now owned and operated by Miller's son, Abe Miller, and his daughter, Mrs. Sherman E. Nugent. The Golden Gate Club now occupies much of the first floor of the building. On the North side of the building is a sign "Bank of Southern Nevada", which was the second bank established in Las Vegas. (The other was the First State Bank.) Started by John F. Miller, Ed Von Tobel, Sr., Will Beckley, Attorney Frank Stevens, and Hal D. Buzick, the Bank of Southern Nevada was an important factor in Southern Nevada's economy. During the 1930's and the Depression, the federal government issued restrictive orders on bank operations. The reaction of the independent Las Vegans was 'No guy in Washington is going to tell us how to run our bank.' ... So they paid off all the depositors and closed the bank. The Rhoads & Rhoads General Machine Works (extreme right) was one of the first automobile agencies in town - the start of Community Chevrolet." Site Name: Hotel Nevada Address: 1 Fremont Street
The Sadie and Hampton George Papers (1874-1948) consist primarily of the incoming and outgoing correspondence of Sadie Kiel George and her husband, Hampton George, regarding proposed land and mineral rights sales. The collection also includes some personal correspondence, and two of the most significant letters in the collection deal with the deaths of brothers William and Edward Kiel, Sadie's uncles, who were found dead at the Kiel Ranch in October 1900. Also included in the collection are receipts, cancelled checks, tax notices, mining claims, and land deeds.
The William Hillman Shockley Photograph Collection (1875-1925, 1951) contains black-and-white photographs documenting mining operations at the Mount Diablo Mine and Millworks in Candelaria, Nevada. It also includes photographs of nearby operations including the Northern Belle Mine and the Princess Mill. The collection contains photographs of Shockley, his son, William Bradford Shockley, as an infant, as well as images of Shockley’s brothers, Walter A. Shockley and George Shockley.