Oral history interview with Jay C. Sarno Jr. conducted by David G. Schwartz on July 10, 2008 for the Remembering Jay Sarno Oral History Project. Sarno begins by discussing how his parents met in the early 1950s in Miami, Florida and were married within six weeks. Sarno then describes his family moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1965 and living in the Dunes Hotel for the first three weeks. Sarno then chronicles his parents’ marriage and their divorce in the 1970s. Sarno then recounts his father’s relationship with Jimmy Hoffa and Allen Dorfman and the visits Hoffa made to Las Vegas to see his father. Sarno talks about the way his father treated him and his brother differently than his sisters. Lastly, Sarno discusses how he and his siblings were surprised their father owed the Internal Revenue Service over one million dollars at the time of his death.
The Hazel Baker Denton Photograph Collection (1910-1961) is comprised of photographic prints and one negative of the Denton family and friends, primarily taken in Nevada and Utah. Many photographs depict life in small Nevada towns, particularly Caliente. Photographs also depict Utah, Oregon, Washington D.C., and California, and unidentified desert and forest landscapes throughout the American West.
The Nevada Division of State Parks Photograph Collection (approximately 1910-1940) contains black-and-white photographic prints and some corresponding negatives that depict state parks and recreational areas throughout southern Nevada. The images also portray Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, Logandale, the Valley of Fire, and Mount Charleston as well as images of actors filming on location in southern Nevada.
On March 10, 1981, Rebecca (Beth) Bonenfant interviewed Ruth Gust (born 1905 in Mokane, Missouri) about her life in Nevada. Gust first talks about her original move to Las Vegas in 1947 and some of the first businesses that existed at the time. In this brief interview, she also talks about the first casinos, the culinary union, her employment as a server, and Mt. Charleston.