Oral history interview with David Becker conducted by Claytee D. White and Barbara Tabach on May 15, 2018 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Becker recalls being on a three-day assignment at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival across from the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thinking the gunfire was produced by malfunctioning equipment, he took photos of the scattering crowd. Moments later, in a now silent venue, he realized he captured a horrific massacre. Becker recalls photographing people leaving the venue as they performed acts of heroism, helping the fallen or the slow to reach safety. He discusses how difficult it is to comprehend the acts of that night, and how his photojournalist instincts allowed him to capture such devastating images.

Twentieth-century visitors to the Las Vegas Sands Hotel experienced the masonry work of Anthony A. Marnell, who removed his family from Riverside, California, to North Las Vegas in 1952 in order to build that structure. When he formed his own masonry company in 1958, he taught his namesake nine-year-old son the skills of a mason and the value of honest work. The younger Marnell learned all he could about construction from his father and completed his education by graduating USC School of Architecture in 1972, serving his apprenticeship, and becoming licensed in 1973. After designing McCarran Airport's A and B Gates, he teamed up with Lud Corrao in 1974 to form Marnell Corrao Associates, the first design-build firm in Southern Nevada. Marnell Corrao built many of Southern Nevada's most iconic hotel-casinos including the California Hotel, Maxim Hotel, and Sam's Town and Steve Wynn and Treasure Island, The Mirage, Bellagio, and New York New York as well as the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino and the M Resort Spa Casino. In this interview, the Riverside native speaks to the importance of teaching future generations about the value of work, of earning the sense of accomplishment, and of fueling one's inner spirit. His philosophy built a work environment that encouraged employee longevity from the beginning in 1974 (he is employee number one, and his assistant is employee number two). He talks of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), of entrepreneurial gamesmanship, and of casino greats Bill Boyd, Jay Sarno, Cliff Perlman, Kirk Kerkorian, and Steve Wynn. He describes the evolution of Las Vegas resorts from prioritizing casino games to fine dining to night clubs and entertainment. He credits his own Rio staff tradition of serving Chef's Table to the employees and the Rio's award-winning chef, Jean-Louis Palladin, for beginning the Las Vegas food renaissance in the late 1990s that rebranded Las Vegas as a Mecca for celebrity chefs. The nine-year-old who worked part time in his father's masonry business learned his lessons well, much to the benefit of Southern Nevada's growing skyline, its residents' growing waistlines, and its businesses' growing bottom lines.

On March 20, 1978, collector Danny Budak interviewed the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) bookstore buyer, Marie Jordan (born June 26th, 1940 in Arizona) in the UNLV library. This interview offers Marie Jordan’s personal perspective of life in Nevada, being a local resident for twenty years. Marie also discusses family life and changes that she has witnessed in the Valley.

Interviewed by Barbara Tabach. Mara Braun, a native of Puerto Rico, has lived in Las Vegas since 1975. She is the owner/operator of a successful event and catering business. Mara married Abe Braun and raised their children in both Latinx and Jewish traditions.

Gertrude (n?e Rightman) Rudiak was born in 1915 in North Dakota to Russian immigrants. She grew up in Wisconsin until 1924. That was the year the family drove to California via the Yellowstone Trail, a dusty, undeveloped road marked by yellow stones. In Los Angeles, her father practiced chiropractic, a holistic approach to well-being for which there was little knowledge at the time. Gertrude earned her music degree at University of California at Berkeley; a decision that did not lead to a career. She then attended a business college and got a job as a social worker in Northern California. In 1941, she met and soon married George Rudiak. It was the advent of World War II. George enlisted in the service and was assigned to Las Vegas Gunnery School (Nellis Air Force Base.) Since he had a law degree from University of California at Berkeley and passed the Nevada Bar exam, he found supplemental employment with local attorneys. Las Vegas became the Rudiaks? permanent home where they raised their five children. In this interview Gertrude recalls the stories of coming to live in Las Vegas of the 1940?s: their phone number was 1-2-3; the neighborhood they lived in longest being Scotch 80s and being part of the secular and Jewish communities.