The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 Las Vegas, Nevada Photographs document various activities of the Culinary Union, from the 1950s to 2006, with the bulk of the material documenting the 1990s. Prominently featured in the collection are various strikes, pickets, marches, parades, rallies, and demonstrations from the late 1980s to early 2000s. A large portion of these photographs documents the Frontier Strike of the 1990s. Also included are photographs of press conferences, political rallies, internal committee meetings, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (H.E.R.E.) conventions, and various social events. Materials contain photographic prints, photographic negatives, and a small number of slides.
On February 10, 1977, Frederick Dougan interviewed Russell Grater (born 1907 in Lebanon, Indiana) about his career in the U.S. National Park Service. Grater first talks about his move to the Southern Nevada area and his work that impacted the Hoover Dam project. He then talks about the town of St. Thomas, Nevada, the Lost City, and the activities of tourists. Grater also talks about his work in excavation, the indigenous American Indian tribes of the area, findings on petroglyphs, and the types of wildlife that were found in the area. He later talks about findings related to fossils, gold mining, the effects of World War II on the dam project, and vegetation in the area.
On March 27, 1977, collector Jeff Crampton interviewed accountant, Ruth E. Hazard (born June 25th, 1907 in Marshall, Michigan) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The interview takes place at the collector’s home and offers an overview of life in early Las Vegas from 1931 to 1977. The interview concludes with a discussion on local atomic testing.
Four women, Cynthia Cicero, Betty Brown, Tina Boag, and Jan Ravetti, recall coming to Las Vegas to obtain jobs during the period of mob ownership in the Las Vegas hotels. Each had a different reason for coming. A recession in Buffalo, New York, brought Cynthia and her husband to Las Vegas to obtain employment; Jan Ravetti’s family moved from Pennsylvania due to her father’s illness and possible employment; parents of Tina Boag, who was born in Paris, were entertainers who travelled and performed extensively; and Milton Prell, opening the Aladdin Hotel and Casino, encouraged Californian Betty Brown to work for him. Cynthia Cicero obtained a job with the City of Las Vegas, but the other three worked on the Strip in the casinos. Their experiences in the hotels show the differences between mob and corporate management since they were working there before and after Howard Hughes purchased six of the large Vegas hotels. The four ladies tell about their work on the Strip from Betty’s experience as a genie at the Aladdin to Tina’s position as a twenty-one dealer. They were acquainted with the casino owners and managers, entertainers like Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin, and show girls. They also knew first-hand the interactions between mobsters and the public. Food, for example, was a giveaway, an enticement for people to come into the hotel to gamble. They also knew stories about high rollers, the robbery of the baccarat tables at Caesars Palace, and the importance of “taking a fall” including the rewards attached. The ladies describe the shops on downtown Fremont Street and the Strip such as Nina Clark’s, Ronzones, Dillards and Chic Hecht’s as well as Penneys and Sears. A young woman shopped at Suzie Cream Cheese, for example, for the right outfit to wear to Pussy Cat A Go-Go, the rock and roll club on the Strip. Las Vegas also had many good gourmet and ethnic restaurants, piano bars, hotel lounges, and pubs with excellent entertainment. The ladies also describe the difference in the treatment of women during the 1960s and 1970s by men in clubs. Women rarely bought drinks nor did they pay for dinners when with gentlemen. Finally, the ladies compare areas where they lived including McNeil Estates, Heritage Square and the Chisholm-built homes in the Jones-Vegas Drive area. Not to be forgotten, however, are the terrible rain storms that flood streets and the Strip. Serious gamblers in the casinos refused to leave the tables while drenching rains washed cars from the hotel parking lots during the 1970s. Neither did they leave the MGM casino when the hotel caught on fire in1980.