A view of Los Angeles Mayor Frank L. Shaw, Howard Hughes, and California Governor Frank Merriam (left to right) dining together at a banquet for Howard Hughes in Los Angeles, California.

Margaret Ostler Stout-Hall’s personality shines in this interview, in which she discusses growing up in Las Vegas’s Rancho Circle. She moved to Las Vegas with her family in 1951, when she was twelve and her father bought Las Vegas’s Seven-Up Bottling Company. She immediately found friends at John S. Park Elementary School and later at Las Vegas High School, where she became a Rhythmette. Margaret describes her Rancho Circle neighborhood, dragging Fremont Street, working at the El Portal Theater, and dancing at the Wildcat Lair. As a Rhythmette, she traveled to New York and Philadelphia to perform on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and the Elks National Convention. Stout-Hall credits Rhythmette advisor, Evelyn Stuckey, for developing a sense of confidence, belonging, and responsibility in the young women she led. It was this confidence that enabled Margaret to go to work for Harry Reid after she suffered a tragic loss. Former Rhythmettes honored Stuckey by lobbying the Clark County School District to name a school after their former mentor; the school opened in 2010.

A view of Howard Hughes emerging from the Lockheed 14 aircraft after landing it in Chicago.

A view of Howard Hughes standing beside an unidentified man as he is about to board his private B-23 Transport plane in Los Angeles.

A view of Howard Hughes, left, and other men who helped to pilot a Trans World Airline aircraft in New York.

A view of Howard Hughes walking out with police men while leaving the Senate War Investigating Subcommittee hearing in Washington.