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The Summa Corporation records (1946-1989) include administrative, film-related, legal, and financial records primarily pertaining to the management of Howard Hughes' various corporations and assets. Administrative records contain correspondence and agreements to create The Amazing Howard Hughes documentary, research into Hughes' corporate history, and correspondence describing the management of Hughes' corporations. Film-related records include research into the copyrights of Hughes' films, contracts, agreements, and correspondence regarding film distribution and reel inventories. Legal materials relate to film piracy research and Hughes' legal battles with the Classic Film Museum.
Archival Component
The George Knox Roth Collection (1959-1980) consists of newspaper clippings (including photocopies), magazine articles, newsletters, technical reports and publications, correspondence, notes, and photographs relating to the Atomic Energy Commission, the environmental impact of nuclear testing in Nevada, Nevada mining, Airwest and the Hughes Airport, and other aspects of Howard Hughes’ Nevada operations. The George Knox Roth Collection also includes correspondence and expense reports related to his own company, General Research Consultants.
Archival Collection
Kevin T. Orrock, president of Summerlin and vice president of Master Planned Communities for The Howard Hughes Corp., has come full circle. Born in Pioche, Nevada, he spent his early years in the San Francisco Bay area and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Graduating from a small liberal arts college, he arrived in Las Vegas in 1974 with a degree in accounting and a teaching credential, finding work in the Desert Inn accounting department. Howard Hughes owned the Desert Inn, so from 1974 Orrock has consistently been in the employ of Howard Hughes, Summa Corporation, and Howard Hughes Corporation. Orrock later earned his M.B.A. at UNLV. In this interview, Orrock focuses on Summerlin, the 22,000-acre, award-winning, master-planned community on the west side of the Las Vegas Valley. He discusses Summerlin’s physical layout, its history, its development, and its future. He specifically credits Summa Corporation’s early visionaries John Goolsby and Will Lummis for having the foresight to sell some of the company’s land in order to build the financial foundation that, in turn, permitted Summerlin’s fifty-year development plan. He also talks about the development and future of Downtown Summerlin; its balance of private, charter, and public schools; and the ways the company selects its residential builders.
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Oral history interview with Melissa Warren conducted by Claytee D. White on November 02, 2015 for the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. Warren begins by discussing her early history in Utah and how she started her career in advertising and public relations. She describes the work she has done for the Howard Hughes Corporation in coordinating the advertising for the Summerlin community in Las Vegas, Nevada before and after its construction. Warren also details how the Howard Hughes Corporation made its decisions on how to plan and structure the Summerlin community, how it handled education in the community, and various promotional events that were held for Summerlin.
Archival Collection