Oral history interview with Mark Hall-Patton conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White on August 25, 2016 for the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. Hall-Patton discusses coming to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1993, creating the Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum, and becoming a director for Clark County Museums in 2008, just when the economic downturn caused large layoffs and a drop in visitor numbers. He also talks about how joining the television show Pawn Stars in 2009 significantly raised visitor numbers and increased visibility of museums all over the Las Vegas Valley.
Materials depict the celebrations of Howard Hughes's circumnavigation flight in 1938. Along with a crew consisting of Harry Connor, Tom Thurlow, Richard Stoddart, and Ed Lund, Hughes flew the Super Electra on a global circumnavigation flight. On July 10, 1938, Hughes and the crew departed Floyd Bennett Field in New York and flew to Paris, France, Moscow, Russia, Omsk, Russia, Yakutsk, Russia, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Minneapolis, Minnesota before landing back in New York on July 14. The photographs primarily depict the parades thrown for Hughes after completion of the flight. The photographs also depict Hughes and his crew meeting with New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at New York City Hall, the National Press Association, and crowds of onlookers who attended the plane's landings in various cities.
Archival Collection
Howard Hughes Public Relations Photograph Collection
Top view of the Hughes H-1 Racer with an X painted over its R registration number on its starboard wing. The registration number NX 258Y is seen on the rudder.
From the Historic Building Survey Photograph Collection (PH-00345). Frazier Hall, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada.