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Josephine Bruns oral history interview
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Abstract
Oral history interview with Josephine Bruns conducted by Christopher Wong on March 9, 1975 and March 12, 1975 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Bruns discusses her family background, recreational activities, transportation, entertainment, and the growth of businesses in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bruns also talks about the Stewart Ranch and the Union Pacific Railroad.
Archival Collection
Patricia Bearce oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Patricia Bearce conducted by Guy Pence on September 29, 1972 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Bearce discusses some of the social and developmental changes, including the recreational activities involving swimming, going to theaters, watching stock car races, and attending Helldorado events. She also discusses some of the development of Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.
Archival Collection
Bud Bodell oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Bud Bodell conducted by an unidentified collector in the 1970s for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Bodell discusses Six Companies, the building of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam, and the development of the local sheriff’s department and the police department. Bodell also discusses the impact of gambling on the local economy, and the development plans and construction of the Las Vegas, Nevada Strip hotels.
Archival Collection
Justin Kaiser oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Justin Kaiser conducted by John (last name unknown) on September 23, 1972 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Kaiser discusses his childhood in Las Vegas, Nevada and how his parents originally moved to Southern Nevada. He also expresses his desire for Las Vegas to discontinue its growth and remain a smaller city.
Archival Collection
Shirley Helmick oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Shirley Helmick conducted by Lyle Helmick on May 12, 1978 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Helmick discusses her personal history, occupational history, and reasons for moving to Nevada. She also explains events that the United Methodist Church hosts.
Archival Collection
Vernon Bostick oral history interviews
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Oral history interview with Vernon Bostick conducted by Robert McCracken on January 19-20, 2000 and February 04, 2000 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Bostick opens his interviews by discussing his family history and upbringing in a company-owned town in Colorado. Bostick talks extensively about his life in Colorado, his interest in nature, and working on his family ranch. He then describes his forestry management job for the state of Washington. Bostick discusses how his work eventually took him out West, and why he opened a consulting firm to facilitate relations between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and ranchers. He then talks about how his son's success working at the Nevada Test Site convinced him to take a job there in the 1960s. Bostick then discusses a variety of environmental issues and law specific to Las Vegas, Nevada. Bostick ends his interview discussing his opinions about environmental legislation and management.
Archival Collection
Erma O. Godbey oral history interviews
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Oral history interviews with Erma O. Godbey conducted by Dennis McBride on November 07, 1986 and November 08, 1986 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. In these interviews, Godbey discusses her move from Oatman, Arizona to Needles, Nevada in 1931. She remembers the economic depression at the time, life in the desert before air conditioning or refrigerators, and her husband’s employment as a road paver. Godbey talks about living in the tent-city Ragtown (Williamsville) and moving to Boulder City, Nevada. Godbey describes early housing, the first school in Boulder City, and the money printed by Six Companies to use at their stores. Lastly, Godbey discusses the Boulder City 31ers and preserving the history of Boulder City.
Archival Collection
Gene Kilroy oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Gene Kilroy conducted by Claytee White on October 18, 2021 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Kilroy begins by discussing being born in a mining camp and his grandmother being an important figure in his life. Throughout the interview, Kilroy discusses working at various places on the Las Vegas Strip, including the Dunes Hotel and MGM Grand and meeting many famous people. He discusses the military being an important part of his life, as well as his time playing professional football for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Archival Collection
Lucille Matyas oral history interviews
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Oral history interviews with Lucille Matyas conducted by Irene Rostine on November 18, 2010 and December 02, 2010 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Matyas opens her interview by discussing her family's move to Las Vegas, Nevada and her mother's turbulent marriage to a Las Vegas constable in 1935. She then describes working at the phone company after school to avoid the dangers of her home life. She discusses learning to repair switchboards, saving equipment parts during wartime rationing, and listening in to the private conversations of repairmen. Matyas then describes family gatherings in Ohio before her family's move to Nevada. She later returns to talking about working at the telephone company and describes the issues customers had with party lines and the lack of telephone lines to serve the growing population of Las Vegas. Matyas ends her interviews discussing other memorable experiences she had working at the telephone company.
Archival Collection
Phyllis Friedman oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Phyllis Friedman conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 02, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview Friedman talks about first coming to Las Vegas, Nevada to work for the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas (now Jewish Nevada). Then she discusses what made the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) work unique and about ADL’s programming fighting cyberbullying. The interview finishes with her talking about work in addressing and combatting anti-Semitism and listing other influential Jewish organizations working in Las Vegas.
Archival Collection