Search Results
Cassius Smith oral history interview
Identifier
Abstract
Oral history interview with Cassius Smith conducted by Claytee D. White on November 16, 2021 for African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project.
Cassius talks about his childhood and early interest in fashion design. He describes his chance encounter with a FUBU employee on a train in New York that opened the door to a ten year career with the hip hop clothing line and other clothing designers. Cassius talks about his decision to move to Las Vegas after attending the MAGIC Fashion Trade Show, and how he settled in the city just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He shares what life has been like since the move and his current entrepreneurial pursuits, including designing a new clothing line with his nephew.
Archival Collection
Prencess Nelson Scrapbooks
Identifier
Abstract
The Prencess Nelson Scrapbooks (approximately 1950-1979) consist of three scrapbooks documenting the career of Prencess Mayhall, a former showgirl and model. The scrapbooks contain photographs, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, and handwritten notes to Mayhall from various performers and models. Mayhall performed in a variety of shows in New York; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Los Angeles, California. She appears in photographs at a number of shows at the Thunderbird, Sands, and Frontier Hotels. Also included in the scrapbook is a 1954 American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) contract between Mayhall and Copacabana in New York, and photographs of Mayhall with entertainers including Red Skelton, Paul Anka, and Sammy Davis Jr. Prencess went by a number of names throughout her career, most commonly 'Prencess Mayhall' while in New York, and 'Lee Temple' while performing at the Sands Hotel.
Archival Collection
The Pierson, supper menu, Thursday, March 26, 1885
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Text
Transcript of interview with Kim Krantz by Joyce Marshall, February 26, 1996
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Kim Krantz arrived in Las Vegas in 1953. She came as a seasoned performer having danced in large productions in Chicago, Montreal, New York and Florida. Born Delores Kalcowski in Jersey City, New Jersey, she adopted the name Kim Perrin while working at New York’s Latin Quarter. She had always loved the West and jumped at the chance to take the Latin Quarter show from New York City to Las Vegas. She came for a two-week engagement at the Desert Inn Hotel. The show was held over at that property for three months, and then it moved to the Riviera Hotel and Casino. Bill Miller approached her to join a new production at the Dunes Hotel. He and Harold Minsky were preparing “Minsky’s Burlesque,” the first show to use women born in the United States in a nude show. She opened with the original cast and stayed for two years. Kim retired in 1957 after she married Danny Krantz, the Food and Beverage Manager for the Flamingo Hotel. She raised four children in Las Vegas, but never lost touch with th
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