Oral history interview with Chuck Johnson conducted by Barbara Tabach on November 17, 2021, December 15, 2021, and January 14, 2022 for the Veterans Oral History Project of Southern Nevada.
Chuck discusses his enlistment in the Army at the age of 16 and his tours of duty during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He shares stories from his 21 year military career and talks about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), his injuries, and how the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I. Bill) helped him to settle in Nevada.
During his second interview session, Chuck reflects on his time spent in Korea and how he came to establish the Korean War Memorial in Boulder City, Nevada. He shares more stories from his service in Vietnam and Germany. Chuck also talks about his family's history and his mother's family tree.
During his third interview session, Chuck shares more memories of serving in Korea and Vietnam, especially the Tet Offensive attacks during the Vietnam War. He recalls stories from his childhood, including leading his high school's ROTC Color Guard for President John F. Kennedy hours before the President's assassination.
The Scott Henry Photographs of the Las Vegas, Latinx Community (approximately 1983-2000) consist of 42 photographic prints depicting members of the Latinx community in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thirty-eight of the prints were used as part of a collaborative project between Scott Henry, photographer and editor for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Thomas Rodriguez, a prominent member of the Latinx community in Las Vegas, for an exhibit of the Las Vegas Latinx community. Henry and Rodriguez together planned who to photograph for the exhibit. The photographs demonstrate the impact that the Latinx community has on the region's political, economic, and social growth and development. A number of the photographs show early members of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), including John Mendoza, Delia Martinez, Tom Rodriguez, Bob Agonia, Corrine Gutierrez, Nick Flores, Grace Salazar, and Gus Ramos.
The Michael McKensie Pratt Professional Papers (approximately 1950-2021) contain costume designs, musical selections, and synopsis for shows that Pratt worked on in Las Vegas, Nevada including 90 Degrees & Rising, Les Folies Chic, and Jubilee!. The collection also contains souvenir show programs for cabaret shows performed in Paris, France and Las Vegas, Nevada, including Lido de Paris, Casino de Paris, Bal du Moulin Rouge, and Folies Bergere. Materials also include copies of Pratt's curriculum vita and swing bible used by Pratt when he was the co-company manager for Jubilee!. Also included are video recordings of shows Pratt choreographed and an archived version of Pratt's personal website.
Oral history interviews with Dr. John Fildes conducted by Claytee D. White on June 10, 2021 and April 12, 2022 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Dr. John Fildes is Professor and Inaugural Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). Fildes graduated from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Manila, Philippines in 1982. Upon returning to the United States, he completed his residency in General Surgery at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in the South Bronx and a fellowship in Trauma, Burns, and Surgical Critical Care in Cook County. In 1995, Fildes was hired to come to Las Vegas, Nevada by Dr. Dale Harrison. Fildes instituted policies and procedures that proved to be effective when the 1 October shooting occured in 2017. All those alive upon arrival to University Medical Center (UMC) survived. Dr. Fildes and his team used all their skills, strategies, and medical acumen to ensure those results. In the second interview, Dr. Fildes continues his history by shared thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic and his experiences with various governmental and military assignments, including the military tradition of passing the challenge coins as a token of admiration. Finally, Fildes concludes his interviews by noting that COVID was all-consuming and tested the balance between individual rights and public health.
The Las Vegas Founders Club Records (1983-2013) consist mainly of photographic prints of players, general operations, and events surrounding golf tournaments in Las Vegas, Nevada. The tournaments include the Invensys Classic, Las Vegas Senior Classic, men's and women's Collegiate Championships, and the Las Vegas Invitational. Materials also include media press reports, newspaper and press clippings, and scrapbooks created by the Founders Club. The collection also contains digital photographs from various tournaments in Las Vegas.
Oral history interviews with Renee Diamond conducted by Caryll Batt Dziedziak on November 17, 1997, November 20, 1997, November 27, 1997, and November 30, 1997 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Diamond begins her interviews describing her childhood and young adult life in Los Angeles, California. Diamond then discusses her interest in organizing, which started with the Rumford Fair Housing Act campaign. Diamond talks about continuing her activism with the Women's Democratic Club in Las Vegas, Nevada after she moved there in 1972. Diamond discusses Las Vegas in the 1970s, the activist community at the time, Ruby Duncan, and the importance of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Diamond goes on to describe the ERA extensively, including the benefits of passing the ERA, campaigns and challenges specific to Nevada, and locals involved in the efforts. Diamond also talks about working with the National Organization of Women (NOW), and her presidency in the Women's Democratic Club.
Oral history interviews with Thalia Dondero conducted by Suzanne Becker on March 10, 2008 and August 22, 2008 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Dondero opens her interviews discussing why she became involved with the Las Vegas, Nevada Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and eventually the Nevada State PTA. Dondero then describes her work with the Girl Scouts and her election campaign for a seat on the Clark County Commission. Dondero also discusses Las Vegas city development and how the city has flooding issues. Later Dondero discusses her membership in the Las Vegas Junior League and her work throughout the state to supervise the living conditions of foster care children. Lastly, she describes her experience as a commissioner working to ensure various goods and services were available to the community.
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.
The regional subject files include materials collected by anthropologist Katherine Spilde about Native American gaming, Native American communities in the United States, and the US and international gaming industries. The materials date from 1859 to 2015, with the bulk of materials dating from 1990 to 2010. Materials dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are a reproduction of a federal treaty and an ethnohistorical essay. The majority of the materials document Native American gaming following the passage of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The papers include research and subject files created by Dr. Spilde during her employment with the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC), National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA), and Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (HPAIED). The materials document Native American gaming enterprises both on and off reservations, the socioeconomic impact of gaming, the political history of gaming in the US, and international gaming. The series includes socioeconomic reports, testimonies, correspondence, memos, press releases, photographs, audiovisual materials, promotional materials, brochures, fact sheets, summaries, booklets, pamphlets, advertisements, tourism materials, journal articles, legal briefs, legislative documents, court opinions, notes, presentations, conference materials, periodicals, community newspapers, and newspaper articles.
The collection contains documentation on a number of Native American nations, including the Misi-zaaga'iganiing Anishinaabeg (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Mille Lacs Band); Gaa-waabaabiganikaag Anishinaabeg (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Band); Forest County Bodéwadmi (Forest County Potawatomi Community); Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin; Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe; Mohegan Tribe of Indians; Tulalip Tribes of Washington; Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation; Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota; Mandan, Hidatsa, and Sahnish (Arikara) (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota); and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Other communities are also represented in the series, but to a lesser extent. In addition to materials about gaming and casinos, Dr. Spilde also collected documents, photographs, and audiovisual materials about Native American culture in general. The series documents regional and national trends in Native American gaming, and the greater gaming industry. Materials trace federal and state relationships with individual Native American nations, specifically concerning gaming enterprises.
Archival Collection
Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming
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Collection Number: MS-00092 Collection Name: Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming Box/Folder: N/A
The Maria LaCavera Papers (1947-2017) contain the papers of professional dancer Maria LaCavera. The collection documents the career of LaCavera dancing in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Flamingo Hotel in 1947, and the Last Frontier Hotel in 1949 as one of the Ramona Girls dancing in the Danny O'Neil Varieties Act. Materials include photographs of LaCavera and other Ramona Girls, newspaper clippings, correspondence, LaCavera's American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) employment contracts, Fabulous Las Vegas magazines, and hotel receipts. Other items of note include photographs of the 1949 Helldorado parade, a Frontier Hotel Ramona Room menu, and Frontier Hotel ephemera. There is also a copy of a self-published biography of LaCavera, written by her daughter-in-law Kristin Meyer entitled From Bon-Air to the Last Frontier. The collection also contains the digital images used to illustrate the book.