Interviewed by Catherine Bellver. Velma Haselton was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1914. She worked as an assistant bookkeeper for Hart, Schaffner and Marx and rose to Assistant Credit Manager. Velma worked at various jobs after she married for the second time and her son was born. She also represented the San Francisco CPA firm Lybrand, Ross Brothers and Montgomery (now Coopers Lybrand) in various capacities, both in California and St. Louis, eventually attaining the position of controller. Velma moved to Las Vegas for the first time in the 1950s, where she and her husband Don ran a coffee shop at the Park Lane Motel on South Fifth Street. Family requirements necessitated a move back to California. In 1971, Velma and her third husband, Charles Haselton, "retired" to Las Vegas. Velma immediately went to work as a cost accountant for United Pipeline, and later as an accountant for Kafoury Armstrong, a CPA firm. She eventually ran her own accounting business. Velma also held memberships and offices in various women's service groups.

Santo was born in the Bronx, New York in 1937. Santo’s family includes his father who was a butcher, and his mother who mostly stayed at home to raise the children, as well as a brother who currently lives with Santo. Santo recalls that it was great growing up in the Bronx, and he spent most of his life there until he joined the Air Force when he was 17. Santo’s immediate family was not musically oriented, but he learned to play the drums from a cousin. Music came easy for Santo, and he started getting paid for playing when he was 12. At 17, Santo joined the Air Force with a group of friends. He auditioned for and was accepted into the Air Force band where he played drums for four years. Santo was married with a child and another child on the way when he ended his military career and moved to California. After jobs working as a security guard and on an assembly line, Santo knew he just wanted to play and came to Las Vegas in 1960 to play with a band. It took several years before Santo was able to get on with a permanent band. Once Santo broke into the scene in Las Vegas, he played for six years at the Flamingo. Following that he was on the road for a couple of years with Paul Anka. Upon returning to Las Vegas, Santo worked for 14 years at the Sahara. Santo talks about when “the boys” had the hotels before the corporations came in and how everything changed. Currently, Santo does a lot of work with trumpet player Carl Saunders, frequently traveling to Los Angeles to do recordings together.