In this interview, Andy Katz discusses his family, his childhood growing up in Las Vegas, and attending UNLV. His parents, Mike and Bea Katz, established Manpower, an employment agency, which Andy served as president.

Andy Katz is the youngest of four children born to Michael and Beatrice Katz. When Andy was a little over one-year-old his family moved from New York City to Las Vegas. During this oral history Andy highlights his family?s background and the entrepreneurial spirit of his father that inspired the move in 1963. By 1964, Mike Katz, Andy?s father, was well-known in Las Vegas for providing an answering service and subsequently for opening the Manpower franchise to serve the growing town. In time, this family business grew and the eldest sons, Bob and Mel opened franchises in Salt Lake City and San Diego, respectively. Andy recalls his steps to joining Manpower in this interview. With great humor and fondness, he describes the friendships he formed in public school, Hebrew school and Jewish youth organizations. Andy easily slipped into active leadership roles; it was a role he would continue during his years at UNLV, where he earned a Business degree and was active with the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. Born Andrew Scott Katz on January 9, 1962, Andy, as everyone knew him, passed away suddenly on February 23, 2016. It was exactly one week after this oral history interview. The scheduled next session was not to occur.

Jerry Engel was born in 1930 in New Jersey and spent most of his early life in Long Beach, New York until the family moved westward to Las Angeles. Jerry is a retired Certified Public Accountant and loves to talk about the history of Las Vegas that he observed since arriving in 1953. That was the year that he moved to Las Vegas to join his older brothers, Morris and Phil, in their accounting firm. Their major client at the time was Desert Inn. Another personal connection with local history: the Engel brothers? mother, Esther Katz Engel, was among the early investors in the Moulin Rouge hotel/casino enterprise. Jerry graduated with honors from University of California, Los Angeles in 1951. His accounting career in Las Vegas is highly regarded and he continues to maintain a consulting practice. He remains active within the community and enjoys doing presentations based on his memories of Las Vegas history. Within this interview, Jerry highlights people, casinos and other observations of local history that he came into contact with over the decades. He provides insights about the role of an accountant in the gaming industry. He also discusses the influence of Jewish business leaders in and array of local gaming and non-gaming issues, including the retail world, Jim Crow era segregation, and the astonishing growth of the valley over six decades.

Music brought Jay Poster to Las Vegas for a brief time in 1974. Jay wanted to pursue a musical career and his cousin was a professional musician with the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra at Caesars Palace. To Jay?s disappointment, within a few months his cousin Jack Poster left Las Vegas for a road tour. So Jay decided his best strategy was to return home to San Diego and his studies at San Diego State University. It would be over a decade later before Jay returned to Las Vegas to live and this time it became permanent. This time it was not for music. For beyond his musical talent, Jay had a gift for connecting with people of all of ages and walks of life. He was good at sales and his day job selling office furniture offered him the opportunity to transfer to Las Vegas in 1986. Within a few years, however, it was a recruiter for Palm Mortuaries who introduced Jay to his defining career moment and to Allen Brewster, a prominent Jewish leader and founder of King David Cemetery and Mortuary. It was 2001. Jay has been King David?s ever since and is the General Manager. In this interview, Jay describes his personal and spiritual growth through his career in funeral services and his respect for the Jewish traditions of burial and grieving. In addition, his passion for music has also soared and he talks about his participation in the Shabbatones at Congregation Ner Tamid and Desert Winds, a community based performance organization. He shares his love of traditional Jewish klezmer music and the Meshugginah Klezmorim.

Interview with Jean Tobman and two of her daughters, Marilyn (Tobman) Moran and Janie (Tobman) Moore by Claytee White, November 5, 2013. In this interview, Jean Tobman recalls coming to Las Vegas with her husband and two young children in the 1950s, and the life they established in the Pinto area of the Westside. Her husband, Herb, owned City Furniture and a cab company near downtown. Marilyn and Janie discuss their youth and the enjoyable time they had growing up in Las Vegas. Marilyn talks about how the city has grown and her time on the planning commission. Janie also discusses the growth of Las Vegas and her nostalgia for old Las Vegas.

In 1953, Jean and Herb Tobman moved from New Jersey to Las Vegas. The Tombans settled in the Pinto Palamino. Upon moving, Jean initially assisted her mother at her rooming house, and Herb worked with Jean's father at City Furniture. Herb bought his first cab soon thereafter, and grew one vehicle into Western Cab Company, which is still family-run. After a large fire closed City Furniture, Herb worked as the general manager at Moulin Rouge, jumpstarting his career in the gaming industry. Marilyn, Janie and Helen are the children of Jean and Herb and all still live in Las Vegas. The girls grew up keeping horses, as did many other neighbors in the Pinto area. Marilyn married John Moran, the sheriff's son, who served as a police officer himself. She sat on the planning commission for a decade, during the city's growth spurt. Janie spent a semester at Arizona State University before returning to Las Vegas to work at Stardust Hotel, a property co-owned by her father, who also served as the its president.

In this interview, Burton Cohen discusses his involvement in the Las Vegas casino industry, including booking entertainment for various hotels.

Burton Cohen's long casino executive career began in the mid-1960s when he accepted a proposition to become involved with the transformation of the Frontier Hotel. He left his south Florida roots and law practice to become a co-owner/general manager of the Frontier Hotel. Thus, began his highly regarded Las Vegas presence. For nearly four decades he served in the management of some of the Strip's most famous casinos: Flamingo, Dunes, Circus Circus, Caesar Palace, Thunderbird and the Desert Inn, which remains his favorite. In this interview, Burt reflects on the positions he held, the celebrities he hired and befriended, and offers a unique look at the behind the scenes marketing and entertainment strategies that he helmed. He shares stories of becoming entrenched in casino operations, his reflections of union experiences, and even anecdotes about moving his mother to Las Vegas.

In this interview, Renee Diamond discusses coming to Las Vegas via Los Angeles, with her husband and children in the 1970s and getting involved in politics. She talks about her husband, Leo, and his business selling vinyl records in L.A., and her work in a doctor's office. Once in Las Vegas, the Diamonds joined Temple Beth Sholom and later Congregation Ner Tamid. Renee talks about her involvement in the political arena in southern Nevada, including the League of Women Voters.

Community activism and social justice rank high in the legacy of Renee Diamond. She often refers to herself as one of the last of the generation without college degrees that could make a difference in the politics of the state. When Renee, her husband Leo Diamond moved their family to Las Vegas from southern California, the energetic advocate Renee quickly plugged into the community. The word "No" was not part of her vocabulary. Among the many Jewish and secular activities the she engaged in were: the editorial board of the Jewish Reporter newspaper; Hadassah; Anti-Defamation League; Red Cross Board; State Museum Board to name a few. She remains a vibrant Democratic Party leader and served one term on the Nevada Assembly in 1989. She was on the front lines as a fierce and active supporter of Welfare Rights, Fair Housing and the Equal Rights Amendment. It is a life that included working alongside illustrious women and men of Southern Nevada history. A list that includes: Harriet Trudell, Ruby Duncan, Myrna Williams and Dorothy Eisenberg and many more mentioned here. Meanwhile she raised four children and enjoyed a loving 43-year marriage with Leo (aka "Uncle Leo") whose career included the popular Bingo Palace, Slots-A-Fun and Stations Casinos. During this oral history interview she recalls the Las Vegas that she moved to in 1972 and reflects on what attracted people here, ways to be part of the Jewish life which might even include a bowling league and how involvement in raising social awareness was a worthy investment of ones' time. This is a look at a woman who made a difference.

Interview with Mark Fine in two sessions, November 18 and December 2, 2014. In the first session, Fine begins by talking about his sons and their business interests, then discusses his own childhood growing up in Cleveland. Fine moved to Arizona as a teenager and attended the University of Arizona for college. After college, he moved to New York city, and describes his employment at Chemical Bank, and then at the investment firm Loeb, Rhoades. He was married and started a family in New York City, then moved to Las Vegas to assist in his in-laws' (the Greenspuns) business ventures, which included real estate development and Sun Outdoor Advertising. Fine talks about Las Vegas in the 1970s and building Green Valley and Summerlin, the "social engineering" aspects of developing a community and the importance of building incrementally. In Part II of the interview, Fine discusses his family history and raising his children in Las Vegas. He talks about the growth of the Jewish community and ph

Mark Fine was born in 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was raised with a strong Jewish identity. When Mark was in fourth grade, his parents moved the family to Shaker Heights, and again moved to Arizona during his senior of high school. Upon graduation, Mark enrolled at the University of Arizona and became a member of the ZBT fraternity; determined to graduate in four years, he finished in 1964 with a degree in business administration with an emphasis in real estate. Though never having been, Mark took his degree to New York City and established a career on Wall Street, first working for Chemical Bank. In 1969, Mark married Susan Greenspun, and soon after, the couple had their first child. By this time, Mark had taken a new position with Loeb, Rhoades and Company, and worked there for nearly five years in their corporate finance department. In 1973, Mark moved to Las Vegas to assist his father-in-law, Hank Greenpun, with his nonnewspaper business operations, largely under the auspices of American Nevada Corporation. Mark soon capitalized on this passion for real estate and community development, leading several integrated real estate projects to create the Green Valley area, the city's first large-scale master-planned community. Mark went on to launch a similar project in Summerlin, and at one point, he was leading the development of the country's two fastest selling planned communities (Green Valley and Summerlin). Ultimately, Mark became one of state's prominent real estate developers, and continues to lead significant projects positively impacting the city's growth and appeal. His fundamental goal has always been to create a sense of place, to develop thriving communities with generational stamina. His success in this endeavor is recognized, in part, with the naming of Mark L. Fine Elementary School. Over the years, Mark has also been an important member of the Jewish community, among the "second generation of pioneers," coming after those heavily involved with the hotels during the 1950s and 1960s. He served on the Temple Beth Sholom board of directors, and initiated events to bring older and younger generations of the Jewish community together in meaningful ways. Mark has five children?Alyson Marmur, Katie Erhman, Jeffrey Fine and Jonathan Fine and Nicole Ruvo Falcone?and is married to Gloria Fine.