Collection is comprised of Ffolliott "Fluff" LeCoque's professional and personal papers (1879-2015), documenting her life and career working as a dancer and later as company manager for Las Vegas entertainment productions; most notably the long-running Jubilee! show produced by Donn Arden for the MGM Grand and Bally's Hotel-Casinos. Materials include personal letters, drawings, professional papers, newspaper clippings, photographs, magazines, commericially produced sheet music, and related ephemera.
Born in 1936, architect Joel Bergman spent his childhood in Venice, California, the son of Edythe Klein and Harry Bergman, a baker who later turned to dealing in scrap metal. The award-winning designer of such Las Vegas projects as the International Hotel, the MGM Grand Hotel (later Bally's), additions to the Riviera Hotel and the Golden Nugget downtown, the Mirage, Treasure Island, Paris Casino Resort, Caesars Palace, Trump International Hotel and Tower, the Signature at MGM Grand, Rhumbar, Gilley's at Treasure Island, and the Tropicana Hotel and Casino first arrived in Las Vegas in 1968 to work on the International Hotel. In this interview, Bergman discusses his architectural career, which began with his graduation in architecture from the University of Southern California; he also discusses his work with Martin Stern, his sixteen years with Steve Wynn, and the formation of his own architectural firm, Bergman Walls and Associates. Throughout, he pays tribute to the three mentors who had the greatest influence on his work—USC architecture professor Carleton Winslow, architect Berton Severson, and client Steve Wynn—and the ways they visualized people moving through space. He acknowledges other professionals whose work he admired and talks about his wives Marlene Federman, Terrie Colston, Maria Nicolini, and Valentina Bogdanova as well as his children and stepchildren. Joel David Bergman passed away August 24, 2016, three weeks after he gave this interview.
On March 15, 1981, Steven L. Smith interviewed Edward A. Collins (born on March 16th, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois), at the Dunes Hotel and Country Club. Collins relocated to Nevada in 1955. The interview covers gender equality in the field of culinary arts in Las Vegas. Collins describes the changes he saw take place in culinary over the years. He also discusses Bugsy Siegel’s impact and influence on the emergence of big shows in the hotels on the Strip. Among other jobs, Collins worked as a captain in a showroom at the Frontier Hotel. He discusses Las Vegas before and after Howard Hughes and Bob Maheu appeared on the scene.