Search Results
Nanyu Tomiyasu oral history interview
Identifier
OH-01835
Abstract
Oral history interview with Nanyu Tomiyasu conducted by Mark French on April 12, 1977 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Tomiyasu begins by discussing his father's immigration from Japan to North America in 1898, and his move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1916. He talks about his father's work in agriculture and the types of crops grown in Las Vegas during the early twentieth century. Tomiyasu also discusses his own upbringing in Las Vegas, how the city has changed and grown, and his education. Tomiyasu describes the Native Americans of Southern Nevada, the environmental changes caused by the construction of the Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam), and his experiences as a Japanese American in Las Vegas.
Archival Collection
Transcript of interview with Gary Sternberg by Barbara Tabach, February - April, 2015
Date
2015-02-12
2015-02-15
2015-04-07
2015-10-20
Archival Collection
Description
In this oral history, Gary explains how the family came to live in the United States?Cleveland and Los Angeles. In 1957, he married Noreen and they eventually came to live in Las Vegas where Gary worked for Sears selling washing machines, had a repair business and an importing business with Noreen. Gary was an entrepreneurial soul and inventive much like his father. He owns three patents.
On August 25, 1931, Augusta and Herman Sternberg welcomed their second child, Gerd (aka Gary), into the world of Cuxhaven, Germany. Augusta was a devout Christian of Polish ancestry who had fled Russian persecution. Herman was a German-born Jew salesman and inventor. The couple fell in love and had two children, Gary and Ruth who was a year and half older. By 1938, German politics were targeting Jews and Herman was ripped away from his Christian wife and children and sent to a concentration camp. Fate and friendship rescued Herman with the option to go to China. And so begins the history of the Sternberg family and how they all would eventually live together during World War II in the confines of a Jewish ghetto in Hongkew, China from May 1939 to July 1948. Gary had an extraordinary career as a dealer. He was not the stereotypical young dealer-to-be: he was in his 40s when he signed up for the Michael Gaughn Dealing School in the mid-1970s. Gary?s charming wit and ease of making friends soon gained him a position at El Cortez and then Caesars Palace. It was the same personality that would sustain his stellar thirty-one year career at Caesars. He was employed there from April 1974 until his retirement May 8, 2005. Though Jewish tradition would identify Gary as Christian, he self-identified as Jewish, officially converted and has been an active member of the Jewish community. Among his anecdotes-and he has many-is one about securing a $30,000 donation from Frank Sinatra and Jilly Rizzo for Congregation Ner Tamid.
Text
"Holiday in Japan" dancers joint oral history interview
Identifier
OH-00954
Abstract
Oral history joint interview with the "Holiday in Japan" dancers conducted by Claytee D. White on May 26, 2011 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. The dancers present for the interview were Sachiko O. Thompson, Minoru Saito, Kazu Hamada, Kyoko Nakamura, Nobuko Suda, and Katsuko Tomoko Billman. The dancers begin by discussing their lives in Japan before coming to the United States in 1960 to perform their "Holiday in Japan" stage show. They describe their reactions to coming to the United States and compare it to life in Japan, as well as their reactions to coming to Las Vegas, Nevada specifically. They discuss performing their show at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino, Desert Inn Hotel and Casino, and Dunes Hotel and Casino. They describe their show, which presented Japanese culture to Western audiences, and the work that went into it. They end the interview by detailing their lives and careers after performances of the show concluded in 1961.
Archival Collection
Gibney, Frank, 1924-2006
Taken from Wikipedia, "Frank Bray Gibney (September 21, 1924 – April 9, 2006) was an American journalist, editor, writer and scholar. He learned Japanese while in the American Navy during World War II, then was stationed in Japan. As a journalist in Tokyo, he wrote Five Gentlemen of Japan, a popular book about the Japanese, welcomed for its humanism and for transcending the bitterness of war. A half dozen more books followed on Japan and East Asia. He also wrote on Communism in Europe.
Person
Phyllis Syzdek oral history interview
Identifier
OH-03590
Abstract
Oral history interview with Phyllis Syzdek conducted by an unknown fifth grader on April 24, 2009 and is part of the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. Syzdek opens her interview by discussing her childhood during the Great Depression, and moving around the United States often as her father searched for work. She then talks about moving to a small farm town in Colorado for her high school years. Sydek then recalls December 07, 1941 and where she was when she found out about the Pearl Harbor bombing. She remembers that her town had a considerable Japanese American population but they were not sent to internment camps because of their farm work. She then describes how World War II affected her, how young people helped the war effort, and her sister's service in the United States Marine Corps. Syzdek then discusses what life was like in the 1940s, how much things cost during that time, and what she remembers from when she was in 5th grade. Lastly, Syzdek talks about her adult life and family.
Archival Collection