Oral history interview with Earl McDonald conducted by Claytee D. White on October 4, 2000 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, McDonald, a sixty-year resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, relates his background in Mississippi and Louisiana, leaving home at fourteen and traveling to California, and being drafted into the Army during World War II. He then discusses moving to Las Vegas and working as a musician and valet while training to be an electrician. He talks at length about the Westside, detailing the clubs and restaurants that opened along Jackson Street, including the El Rio, the Cotton Club, the El Morocco, and the Ebony Club. He also explains the discrimination that prevented Black individuals from joining unions even when they worked union jobs, and the response by the United States Justice department. He also discusses gambling and the potential for revitalizing the Westside community.
Myrna Williams was born in Chicago in 1929. Her brother was the singer Mel Tormé, so the family moved to Hollywood when she was ten because her brother was under contract with MGM. Shortly after Myrna turned 21, she moved to New York to work for Decca Records. She met the jazz drummer David Williams, whom she married. Myrna, David, and their daughter Indy moved to Las Vegas in 1959. Myrna got involved in politics, and was elected to the Nevada State Assembly and to the Clark County Commission. She also taught in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' department of social work for eleven years. Myrna is also a member of numerous community organizations and sits on the board of the Public Education Foundation and the Anti-Defamation League. Her greatest accomplishment in her opinion is the development of the Cambridge Recreation Center, a community center that houses a skate park and a pool, as well as programming that focuses on at risk youth. In 2007 it was designated as the Myrna Tormé Community Campus.
An image of an illustration of Louis Prima with a black eye and the caption, "I've switched!" This is a possible parody of the Tareyton cigarette advertising slogan, "Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!" which premiered in 1963.