Oral history interview with Vera Vann Wilson conducted by Patricia Van Batten on September 24, 2006 for the History of Blue Diamond Village in Nevada Oral History Project. Wilson begins the interview by describing how she came to move to Blue Diamond, Nevada in 1976 and being in a country music band in Reno, Nevada with her husband. She discusses life in Blue Diamond during that time and how Nevada has changed. Wilson expands upon how she built a straw-bale house and the difficulties she faced from the local county during its construction. She concludes by discussing the Blue Diamond community as it is at the time of the interview and her contributions to the community.
Nevadans Dixie Morrison and Neil A. Brundy met in 1959 at a rodeo in St. George, Utah. Born in St. George, Utah, Dixie was raised in Meadow Valley Wash, in Lincoln County, Nevada, on an 800-acre ranch, where she milked cows, barrel-raced, and attend high school via correspondence. Neil lived in Caliente until he was four, when his parents bought ten acres near Rancho Road (US 95) and moved to Las Vegas. Neil attended Fifth Street School, Las Vegas High School, and graduated from Rancho High School’s first graduating class in 1957. The couple married in 1964 in the Little Church of the Flowers and proudly parented six sons. In this interview, the Brundys describe life in rural Nevada and in Las Vegas in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; work on the railroads; barrel-racing; and rodeos. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they also talk about their family history work. Their memories evoke the streetscapes of pre- and postwar Las Vegas, its outskirts and downtown; race- and class-based tensions in the schools; the glamour of Las Vegas casinos when they were owned and operated by the mob; and the country music stars who performed downtown. Now residents of Southern Utah, Dixie and Neil come to Las Vegas to hear hardcore rock. Their three youngest sons formed the hardcore rock band, Folsom. When Folsom plays locally the proud parents attend a performance and enjoy family time with their band member sons and the sons and their families who live locally.
The "Jazz on the Strip" Scrapbooks (1991-2000) consist of ten scrapbooks containing photographs, event programs, newspaper clippings, and ephemera for the "Jazz on the Strip" weekly performance series put on by the Las Vegas Jazz Society (LVJS). Photographs depict the weekly shows at the Riviera Hotel's Le Bistro Lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada, and include performers such as Chick Corea, Russ Freeman, Bill Watrous, and other well-known performers. The scrapbooks also document other events put on by the Jazz Artists of Nevada, including annual picnics, memorial performances, "Jazz in the Park" outdoor concerts, and fundraising events. Included throughout the scrapbooks are the LVJS Jazz Notes, a monthly newsletter.
Part of an interview with Johnny Pate and Jillean Williams (not featured in clip) by Claytee D. White on March 4, 2004. In the clip, Pate describes how Joe Williams drew him out of retirement for a number of projects, including shows at Disney's Epcot Center.
The Larry Fotine Music Collection (approximately 1940-2017) contains the complete library of composer, jazz band leader, and composer for television Larry Fotine. Materials include manuscript scores, printed sheet music of works by Fotine, ASCAP agreements and contracts, photographs, recordings (both published recordings and archival recordings), correspondence, and books by Fotine, and memorabilia. Fotine directed his own bands beginning in the 1930s, with many million-plus seller recordings. He composed over 300 songs, including collaboration with Duke Ellington (“I Ain’t Got Nothin’ but the Blues”), and arranged music for Sammy Kaye’s band (1940-1945), Blue Barron and Art Mooney (1945-1947), and Lawrence Welk (1958-1960). Fotine composed music for the "Buttons and Rusty" cartoon shows at the end of his career in the 1980s. There is an item-level inventory available upon request.