Mark Hall-Patton, administrator of Clark County Museums and since 2008 a frequent guest on the popular cable television show Pawn Stars, was born in 1954 in San Diego, California. His mother was a registered nurse and his father served in the United States Navy. From early childhood, Mark’s interest in history and museums shaped his path in life. After graduating high school in Santa Ana, California, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in history at nearby University of California, Irvine. Degree in hand, Mark worked for Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and founded the Anaheim Museum in 1984. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1993 to create the Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum in McCarran International Airport. By 2008, Mark had become administrator over all Clark County museums. In this interview, he explains the various ways his involvement with the popular Pawn Stars program has turned “the museum guy” into a brand, introduced production companies to the value of filming in Las Vegas, increased Clark County museum visits and donations, and raised popular awareness of the academic fields of history and museum studies.
On February 21, 1980, collector Bob Bush interviewed porter and retired military man, Hugh E. Key (born on November 17th, 1919 in Fordyce, Arkansas) in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers the life of a Las Vegas old-timer. Hugh Keys’ wife, Mrs. Key, is also present during the interview and offers a few remarks.
As Jelindo Tiberti describes his childhood as the youngest of five children growing up on 15th Street, he chronicles a seemingly idyllic time of playing with a large group of neighborhood friends, of doing outdoor chores with his brothers, of spending summers at the family cabin in Utah, of high school dances, and as a high school junior, of meeting Sandee, whom he would marry within two months after they both graduated from the University of Southern California. He talks about his parents: about working for and with his namesake father; about taking his mother to her daily radiation treatments, about cooking his mother's recipes, and about his mother making sure her youngest child earned his college degree before he married. He explains the ubiquity of fencing and shares his experience of taking over Tiberti Fence Company, of retiring and selling the company, and of starting over with Red Star Fence Company. Throughout, Tiberti speaks to living with dyslexia: of attending an after-s
Oral history interview with Alan Stock conducted by Barbara Tabach on December 27, 2017 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Alan Stock discusses moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1999 for his job as a radio talk show host for KXNT. Stock describes the broadcast that covered the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting from 11 PM on that night until 9 AM the next morning. He talks about some of the calls the station received from various members of the community, including survivors of the shooting, families of those at the event, people on lockdown in the nearby hotels, doctors, and general listeners. Stock describes some of the topics discussed on the broadcast, such as what was currently happening on the Las Vegas Strip, stories of the aftermath, and the support needed from the general public. Other topics include gun control and conspiracy theories. He discusses the impact this and other shootings would have on public affairs, including tighter security in daily living and public gatherings. He compares security in the United States to security in Israel and other countries, focusing on the idea of unconcealed guns worn in public. Throughout this interview, Alan Stock explains that the radio station's goal was to provide accurate information to the public during the aftermath of the October 1, 2017 mass shooting.
The National Organization for Women, Las Vegas Chapter Records document the philosophy, activities, and politics of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 1966 to 2009 with most materials covering the period of 1971 to 1974. The records demonstrate the activities and political positions of NOW and they include correspondence, policies, memoranda, files, publications, and ephemera from the Las Vegas, Nevada chapter.
It seems counterintuitive that a man who was raised a Mennonite, spoke Pennsylvania Dutch before he spoke English, and was destined to quit school after eighth grade to work on the family farm would grow up to become one of the most progressive and visionary library directors in the United States. His participation in the Building Las Vegas project results from his being responsible for building twenty libraries in Clark County during his 1971–1994 tenure as director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. One of his first controversies was to insist on going to high school after his father demanded he quit. After graduating high school he went to Nigeria on behalf of his church, serving there for five years. Upon returning to the U.S., he found work at the Fort Wayne Library, albeit he was limited by how far he could advance because of his limited education. After attaining his library degree Indiana University at Bloomington he served as director at the Columbia City Library
Brothers Steve and Bart Jones live and breathe Las Vegas history. Their grandparents, Burley and Arlie Jones, arrived in Las Vegas in the nineteen-teens; their father, Herb Jones; his sister, Florence Lee Jones Cahlan, and their uncle, Cliff Jones, helped form the legal, journalistic, and water policy framework that sustains Southern Nevada today. The Jones brothers build on that foundation through their custom home-building company, Merlin Construction. In this interview, they talk about living and growing up in Las Vegas, of attending John S. Park Elementary School, of hunting in the desert, of their family's commitment to cultural and racial diversity, and of accompanying their grandfather to his business at the Ranch Market in the Westside. They share their early work experiences lifeguarding and later, dealing, at local casinos as well as second-hand memories of the Kefauver trials through the tales told by their father and uncle. Steve describes mentor Audie Coker; he explains
Interviewed by Nathalie Martinez. Jocelyn Cortez is a Salvadoran-American immigration lawyer. She grew up on the Eastside of Las Vegas and grew up going to school in the Clark County School District and at UNLV before going to Law School at the University of Arizona. She is an engaged community member as an immigration lawyer working alongside the Culinary Union and the Latino Bar Association.
Dee Hicks was born in Damascus, Arkansas, in 1946. She was the tenth of 13 children born to Guy and Augusta Goff. Her father was a Baptist preacher and carpenter by trade, and her mother was a housewife. Dee's decision to become a nurse became a focal point in her life in the tenth grade. She joined the Future Nurses' Club and geared her high school classes toward nursing. Later Dee went to Oklahoma Baptist University and graduated with a bachelor of science in nursing. After marrying in 1969, Dee joined her husband in Las Vegas, who was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base. At the age of 22, she joined the staff at Sunrise Hospital. There were only 500 beds at that time, and over the course of her 35 years at that hospital, she saw it grow to 701 beds. Dee's career included starting out as staff nurse, then becoming charge nurse, house supervisor, director of adult critical care, assistant director of nurses, and finally director of nurses. She shares how she honed her skills in various workshops and courses, observed various surgeries, and witnessed the evolution of nurses' uniforms from formal whites to colorful scrubs. In addition to her nursing duties, Dee also served on the State Board of Health and on many nursing boards. She did volunteer work with Street Teens, helped pass a bill that allows LPNs to do IV interventions with patients, and took training to be a parish nurse so she could volunteer to help sick people in her congregation. She stands ready today to help her community in whatever way she can.