On March 1, 1975, collector Judy L. Curtis interviewed fire department captain, Elmore B. Curtis (born December 17th, 1896 in Minnesota) in his home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers life in Southern Nevada since 1942, including Mr. Curtis’s personal history and the early development of the Nevada Test Site. During the interview Mr. Curtis also discusses early tourism and socio-economic progress in Southern Nevada.
The documentation of the Holocaust of World War II reveals the desperation of Jewish families to protect their loved ones from doom. In this oral history, Sonja (neé Niekerk) Walter recalls the story of being an infant handed off to a family friend for safety and nurturing. Next to Sonja is Wilma, her “sister” and the biological daughter of that friend. Sonja and Wilma are tethered together by history and love for Cor Vandenberg, mother and protector. Sonja was born in 1943 Holland to Simon and Rose Niekerk. At thirteen days of age she was given sanctuary by Cor, who raise her as her own for the next two and half years. She and Wilma reminisce about the circumstances that brought them together, their love of Cor, and the impact of being a child survivor of the Holocaust. Sonja also shares her family’s journey to the United States and to Las Vegas.
In 1976, when Bob Campbell accepted the city manager position in Henderson, Nevada, he and his family had just endured nearly a month of sub-zero temperatures in their native Missouri. Southern Nevada's mild winter coupled with the promise of developing the 8,600 acres that would become Green Valley convinced Bob and his wife, Pat, to make the move. Bob came to Henderson with a degree in public administration and city manager experience in two Missouri towns, but Green Valley offered something akin to "an artist having a blank canvas on which to plan and create." In this interview, Bob talks about the ways his career in public administration blossomed in Southern Nevada. After about five years with the City of Henderson, Campbell joined Mark Fine and American Nevada Corporation to develop Green Valley; five years after that, he moved to Southwest Gas Corporation to work with Bill Laub and later, Kenny Guinn. From about 1989 to 1997, he helped develop Lake Las Vegas. In 1994, Bob and Pat together formed The Campbell Company, a private consulting firm whose clients included Transcontinental Properties' Lake Las Vegas project as well as Henry Chen's Ascaya. v Much of the interview focuses on the Lake Las Vegas project: its original visionary, false starts, and its tumultuous development as an arm of the Bass brothers of Fort Worth, Texas; their developer, Ronald Boeddeker of Transcontinental Properties in Santa Barbara, California, and Boeddeker's appointee, Alton Jones. Along the way Campbell shares the strategies employed by the Wednesday morning group of Henderson boosters who met at Saint Peter's Catholic Church and who succeeded in gaining the necessary local, state, and federal approvals to move the project forward. He reveals the intimidation, physical threats, and sexual harassment suffered by those who questioned the way Jones did business. Overall, though, he explains why he continues to respect the Bass brothers and is still proud of Lake Las Vegas, "proud that we got it on, and proud that it's turned out to be what it is."
Bert Hood is celebrated in Las Vegas's gay history for his ownership of the Red Barn, one of our most famous gay bars. This is another of those serendipitous interviews I've conducted with someone I very much wanted to interview but didn't know how to find. Bert's in Las Vegas from Oklahoma City for just a short while visiting old friends, and I was lucky enough to have found him through Bill Schafer, president of the Southern Nevada Gay and Lesbian Historical Society. I want to thank you, Bert, for donating these two hours of your vacation time to me so I can preserve your stories for the gay community.
Jerry Engel was born in 1930 in New Jersey and spent most of his early life in Long Beach, New York until the family moved westward to Las Angeles. Jerry is a retired Certified Public Accountant and loves to talk about the history of Las Vegas that he observed since arriving in 1953. That was the year that he moved to Las Vegas to join his older brothers, Morris and Phil, in their accounting firm. Their major client at the time was Desert Inn. Another personal connection with local history: the Engel brothers? mother, Esther Katz Engel, was among the early investors in the Moulin Rouge hotel/casino enterprise. Jerry graduated with honors from University of California, Los Angeles in 1951. His accounting career in Las Vegas is highly regarded and he continues to maintain a consulting practice. He remains active within the community and enjoys doing presentations based on his memories of Las Vegas history. Within this interview, Jerry highlights people, casinos and other observations of local history that he came into contact with over the decades. He provides insights about the role of an accountant in the gaming industry. He also discusses the influence of Jewish business leaders in and array of local gaming and non-gaming issues, including the retail world, Jim Crow era segregation, and the astonishing growth of the valley over six decades.
In this interview, Schwartz talks at length about her passion for compassionate hospice care, and her broad involvement with the Nathan Adelson Hospice, from volunteering to serving on the board to philanthropy, which included opening the Walter Schwartz Center for Compassionate Care. Schwartz also talks about other philanthropic giving which includes establishing scholarships at George Washington University and University of Michigan as well as support to Temple Beth Sholom gift shop.
On March 4, 1975 collector Gregory T. Hafen interviewed his father, Kent (Tim) Hafen (born April 17th, 1932 in St. George, Utah) at his ranch home in Pahrump, Nevada. This interview covers the history and development of Pahrump from 1951 to 1975. Kent relocated to Pahrump, Nevada in 1951, after living in Mesquite, Nevada from 1932 to 1951. Kent was a local farmer.
Raya was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel on July 8, 1935 to Edith and Gerhard Munzner. Her Mother was the daughter of Elsa and David Flachs from Berlin, Germany and her father was the son of Rachel and Zvi Munzner from Mannheim, Germany. Raya's father was jailed in 1931 as a 23 year old attorney, for being "out of the ordinary intelligent, and, therefore, highly dangerous," he was accused of being a communist because he defended social welfare cases. On the day of his release, he fled Germany, crossing the border overnight into Czechoslovakia and onward to Paris to reunite with his then fiancee (Raya's mother) and await immigration papers to the then Palestine, today's Israel. Raya's parents married upon their arrival in Jerusalem and settled in Tel Aviv in 1933. Raya's father obtained his doctorate in Economics and Law at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Upon arrival in Israel, he got a job counting the out-of-circulation money in the basement of "Bank Yaffet" in Tel Aviv an