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George Lee oral history interview
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Abstract
Oral history interview with George Lee conducted by Stefani Evans and Su Kim Chung on February 29, 2024 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Lee describes his four decades of experience as a Las Vegas blackjack dealer (36 at the Four Queens Casino), after leaving behind a career in dance. Lee was selected to originate the role of "Tea" in a 1954 New York City Ballet stage production of The Nutcracker. He also danced in South Pacific at the Thunderbird, and with Carol Channing's revue at The Riviera, and a traveling production of Disney on Parade. After dancing in Alcazar de Paris at the Desert Inn Hotel in 1980, he quit dancing and went to dealer school. He worked swing shift at the Four Queens Hotel, and attended ballet classes at UNLV during the day. Lee, now 89, still works five days a week at the Four Queens. In this interview, Lee talks about ballet, typecasting, discipline, and being "ten times better." He discusses becoming a U.S. citizen in 1959 and changing his surname from Li to Lee.
Archival Collection
UNLV Libraries Collection of Casino Promotional and Publicity Material
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The UNLV Libraries Collection of Casino Promotional and Publicity Material (1966-2004) consists of clothing, promotional souvenirs, and gambling ephemera from various hotels and casinos throughout Las Vegas, Nevada. These items include hats, shirts, mugs, ash trays, drinking glasses, menus, buckets, keychains, keno supplies, and playing cards. The hotels include Caesar's Palace, Flamingo Hotel, Imperial Palace, Palace Station, Showboat, Castaways, Stardust, El Rancho, Sam's Town, Circus Circus, and Four Queens, in addition to others throughout Las Vegas.
Archival Collection
KNPR: "Monday Night Jazz" Program Documentation and Recordings
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The KNPR: "Monday Night Jazz" Program Documentation and Recordings focus on jazz music played at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1982 to 1997. The materials contain the reel-to-reel audio tapes from the radio programs that were taped at the Four Queens Hotel, including unedited master recordings and the edited versions played on air by Nevada National Public Radio (KNPR). Materials also include contracts, newspaper clippings, correspondence, photographs, and jazz scheduling information related to the program.
Archival Collection
Cindy Funkhouser oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Cindy Funkhouser conducted by Claytee White on January 14, 2010 for the Voices of the Historic John S. Park Neighborhood Oral History Project. Funkhouser discusses moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1980 and working as a cocktail waitress and a bartender at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino. She then discusses owning an antique shop and being one of the forces behind First Friday and the Las Vegas art movement that is rooted in the John S. Park Neighborhood's sense of community.
Archival Collection
Anna Sipl Meyers oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Anna Sipl Meyers conducted by Leita Kaldi Davis on twelve separate occasions from February 12, 2012 to December 07, 2012 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Meyers discusses her life in great detail, from living in concentration camps to owning Las Vegas, Nevada casinos, including the Casbah Hotel and the Queen of Hearts Hotel (now the Four Queens Hotel and Casino).
Archival Collection
Jimmy Wilkins oral history interviews
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Oral history interviews with Jimmy Wilkins conducted by Lisa Gioia-Acres on May 30, 2008 and September 15, 2008 for the All That Jazz Oral History Project. In these interviews, Wilkins discusses his career as a jazz trombonist. He begins by talking about his upbringing in St. Louis, Missouri, his early interest in being a musician, learning to play the trombone in high school, and later enlisting in the United States Navy to play in Navy bands. Wilkins describes leaving the Navy after World War II ended and continuing his musical career by joining jazz bands in the St. Louis area, playing across the United States with traveling bands, and eventually moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1994. He talks about playing jazz in casinos such as the Four Queens and the Riviera, the current jazz culture in Las Vegas, and his retirement.
Archival Collection