Oral history interview with Robert Maheu conducted by K. J. Evans on April 19, 1999 for the Las Vegas Review-Journal First 100 Oral History Project. In this interview, Maheu discusses Howard Hughes and attempts by Bill Gay and associates to take Hughes' business. Maheu then discusses his career in the FBI and CIA before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. Finally, Maheu talks about working for Hughes.
The Alan Cummings Research Files (1974-2004) are comprised of research files compiled by Cummings, an elementary school teacher for the Clark County School District (CCSD) in Southern Nevada. The files represent Cummings's work to persuade the Teacher's Health Trust, the employee benefit plan for the school district, to consider domestic partnership benefits for CCSD educators and administrators. Materials include personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, magazines, and court cases.
The Paul Lavern Cummings Papers are comprised of Cummings' personal papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials dating from 1927 to 2018. Cummings worked as an actor and performed as a female impersonator under the name Lavern Cummings. The majority of the collection documents his career working at Finnochio’s, a nightclub in San Francisco, California. Materials in this collection includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, sheet music arrangements, photographs, digital audio files, and ephemera. The collection also includes interviews and biographical research material about Cummings and other female and male impersonators.
Oral history interview with Sharon Maurer-Schwartz conducted by Barbara Tabach on February 01, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Maurer-Schwartz, with her wife Edna Rice, talks about being part of the gay/Jewish life together over the years including in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both women discuss why they moved to Nevada and the early days of The Center, an LGBT center, which hosted a Passover Seder.
Oral history interview with Aaron Williams conducted by Claytee D. White on August 16, 2005 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Williams recalls individuals he worked with, such as Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Gay, and the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He remembers the Westside Federal Credit Union, joining the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and encountering discrimination at one of the first jobs he had at the Sahara Hotel. He shares anecdotes of Robert Maheu, Steve Wynn, Lubertha Johnson, Ruby Duncan, Mabel Hoggard, and other Las Vegas, Nevada notables.
The Anna and Jo Pitney Personal Papers are comprised of materials documenting the lives of Anna J. Pitney and her wife, Jo Pitney, a long-time Las Vegas lesbian couple. They were together since 1955 and traveled together often. The collectionIt includes correspondence, news clippings, photographs and photograph albums, travel notes, and a memoir of their lives written by Jo.
Oral history interview with Elgin Holbert Jr. conducted by Claytee D. White on April 28, 2021 for African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project.
Elgin Holbert Jr. discusses growing up in the Westside community of Las Vegas, the activities he participated in as a child, community leaders he admired, and his observations of mixed family life (as his father was Black and his mother was white). Elgin also speaks of his work as a Red Cap on the Union Pacific Railroad (UPR), his time at Nevada Power, and his experience dealing cards at various Las Vegas casinos including the Riviera Hotel and Casino (for 15 years), the Tropicana Las Vegas (for 15 years), and the Treasure Island Hotel (for 20 years).
Subjects discussed include: Viola Cunningham; Union Pacific Railroad; Riviera Hotel and Casino; Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel Casino; Treasure Island Hotel; Cotton Bowl; Jimmy Gay; Jefferson Recreational Center; and Eleanor Walker
Oral history interview with Emmanuel Ortega conducted by Monserrath Hernandez, Maribel Estrada Calderon, Elsa Lopez, Barbara Tabach, and Laurents Bañuelos Benitez on 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Emmanuel Ortega was born in Artesia, California and was raised in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico before moving to El Paso, Texas with his family at the age of thirteen. In 1998 his family relocated once again from El Paso to Las Vegas, Nevada where his father joined the Carpenters Union. They settled in Green Valley and he began attending a hybrid community college and high school program allowing him to obtain college credits. He continued at the College of Southern Nevada for two more years where he was a photography major and later transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) where he studied art history. He moved back to Las Vegas in 2011 where he began teaching at UNLV and received a PhD in Ibero-American colonial art history from the University of New Mexico in 2017. He is the co-host of the podcast "Latinos Who Lunch" where hosts discuss pop culture, art, and issues of race, sex, and gender in the Latinx community.
The Richard "Dick" Ham Photograph Collection (1910-2005) contains photographs of Boulder City, Nevada resident Richard "Dick" Ham, his family, friends, and romantic partners. Images include photographs of Las Vegas High School and the University of California, Berkeley where Ham attended high school and college. The collection includes both formal portraits as well as candid snapshots of Ham and the people who were part of his life.
The Kenny Kerr Papers (approximately 1973-2013) contain audiovisual materials, photographs, newspaper clippings, and ephemera that document the career of Las Vegas, Nevada female impersonator Kenny Kerr. The majority of the collection includes recordings of Kerr's performances, including his impersonation revue show This is Boy-Lesque. Audiovisual materials in this collection represent Kerr's performances in Las Vegas as well as around the United States, music used for Boy-Lesque, and an audiocassette recording of Kerr's song, "Uncle Sam Wants You." Other materials in this collection include Kerr's professional headshots and Boy-Lesque show ephemera such as performance tickets and show programs. Also included are professional and candid photographs of Kerr's performances and with other performers.The collection also includes a 2012 digital video recording of UnBOYlievable starring female impersonator Jimmy Emerson at the Riverside Resort in Laughlin, Nevada, fourteen songs from Kerr's album "Songs From the Heart," and digital scans of the photographs in the collection.