Elmo C. Bruner came to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1947 and established himself as an architect and appraiser. Born in Texas, he grew up in Oklahoma and attended Oklahoma State University. He graduated in 1931 with a BA and BS in architecture and engineering. He married Lucile Spire that same year. The couple went on to have four children: Elmo, Allen, Jerry, and Janice. After graduation, he worked for the Oklahoma State Highway Department and for several oil companies. From 1945 to 1947, he worked as an architectural engineer on the Los Alamos Project.

Hotel sales promotion manager Elmo Hughes Ellsworth was born in Safford, Arizona in 1911. He attended George Washington University Law School for a year until his job required him to move to San Francisco, California where he worked in sales promotion, publicity and theaters. He married Charlotte Rowberry in 1936 and a few years later they moved to the Las Vegas, Nevada. There he began working in the Security and Public Relations Department of the Basic Magnesium Company.