The American Red Cross Southern Nevada Chapter Records (1917-2015) include business records, legal and property documents, scrapbooks, photographs, awards and event programs. Also included is documentation of training events in Southern Nevada and disaster relief efforts throughout the country.
The UNLV Libraries Collection of Sands Hotel and Casino Promotional Materials and Reports includes equity research, clippings, press releases, press kits, and promotional materials for Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, dating from 1958 to 2014.
The Carolyn Merriam Collection on the Sands Hotel (1972-1998) consists primarily of Sands Hotel merchandise and ephemera, including mugs, glassware, playing cards, dice, an ashtray, and a tote bag. The collection also contains several framed photograph reproductions depicting Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1950s and 1960s. The Sands Hotel operated in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1952 to 1996.
The Michael McKensie Pratt Professional Papers (approximately 1950-2021) contain costume designs, musical selections, and synopsis for shows that Pratt worked on in Las Vegas, Nevada including 90 Degrees & Rising, Les Folies Chic, and Jubilee!. The collection also contains souvenir show programs for cabaret shows performed in Paris, France and Las Vegas, Nevada, including Lido de Paris, Casino de Paris, Bal du Moulin Rouge, and Folies Bergere. Materials also include copies of Pratt's curriculum vita and swing bible used by Pratt when he was the co-company manager for Jubilee!. Also included are video recordings of shows Pratt choreographed and an archived version of Pratt's personal website.
Cathie and Chris Millson moved to Las Vegas with their one-year-old daughter, Nicole, in 1984 following Chris’s completion of a cardio-thoracic anesthesiology fellowship in Atlanta, Georgia. Their two other children were born in Las Vegas. Shortly after they arrived they purchased the Rancho Bel Air house where they currently reside. Cathie talks about raising her children and living in Rancho Bel Air, a gated neighborhood of custom houses, which grew to maturity after the Millsons moved in. Cathie’s memories chronicle the growth of Las Vegas from small town to large city, how a certain segment of the population lived and entertained, and how downtown revitalization has brought young people back to Rancho Bel Air to raise their families.
As Las Vegas native Jim Olson looks back on his law career, he keeps returning to the case that gouged a sooty scar on his memory, altered legal practice and technology in Southern Nevada, captured the world's imagination, and changed international building codes-the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino fire of November 21, 1980, that killed 85 people and took eight years to litigate. Olson became involved with the litigation because his firm, Cromer, Barker, and Michaelson, represented the MGM Grand's insurance company, INA, Insurance Company of North America. Juggling thousands of claims, Olson ended up working with the MGM's corporate counsel in Los Angeles, a legal firm in Denver, Lloyd's of London, and a special master; renting additional office space for taking depositions; hiring graveyard-shift transcribers, and purchasing the legal world's latest technological marvel-a fax machine. As a first grader, five-year-old Jim was known to walk home during the school day whenever the St. Joseph nuns scared him. As an attorney whose career path was inspired by Perry Mason and augmented by his argumentative streak, Jim offers insights into litigation about some of Southern Nevada's most iconic buildings, signs, and spaces. In this interview, he recalls his mentors, Al Gunderson, George Cromer, Bill Barker, and Kent Michaelson. He talks of construction defect cases including his first MGM Grand litigation, in which his firm represented the architect, Martin Stern, when faulty siding fell off the building, and the 1994 lawsuits that followed when the top of the newly constructed, 365-foot Las Vegas Hilton sign blew down in a windstorm. He shares tales of legendary fellow attorney Mike Hines and his annual Nevada Bar Association parties on the Mike Hines Ranch, and he speaks to litigation between Hank Greenspun, Howard Hughes, and Hughes Tool Company.