In 1976, Gene Greenberg decided to accept a job transfer with Donrey Media Group and relocated from Laredo, Texas to Las Vegas. Las Vegas was comfortable fit and for the next 30 years, he primarily worked in television ad sales. He rose to become executive vice president and general manager of KVBC-TV. Significant to Gene’s ties to Las Vegas have been his ties to the Jewish community. This oral history includes reminiscences of connecting with the Jewish community and meeting many of the Jewish leaders through Young Leadership, Jewish Federation, and being on the board for Temple Beth Sholom. The most poignant aspect to his Jewish roots is the survival of both his parents during Holocaust. Both Helen and Abe Greenberg were from Lodz, Poland and interred in concentration camps. Gene is a frequent presenter of their story for his commitment to Holocaust education and as a member of the next generation. Gene and his wife Melanie both spent their childhoods in Kansas City, Missouri and are graduates of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. They married in 1970 and have three children: Sari Mann, Elissa Burda, and Jaron Greenberg.
On March 11, 1978, collector Patty L. Baratti interviewed James Hogan (born April 6th, 1909 in Winton Place, Ohio) at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada. In this interview, Hogan talks about his time working with the telephone company in Arizona and moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. He discusses his time working on grazing rights and cattle ranching in Nevada and how planning went to ensure that farms were able to have land to graze their animals. He speaks about dealing with farmers, corporations, and the government and the frustrations he had to deal with before there were set laws about grazing. He also discusses the change from mainly family farms in Nevada to corporations owning much of the farmland.
Twenty years after her birth in Utah in 1924, Marie Horseley met and married her husband who was an engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad. They settled in Las Vegas, his home town and soon purchased a home for $9800 in the new John S. Park neighborhood. Sixty years later Marie, twice a widow, remains in the home. Up the street four doors, one of her granddaughters lives with her three children. Marie recalls the new housing development that appealed to railroad workers. The roads were dirt and there were no streetlights, but soon a community blossomed. Marie is a self-described quiet resident; her life was about raising her three daughters and being a member of the LDS church. However, she knew everyone on her street no matter their religious affiliation. Today the businesses are gone. Homes have changed appearances over the years as owners have changed. Ethnic diversity is apparent and the sense of community closeness has slipped away for her. Yet she loves her place there, feels safe and secure. When asked about the ides of John S. Park being designated a historic district, she is not all that wowed by the idea of restrictions that might be included in that. Nevertheless, she has no intention of relocating from the comfort of the place she has called home all these years.
Interview with Irving Kirshbaum by Cheryl Rogers on February 23, 1979. In this interview, Kirshbaum discusses the Riviera Hotel where he began working in 1955. He also talks about the landscape of the Las Vegas Strip in the 1950s, and the state of gambling, comps, customer service, and dealer training. The interviewer asks about the treatment of minorities at the Riviera, and in Las Vegas generally, and the effect of corporate ownership on casinos.
Leonard Raizin was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1930. His father was a cattle dealer. At an early age Raizin knew he wanted to be a doctor and after attending medical school he married his wife Carol Raizin born in Toronto, Canada. Leonard Raizin attended the University of Toronto for medical school in 1948. He met his wife Carol on a blind date. He started his internship at Sinai Hospital of Detroit in 1954. After a trip to Arizona and a feel of the desert weather the Raizins' with their four young daughters moved to Las Vegas, NV in 1961. When arriving in Las Vegas Dr. Raizin practiced at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital (currently University Medical Center) and also at Sunrise as an anesthesiologist. There was a time while practicing in Las Vegas Dr. Raizin was the only anesthesiologist in the area, and experienced for the first 6 months of life in Las Vegas an extremely immersed schedule that never allowed him an entire night at home. Carol Raizin graduated as one of the first students at UNLV with a degree in Psychology in 1973. Carol eventually worked alongside her husband in their office handling bookkeeping for eight anesthesiologists. Dr. Leonard Raizin and Carol Raizin after a very successful life in Las Vegas are now retired. They still have a home in the Las Vegas area, however they spend their winters skiing in Park City, Utah and their summers fishing in Idaho.
Narrator affiliation: Western Shoshone Property Owner under Treaty Access note: Audio temporarily sealed. May not quote in any form without written permission from interviewee