As he reveals in this oral history, Roger Thomas is, among many other things, a son, a father, a brother, a husband, a student, an artist, a visionary, and a philanthropist. As the second son of Peggy and E. Parry Thomas’s five children, Roger was raised a Mormon child of privilege and civic responsibility. The banking family summered in Newport Beach, wintered in Sun Valley, and taught their children by words and deeds that it is not up for debate if you will be involved in your community; the only question is how you will apply your talents and resources to benefit your community. Roger absorbed the lessons well. As a child who struggled in school but excelled in art, he attended his last two years of high school at Interlochen Arts Academy, graduating in 1969, finally finding himself “in an environment where what I did had currency.” From there he earned his BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Studio Degree from Tufts University before returning to Las Vegas and eventually joining Steve Wynn’s team in 1981. As Executive Vice President of Design for Wynn Design & Development, he is the man in whom Steve Wynn places his trust to make real at each Wynn property the Wynn design philosophy: aim for a constituency of highly sophisticated, well-traveled, very educated people and give them a reality, a now, that is so fetching, so alluring they wish to be no place else. As he was mentored by his father and Steve Wynn, he too is mentoring those who will follow him. At Wynn, the next generation will carry forward the Wynn idea of evoca-texture, of creating “moments of experiential emotion that result in a memory so captivating and so unique that if you want to repeat that you have to come back.” At home, he collaborates with his daughter on a children’s book that has the potential to become a series; she is the illustrator, while he provides the words. Roger Thomas sat for this interview five days after his father, E. Parry Thomas, passed away in Idaho. Instead of postponing the interview to a more convenient time, Roger kept the appointment and explained, “This is for UNLV. If I’d cancelled my father would have killed me.”

Coming from humble beginnings, Elaina Blake grew up in Port Orchard, Washington, where her father was in the logging industry and she involved herself in the love of horseback riding. After becoming engaged at age 16, she married the following year at 17 and moved to Las Vegas where she started as a statistical typist at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. This led to a position her to become an executive secretary at the Thunderbird where she dealt with the rampant sexual harassment that was typical of the executive office environment in the industry at the time. The rejection of those advances led her to start her career in real estate with Roberts Realty where she sold her first group of homes off of Nellis Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. In 1976, she made the entrepreneurial move by buying into Roberts Realty, becoming an owner, and eventually buying out Young American Homes. She started giving back to the community through her service as being the first woman elected to president elect for the Chamber of Commerce in 1984 and also served on the Clark County Planning Commission for four years serving as vice chairman and chairman. She did such a wonderful job running the chamber, she was approached to run for Lieutenant Governor. Her involvement with the community increased during this time as she got involved with the United Way, saved the YMCA from closure and started the Focus School Project in 1989 with former superintendent Brian Cram where businesses adopt schools and provide money and volunteer. This project is still in operation today and has given back $8 million dollars to CCSD in volunteerism. During her time with the Chamber, she continued to work with major local builders such as Pageantry Homes, Heers Brothers, and Christopher Homes, which led to her taking another entrepreneurial milestone by taking a small team to create Blake and Associates. In 1996, Blake leveled up to become a developer starting with office buildings. As a champion for the inclusion of women, she never felt held back because of her gender and she always encouraged women in the Chamber to give more of themselves, even if it was for ten minutes because the men did so. In a male-dominated industry, Elaina Blake has been a trailblazer for women in business and the housing industry in the valley.

In 1990, Las Vegas became home to Ellis Landau and his attorney wife, Yvette. They moved from Phoenix, Arizona when Ellis accepted a position as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer with Boyd Gaming. The relocation also included a desire to become active in the local community. Temple Beth Sholom was one of their first connections. For Ellis the Jewish community of a newer city like Las Vegas differed immensely from his childhood upbringing in a more ethnic Jewish community outside Philadelphia. Nevertheless, Ellis soon became active on the Temple Beth Sholom board, and is a past Treasurer and President. The couple are among the founders of the Warsaw Memorial Garden at the synagogue. In 2006, Ellis was honored as Temple Beth Sholom’s “Man of the Year.” The Landaus have been significantly involved with other local organizations such as Nathan Adelson Hospice and the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Ellis’s dedication to the Anti-defamation League, both on a local and regional level, is a beacon of inspiration to others. The Landaus are sponsors of ADL’s “No Place for Hate” program. Ellis is a graduate of Brandeis University in economics and has a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia University School of Business. His former career steps include Ramada Inc. and U-Haul Corporation.

Stanley Mallin (1923- ) was a native of Kansas City, Missouri; the son of Bess and Louis Mallin. His mother was a homemaker and his father was an industrious immigrant from Ukraine who earned his US citizenship through combat in World War I. Stan was the middle child of their three. It was while Stan attended the University of Missouri that he met Jay Sarno. The two men’s fast personal friendship made them solid business partners. Their first endeavor was in Florida with a tile business. It was during a holiday stay at the Flamingo that the two dreamed a bigger, better hotel-casino. The result was Caesars Palace. He has lived and helped develop Las Vegas since 1968. In 1982, Stan married his wife Sandy (neé Jacoby) Mallin. Sandy grew up in New York and arrived in Las Vegas in 1977. She has provided dynamic leadership in the Jewish community. For several years she was President of the Women’s Division of Jewish Federation. She then followed this as the first woman to be President of T

Interview with Ron Lurie by Barbara Tabach on June 5, 2015. In this interview, Lurie discusses his family and his time in politics, campaigning for office, and some of his accomplishments while in office as mayor and in the city council. He also talks about growing up in Las Vegas and attending Las Vegas High School, and working for his father, Art Lurie, in the grocery store business.

Ron Lurie was a rambunctious teenager when the Lurie family moved to Las Vegas from California. He adapted quickly to Las Vegas and made fast friends. He is a 1958 graduate of Las Vegas High School. His father, Art Lurie, a supermarket businessman, was also a well-known professional boxing judge and a former Nevada Athletic Commission chair. In 1987 Ron became the first person of Jewish ancestry to be elected Mayor of Las Vegas. Previously, he was fourteen year member of the Las Vegas City Council and served on many community boards and commissions. Since political office was not a fulltime position, Ron's career path developed in a couple of different ways. He tells the story of becoming a butcher and the opportunities he experienced becoming a successful salesman of gaming machines for Si Redd, IGT and others. His over three decade gaming career continues as of this oral history. He is executive vice president and general manager of Arizona Charlie's Decatur location. In this oral history he reflects on some of his political accomplishments as mayor and city councilman. He also served six years on the State of Nevada Wildlife Commission and is a member of the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn.

Interview with Mark Fine in two sessions, November 18 and December 2, 2014. In the first session, Fine begins by talking about his sons and their business interests, then discusses his own childhood growing up in Cleveland. Fine moved to Arizona as a teenager and attended the University of Arizona for college. After college, he moved to New York city, and describes his employment at Chemical Bank, and then at the investment firm Loeb, Rhoades. He was married and started a family in New York City, then moved to Las Vegas to assist in his in-laws' (the Greenspuns) business ventures, which included real estate development and Sun Outdoor Advertising. Fine talks about Las Vegas in the 1970s and building Green Valley and Summerlin, the "social engineering" aspects of developing a community and the importance of building incrementally. In Part II of the interview, Fine discusses his family history and raising his children in Las Vegas. He talks about the growth of the Jewish community and ph

Mark Fine was born in 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was raised with a strong Jewish identity. When Mark was in fourth grade, his parents moved the family to Shaker Heights, and again moved to Arizona during his senior of high school. Upon graduation, Mark enrolled at the University of Arizona and became a member of the ZBT fraternity; determined to graduate in four years, he finished in 1964 with a degree in business administration with an emphasis in real estate. Though never having been, Mark took his degree to New York City and established a career on Wall Street, first working for Chemical Bank. In 1969, Mark married Susan Greenspun, and soon after, the couple had their first child. By this time, Mark had taken a new position with Loeb, Rhoades and Company, and worked there for nearly five years in their corporate finance department. In 1973, Mark moved to Las Vegas to assist his father-in-law, Hank Greenpun, with his nonnewspaper business operations, largely under the auspices of American Nevada Corporation. Mark soon capitalized on this passion for real estate and community development, leading several integrated real estate projects to create the Green Valley area, the city's first large-scale master-planned community. Mark went on to launch a similar project in Summerlin, and at one point, he was leading the development of the country's two fastest selling planned communities (Green Valley and Summerlin). Ultimately, Mark became one of state's prominent real estate developers, and continues to lead significant projects positively impacting the city's growth and appeal. His fundamental goal has always been to create a sense of place, to develop thriving communities with generational stamina. His success in this endeavor is recognized, in part, with the naming of Mark L. Fine Elementary School. Over the years, Mark has also been an important member of the Jewish community, among the "second generation of pioneers," coming after those heavily involved with the hotels during the 1950s and 1960s. He served on the Temple Beth Sholom board of directors, and initiated events to bring older and younger generations of the Jewish community together in meaningful ways. Mark has five children?Alyson Marmur, Katie Erhman, Jeffrey Fine and Jonathan Fine and Nicole Ruvo Falcone?and is married to Gloria Fine.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel and Casino featured glamorous showgirls. For a few years, the Houston Chronicle sponsored a contest that added the Texas Copa Girls to the line. In 1958, one of the winners was 17-year-old Judith Lee Johnson. For the "wild" but "naive" Judy, the experience was a period of funfilled freedom, followed by relentless encouragement of others to attend college, which she reluctantly did. To her surprise, she embraced the college life, took her studies seriously, and received an education degree. She also became Miss Houston. Four years later she returned to Las Vegas and the Sands. As she stepped into her role as a showgirl this second time, she was no longer the newbie. She experiences the lifestyle with more maturity. She talks about the celebrities she met, the lasting friendships she formed, performing in the Elvis movie Viva Las Vegas, and her trip around the world, a trip that included her personal dream of going to Paris. Judy shares details of her family heritage and she wonders to what extent she might have been living her mother's dream. Though her love of performance and theatre is keen, Judy channeled her passions into a 29-year career as an educator. She married a Marine in 1965, raised their children, moved with his career. She and her husband, Walter F. Jones, live in Virginia.