Pete Barbutti (also spelled Barbuti) played the accordion, the piano, and the trumpet. He was also a comedian and appeared numerous times on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and toured with Nat King Cole. He and his family have lived in Las Vegas since 1960
Roscoe Wilkes was born in Bonanza, Colorado, and moved with his family to Pioche, Nevada for what his sister called a 75-year pit stop. Soon after their move to this rural Nevada town, Roscoe’s mother became a widow, raising two children during the Depression. Like many families in Pioche, the Wilkes’ made due with what they had, and were creative in sustaining their livelihoods. Roscoe has never stood still. Before enlisting in the military, Roscoe worked various jobs, as a PBX systems operator, a lead zinc miner, and grade school teacher, before enlisting. During World War II, Roscoe became a prisoner of war in Romania, and was rescued a few months later when the Germans began retreating. Returning to the United States after his release, he relocated to a base in California, and married. As soon as Roscoe was relieved of his military service, he took advantage of the then new G.I. Bill and enrolled in the University of Southern California School of Law. He immediately took his degree to Pioche, soon becoming its district attorney, and later a judge. He spent 18 years based in Seattle as a federal administrative law judge, hearing cases prosecuted by the Coast Guard. Roscoe ended his 45-year career in law in 1990, and moved to Boulder City, where four generations of Wilkes live.
In 1976, Jacqueline "Jaki" Baskow was an aspiring actress when she and a friend accepted an invitation to worked in a movie studio in Las Vegas. She had three-hundred dollars to her name, a dream and lots of dynamic energy. Though the movie studio offer did not quite materialized as she hoped - the invitation had come from Batman co-creator Bob Kane - Jaki's trajectory into Las Vegas, working with talents and planning events became an over forty year career. In this interview, she talks about growing up Jewish in Camden, New Jersey where her father was a murder victim; her tenacious effort to find the perpetrator included the help of celebrity detective Joe Schillaci. She shares stories of the colorful array of A-list entertainers she has worked with to build her successful business, Baskow and Associates. She has built a niche of handling large corporate events, hiring talent and attention to details for exciting events. She reflects on the people and moments that impelled her on; mentors such as Bobby Morris and Frank Sinatra and Jilly Rizzo.
The Blanche Zucker-Bozarth Papers document education advocate Blanche Zucker-Bozarth's volunteer work and activism in libraries, children's advocacy, and women’s clubs in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1963 to 2005. The collection includes records, newspaper clippings, and photographs from her political activism and fundraising initiatives in Southern Nevada. The collection also includes buttons, video tapes, and journal articles on child abuse prevention, as well as records from Zucker-Bozarth's term as president of the Mesquite Club in the 1980s.
The Nevada Desert Experience Records (1951-2009) are comprised of files from the anti-nuclear organization, the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE), as well as its predecessor, the Sagebrush Alliance, and those of earlier unincorporated protests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Materials include board of directors meeting minutes, financial records, scrapbooks, personnel records, event speeches, correspondence, newspaper clippings, cartoons and other artwork, newsletters, brochures, fliers, research files on nuclear issues and other anti-nuclear organizations, and congressional testimony. The records also contain audiovisual materials, photographic prints and slides, screenplays, manuscripts, and newspapers related to the NDE's media efforts.
The Kiel Family Photographs (approximately 1854-1989) contains glass plate negatives of members of the Kiel and George families, as well as neighbors from the Stewart and Wilson ranches and ranch workers. The majority of the photographs were taken at the Kiel Ranch site in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection consists of the original glass plate negatives, as well as photographic print and negative duplicates made using the originals.