Search Results
Therese Thomas oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Therese Thomas conducted by Dennis McBride on March 13, 1995 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. In the interview, Thomas discusses her early life in Thistle, Utah before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in approximately 1931, where her father worked on the Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) construction. Thomas then talks about her early schooling in Boulder City, Nevada, her experiences as a swing and dance band musician, Block 16 in the Clark Las Vegas Townsite, and her memories of Las Vegas hotels and casinos. Other subjects Thomas covers include Las Vegas entertainers, entertainment venues, and women in the music industry during the 1930s.
Archival Collection
Janet Savalli oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Janet Savalli conducted by Irene Rostine on September 21, 1996 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Savalli begins her interview by discussing her move to Las Vegas, Nevada as a child in 1945. Savalli then goes on to discuss her 46 year long career at the Southern Nevada Telephone Company. She describes rising through the company starting as an operator and ending as a community relations coordinator. Savalli discusses the company's merger with Sprint and the changes this brought about including the creation of a union and wage and benefits changes. Savalli ends her interview by talking about atomic testing, and how the testing grew to be a part of Las Vegas culture at the time.
Archival Collection
Jonathan S. Sparer, FAIA oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Jonathan S. "Jon" Sparer, FAIA conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 04, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Sparer discusses his career as an architect of many major Las Vegas, Nevada hotels and casinos. He also talks about designing the Congregation Ner Tamid and The Center for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) community.
Archival Collection
Ashley “Ms. Aye Vee” Vargas oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Ashley “Ms. Aye Vee” Vargas conducted by Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez on October 30, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Vargas discusses her experiences growing up on the east side of Las Vegas, Nevada. She describes experiences with racial boundaries, the issue of colorism in the Latinx community, and dealing with Puerto Rican stereotypes. Vargas then talks about her involvement with Student Organization of Latinos (SOL), the Puerto Rican community in Las Vegas, and elaborates on how Puerto Rican culture has been influenced by American culture. Lastly, Vargas discusses the meaning behind her poems, raising awareness about certain issues in the Latinx community, and how Las Vegas is going through an artistic renaissance.
Archival Collection
Francisco Rufino-Parra oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Francisco Rufino-Parra conducted by Barbara Tabach on December 06, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Parra discusses his family background and immigrating to the United States from Mexico in 1989. He recalls moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1994 and describes his first impressions of the city. Parra then talks about his employment at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino as a dishwasher, being promoted, and becoming a member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226. He explains his role as shop steward for the Culinary Workers Union and describes the union strikes in 2018. Later, Parra discusses raising his three children in Las Vegas, living in a bilingual household, and how he has learned many languages from working in the hospitality industry. Lastly, Parra recalls visiting his birthplace and becoming a United States citizen.
Archival Collection
Dr. Javier A. Rodríguez oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Dr. Javier A. Rodríguez conducted by Elsa Lopez and Barbara Tabach on December 19, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project.
Dr. Javier Rodríguez, Biology Professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, talks of his personal and educational history that led him to UNLV. He discusses his migration from Puerto Rico to California where he received his PhD from the University of California Berkley and became a biological museum curator for various animal specimens. He later moved to Las Vegas to teach at UNLV where he has now been for nearly two decades; Dr. Rodríguez shares how UNLV has changed since he first started working here, including the university's increased interest in faculty research to become a Top Tier institution. Subjects discussed include: Puerto Rico; University of California Berkley; University funding; Tier 1 research institutions.
Archival Collection
"Las Vegas: Snapshots of History" Photograph Collection
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The "Las Vegas: Snapshots of History" Photograph Collection is comprised of photographic prints and slides as well as digital surrogates of photographic prints and ephemera representing architecture and events in Las Vegas, Nevada from approximately 1960 to 2017. Materials were donated by members of the Las Vegas community as part of a community scanning day sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities' Common Heritage grant. The majority of the collection documents landmarks in Las Vegas including the Stardust Resort and Casino, The Mint Las Vegas, Fremont Street, and the Desert Inn.
Archival Collection
Charles Aplin Photograph Collection
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The Charles Aplin Photograph Collection (approximately 1935-1955) consists of black-and-white photographic prints and negatives. The images primarily depict the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Las Vegas, Nevada chapter events and members. Also included are images of Las Vegas, Helldorado parades, and Conrad H. Mann, former president of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Archival Collection
Interview with David Alan Buer, August 9, 2006
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Archival Collection
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Transcript of interview with Alan Clancy by Su Kim Chung, by February 12, 2015
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Archival Collection
Description
Alan Clancy grew up in Sydney, Australia, the second son of famous ballroom-dancing parents. He recalls that he had incredible energy as a child, and, therefore, his parents enrolled him in the Shirley de Paul Studio to learn gymnastics, tap, ballet, and jazz. He also became a soprano singer. This training did well for him for as he went through high school he won trophies in sports and participated in musical productions. Eventually, because of a neighboring friend, Kay Dickerson, Alan moved to the Rudas Acrobatic Studio where he received further training and eventually contracted with Tibor Rudas to participate in an entertainment group called “The Las Vegas Dancers”. He was only seventeen when the group boarded a ship for Hong Kong in an enterprise which would eventually allow the dancers to entertain around the world for approximately two and a half years. When the group returned, Alan auditioned for the Tommy Leonetti television show and then for Les Girls in Sydney. Eventually Tibor Rudas appeared with a contract for Alan, when he had just turned twenty-one, to fly to Las Vegas to work in the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino. When he arrived in Las Vegas, he was surprised at the size of the city and the hotels but was overly impressed by the neon signs, the showrooms with their nude dancers, the costuming, magnificent sets, the choreography, and the dress of the patrons. He remembers his first night performing in the Folies and the amount of stars in the audience, for example, Elvis Presley, Liberace, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Alan goes on to describe the many people that he met in Las Vegas, working in various shows, and the many friendships made over the years. However, he eventually became interested in opening his own vintage clothing store, Vintage Madness, near the Strip. He talks about his many customers, the stores around him, his creative ways of acquiring items to sell and the success that was made. Unfortunately, during the middle of one night the store burned to the ground which left Alan devastated. Eventually, however, he purchased three buildings on Fourth Street and opened an art gallery, a coffee shop, and a small stage. His mercantile interest allowed him to leave show business and briefly open a store in Laguna Beach, Southern California. It wasn’t long until Barclay Shaw asked him to work in “Splash” at the Riviera Hotel in Vegas and, therefore, he returned to show business. However, Shaw, his friend, died and so did his mother and he lost interest in his stores, renting them out. Consequently, he returned to live in California and began working with Aids patients. Alan returned to Las Vegas for the reunion of the cast of Folies Bergere and noticed the many changes made in Las Vegas from when he first arrived to perform at the Tropicana Hotel.
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