Oral history interview with Meli Calvo Pulido conducted by Laurents Banuelos on November 13, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Pulido discusses her early life in Tijuana, Mexico and moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in the mid-1970s. She talks about the challenges she faced as an English as a Second Language (ESL) student, and assisting her parents who did not speak English fluently. Lastly, Pulido describes volunteering for the non-profit organization Project 150, the work the organization does for homeless youth in Las Vegas, and assisting underprivileged students.
The Union Pacific Railroad Collection (1828-1986) is comprised of the original corporate records of the Union Pacific Railroad's operations in Southern Nevada, Utah, and Southern California, particularly focusing on Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The collection documents the purchase of Stewart ranch and the construction of the original depot and town which became modern Las Vegas. The collection also contains the records of the Las Vegas Land & Water Company (LVL&W), a subsidiary of the railroad formed in 1905 to handle the railroad's land transactions. The collection contains office files, correspondence, reports, leases, various legal, governmental and financial document, the collection contains large and small format maps, architectural and engineering drawings, published technical reports, railroad operational manuals, bound legal briefs, ledgers, and payroll and receipt books. The collection also includes the personal files of Walter Bracken, the Union Pacific's special representative in Nevada and vice president of the Las Vegas Land and Water Company, and a paper index of the collection materials.
Oral history interview with Amy Bush Herzer conducted by Barbara Tabach on November 14, 2019 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. Herzer begins the interview discussing her early life, education, and her current job as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) women's golf coach. She speaks about her family's history with golf, her personal history, and life with her husband, Kendall Herzer. After, she recalls where she was on the day of the October 1 shooting, and how she found out about the event, and recalls her husband reported to the main fire station as an Emergency Manager for the State of Nevada. She recalls keeping track of her athletes' whereabouts and letting their families know. Herzer describes how people reacted when she had brought a therapy dog, Apollo, in for the people donating blood and how the community came together to support each other and share resources as a community.
Oral history interview with Charles Scott Emerson conducted by Claytee D. White on December 21, 2017 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Charles Scott Emerson discusses his work with the American Red Cross and the disaster relief the organization provided during the aftermath of the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. The interview begins with a discussion on Emerson's early life and career in Missouri and how he moved to Las Vegas in 2004. Emerson talks about the American Red Cross response plans and coordinated operations that are in place for when the community is faced with a disaster, going into specific detail on the community-wide response to the October 1, 2017 shooting. He gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how relief work is organized, using this interview as a chance to praise the hidden heroes of the October 2017 tragedy, including the people at the Family Assistance Center, the Attorney General's Office, the Driver's License Bureau, and the Coroner's Office, as well as mental health providers, child care workers, blood donors, and more. Throughout the interview, Emerson puts special emphasis on the importance of community in order to offer support in the aftermath of a tragedy as well as to prevent a man-made tragedy from occurring again.
Oral history interview with Carolyn G. and Oscar B. Goodman conducted by Claytee D. White on October 18, 2014 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Carolyn G. and Oscar B. Goodman discuss their early childhoods and education. They tell the story of their marriage, family life, and careers. The Goodmans go into further detail on the growth of Las Vegas, Nevada as a community as well as a tourist destination.
Known for “raising hell and making a difference” in the Las Vegas Valley, Thomas Rodriguez has dedicated more than four decades of his life to the political, educational, and social advancement of the Latinx community. Tom was born in 1940 to Jennie Gomez and Joseph Rodriguez in a Topeka, Kansas neighborhood its residents called The Bottoms. Mexicans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, African Americans, among other peoples lived in this diverse and beloved community. In 1956, the Urban Renewal Program, a program funded by the Federal Government that sought to raze neighborhoods the city considered to be “slums,” forced The Bottoms’ residents to abandon their homes. Rodriguez recalled the effects that this event had on his family and on his educational career. Despite his family’s relocation, he graduated from a high school located in a nearby neighborhood in 1958. Years later, the activism and ideology of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s taught Rodriguez that to overcome the injus
On March 11, 1978, Ann K. Clark interviewed her step grandfather, tire repairman Walter Dane, (born August 10th, 1914 in West Barnett, Vermont) in her, the interviewer’s, home in North Las Vegas. Also present during the interview is the interviewer’s mother, Marie Dane. Walter relocated to Indian Springs in 1930 before settling in Las Vegas in 1943. In 1968 he moved to Utah, where he resided at the time of this interview. Well-traveled, Walter discusses his many moves over the years. Ultimately, this interview covers the growth and development of the Las Vegas and Indian Springs areas.
Southern California native and lifetime resident, landscape architect Chuck Degarmo evokes the Golden State's iconic theme park as he reflects on forty years in the landscape industry and the ways his work has shaped the way Southern Nevada looks and works. It is fitting he would do so. Degarmo forged his professional ties to Las Vegas in 1993, during the heyday of the Las Vegas Strip's "family-friendly" era, when Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Grand Hotel and Casino hired Degarmo's firm, Coast Landscape Construction, to design and landscape their planned 33-acre MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park. In this interview, Degarmo outlines his work history, which draws upon the combined skills of a salesman, an artisan, a problem-solver, and an entrepreneur. Having owned his own firms and worked for industry giants Valley Crest Companies and BrightView Landscape Development, he discusses an array of topics from running union and non-union crews; Tony Marnell and design-build projects; importing plant material into Nevada; the Neon Museum and Boneyard; The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and Symphony Park; Steve Wynn, the mountain at Wynn Las Vegas, and Lifescapes International; the Lucky Dragon; Cosmopolitan, CityCenter, and the Vdara "death ray", and the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA). Throughout, Degarmo articulates his work through the lens of a lifetime Southern Californian whose talent has contributed much to the Southern Nevada landscape.
Part 1: Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Myron G. Martin, President and CEO, and Donald D. Snyder, Chairman of the Board of Directors, share their memories of the founding of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts from the first non-for-profit foundation formed in 1996. The second iteration led by Snyder in 1999 brought in Martin--former Director of UNLV Performing Arts Center--and created a sustainable business plan for a center for the performing arts that would be accessible geographically and culturally for all segments of Nevada society. Here, Martin and Snyder recall how land, funding, and legislation for The Smith Center depended on the ""power of the project"" and the Snyder-Martin team's ability to overcome skeptics in the public, the Nevada Legislature, the Clark County Commission, the Las Vegas City Council, and the Don Reynolds Foundation. Martin and Snyder satisfied the various requirements for each organization and earned unanimous approval at each stop--in fact, the $50 million donation to The Smith Center was the largest the Don Reynolds Foundation had ever granted largest. That the approvals came on three consecutive days from competing municipal jurisdictions makes the accomplishment even sweeter. Subjects: Las Vegas, NV; Cultural center; Performing arts; The Smith Center for the Performing Arts; The Smith Center; Not-for-profit;; Nevada Legislature; Clark County Commission; Las Vegas City Council; The Don Reynolds Foundation; Fundraising; Planning; Endowment; Part 2: Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Martin, who was the youngest of three boys raised in suburban Houston, Texas, likes to say that in college at the University of North Texas he played for the Atlanta Braves and the Texas Rangers. So he did--as the organist. He earned a Bachelors of Music in piano, organ, and voice and an MBA from Golden Gate University. He came to Las Vegas after a fifteen-year career with the Baldwin Piano Company as executive director of the Liberace Foundation; he later became president of UNLV?s Performing Arts Center and in 1999 he became president of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation. Here, Martin and Snyder recall the process whereby they hired architect David Schwarz of Washington, DC, to create The Smith Center's ""timeless, elegant"" look; creating a ""shared vocabulary"" by visiting 14 performing venues in 5 European countries; the City of Las Vegas's RFP that resulted in hiring Whiting-Turner Contracting Company; the exterior art/artists, significance of the bell tower, Founding Fifty(seven), and the ability of the theater to adapt from staging The Book of Mormon to staging a community funeral for two slain police officers. Subjects: The Smith Center; The Smith Center for the Performing Arts; Architecture; Fundraising; Acoustics; Public private partnerships; Request for proposals; Whiting-Turner; Theater Projects Group; vocabulary; Part 3: Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Author Jack Sheehan, joining this third session on The Smith Center in his role as Don Snyder's biographer, explains the way he envisions the place of The Smith Center in the larger context of Las Vegas. Martin and Snyder provide names for the group that grew out of the Call to Action meeting and founded the original Las Vegas Performing Arts Foundation. They share anecdotes of a 2005 trip, wherein they were joined by Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly, City of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, and consultant to the City of Las Vegas Dan Van Epp to visit City Place and the Kravis Center for Performing Arts in West Palm Beach as an example of a place where a performing arts center was a catalyst for revitalization in an area of underused and underutilized urban land. They discuss opening night, March 10, 2012, /From Dust To Dreams: Opening Night at the Smith Center For The Performing Arts/, which was produced broadcast live on national Public Broadcasting System (PBS) television stations, produced by George Stevens Jr. and directed and produced by Michael Stevens for The Stevens Company; hosted by Neil Patrick Harris; and featuring Jennifer Hudson, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Martina McBride, Carole King, Arturo Sandoval, Joshua Bell, Mavis Staples, Pat Monahan; American Ballet Theater dancers Marcello Gomes and Luciana Paris; also Broadway performers Brian Stokes Mitchell, Laura Osnes, Cheyenne Jackson, Sherie Rene Scott, Montego Glover, and Benjamin Walker. Martin describes how provisions of Nevada SB235--introduced March 6, 2017, signed into law by Governor Bob Sandoval, and became effective October 1, 2017--for the regulation of ticket sales to an athletic contest or live entertainment event affect The Smith Center ticket sales. They talk of providing 3,600 good construction jobs during the recession, of Discovery Childrens Museum, of future development plans for the entire 61-acre Symphony Park parcel, and of a second capital campaign to increase the endowment to $100 million to enable The Smith Center to be economically sustainable.