Interview with Doug Unger by Barbara Tabach on August 26, 2014. In the interview, Unger discusses his schooling, his family's mattress business, and his endeavors in the company and the mattress industry in Las Vegas. Unger becomes involved in Holocaust education and the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center.
Doug Unger was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up working summers in a mattress factory, a family business started by his maternal grandfather. After graduating from high school in Cleveland, Doug attended the University of Cincinnati until moving to Steamboat Springs, and enrolled in Denver University, though ended his college career one class away from graduation. Eventually, Unger moved back to Cleveland, then to Las Vegas. In 1976, Dough bought Supreme Mattress and moved to Las Vegas to build his new business. Outside his successful career, Doug was always an active member in the city's Jewish community. He joined Congregation Ner Tamid, where he was a trustee. He became involved with the Jewish Federation, serving as treasurer and later as president. When he moved to Reno, Doug joined Temples Sinai and Emanu-el, and also became heavily involved with Guide Dogs for the Blind Friends Committee, serving as its director for a period of time. He was also the co-chair of the Governor's Advisory Council on Education Related to the Holocaust (GAC). Doug was instrumental in establishing the Library for Holocaust Studies as a successful organization, independent of the Jewish Federation. The Library is now located in its own, donated space, run by trained staff, and receives $200,000 from the state biennially.
Eydie Gormé, née Edith Gormezano, was born August 1, 1928 in the Bronx, New York City. She passed away in Las Vegas in 2013 at the age of 84.
Eydie’s parents were Sephardic Jewish Immigrants from Turkey. She graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1946 where she was the swing bands lead female vocalist. While attending college, Eydie used her fluency in Spanish as interpreter with the United Nations. She also sang in bands during her free time. She had a gift for both Spanish and singing.
Dr. Robert Skaggs was born April 2, 1932 and grew up around the St. Louis, Missouri area. His father was a teamster with a milk delivery route, tried his hand at the restaurant business, and during World War II worked for the United States Cartridge. Several members of Skaggs’s family were teachers, including his grandmother and a couple of aunts. Skaggs graduated from Normandy High School and afterwards attended the Missouri School of Mines and majored in metallurgical engineering. He graduated in 1954 and went to work for DuPont University for two years.
Betty Henderson was a private music teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada and dedicated member of the Nevada Music Teachers Association. She was born on January 23, 1923 in Portland, Indiana. She wanted to pursue a career in music and enrolled at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, but was forced to drop out after she started to become deaf. She married Charles B. Henderson, a civil engineer, in 1948 and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. She had many different jobs in the city including secretary and company auditor.
Count Guido Roberto Deiro was born February 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. He was the son of vaudeville performer and recording star Count Guido Pietro Deiro, who was the first major piano-accordionist to become popular in the United States, and his teenage wife Yvonne Teresa LeBaron De Forrest. Deiro grew up in and around Las Vegas, Nevada and Southern California after his parents’ divorce in 1941.
Jerry Duane Morlan (1938-2000) was born and raised in Victorville, California. He worked as a letter carrier for the U.S. Post Office from 1960 to 1965 before his eight-year tenure as an industrial photographer at Teledyne Semiconductor in Hawthorne, California. After Teledyne, Morlan was a successful general supervisor of the graphic arts department of leading toy manufacturing company Mattel, continuing to work as a photographer and sometimes acting as a consultant for the Yankee Photo Products company.
James Roland Hinds, better known as Jim, was the Nellis Air Force base historian and a novelist in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma on December 8, 1937. Shortly after his birth, his parents became civil service employees and moved the family to Washington, D.C., where James grew up. He recieved his bachelor's from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and his master's degree from Southern Illinois University in 1964. After that, he served in the United States Army for two years.