The Marge Jacques Papers (1960-1990) comprise the personal papers of Marge Jacques, a prominent member of the Las Vegas, Nevada gay and lesbian community, and owner of the gay bar, Le Cafe. The papers contain correspondence, licensing records, financial statements, and artifacts from clubs that Jacques owned or managed. Also included are photographs, videotapes, audiotapes, newspaper clippings, and Gipsy Nightclub promotional material.
Oral history interview with Lavern Cummings and Tony Midnite conducted by Dennis McBride on August 29, 2000 for the Las Vegas Gay Archives Oral History Project. In the interview, Cummings and Midnite discuss their work as female impersonators in Las Vegas, Nevada during the late 1960s and 1970s. They also talk about other impersonators and performance venues in Las Vegas and around the United States. They explain the distinctions between transgender and straight performers, and the perceptions of transgender and straight audience members. Other subjects Cummings and Midnite cover include their early lives and arrivals to Las Vegas, and the history of sex reassignment surgeries beginning in the 1930s.
James A. Gay III was born March 6th, 1916 in Fordyce, Arkansas. Arriving in 1946, Gay became the first African-American mortician in Las Vegas. He later worked as Assistant Manager of the Sands Hotel and Casino and Union Plaza while serving as an executive board member of the Culinary Union. Instrumental in the Las Vegas community, Gay worked to improved race relations, addressing social, economic, and civic issues. Gay was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1988.
The Terry Wilsey Papers on the Las Vegas, Nevada LGBT Community (1979-2002) are comprised of records from the Las Vegas Gay Switchboard, the Nevadans for Human Rights, and other LGBT community groups based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection contains newsletters, agendas and meeting minutes, informational pamphlets, as well as photographs, programs, and a VHS recording of local theatre productions.
Donna Michelle Porter was a photographer for the Las Vegas Bugle publication, which focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues in Las Vegas, Nevada. As of 2020, Donna Michelle Porter lives in Long Beach, California.
Source:
Porter, Donna M. LinkedIn. Accessed June 12, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-michelle-porter-75896723.
The Lee Plotkin papers document Plotkin's political work and associations as an LGBT activist and spokesman for the Las Vegas gay community, and include correspondence, press releases, copies of his columns, institutional and legislative documents, brochures, fliers and other ephemera from 1955 to 2006.
The Cave Nightclub Records (1992-1994) are comprised of materials generated during the planning and construction of the Cave Nightclub in Las Vegas, Nevada. It opened in 1992 as a straight nightclub. It changed ownership in 1993, and reopened on September 3, 1993 as a gay nightclub and closed early in 1995. The collection contains policy documents, building plans, and promotional and publicity materials, as well as artifacts, including waiter uniforms from the nightclub.