Oral history interview with Elsa Lopez-Martinez conducted by Barbara Tabach on June 21, 2021 for Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project.
Elsa, one of the original student interviewers for the Latinx Voices project, talks about her family, her Mexican-American roots, and her experience learning Spanish and English. She discusses her education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and her work as an interviewer with Latinx Voices before her graduation. Elsa also shares what it has been like entering the workforce as an elementary school teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joan Massagli spent her childhood in the Tacoma, Washington area, singing three-part harmony—a member of a musically talented family that included five children and an aunt and uncle who raised all the kids to enjoy music. By high school in the early 1950s, she and her two older sisters were regulars on a local TV show. In 1956, the Sawyer Sisters act was formed and they were soon obtaining regular gigs in Las Vegas. Their popularity continued form 1957 to 1964 and they played many of the major hotels, usually as a warm up act for headliners that includes a list of names such as Roy Clark, Louis Prima, Shecky Greene, and Delia Reece. At first the Sawyer Sisters included older sister Nanette Susan and Joan. When Nanette quit to raise her family, youngest sister Kate stepped into what was called a "lively and lovely" trio. Joan met her future husband and musician Mark Tully Massagli, while performing in the early 1960s. Caring for ailing parents while working mostly in Las Vegas, the couple made Vegas home. Even after the Sawyer Sisters name faded from the Strip's marquees, Las Vegas remained home to the Massagli's, who raised their children here. Today they live in the Blue Diamond Village area and recall the changes that have occurred on the Las Vegas Strip—especially from an entertainer's point of view.
The Donna Silva Lighting Design Plans (1986-1996) contain blueprints and schedule binders for a number of projects Silva worked on in Las Vegas, Nevada including the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, The Orleans Hotel & Casino, Golden Nugget, and the MGM Grand Hotel. Also included are lighting plans for the Foxwoods Resort Casino (operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation) in Connecticut, Caesars Atlantic City, and Players Island (now CasaBlanca Resort) in Mesquite, Nevada.
The Junior League of Las Vegas Photograph Collection contains photographic prints and negatives, as well as postcards of locations in and around Las Vegas, Nevada between approximately 1900 and 1980. Early photographs in the collection offer views of the Las Vegas townsite, buildings, railroads, the Las Vegas High School, Overland Hotel, Arizona Club, and residential areas. Other photographs during this time depict the Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) construction and Death Valley, California. Later photographs show the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) campus, downtown Las Vegas, and the Las Vegas Strip.
The Peggy Hyde Phillips Papers (1929-1998) document the lives of Peggy Hyde Phillips, her first husband Charles, and her son Michael. Materials include family photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and documents from Michael Hyde’s time as a student at the United States Air Force Academy. The collection also includes a near-complete run of issues from February 1, 1963 through May 8, 1964 of the Paradise Press weekly newspaper from Paradise, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada.