Oral history interview with Alice Hamilton conducted by Dennis McBride on December 20, 1986 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. In this library, Hamilton tells of how she met and married her husband, Albert and moved to Boulder City, Nevada in 1933. Because her husband worked for the California-Nevada Power Company, the couple had difficulty finding a place to live, moving eight times in the first two years of their marriage and including a several months stay in the men's dormitory constructed by the power company. She explains what Boulder City looked like when she arrived and her shock at the hot, windy weather in southern Nevada. Later, she discusses the various jobs she held, the first bank in the city, and the process of bi-monthly payroll brought in from Las Vegas in cars for distribution to the dam workers. Finally, she gives her opinion on the process of city incorporation and what she thinks Boulder City and Las Vegas will look like in the future.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Don Payne, Joe Buck, and Don English conducted by Perry Kaufman on November 25, 1972 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Payne, the head of the Las Vegas News Bureau, relates moving to Las Vegas, Nevada as a child, and deciding on a career in advertising and marketing. He talks about his early career and the history of the bureau. Later, Buck and English, both photographers with the bureau, join Payne in discussing the goals of the the organization. They relate the need to establish that Las Vegas was more than gambling and how their marketing and photographs focus on the relaxing, fun, and luxurious aspects of a vacation in the area. They talk about the large volume of photographs produced by the bureau and the success of some nationwide, including the "floating craps table" and the atomic bomb test mushroom cloud framed between two casinos in downtown Las Vegas. They conclude by discussing how they have expanded their marketing to include destinations close to Las Vegas, including Lake Mead, the National Parks, and California destinations within "a day's drive".
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Harriet Trudell conducted by Claytee D. White on April 19, 2007 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Project. Trudell begins by describing her early history and the powerful influence of her father on her life, beliefs, and politics. She continues talking about politicians that she admires from Hubert Humphrey to Harry Reid, and her desire to work to improve the lives of the marginalized. She relates early education to make her a "southern lady" and her rejection of the concept, as well as her later education in Florida and beginning to lobby for the labor unions. She discusses her marriage and move to Las Vegas, Nevada, her career working for the presidential campaign of Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and the campaign for Senator George McGovern in 1972. Trudell describes Nevada as a conservative state, and explains what she means saying Nevada was the "Mississippi of the West." Trudell also discusses working for Nevada Governor Mike O'Callaghan, the Democratic Party, her ancestors who fought in the American Civil War, and prominent moments in United States political history. Trudell concludes by describing her involvement in the women's movement and why she felt it was important.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with David Welles conducted by Patrick Carlton on March 27, 2002 for the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Welles first relates his family background and the circumstances that led to the family settling in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1940s. He relates numerous anecdotes about growing up and attending school, and then explains how a back problem ended his chances for a career in the Navy and led him to consider less physically demanding fields. He took jobs surveying and drafting, which led to his decision to study architectural engineering, taking his degree at the University of Oklahoma. Meeting and marrying while he was in Oklahoma, the couple returned to Las Vegas, where he took multiple jobs at different architectural and engineering firms, gaining experience toward licensure as an architect. By the early 1970s, he had established his own firm with a partner, gaining a state contract to build elementary schools. Welles then speaks at length about partnering with the Daly Group to design and build the UNLV Lied Library and ends the interview with another extended discussion of his long-time involvement in the Rotary Club.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Leonard E. "Pat" Goodall conducted by Patrick Carlton on April 18, 2002 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Goodall relates his early years in Warrensburg, Missouri and speaks at length about his Rotary Club activities. Next, he gives an overview of his education and subsequent university teaching career before he transitioned to university administration. He tells how he applied and was was hired to become president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in 1979. He explains his thoughts and ideas for the institution, and highlights particular projects that he believes greatly benefit the institution, including the construction of the first engineering building, the first business school, and the Thomas & Mack Center. He then describes his career as a university professor after stepping down from the presidency in 1984 and his retirement in 2000.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Tessa Marie Winkelmann conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on October 21, 2022 for the Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Tessa Winkelmann recalls her transient childhood due to her father's job as a chef for Hyatt International which led to their family relocating to several places before they eventually landed in the Coachella Valley, California. Her mother, as a recent Filipino immigrant, stayed at home taking care of Winkelmann and her two siblings for a number of years before also beginning to work in sales at hotels. Winkelmann recalls her grandmother, who helped raise her and her siblings by cooking and taking care of them. She recalls living in a poorer part of Coachella Valley and having to attend school in a neighboring town without adequate transportation. Winkelmann attended the University of California, Irvine, where she majored in English and political science. She later attended San Francisco State University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for graduate school. Winkelmann discusses the themes of her research, touching on interracial relationships and their influence on colonial relations between the Philippines and the West. Throughout the interview, Winkelmann touches on topics regarding her identity, life in Las Vegas, and other aspects of her journey.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Cristina Alano conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on September 9, 2022 for the Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Alano recalls a happy childhood in Pampanga, Philippines. After attending college for a banking and finance degree, she briefly worked at a bank before marrying her husband and immigrating to the United States. She would go on to move to Colorado where she lived for seven years, and finally moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2003. Alano recalls her first jobs in Las Vegas, including Walmart, SEI Electronics, a cashier at the Riviera, and finally the airport where works as a supervisor at Hudson as well as an assistant manager at Brighton. She discusses what she has done at each job and how she ended up getting involved with the Culinary Union in 2016. Since joining the union, she has done everything from being a shop steward to canvassing, most recently flying down to Georgia to help campaign for Senator Warnock. Throughout the rest of the interview, she discusses everything from food, to festivals, and her family.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Judy Roen Smith conducted by David G. Schwartz on October 27, 2003 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Smith, the daughter of Allard Roen, talks about growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada. She discusses the family home on the golf course of the Desert Inn Country Club Estates, her parents' determination to keep their children outside the casino environment, and the few memories she had of visiting the Desert Inn Hotel and Stardust Hotel for special occasion dinners or family-friendly shows like Jack Benny and Danny Kaye. She also discusses her early education and the relatively closed circle of friends whose parents also lived on the Country Club grounds. She shares stories about her parents, some of her father's associates, and her conviction that no one in her circle of friends ever talked about a Mob influence on the city. She also discusses the family's move to La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, where she finished high school, and going to work in marketing for the casino trade.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Coleen York Wilson conducted by Claytee D. White on June 4, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Wilson talks about growing up in Fordyce, Arkansas before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1953 at the age of eighteen. She mentions that her parents had moved to Nevada in 1940 to work at Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI), living in a trailer before returning to Fordyce two years later. She then discusses moving to Las Vegas to join an older sister and relates that she did not remember any discrimination in seating or eating meals during her bus trip. After this, Wilson lists the jobs she held in Las Vegas before her retirement in 1984, including work at the Las Vegas Cleaners, serving as a school crossing guard, and working as a housekeeping supervisor at the Stardust Resort Hotel, the Hacienda Resort Hotel, and Circus Circus Hotel and Casino before taking a job at the Nevada Test Site. She also talks about her family, her church activities, and her regret at not attending college.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Pat Feaster conducted by Claytee D. White on July 1, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Feaster relates how her mother made the decision to leave Fordyce, Arkansas for better economic opportunity and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1942. She describes travelling across the country, living in a one-room structure in the Westside of Las Vegas, and attending the Westside School. She discusses her mother's employment at the Red Rooster Restaurant and then at the Algiers Hotel. She talks at length about her own educational journey after leaving school at fifteen, then returning for her GED and later, a college degree after the birth of her fifth child. She discusses how the decision to improve her education helped her develop a twenty-six year career at the Clark County Health District. She also discusses the Fordyce Club and many important personalities in Las Vegas' Black community.
Archival Collection