Interview with Deanne Alterwitz-Stralser with contributions from her son Daryl Alterwitz on November 1, 2014. In this interview Deanne talks about her Jewish upbringing near the Illinois-Indiana state line, meeting her first husband Oscar, with whom she had four children, and the difficulties with keeping kosher. The family moved to Las Vegas from Gary, Indiana for opportunities in the furniture business. Daryl weighs in on his father's personality, business decisions, and their move to Las Vegas. They discuss the location of the store the Alterwitz's bought (Walker Furniture) and purchasing the building from Jackie Gaughan, and the different tastes in furniture in Las Vegas. Then they talk about the Jewish community and the division between the east and west sides.

On New Year's Day, 1931, Deanne Alterwitz-Stralser was born Deanne Friedman in Hammond, Indiana, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom. Deanne spent her childhood in Calumet City, just across the state line in Illinois, and was raised with a strong Jewish identity. At the age of sixteen, she met her first husband, Oscar Alterwitz, at an Alpha Zadik Alpha (AZA) dance in Gary, Indiana, and the two were married in 1950. Deanne and Oscar settled in Gary, where they had four children?Aimee, Larry, Daryl and Linda?and took over the Alterwitz family furniture business. Eventually, the couple grew the business to three successful retail furniture stores. However, a decline in the city's safety and opportunities forced the Alterwitz's to consider relocating, and in 1973, after a family vote, Deanne and Oscar moved their family to Las Vegas. Upon arrival, Deanne and Oscar bought Walker Furniture from original owners, George and Ruth Walker. Deanne used her artistic eye and training from the Art Institute of Chicago to lead the design and merchandising elements of the business. Socially, Deanne integrated into the local Jewish community, and ensured her children participated in Jewish life as well. Deanne and Oscar's children still remained involved in Walker Furniture operations, including Daryl, who serves as the company's general counsel; Larry, who is the company's president; and a daughter who now oversees the store's design and merchandising.

Most Las Vegas residents like living in Southern Nevada, but few make the leap of faith that Ron M. Portaro did in 1994. The business and development consultant gave up a "tenure-track, full time, full-benefits, kids-could-go-to-college-for free job" to keep his family in Las Vegas. He had no local job, so he commuted twice a month to the Cleveland and Toledo areas for two years to complete the consulting assignments that fed his young family. As the Ohio native discusses the dysfunctional family into which he was born and was raised, he also talks about forging his own path as an overachiever, about going to college at Penn State at Altoona on a mining engineering co-op program with Morton Salt, working six months out of the year in the salt mines and attending classes the other six months. After transferring to the University of Toledo, he formed his own painting business to pay his tuition and graduated in management in 1978 and earned his JD and MBA in 1981. His mentor at University of Toledo asked him to teach labor management. While teaching labor relations he also began representing athletes as a player agent in the National Football League and the United States Football League back in the day and the Canadian Football League. From there, he became associate director for the Northwest Ohio Center for Labor Management Cooperation at the University of Toledo and later with the Cleveland State Labor Management Center. It was with the latter that he learned the benefits of the BUILT-RITE model of business relations to promote cooperation between and among the building trades, contractors, and owners. In this interview, Portaro speaks to the BUILT-RITE model for cooperation, his 1993 move to Las Vegas and fortuitous meetings of Pastor Paul Goulet of the International Church of Las Vegas, City of Las Vegas councilman Arnie Adamsen, and Charlie Kajkowski of the Las Vegas Public Works Department. He reveals how these connections eventually not only shaped Portaro's life in Southern Nevada; they also enabled him to turn his life experiences, education, and skill set to benefit his church, his family, and his adopted community. The commitment Portaro made in 1994 to remain in Las Vegas has benefitted Southern Nevada tourists, residents, and business owners in countless ways we can appreciate only when we stop to think about how many people had to cooperate and communicate to make our large infrastructure projects come to fruition.

Tony was born the only son of the only son in Beloit, Wisconsin. Following his parents divorce when he was 12, he and his father went to live with his grandparents who, he admits, spoiled him. While neither of his parents played a musical instrument, Tony’s grandmother was a professional organist. In addition, Tony had an uncle who was a professional saxophone player and who was an inspiration to him. Tony’s dad was very supportive of his decision to learn trumpet and rented Tony an instrument, took him to his lessens, and sat with him while he practiced. Tony was firm in his convictions by the 9th grade that he was going to be a musician. Following high school, Tony was awarded a full scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston which was a very prestigious music school. Tony repeatedly left school to go on the road which the school fully expected of their students. The last time he left the school he never went back. Tony states he got his degree on the road with experience from playing in bands like Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, and with his idol Harry James. Tony took his career abroad when he took up residence in Cologne, Germany to play with a band there. Tony came to Las Vegas to play in a band with Buddy Rich which turned out to be of a shorter duration than he expected. Tony then played in Las Vegas and Reno for a time before going back on the road after realizing he preferred playing jazz on the road as opposed to playing in show bands. After eight years on the road, Tony returned to Las Vegas, got married, and settled down. Aptitude tests proved accurate when they showed Tony had a talent for things mechanical and metal as Tony went on to manufacture trumpets in addition to playing them. One can feel the love Tony has for his trumpets as he describes the process of creating them. After playing trumpet for almost 30 years, Tony decided it was time to concentrate on his photography for a while. Tony does not consider himself retired, but rather he likes to play, take pictures, and, of course, he practices the trumpet every day.

Kim Bird's family moved to Las Vegas in 1955 when she was twelve years old. Pam Fogliasso arrived in 1954 with her family in 1954, when she was ten. Kim married and had a son and a daughter; she lives in Las Vegas. Pam married, had two children, and lives in Parumph, Nevada. Though Kim and Pam moved here in the mid-1950s, they had family members who had lived in Southern Nevada and worked on building Hoover Dam - Kim's grandfather and Pam's great-uncle. Both women remember growing up in a Las Vegas that was run by the mob and safe for teenagers; meeting friends in local hangouts such as the Blue Onion and attending sock hops, babysitting, and cruising down Fremont Street. They attended high school with black students but were also aware of the segregation that existed on the Strip. This interview focuses on Kim and Pam's experiences growing up in Las Vegas, and on their teenaged years attending Rancho High School.

A resident of Southern Nevada from the age of three, Susan Watson shares her memories of growing up and living in Las Vegas. After a year in Boulder City, Susan's father bought an old army barrack and converted it to a home in North Las Vegas; Susan remembers playing in the desert with her siblings and attending elementary and middle school before starting at Rancho High. Watching her mother design costumes for Strip performers and beautiful dresses for her own high school dances no doubt helped Susan develop her own sense of taste and style - something that she would put to good use over many years as an interior designer. Before that though, Susan shares her memories of what life was like in the Las Vegas of the 1950s and 1960s: cruising Fremont Street; movie nights; after-school work; favorite teachers; lunches on the lawn; and dance club. All combine to paint a vivid picture of a smaller town and a simpler time in the Las Vegas valley.

Interviewed by Layne Karafantis; Genevieve "Gene" Segerblom contributed in a multitude of ways to her home of more than fifty years--Boulder City, Nevada. She is a third-generation Nevadan and was born in Ruby Valley, Nevada, in 1918. Gene and her future husband Clifford moved from Reno where they both had attended the University of Nevada, Reno to Boulder City in 1940. After they came back from Panama in 1948 where Clifford had a photographing assignment, she ran a day care center and did freelance writing of articles about the Nevada landscape with her husband providing the photographs. Gene taught high school in Boulder City. She was elected city councilwoman in Boulder City in 1979. Gene served four terms in the State Assembly from 1993 to 2000. Her grandfather was a state senator and her mother was an assemblywoman. Today her son Richard "Tick" Segerblom serves in the State Assembly, so they are the only family to have had four generations serve in the Nevada legislature. She was involved in the creation and restoration of the Boulder City Hotel and Museum and was involved in the American Association of University Women, the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce, and the Community Club. Gene did charity work for other groups. too. The theater in the Boulder Dam Museum was named the Segerblom Theatre in her honor. She passed away on January 4, 2013, at the age of 94.

Toni Clark (born Lena Gaglionese) spent her youth in Seattle, Washington where she was born on April 4, 1915 to Angelene and Salvatore Gaglionese. Her father and mother moved to the Seattle area when they immigrated to the United States from Naples, Italy years earlier. Salvatore worked as a street cleaner for the city of Seattle and Angelene cared for the house and family until her early death. Toni grew up with three siblings, her father and step-mother, and an uncle and cousins next door. After attending Seattle’s Franklin High School for three years, she left. “I just didn’t like school so I quit,” she said, and spent the next couple of years at home. From these simple origins, Toni became “the first lady of Las Vegas” as some admirers called her, referring to the role she played in the transformation of Las Vegas from a frontier town into a glamorous resort town during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1941, before the Second World War began, Toni traveled to San Diego to visit friends and decided to stay. After a year of caring for a young boy, she moved into the Barbara Worth Hotel which was owned by Wilbur Clark. Clark’s father ran the hotel and suggested that Toni apply for a job at his son’s new bar and restaurant, the Monte Carlo. She had not met Wilbur Clark at the time and her shyness dissuaded her from making the move. Nevertheless, she did apply and went to work as the hostess of the Monte Carlo in downtown San Diego. Wilbur and Toni’s courtship began slowly. He gave her the name Toni, saying she “looked more like a Toni than a Lena,” and she kept it. In 1944, around the time Wilbur Clark relocated to Las Vegas where he had purchased the El Rancho Hotel, the couple married in Reno, Nevada and permanently made Las Vegas their home. Clark’s involvement in Las Vegas clubs and gambling expanded with the Monte Carlo downtown and the Player’s Club on the strip. But his dream to create a luxury resort hotel came to fruition when the Desert Inn opened in 1950. The fifth major property on the strip, the Desert Inn had several features that distinguished it from other places. The Skyroom offered a private club atmosphere for talking, music, and dancing. The Monte Carlo Room served French cuisine. The Doll House provided round-the-clock childcare for children of hotel guests. The Painted Desert Room, the property’s showroom, featured top performers and the Donn Arden Dancers. All these features combined to create a resort that offered guests an exquisite setting for a gambling vacation. Toni Clark had a special place at the heart of the Desert Inn’s social life. She brought a gracious and elegant charm to social events associated with the property. Although she said she was never involved in the business of the hotel-casino, she played a unique role setting a new tone for the enterprise. She entertained guests and dignitaries at the hotel as well as her home; organized fashion shows featuring the top designers of the time for the wives of high-rollers; and created celebrations of special events, notably her husband’s late December birthday, with annual parties. When Wilbur Clark died in 1965, Toni Clark remained active in the city’s social life. She did not disappear as others had, but continued to plan and attend social functions. As part of her service to the community, she took particular pleasure in her work with the Variety Club. She continued to reside in Las Vegas until her death in 2006.