Search the Special Collections and Archives Portal

Audio clip from interview with Suzie Chenin, September 29, 2015

Information

Narrator
Chenin, Suzie, 1949-
Date
2015-09-25
Description

In this audio clip, Chenin discusses her father's career as a dentist in Las Vegas.

Digital ID
jhp000211
Permalink
http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d1kw5b41d
Details
Subject
Dentistry--Practice
Jewish men
Resource Type
Sound
Material Type
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works)
Digital Project
Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project
Citation

Suzie Chenin oral history interview, 2015 September 29. OH-02693. [Audio recording]. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d1kw5b41d

Rights
This material is made available to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. It may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity rights, or other interests not owned by UNLV. Users are responsible for determining whether permissions are necessary from rights owners for any intended use and for obtaining all required permissions. Acknowledgement of the UNLV University Libraries is requested. For more information, please see the UNLV Special Collections policies on reproduction and use (https://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions) or contact us at special.collections@unlv.edu
Standardized Rights Statement
Copyright Not Evaluated
Digital Provenance
Original archival records created digitally
Language

English

Publisher
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries
Format
audio/wav

Do you know how your parents got to Las Vegas? My mother flew out with me and she was newly pregnant with my brother. He was born here. My father was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in the Air Force. He was a dentist. He came here. He was the thirtieth dentist in the state and nineteenth in Las Vegas. The nineteenth dentist in Las Vegas. So the population must have been pretty small at that time. What year was that? 1950. When he left the military, he opened up an office on Fremont Street and did really well. He and two men built a building together on Maryland Parkway near Fremont Street and they were very successful there for a long time. Were his partners Jewish as well? No. Then he found another partner, Dr. Merkin, who was Jewish. They were good together. They bought land together. They built the building where Steinberg Diagnostic is on Maryland Parkway. I sold it for them. I was in real estate. Wow. What kind of specialty or what kind of dentist was he? He did a lot of caps and crowns. He was a very good dentist. Did a lot of your friends go to him? Everybody went to him. All the Jews went to him. When he took the exam, they didn't know he was Jewish and they passed him. Do you think it would have made a difference if they had known? Oh, yes. He was the first Jewish dentist in the state and there were no more until he was elected to the Board of Governors for Dentistry. So he felt that he was just lucky to get through. Yes.