Search Results

From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Drafts for the Las Vegas Sentinel Voice file. On the 25th Anniversary of 1963 March on Washington.

Charles T. "Blackie" Hunt, born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1930, started accordion lessons at age five. He recounts learning from experienced musicians, then teaching others at age twelve because his teacher was drafted. He attended West Chester State Teachers College where, among other accomplishments, he put together a group with Nick Carlino as tenor sax player. Blackie shares detailed memories of the many musicians with whom he worked and toured. They played in venues that included Harrisburg, Toronto, and Montreal, and eventually were offered a booking at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. The group that Blackie worked with in Las Vegas, Tahoe, and Reno came up with the name "The Characters" (backward 'e'), and the show featured comedy and music. It was during this time that he met Lorraine (stage name Lauri Perry), who had her own group. They were married after a couple of years and Lauri joined The Characters. Blackie and Lorraine Hunt opened Blackie's Bar on Tropicana and Eastern Avenues in the seventies. He talks about the jazz sessions that took place and the musicians who sat in on them, and how he and Lorraine eventually decided to bow out of show business themselves. The Hunts went on to open the Bootlegger, a restaurant/piano bar on Las Vegas Boulevard. They started a little comedy/music session called "Off the Cuff', in which local or touring musicians, comedians, and singers often participate. Blackie and Lorraine have been part of the vibrant history of Las Vegas and the state of Nevada for many years, and continue to make their home here.

Sgt. Steve Riback is a Detective Sergeant for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He has been with the police force for nearly twenty years. On the night of the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting, he had just returned home shortly after 10pm. He had been on an overtime assignment at the Golden Knights hockey game at the T-Mobile prior to the shooting. When he was abruptly awaken by a call from his lieutenant, he was oblivious to the time and immediately rushed into action—contacted his squad members and sped to his station in northwest part of the city. He reflects on his overwhelming pride of the police that day, recalling what he heard on his police radio, seeing the rush of police cars being dispatched, and watching a body camera video later. Sgt. Riback’s squad was assigned to Spring Valley Hospital where they worked tirelessly to identify victims, both injured and deceased. His reflections stir the image of medical professionals and police officers urgently fusing together to handle the situation at hand. Riback shares a myriad of emotions, talks about the options available for officers to deal with their personal trauma, and how he explained to his eight-year-old why Daddy was crying. Riback is also known as the Kosher Cop and has authored a book, My Journey Home, about becoming an observant Orthodox Jewish officer and his struggle for the right to wear his beard and a yarmulke while on duty.