Search Results

Oral history interview with Elaine Newton conducted by Cecilia Winchell, Kristel Peralta, and Vanessa Concepcion on May 19, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Elaine Newton shares her family's history living in Hawaii and Japan, and memories from her childhood growing up with her six siblings in Honolulu. She talks about becoming a flight attendant for Pan American World Airways and how she met her former husband, Wayne Newton, after a stop in Vietnam. Elaine recalls their courtship and marriage as well as what Las Vegas life, fashion, and entertainment were like during the 1980s. She also speaks about racial discrimination and anti-asian violence in the past and present.

Interview with Gene Collins conducted by Claytee D. White on August 31, 2000. Collins grew up in Lake Providence, Louisiana, and moved to Las Vegas in 1966. While attending college, he worked at the Nevada Test Site and trained to be an electrician. He worked with John Patawski and later joined the Aaron Williams Youth Organization and founded a community baseball organization. As a state assemblyman, Collins was instrumental in getting the Martin Luther King Holiday Bill passed along with establishing the Sarah Allen Credit Union. Because of his involvement with the Ministerial Alliance, he was asked to run for president of the NAACP. Under his presidency, he addressed the lack of African Americans in the gaming industry in addition to filing the largest EEOC discrimination suit filed in the state of Nevada against The Mirage Hotel and Casino.