Archival Component
Oral history interview with Claude, Buddy, and Skip Trenier conducted by Betty Rosenthal on March 10, 1978 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection.
In this interview, Claude, Buddy, and Skip Trenier, members of the musical group "The Treniers", discuss their experiences performing on the Las Vegas Strip as Black men. They share their group's history playing music at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino and other establishments in Las Vegas, Nevada beginning in 1948. Their discussion covers not only their performing careers but also their experiences with desegregation, racism, and discrimination in the city of Las Vegas.
Claude, Buddy, and Skip Trenier share their accounts of both being a popular act in Las Vegas, requested by out-of-towners from New York and Chicago, and also how they were nearly fired for refusing to play music when noticing customers of color being treated unfairly at their shows. The trio talk about how they could not enter casinos from the front entrance, how most casinos did not formally desegregate until after 1960, and how there were very few Black entertainers, musicians, or dancers during the mid-20th century with a few notable exceptions including Sammy Davis Jr.
Archival Collection
Emilio Muscelli was in his mid-80s when he sat for this oral history interview. With a thick Italian accent he recalled his career as a Las Vegas maitre d' that spanned decades of Strip history. Emilio arrived in America in 1948, landed a job at the Copacabana in New York City. His boss was Jack Entratter, who brought Emilio to Las Vegas when he opened the Sands in 1952. Over the decades he has witnessed the ups and downs of Las Vegas economy and has befriended many celebrities along the way. He reminisces during this interview about his friendship with singer Bobby Darin, actor Cary Grant and meeting a laundry list of others. He fondly speaks of those he worked for and their contribution to the growth of Las Vegas.
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On March 1, 1980, Gloria Banks interviewed her business acquaintance, Kenneth F. Johann (born 1924 in New York City) about his work life in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two discuss the origins of Johann’s business and early land prices in Southern Nevada. Johann explains the history of his investments as well as how land development progressed in Las Vegas from the 1950s and onward.
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From the UNLV University Libraries Photographs of the Development of the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada (PH-00394). Part of the collection documents the entire 19 mile length of the north/south Eastern Avenue / Civic Center Drive alignment. This photograph was captured in the section of Eastern Avenue between Desert Inn and Flamingo Roads.
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From the UNLV University Libraries Photographs of the Development of the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada (PH-00394). Part of the collection documents the entire 19 mile length of the north/south Eastern Avenue / Civic Center Drive alignment. This photograph was captured in the section of Eastern Avenue between Desert Inn and Flamingo Roads.
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From the UNLV University Libraries Photographs of the Development of the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada (PH-00394). Part of the collection documents the entire 19 mile length of the north/south Eastern Avenue / Civic Center Drive alignment. This photograph was captured in the section of Eastern Avenue between Desert Inn and Flamingo Roads.
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From the UNLV University Libraries Photographs of the Development of the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada (PH-00394). Part of the collection documents the entire 19 mile length of the north/south Eastern Avenue / Civic Center Drive alignment. This photograph was captured in the section of Eastern Avenue between Desert Inn and Flamingo Roads.
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