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Margo Knowles interview, March 25, 1981: transcript
Date
1981-03-25
Description
From the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas, OH-01039. On March 25, 1981, collector Sonny Neighbors interviewed his mother, Margo Knowles (born October 13th, 1935 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) at her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Margo speaks about growing up and going to school in Las Vegas. She also discusses her work as a telephone operator in Las Vegas, and at the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada.
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Transcript of interview with Hal G. Curtis by Bill Teepe, February 24, 1977
Date
1977-02-24
Description
On February 24, 1977, Bill Teepe interviewed Hal G. Curtis (born 1926 in Galt City, California) about his life in Southern Nevada. Curtis talks first about his work on the Union Pacific Railroad before discussing changes and development in Las Vegas, including development on the Strip and Downtown areas. He also talks about Block 16, the El Rancho Vegas fire, social clubs, and religion.
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Transcript of interview with Robert, Ann, Joseph, Patrick, & David Genoves by Shirley Emerson, August 29, 2013
Date
2013-08-29
Description
In 1960, the same year the original Ocean’s Eleven was filmed at the Sands Hotel and Casino, Robert “Bob” Genovese moved to Las Vegas to pursue a career in music. Bob’s band, The Jets, quickly got a gig at the Fremont Hotel, working opposite Wayne and Jerry Newton. Seven years later, Bob met and married Ann. The couple spent much of their early years of marriage on the road for Bob’s work, with Las Vegas always as their home base. A few years later they bought a home in McNeil Estates, and ceased their nomadic life when their eldest son, Joseph, started school. Over the years, Bob’s music career flourished, and he played showrooms across the valley, including Caesars Palace, the Flamingo, and the Driftwood Lounge, working opposite legends like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. Bob and Ann’s personal life also thrived, and they had three sons: Joseph “Joe” Genovese, Patrick Genovese, and David Genovese. By all accounts, the children enjoyed an ideal upbringing. Neighbors watched out for neighbors, and all the children were friends, and spent equal parts getting in and out of trouble. After her sons grew up, Ann used her skills to start and run a travel agency. Joe, Pat and David have all remained in Las Vegas, and live back in their childhood neighborhood in the heart of the city. Joe is a successful land developer; Patrick worked for the City of North Las Vegas’ Parks and Recreation Division for 12 years before joining Gibson Guitars; and David has spent his career working at the Station Casinos. Following in both their father and mother’s musical footsteps, the Genovese sons formed a band as young adults and continue to play together informally. Having lived in Las Vegas for several decades, the Genoveses all have a unique and informed perspective on the growth and development of Las Vegas. They have witnessed hotels and casinos being erected and being demolished; experienced schools being segregated and then integrated; and seen the city transition from mob-run to corporate-dominated. The family remains committed their community, and being a part of its renaissance to ensure that it is still a great place to be a local.
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Transcript of interview with Charles Nur Fernald by Claytee D. White, May 31, 2014
Date
2014-05-31
Description
Dancer Charles Nur Fernald first came to Las Vegas in 1963 to perform for five weeks in the Kay Starr Show at the Sahara Hotel and again in 1964 working with Donn Arden for three months at the Desert Inn Hotel. Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1939, Charles moved several times to various places in Arizona and southern California with his parents, Charles Knox Fernald and Marguerite Marie Higgins Fernald, and half-siblings before settling in Hollywood, California, where he remained (except for his short stints in Las Vegas) from 1961 to 1967. In January 1968 Charles came to Las Vegas to perform with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca at the Flamingo Hotel. After the show closed Charles auditioned for Donn Arden to dance in the Lido de Paris show at the Stardust Hotel, where he remained for sixteen years, 1968 through 1984. He remains the only male dancer who performed with Lido through five different, consecutive productions. In 1969 Charles met his partner, Aquiles Garcia, who was a dancer at the Dunes Hotel. The couple remain in Las Vegas and have been together forty-five years. Charles’s father was very poor and left school after the third grade to go to work and help support his family. He was born in 1889 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the fifth of eleven children. As an eight-year-old he became a “groundhog,” a digger of New York’s underwater tunnels, who helped build the Holland Tunnel. At fifteen he made more money than his father selling newspapers, fresh fruit, and clothing door to door or from the street corner. According to Charles, his father “drank too much, ate too much, smoked too much, and loved too much.” As an only child, Charles’s mother had a very different upbringing from his father, although her family too was very poor. She was born in Detroit in 1902 to a railroad switchman father and mother who not only scrubbed the floors of wealthy Detroiters but also cooked meals for twenty-one boarders at a rooming house. Marguerite’s parents worked hard so they could send their only child to Catholic school and the Detroit Conservatory of Music.
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Transcript of interview with Morris "Moe" Dalitz by Brenda Baxter, November 4, 1977-March 30, 1978
Date
1977-11-04
Description
Interview with Morris "Moe" Dalitz by Brenda Baxter, on several dates in late 1977 to early 1978. In this interview, Dalitz talks about his business and career endeavors before coming to Las Vegas, which included a laundry service and military service. Dalitz partnered with Wilbur Clark and became a successful hotel and casino owner in Las Vegas, as well as a real estate developer with properties including the Boulevard Mall and Sunrise Hospital.
Moe Dalitz was born in Boston in 1899, and soon after his family moved to Detroit, Michigan and where his father started a linen supply company. In 1930, during Prohibition, Moe moved to Cleveland, Ohio and he became involved with the then-illegal liquor business. At the age of 41, Dalitz enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Governors Island. Moe was put in charge of laundries and dry cleaning because of his experience in the laundry business. He played an important role in creating mobile laundry units that were used in the front lines in North Africa. His ingenuity won him a non-combatant award for his "unusual interest, ingenuity and talents" applied during his service. At the end of war, Moe returned to Cleveland, where his partners were successfully carrying on their business. It was then that they decided to go into the casino-nightclub business, opening nightclubs in Ohio and Kentucky. A couple years later, Moe and his partners met Wilbur Clark and agreed to finance his inactive project in Las Vegas. Thus, in 1950, the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino opened, and Moe Dalitz ushered in a new era for the city. Moe and partners continued to elevate the sophistication of the Strip when they acquired the operating lease to, and later part ownership of, the Stardust Hotel and Casino. Moe was instrumental in bringing the French Lido de Paris show to the Stardust, which was considered the most spectacular nightclub show produced in Las Vegas at its time. In addition to his gaming industry ventures, Moe engaged in significant real estate development, along with partners Allard Roen, Merv Adelson and Irwin Molasky. Their projects included Sunrise Hospital, The Boulevard Mall and Las Vegas Country Club as well as La Costa Resort and Spa in California. At the time of the interview, Moe was involved with the construction of a downtown hotel and casino. Moe Dalitz was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award from the American Cancer Research Center, and supported the Variety Club and the Home of the Good Shepard, amongst other charities.
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Benjamin F. Smith Papers
Identifier
MS-00080
Abstract
The Benjamin F. Smith Papers, dated from 1960 to 1969, contains a photocopy of a typed manuscript written by Benjamin F. Smith titled "Lady Luck and I." The manuscript details Smith's life, and focuses mainly on his time in Las Vegas, Nevada and his gambling strategies. The manuscript also contains gambling plays, figures, and charts. The collection also contains photocopied newspaper clippings and a brief biography of Smith written by Larry Evans.
Archival Collection
Duncan, Ruby, 1932-
Ruby Duncan was born in Tallulah, Louisiana on June 7, 1932. Her parents passed away when Duncan was three years old and she spent the remainder of her youth living with various relatives in and around Tallulah. Duncan started work at the Ivory Plantation at an early age, only going to school part-time. She quit school to work full-time as a waitress and later a barmaid. Duncan left Tallulah for Las Vegas, Nevada in 1952 to live with her aunt near Henderson, Nevada.
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