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Larry Mason interview, September 14, 2018: transcript
Interviewed by Nathalie Martinez. Larry Mason is an Arizona native that moved to Las Vegas as a Higher Education Administrator. He was born in Tuscon, Arizona, but grew up mostly in East Los Angeles and his "Gramitas" ranch in Sonora, Mexico. He has a history in athletics as a basketball player in his upbringing which brought him to play at the New Mexico Highlands University and the European League. Earning a Masters in Education, Larry Mason came to Las Vegas to become the first Latino Director of Admissions at UNLV, first Latino President of the Board of Education, and first Latino Vice President of the Board of Education in the Clark County School District. He launched an incredible amount of movements within the educational field in Las Vegas including (but not limited to): the Mariachi program, the magnet school program, and the growth of the Diversity Division within the NSHE. Some of his greatest supporters and allies included Senator Harry Reid, John Lujan and Tom Rodriguez. Mason continues to work as a community leader for minority representation in STEM fields, as a board member for the Nevada STEM Coalition.
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Transcript of interview with Yvonne and Joni Fried by Barbara Tabach, February 17, 2016
Yvonne Fried, M.D., and Joan “Joni” Fried are the daughters of Milton and Esther Fried, the founders of Freed’s Bakery—the standard to which all other Las Vegas bakeries are held. When the Fried family moved to Las Vegas in 1955, Joni was born here, the fifth child, of the entrepreneurial Milton, a musician by night, and his industrious wife Esther, who guided the family business. As Esther’s 2006 obituary reads: in 1959 the couple opened “a snack bar, selling donuts and Danish, at the Panorama Market on West Charleston, while Milt played in the show band at the Sahara Hotel in the evenings.” For Yvonne and Joni, this made for a rather busy and interesting household to grow up in. Their Jewish upbringing was at Temple Beth Sholom. Photo above honors the multi-generations of the Freed’s Bakery tradition: (L-R) Joni Fried, Anthony & Sarah Fusco (Joni’s daughter) Max Jacobson Fried (Yvonne’s son) holding his son Lucas, and (far right) is his wife Emilia.
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Transcript of interview with Houghton Hoot Peterson by Claytee White, May 20, 2010
Houghton Hoot Peterson played trombone in his high school band in northern Minnesota where he grew up. That same instrument would lead him to be a member of the highly regarded Air Force jazz band called Airmen of Note after enlistment. Then during a short tour at Nellis Air Force base, Hoot decided that the Las Vegas entertainment scene might have career opportunities for him. He moved to Las Vegas in 1962, an era of celebrity performers and tourists who enjoyed the crowds and nightlife. Hoot's point of view was as a musician in the band, most often a Strip relief band. But he also has tales of famous musicians and late night jam sessions. Hoot's career spanned 20 years. Eventually the Las Vegas scene for live musicians began to change. When times got tough for Hoot, he worked as a carpenter and at a music store. In this interview he discusses his fascinating past and offers advice for today's musicians.
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Transcript of interview with Emma Ellsworth by Clark Ellsworth, March 5, 1980
On March 5, 1980, Clark Ellsworth interviewed his grandmother, Emma Ellsworth (born 1902 in Payson, Utah) about her experiences in Southern Nevada. Ellsworth first talks about growing up in Utah and getting married before moving to Pioche, Nevada during the Great Depression. She also talks about bringing up a family in Las Vegas as well as her and her husband’s work in running Beneficial Life, a life insurance business, in Las Vegas. Ellsworth also talks about the Mormon churches in Las Vegas, the schools her children attended, and the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren she had at the time.
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Transcript of interview with Tony Grasso by Coleen Seifert, February 29 & March 1, 1980
On February 29, 1980, Coleen Seifert interviewed Tony Grasso (born 1926 in Brooklyn, New York) about his career in gaming. Grasso first provides details on his background and how he ended up moving to Las Vegas in 1951 before talking about his experience as a dealer in some of the early casinos. He also talks a little about the different roles and games that casino workers deal and how players are invited to visit casinos. The interview concludes with a discussion on gaming unions and Grasso’s future plans. On a date that soon followed the above date, Seifert also interviewed Doug Charles (born 1954 in Brooklyn, New York) about his career in the gaming industry. Charles also talks about his family background, his arrival to Las Vegas in 1957, and the early development of the various gaming properties in Las Vegas. He later goes into detail over some of his experiences as a dealer, his opinions on mob control over gaming, and some of the political and legal issues that have arisen in La
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Transcript of interview with Marty Walsh by Suzanne Becker, July 19, 2007
In 2002, Marty Walsh and her husband purchased a home in the John S. Park Neighborhood. Three aspects attracted them to their 1941-built home: the quality construction; the aesthetics and details of the house; and the "old-fashion human element" that she associated with her grandparents. Marty describes their relocation to Las Vegas after living for nine years in Ireland and her joy of discovering the John S. Park community. For her there is a neighborliness that they found in the form of the Neighborhood Watch. She feels the neighborhood still has work to do, but the gentrification has had splendid results as new "urbanites" replace original homeowners. From her artist point of view, she also provides thoughts about the impact the artist community of musicians, painters, and creative artists has had on the neighborhood. Even though she is relatively new to Las Vegas, she is well researched in the historic aspects of John S. Park location: once a fertile plot of land where
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Photographs of Aladdin Casino Hotel and Resort signs, Las Vegas (Nev.), 2002
Site name: Aladdin Hotel (Las Vegas, Nev.)
Site address: 3667 Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: Aladdin Gaming LLC
Sign details: Just north of Harmon across the street from the Harley Davidson café, the stretch of the Aladdin property begins. The facade of the building is a pedestrian designed attraction, for it replaces the sidewalk. One must pass along the elaborate array of landscaping, to be confronted by the massive replication of the ancient Persian city, fully realizing it's Arabian Nights theme. Various signage does adorn the Aladdin property, Including a small one sided message board, resembling a miniature pylon, two jumbo LCD screens adorned with text, and entrance signs cover a couple of entrances.
Sign condition: Structure 5 Surface 5 Lighting 5--All signage is in good repair.
Sign form: Pylon; Fascia
Sign-specific description: The first sign you come upon is a small single sided pylon , which houses a message cabinet, and a channel letter logo for the Aladdin. Two poles rise out of a flowerbed, supporting a purple-faced message cabinet reading about valet and parking service. Incandescent bulbs surround the box along the border. Above that section, Aladdin is spelled in red channel letters, filled with red neon. They are hung upon the remainder of space on the upper portion of the cabinet, which only rises an additional 10 inches or so above the internally lit cabinet. The top of the cabinet is adorned with a three-tiered sculpted steel section mimicking the classic shape of the Persian spire seen so often in the property. Each section is finished in a different color: gold, pink and purple. Two neon tubes run the circumference of the tops of the poles, just underneath the negative Persian spire shape, which supports the internally lit cabinet. Neon tubes also border the tops and bottoms of each section of the sign as well as following the contour of the sculpted edges. This sign faces southwest and is found on the south end of the property and is the first sign you see walking on the property headed north. The first casino entrance is seen north of the previous sign and is above an entrance. The negative space of a Persian arch, preceding the entrance is occupied by a sign which designating an entrance. It is essentially one giant pan channel, with a smaller positive shaped cabinet in the center. Aladdin is spelled in gold polished channel letters with blue plastic faces. Another sign, of this sort, is also further down the face of the building. Translucent red ruby shapes run horizontally across the bottom. As the building steps up in various places, a larger, higher elevation, approximately in the center of the complex, plays host to two LCD screens facing northwest and southwest on the surface of the wall. Above each screen, Aladdin is spelled with larger red translucent letters, backed with white neon. When the light is visible, it creates a halo of white light around the text.
Sign - type of display: Neon; Incandescent; Matrix
Sign - media: Steel; Plastic
Sign animation: Chasing
Notes: The only Animation which I see present are in the pan channels occupying the negative Persian arch shape over two of the entrances on the west face of the building. The red plastic jewel shapes chase from either side to meet in the middle.
Sign environment: The Aladdin property lies between Harmon avenue and the Paris Hotel, on the east side of the strip. Headed North from Harmon, on the east side of the street, the pedestrian is enveloped by the properties façade, for it replaces a standard sidewalk. Once inside the path along the façade, it curves to and fro, mostly toward the casino entrances. Tall shrubbery and bushes separate the pedestrian from Las Vegas Blvd, creating a world all to it's own.
Sign architect of record: Nadel Architects, Contractor: Adp/Fd, Fluor Daniel
Sign - date of installation: 2000
Sign - thematic influences: The theme surrounding the Aladdin is centered around the Arabian Nights theme of an ancient Persian city or palace. Restaurants and storefronts are cased in with faux stone facades topped with bulbous towers and Persian spires. The significance lies in the lineage of the Aladdin transformed through the years since its change of management in 1966. It stands today holding the same theme but designed to fit in with the themed mega resorts currently present on the strip. The exterior is completely engulfed in themed architecture but draws references not only to its past self but other desert fantasy themed resorts such as the Desert Inn and the Sahara.
Surveyor: Joshua Cannaday
Survey - date completed: 2002
Sign keywords: Chasing; Steel; Plastic; Neon; Incandescent; Matrix; Pylon; Fascia; LCD; Internally illuminated
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