Oral history interview with Dorothy and Don Tomlin conducted by Joyce Marshall on April 3, 2002 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. Don Tomlin relates his early life in Los Angeles, California, military service during World War II, returning to California and working as a bartender. He then talks about moving to Alaska and meeting Dorothy, who was there as choreographer and manager for her professional dance troupe. The couple then talk at length about moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. Dorothy describes the long hours involved in running her dancers for the El Rancho Vegas Hotel showroom. Both talk about the hotel's owner Beldon Katleman and Don describes opening a men's clothing store near the Moulin Rouge Hotel, catering to both the Westside community and the professional bands that played at the hotels. Finally, the couple describe retiring to travel, buying a resort hotel in California and selling it after repeated flooding, returning to Las Vegas and settling down to help their son run his photography business.
Archival Collection
Navy Mothers' Club, Las Vegas, Nevada Records (1946-1979) contain scrapbooks, photographs, artifacts, by-laws, newspaper clippings, directories, and song books.
Archival Collection
Nevada businessman and Republican politician Jacob "Chic" Hecht (1928-2006) was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 1982. As a senator, he used quiet diplomacy skills to help Soviet Jews gain permission to emigrate. During the Korean War, Hecht served as a counterintelligence agent in Berlin. After the war he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and operated several businesses. Hecht also represented Clark County in the Nevada State Senate for eight years.
Person
Oral history interview with Jerry LeFors conducted by an unknown interviewer between approximately 2000-2008 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, LeFors talks at length about his experiences as an Army Air Corps pilot during World War II. He describes his education, upbringing, music education, and early interest in aviation. He then discusses his military flight training and assignment as a co-pilot on a B-17 bomber crew headed for Europe. He also talks about his subsequent civilian career as a contractor in California and his efforts to break into the music business in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as his continued interest in recording music since his retirement to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1999.
Archival Collection
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Hal G. Curtis was born July 09, 1926 in Galt City, California. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when he was four years old. He graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1942 and went into the United States military until 1950. Curtis worked on the Union Pacific Railroad in iron work for more than 25 years.
Person
Erick Robert Spiess was born May 29, 1919 to Lola and Erick Spiess in Kentucky. He later served in the military during World War II. He married Margaret Brown on August 10, 1944 in Lake Charles, Louisiana and the couple later moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. He died in Baltimore, Maryland on November 23, 2016.
Person
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Thornton Duard "TD" Barnes was born in Texas on January 25, 1937, grew up on a ranch at Dalhart, Texas, and graduated from Mountain View High School, Oklahoma. He then embarked on a ten-year military career. He served as an army intelligence officer in Korea. Following two years of radar and missile electronics schooling, he taught foreign students the Nike radar and missile system, and deployed with a Hawk missile battalion during the Soviet Iron Curtain threat. He attended Artillery OCS, where an injury ended his military career.
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