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Visionary John Acres likes to use his engineering background and computer expertise to solve problems. He has sold more companies that most people ever form—Electronic Data Technologies, Mikohn Gaming, and Acres Gaming—and he still owns the Acres 4.0 and Gen Seven companies. The 2016 Inductee to the American Gaming Association and the University of Nevada Las Vegas Gaming Hall of Fame reshaped the gaming industry by inventing electronic player tracking, progressive jackpot systems, and loyalty programs. Each innovation focused on customer service—"what would the customer think; what would they like; what would really get them excited; what would get them to come back"—and harkened back to lessons taught him by Norman Little, manager of Mr. Sy's Casino of Fun and one of the first people to hire a teenaged John Acres. In this interview, Acres bookends his remarkable career in gaming with the customer service philosophy of Norman Little as the basis, culminating with solutions to enable g

Interviewed by Barbara Tabach. Publisher of Las Vegas Sun, child of Hank and Barbara Green. Part 1 Subjects: Las Vegas Sun, Greenspun family, Israel gun running; Part 2 subjects: Journalism importance, Las Vegas Sun, Watergate tie-in with Hank's safe, October 1 shootings reflections; Part 3 subjects: Hank and Barabara Greenspun. Talks about Jewish visionaries of Las Vegas that includes Art Marshall, Jack Entratter, Sheldon Adelson, Nate Mack; Part 4: Interviewed by Barbara Tabach. Las Vegas Sun newspaper publisher and native Las Vegan talk about events and people from Las Vegas' years of him growing up. From watching pink smoke from test site to hanging out with friends in the John S. Park neighborhood to racial riot of 1969 to playing golf as a kid.

With a liveliness of a man decades younger, Harry Kogan looks at his 100th birthday with cheer and satisfaction. Born March 11, 1916 to poor Russian immigrant parents in the Jewish ghetto of Philadelphia, Harry vividly recalls walking to school shoeless, with no hat or no raincoat. A treat would be his mother handing him ten-cents to go to the theater and enjoy a silent movie. After graduating from high school in 1933, Harry quickly took one of the rare jobs available in a garment manufacturing company where he worked his way into being a skilled and valued fabric cutter-a job that paid $35 a week. Harry was raised with two brothers and lived in Philadelphia for the first 91 years of his life before moving to Las Vegas. One of his brothers learned the refrigeration business while enlisted in the Navy and after the war formed a commercial refrigeration business named Kogan Brothers. Harry is a philosophical and philanthropic man. He was slow to retire and traveled the world, took classes and donated to his favorite causes; among which are the Boys Town Jerusalem and the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. He sat for this interview to honor his Jewish roots, to share his life experiences and spending the past years in Las Vegas.

“At five years old, I was the youngest boy at the orphanage. This was the first time that I had lived with indoor plumbing and indoor showers.” To describe award-winning home builder Larry Canarelli as a self-made man is to grossly understate his accomplishments and his determination. Canarelli, founder of American West, Nevada’s largest privately owned development company, learned all about living without shelter as a very young boy. When he was nine years old, Canarelli, the second of his mother’s six children, encouraged his veteran stepfather to buy the family’s first permanent house for $80 down and an agreement to assume payments on the Veterans Administration loan. As his school peers dreamt of large, shiny cars, Canarelli envisaged big, beautiful houses. After self-funding his education, graduating from the University of California Los Angeles, completing two years of U.S. Army service, and earning his Master’s degree from University of Southern California, Canarelli began his career working with a large home building firm in the Los Angeles area. Three years later he switched firms, and the new company sent him to Las Vegas. In this interview, Canarelli reaches back to his childhood to explain his motivation to build houses: “All of my life, I had an interest in housing. Perhaps this is because of never having a house when I was younger.” He recalls how the Collins Brothers helped him when he founded American West. He describes the Southern Nevada “shelter market” of the 1970s and follows its evolution in style and marketing through the 1980s and 1990s; he talks about master planning and the builders who first master planned their Clark County developments: Pardee Homes in Spring Valley, American Nevada in Green Valley, and Howard Hughes Corporation in Summerlin. He speaks to the influences of interest rates and available land on housing prices; the importance of environmentally responsible housing; where the entry-level housing market will go, and ways that technology has changed home building and home buying. And throughout, he exemplifies his devotion to, knowledge of, and respect for Southern Nevada’s housing industry-its builders, its market, and its buyers.

Interviewed by Irene Rostine. Hazel Hedges moved from Kansas City to Las Vegas with her husband and son in 1952. She worked briefly as a waitress in the dining room at the Thunderbird and then became a stay at home mom until her son was in junior high. Then after she went to real estate school, she went to work in commercial real estate at Bond Realty. After that, she passed her brokers exam and transferred to Parkway Realty where she sold land. Her primary success in real estate came from selling houses and investing in land and residential properties personally. After leaving Parkway Realty, Hazel went to work for the real estate office Deshoor, Fair, and Davis, which she eventually bought and renamed Southside Realty. Eventually her son joined her, and they operated Hedges and Wade Realty with two offices, one on each side of town. Hazel also did volunteer work including the Assistance League Las Vegas' Operation School Bell Program, which provides clothing for area school children in need.

Interviewed by Irene Rostine. In July of 1955, Joanne Molen's husband was offered a job at Nellis Air Force Base, so they moved from Alturas, California, to Las Vegas. Joanne had worked for Citizens Utilities in Alturas as a Western Union teletype operator, so she got a job with the Southern Nevada Telephone Company. She was the only woman to hold some of the positions she held. She worked for the telephone company, which became Sprint, for more than forty years, ending up as a main engineer. Joanne also was a volunteer and was active in community organizations including the American Ex-Prisoners of War and the Disabled American Veterans organizations, which lead to her being appointed by Governor Richard Bryan to the state of Nevada's Veterans Advisory Commission where she became the first woman to hold the position of chairman for the Commission. She was also voted Women of the Year four times by the local chapter of the American Business Women's Association for her work with veterans.

Renee Marchant Rampton has often referred to herself as "One of Fifteen." Indeed, growing up in a family of fifteen children, Renee experienced the care of loving parents, the excitement of a bustling household, and the engagement of an active Church; all amidst the strains of a depression era economy. Renee's mother, Beatrice Marchant, provided Renee with a strong role model with which to emulate; a disciplined woman, who rose to the task without hesitation. Beatrice became the family's provider after her husband's debilitating stroke and later served in the Utah Legislature during the 1970s. Renee loved music from an early age. As a young child she found an early job as a piano accompanist for a dance studio. In 1956 she married musician, Roger Rampton, a successful percussionist. They soon settled in Las Vegas, where Roger performed on the Strip and they began raising their four children. It was an exciting period in Las Vegas history as the Strip attracted musicians and