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On January 14, 1975, collector James Greene interviewed foreman, Neil H. Holmes (born on November 16th, 1897, in Chicopee, Kansas) in his home in Boulder City, Nevada. This interview covers the early days in Boulder City. Mr. Holmes also discusses the local education system, family life, employment opportunities, housing, and the building of Hoover Dam.

On March 20, 1978, collector Karen Reed interviewed her grandmother, Virginia Houser (born on August 22nd, 1912 in Bartonville, Illinois) at her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the interview, Virginia Houser discusses working in Las Vegas at various stores as well as changes in the Downtown and Strip areas. She also speaks about the annual Helldorado Parade and other entertainment in the Las Vegas area besides gambling.

Steven Hart was born on April 7, 1946, and moved to Las Vegas as a one-year-old with his parents Nat and Sylvia Hart. After graduating from Las Vegas High School, Steven Hart went through an apprenticeship program to become a journeyman carpenter as his father wanted him to learn all phases of the hotel, restaurant, gaming, and business. Including hot to build and design them. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and joined its construction battalion during the Vietnam War. Upon his return to Las Vegas, Steven followed in his father?s footsteps working in the casino industry. Nat Hart was one of the city?s original celebrity chefs and corporate vice president of food and beverage for Caesars World. Well-known for his restaurants at Caesars Palace and the Desert Inn, and for his popular gourmet cooking school. During his long career as a successful gaming executive, Steven worked at several properties, including the International Hotel as food and beverage controller. He was the vice president of food and beverage for the Del Web Corporation. The assistant corporate food and beverage director at the Argent Corporation as well as the Casino Credit executive and Junket Representative for Caesars World. He worked as executive casino host at Bills Gamblin Hall and Hotel in addition to working as the hotel gaming consultant with Hart Gaming LLC. Steve?s wife and dad also owned Kazuku Yakitori, Ichi Ban Japanese steak house, Ringside Bar and Grill and the World Boxing Hall of Champions Museum. In 1985, Steven married Texas-born Wendy Stark Hart, who is also present during this oral history interview. Wendy Hart also pursued a career as an executive in the food and beverage industry. Together, Steven and Wendy Hat reflect at length about Nat Hart?s successful career, particularly as longtime corporate vice president of food and beverage for Caesars World Inc., and opening many of the company's restaurants at Caesars Palace locally and in Atlantic City. Steve and his dad also put in many restaurants for many of the Las Vegas Strip hotels. They discuss both Nat?s relationships with infamous industry figures, like Frank Rosenthal and Hy Goldbaum, and Nat?s dining endeavors with other industry leaders such as like Kirk Kerkorian and Stu and Cliff Pearman. They also highlight the innovation and creativity that Nat brought to his work. Steven also talks about his own career path, from working small jobs at the hotels while in high school, to his military service and developing construction skills, to learning various aspects of the gaming industry management. He reminisces about his childhood in Las Vegas and involvement with Jewish community, including being the first bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Sholom and later serving as president of Jewish War Veterans, Post 711.

On March 16, 1978, Susan Vogel interviewed Helen Cecil (born November 4, 1916 in Silver City, Utah) in her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. She relocated to Las Vegas with her parents for health reasons. This interview covers family life, education, employment and the growth and development of Las Vegas. Helen attended Las Vegas High School and then went on to work at the Las Vegas High School for many years, an accomplishment that she is extremely proud of. During the interview she also mentions the Boulder Dam, the Old Ranch, and the Westside.

Cathie and Chris Millson moved to Las Vegas with their one-year-old daughter, Nicole, in 1984 following Chris’s completion of a cardio-thoracic anesthesiology fellowship in Atlanta, Georgia. Their two other children were born in Las Vegas. Shortly after they arrived they purchased the Rancho Bel Air house where they currently reside. Cathie talks about raising her children and living in Rancho Bel Air, a gated neighborhood of custom houses, which grew to maturity after the Millsons moved in. Cathie’s memories chronicle the growth of Las Vegas from small town to large city, how a certain segment of the population lived and entertained, and how downtown revitalization has brought young people back to Rancho Bel Air to raise their families.

Stanley Mallin (1923- ) was a native of Kansas City, Missouri; the son of Bess and Louis Mallin. His mother was a homemaker and his father was an industrious immigrant from Ukraine who earned his US citizenship through combat in World War I. Stan was the middle child of their three. It was while Stan attended the University of Missouri that he met Jay Sarno. The two men’s fast personal friendship made them solid business partners. Their first endeavor was in Florida with a tile business. It was during a holiday stay at the Flamingo that the two dreamed a bigger, better hotel-casino. The result was Caesars Palace. He has lived and helped develop Las Vegas since 1968. In 1982, Stan married his wife Sandy (neé Jacoby) Mallin. Sandy grew up in New York and arrived in Las Vegas in 1977. She has provided dynamic leadership in the Jewish community. For several years she was President of the Women’s Division of Jewish Federation. She then followed this as the first woman to be President of T

With so much emphasis put on the growth of Las Vegas and Henderson over the past thirty years, we often forget about the development of the others cities in the Valley. Expansive growth in Southern Nevada in the mid-twentieth century shows the region being one of the last bastions of agricultural existence, and Tim Hafen has been a major player in the development of the city of Pahrump. Born in St. George, Utah, and raised in Mesquite, Nevada, he graduated from Virgin Valley High School and attended Dixie College. Before the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was called as such, his father introduced him to the working of the land through dairy and hay farming, where a young Tim decided he would never milk a cow again. His rejection of cow milking didn’t deter him from following the influence of his father after he married his wife, Eleanor, in 1951 and moved to Pahrump to become a cotton farmer. At that time, there were only 150 people in the area with a third of the population being from the Paiute tribe. Once the city was incorporated in 1964, he founded the Pahrump Valley Utility Company to get electricity to the area along with Amargosa Valley. Top crops at the time included cotton, alfalfa as well as wheat that were picked by Mexican farm laborers used under a yearlong contract with the Bracero program. vi In this interview, Hafen shares how he began his career in politics from getting called for grand jury in 1963. From 1966–1974, he was a member of the legislature, where he served two terms in the Old Capital building and held various positions such as Chairman of the State Board of Agriculture for twelve years and President of the Nevada Farm Bureau. He was speaker pro tem and Chairman of the taxation committee and decided to call it quits because of the Nixon scandal. Between 1974 and 1975 Hafen ended his political career, which he did before brothels began to come to the area later in the decade. In 1982, in the wake of the gasoline crisis, Hafen, like other Pahrump cotton farmers, could not afford to continue farming; he decided to shift from farming to development. His first development done was Cottonwoods at Hafen Ranch, which was on 160 acres of alluvial fan, non-farmable land; in 2000 he opened his second subdivision, Artesia at Hafen Ranch.