Invite you to an Afternoon Soiree
At an Historic
In Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas
1905 Chapman St.
Open House Saturday, Nov. 17th
Two O’Clock pm - Five O’Clock pm
Home Tour, Entertainment,
Wine & Hors d’ oeuvres
Silent Auction
Guest Speaker: Dr. Michael Green
$35pp
Reservations are Limited
Please RSVP to 878-3889
Mail payment to: FCLV 4359 W. Charleston Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89102
This is a fundraising event for the Friends of Classic Las Vegas, a
recognized 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserving
the history of the Las Vegas Valley.
Untold Stories at the Las Vegas Preserve presents:
The Greatest Generation, Las Vegas and World War II
When the majority of us think of World War II we rarely think of Las Vegas. Yet, it was here that Basic Magnesium supplied the valuable mineral to the War effort and the Las Vegas Gunnery School trained pilots for missions over the Pacific and European theaters.
The citizens of the small town of Las Vegas did their patriotic duty by growing Victory Gardens, participating in Rubber and Can Drives, rationing and sending their sons, brothers and husbands off to war.
The impact the War had on Las Vegas would help the small desert community grow into the Entertainment Capital of the World.
Learn more about this fascinating time in Las Vegas history this Thursday evening. Join
Donna Andress, Las Vegas High Class of 1943
Gail Andress, Las Vegas High Class of 1944
Mike Pinjuv, Las Vegas High Class of 1942
Don Payne, Las Vegas High Class of 1947
Moderated by Lynn M. Zook, The Friends of Classic Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Springs Preserve
Thursday, Nov. 1st
6:30 pm Reception
7:00 pm Discussion
Admission $12
Wednesday, Oct. 24th
Entertainers of Classic Las Vegas
Nevada State Museum
700 Twin Lakes Drive
Lorenzi Park
Admission $3.00 (Museum members no charge)
Reception is at 6:00 pm
Roundtable is at 7:00
Join the man of a 1,000 voices, Bill Acosta, Tommy Deering and author Mike Weatherford along with some very special guests as they talk about playing Vegas from the 1950s to today. Find out how things have changed and why they loved playing Vegas back in the day!
Sunday, Oct. 28th
Dr. Lonnie Hammergren's Nevada Day Celebration
4318 Ridgecrest (cross streets are Flamingo and Sandhill)
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Dr. Lonnie opens up his home to celebrate Nevada Day and offers tours of his home and his massive collection of Nevada History.
Tours will be given!
Friends of Classic Las Vegas will have a room where you can come and learn more about the group. Collector Carey Burke will have some of his epherma collection on display, Allen Sandquist will have some of his postcard collection on display and we will be there to answer any questions and hand out brochures on how you can become a Friend of Classic Las Vegas.
We will also being have an hourly raffle of unique baskets of Las Vegas history as well as face painting and other fun activities so be sure to join us at Dr. Lonnie's on Oct. 28th.
October Events! Scroll Down as we have many events this month that you won't want to miss!
PLEASE NOTE NEW START TIME:
Saturday, Oct. 20th
The Pioneering Women of Southern Nevada Aviation
In Memory of Aviatrix, Florence Murphy
Women in Southern Nevada were at the forefront of aviation in those early days. Florence Murphy learned to fly and fell in love with airplanes. She and her husband, Red opened Sky Haven Airport on Dec. 7, 1941 and Florence went on train pilots at the old Gunnery School during WWII. After the War, she became Vice-President of Bonanza Airlines. She finally sold Sky Haven Airport to her good friend, Howard Hughes, in the mid-1960s
Peg Crockett and her husband George started Alamo Airways in the early 1940s which was located near where McCarren Airport is today.
Marie McMillan, former Test Site worker and widow of Civil Rights Activist, Dr. James McMillan, is the fastest woman alive. She has the most aviation speed records and has logged thousands and thousands of miles in the sky.
Billy Bates was a young woman living in Boulder City when she became the General Manager for the Boulder City Airport.
Come hear the stories and learn about this underappreciated part of the Las Vegas history.
Saturday, Oct. 20th
Clark County Museum
1850 S. Boulder Highway
Admission: $1.50
Reception is at 1:00 pm.
Discussion is at 2:00 pm.
We look forward to seeing you there!
This event made possible, in part, by the support of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors and Pinto Aviation!
PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE IN STARTING TIME!
The Las Vegas Springs Preserve presents:
Untold Stories
This monthly series helps explore our history and helps us understand the sacrifices and courage it took to build a city out of the desert. Each month we will bring together a group of long-time residents to talk about our history in a roundtable forum.
This month: Growing Up in Early Las Vegas.
What was it like growing up here in the years between World War I and the Great Depression? Before air-conditioning? Before paved roads? Come find out on Thursday, Sept. 6th as Ed Von Tobel, Jr, Virginia Beckley Richardson, Violet Tracht and Donna Andress take us back in time to when they were kids growing up in a small town called Las Vegas.
Ed Von Tobel was born here in 1911. His father came here for the land auction in 1905 and started Von Tobel Lumber. For years, Von Tobel Lumber supplied the hardware and building needs of Las Vegans. From their location on Second Street to their final location on Maryland Parkway, Von Tobel Lumber was a part of Las Vegas history.
Virginia Beckley Richardson was born here in 1917. Her father, Will, owned Beckley’s Men’s Wear on Fremont Street. She grew up here, married and raised her family. Her childhood house in part of Heritage Street at the Clark County Museum.
Violet Tracht was born here in 1910. Her family owned the Oppedyk Diary, one of the first in the valley. She grew up here, married and, like the others, raised her family.
Donna Andress was born in Searchlight but came to Las Vegas in 1932 at the age of four. Her mother, Clara Hanley, was a teacher at the local Grammer School and then at Las Vegas High. Donna married her high school sweetheart, Gail Andress, in 1944. She is a noted local historian.
Moderated by local historian, Lynn M. Zook, Friends of Classic Las Vegas
Thursday, Sept. 6th
Las Vegas Springs Preserve
Reception: 6:30 pm
Discussion: 7:00 pm
Reservations are requested but not mandatory. Call Springs Preserve Adult Education at (702) 822-7786. Please note Admission will be charged. $12.
Come help kick off this inaugral event. We look forward to seeing you there!
Home Movie Day, Vegas Style!
Home movies. Those wonderful 8mm and Super 8 celluloid treasures that we have from our childhoods. Christmas morning, Easter Sunday, vacations at Disneyland. It's fun to look back at the fads, the clothing, the hairstyles. But most importantly, they capture a time and place that have faded into history.
It's one reason that I am excited about Las Vegas participating in Home Movie Day this week. Las Vegas has long held out the lure of second chances and the possibility of re-inventing self. But, few other cities in the world, re-invent themselves on the scale of Las Vegas.
Twenty five years ago there were still motels and gas stations on the Strip. A lot of them. Places like the Lone Palm, the Desert Rose, the Kit Carson, the Gaslight. Now the buildings are gone but luckily some of the signs have been saved by the Neon Museum.
I've been putting together some of the footage that I have bought on ebay. Other people's home movies. People, at first, ask why are you buying other peoples' movies? But then I explain that most people traveling west stopped in Las Vegas. In between seeing shows, dining out and gambling, they often took a drive Downtown and then back to the Strip. And, quite often, they took their handy movie camera with them.
Because of that, I have spent the last day looking at the Las Vegas I remember. The City of Neon. Places that are long gone and some that are still around.
Helldorado Parades when Helldorado was as big as the Tournament of Roses Parade. The Hotel floats were elaborate. Everything from sailing ships to ice rinks, all topped by beautiful showgirls. Marching bands from around the country. And crowds so deep you can't see the sidewalks. But looking east on Fremont Street with the floats coming towards you is to capture the essence of what Downtown used to mean to all of us of a certain age when it was the only place to go to shop, cruise or grab a burger.
I have seen the wonderful old Aladdin sign. The team of designers from Yesco, included Brian "Buzz" Leming. They dubbed the sign the "Ice Cream Sundae" and spent an afternoon at Wonderworld looking for material they could cut up to make the mock up of the sign.
The original front of Caesars Palace with the soldiers on the bottom of the marquee sign. Buzz and the other designers spent an afternoon at a store buying toy soldiers as a gag for the sign. When Jay Sarno saw the mock up he wanted to keep the soldiers. Just wanted them to look Roman.
The magnificent Dunes sign pushing neon into the night sky. It was always supposed to be there.
The Sands, the Bonanza Hotel, the Stardust (with its planetary front) and the Mori statue advertising the Aku Aku, the La Concha and the Algiers, the camels that used to be near the original Sahara sign. The Flamingo Capri motel with its very similar sign to its next door neighbor, the Flamingo Hotel. The old Frontier Village.
Jack Dennison's Copper Cart Restaurant. Looking at footage of Downtown, there was the Lucky Strike, the Monte Carlo, the Fremont Theatre. 5th Street Liquor. Before the Union Plaza was built at 1 Main Street it was the Union Pacific Depot and in some of the home movies you can see the Union Paciific sign glowing neon at the end of the street.
It's all there. In color and in black and white. The way Las Vegas was. The Las Vegas of our collective memory. The City of Neon.
Join us for Home Movie Day.
On Saturday, August 4th
Clark County Museum
1830 S Boulder Highway
Henderson, NV
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
8mm, S8mm, DVD formats welcomed.
On Saturday, August 11th (National Home Movie Day):
Nevada State Museum
700 Twin Lakes Dr
Lorenzi Park (Twin Lakes to us old timers)
10:00 am - 4:30 pm
Bring your home movies to share or just come watch them.
It's a trip down Memory Lane you won't soon forget.
The Early Days of Television in Las Vegas
Every day we turn on our television and sit back and watch the various channels. But it wasn't always that way. Television came to Las Vegas in 1953 and it was definitely a more innocent era.
Join us on July 25th as we look back at the first 25 years of television in Las Vegas.
Scheduled guests include:
Donna Martin, the daughter of legendary local tv personality, Gus Giuffre. Gus hosted the afternoon movie, the early evening movie, read the news and hosted the late night movie. In many ways, Gus Giuffre was Las Vegas television in those early formative years.
Hank Thornley. NBC had Huntley and Brinkley. We had Hank Thornley. He was the anchor of the evening and the late night news as well as a reporter. For years, viewers tuned in to hear Hank tell us about the stories that really mattered.
Alice Key and Bob Bailey. Alice co-hosted, with Bob Bailey, the first African American public affairs/talk show in the Valley. In an era of overt segregation, Alice and Bob Bailey were on-the-air to remind everyone in Las Vegas, regardless of color, of what was important and worth standing up for.
Wednesday, July 25th
Nevada State Museum
700 Twin Lakes Drive
Lorenzi Park
6:30 pm Reception
7:00 pm Roundtable Discussion
This event made possible by the generous support of the Greenspun Corporation.
Don't miss this once in a life-time opportunity to hear about the Early Days of Television in Las Vegas!
Author Dennis Griffin
Co-Authors Dennis Griffin (left) and Frank Cullotta
Retired FBI Agent and Cullotta Handler Dennis Arnoldy
The Vegas Way
Cullotta!
Las Vegas and the Mob
A Book Signing and Panel Discussion
During the Casino-era in Las Vegas, Frank Rosenthal and Tony "the Ant" Spilotro were the mob's guys in Las Vegas. As many of us know it was a violent and controversial time. Frank Cullotta was a member of Spilotro's Hole in the Wall gang and the one who turned informant on "the Ant".
Author Dennis Griffin has written a new book that explores that era and tells Cullotta's side of the story.
On Wednesday evening, June 6th, at the Nevada State Museum, Denny Griffin and Frank Cullotta will be there to sign their new book, Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness.
After the book signing, there will be a panel discussion that includes:
Dennis Griffin, Frank Cullotta, retired FBI Agent Dennis Arnoldy, RJ reporter AD Hopkins, RJ columnist Jane Ann Morrison and KLAS Vice President and General Manager, Robert Stoldal.
It should be an eye opening evening for any one interested in Las Vegas History.
Wednesday, June 6th
Admission will be $3.00, Museum members will not be charged.
5:30 - 6:30 pm Book Signing
6:30 - 8:30 pm Panel Discussion
RSVP to 702-486-5205 x120
Nevada State Museum and Historical Society
700 Twin Lakes DriveLorenzi Park
Past Events:
Growing Up on the Walking Box Ranch
with
Rex Bell, Jr and Friends
Saturday, April 28th
Want to know what it was like growing up on the biggest ranches in Southern Nevada?
Well, this Saturday, April 28th, Rex Bell, Jr is going to share his memories of growing Up on the Walking Box Ranch. There will also be other panelists who will speak as well about the ranch. The Walking Box Ranch was built in 1931 by Rex's father, western film star, Rex Bell. Rex,Sr and his wife, silent film star, Clara Bow, lived on the ranch and raised their two sons there. Throughout the 1930s the ranch, also home to some 1,800 head of cattle, served as an escape destination for some of the couple's famous Hollywood friends including Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Errol Flynn and Lionel Barrymore. In addition, Rex Bell, Sr had a Western Wear store on Fremont Store, was a yearly participant in the annual Hellodorado Parades and was Lt. Governor.
Rex Bell, Jr grew up at he sprawling 400,000 acre ranch. He went to elementary, middle school and one year of high school in Las Vegas before going off to military school. He returned to Las Vegas as served as Clark County District Attorney before returning to private practise. He will highlight the discussion with his stories of learning the ways of cattle, horses and people, reminscences of ranch likfe and antecdotes of the ranch-bred system of values that followed him into the larger world.
You won't want to miss this rare opportunity to hear the stories!
This Saturday, Not to be Missed!
Reception: 1:00 pm
Panel: 2:00 pm
Clark County Museum
Outdoors on Heritage Street
1830 S. Boulder Highway
We hope to see you there!
The Pioneering Women of Las Vegas Journalism
From Florence Lee Jones Cahlan to Paula Francis, women have been at the forefront of journalism in Las Vegas. As writers, reporters and television anchors, they have worked hard to be taken seriously and to prove that they are as capable of doing the job as men.
Myram Borders, the first female UPI Bureau Chief in Las Vegas. "They didn't think a woman could handle the job". She proved them wrong.
Gwen Castaldi, on-air reporter for KLAS-8, reporter and anchor for KVBC-3, news director for Channel 5. She has covered everyone and everything from Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro and the Mob to the Pepcon explosion. She is being honored by theSouthern Nevada Women's History Project this evening.
Mary Hausch has played a role in Las Vegas journalism for more than 35 years. She worked at the Review-Journal for 19 years as a reporter, assistant city editor, city editor and as managing editor for more than a decade. She was the first woman to be a city editor or managing editor in Las Vegas. For 16 years she has been a journalism professor at UNLV, specializing in media ethics and print journalism courses. She is a past president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists..
Mary Manning, long time reporter with the Las Vegas Sun.
Jane Ann Morrison, long time reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal and now a columnist for that paper. She was there with Gwen and Myram covering the "Casino" era scandals of skimming, money laundering and the Mob.
Liz Wilson Vlaming, former on-air reporter for KLVX-10. She also worked together at KVBC-3 with Gwen Castaldi.
Wednesday, March 21st
Nevada State Museum
700 Twin Lakes Drive
Lorenzi Park
Reception from 5:00 - 6:30 pm
The Reception includes a book signing of The Skirts That Swept the Desert Floor which features 100 biographical profiles of Nevada Women.
Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm
Discussion to follow.
This event made possible by the generous support of KVBC-3 and KLAS-8.
Growing Up on the Walking Box Ranch
with
Rex Bell, Jr and Friends
Please Note this event has been rescheduled for Saturday, April 28thReception: 1:00 pm
Panel: 2:00 pm
Clark County Museum
Outdoors on Heritage Street
1850 S. Boulder Highway
The Walking Box Ranch was, at one-time, one of the largest, working ranches in the area. Take a journey back in time with us as Rex Bell, Jr and friends recount what it was like to grow up and work on this wonderful ranch.
The hard work and the fun will be highlighted.
We hope to see you there!
A Salute to Evelyn Stuckey and the Las Vegas High Rhythmettes
Please join us on January 24th as we look back at the Las Vegas High Rhythmettes. This precision drill team was founded in 1949 by Ms. Evelyn Stuckey. She demanded the best from the girls chosen for the Drill Team and was not disappointed. Rhythmettes marched in many Helldorado Parades, Rose Parades, appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in the early 1960s and even in a movie.
We will have Rhythmettes from different decades on the Panel talking about how the Team got started and how it changed over the years. In addition, we will have former Rhythmettes in the audience as well.
Wednesday, January 24th
Nevada State Museum
700 Twin Lakes Dr.
Reception begins at 6:00 pm
Panel Discussion begins at 6:45 pm
This event made possible by the support of Harrah's Entertainment and the Friends of Classic Las Vegas.
We hope to see you there!
