The Boyer Oral History Project is the seminal collection of oral history interviews that form the core of the Oral History Research Center . As the inaugural project of the OHRC, it focuses on residents in a range of professions whose life experiences have contributed to the history and development of Las Vegas in some way. Although many of our other oral history projects are focused on documenting the history of specific ethnic communities or particular professions, the Boyer Oral History Project is wide-ranging and open-ended.
The project is named in honor of the late Dr. Harold Boyer, a dermatologist and long-time member of the Las Vegas Rotary Club, whose seed donation in 2003 was responsible for the creation of the Oral History Research Center. A dermatologist who arrived in Las Vegas in 1952, Boyer, like so many other transplanted residents, was actively involved in improving his adopted community. In his November 2000 interview, he reflected thoughtfully on the many Las Vegas residents who had helped build the city, giving equal credit to people from all walks of life:
"Everyone who comes here does something. Everyone lays a brick. Everyone scrapes a little more... It takes all these people to build these skyscrapers. It takes all these people to do all the culinary work. It takes all these people to give the support — the cleaners and launderers, the doctors, the nurses, the teachers, the educators. You're a pioneer. You have helped. What you're doing here is helping to record the history of Las Vegas. So we're all pioneers. Even though we may not stay here for a very long period of time, we all contribute.”
Peg Crockett was another pioneering Las Vegas resident. Arriving as a teenager in 1937 with her parents who ran the Hidden Wells Ranch, she went on to earn her pilot’s license at 18 and would later marry George Crockett. Together they owned and operated Alamo Field, which would later become Harry Reid International Airport.
One of the many pilots who landed a plane on their dusty field was Howard Hughes. She recalled the shy billionaire asking her husband if he could go to their house and make phone calls. “George… took him over and showed him where things were. Katie was a baby in her playpen. He said, ‘You got anything to eat around here?’” The eccentric Hughes even felt comfortable enough to help himself to food in their kitchen. As Crockett noted in her 2012 interview, “We just left him alone. He was happy there and he felt safe there. There was no tap on the line and nobody standing behind him listening to his conversation.”
From gaming executives, politicians, and lawyers to philanthropists, professors, and activists to dancers, showgirls, and magicians and many more professions in between, the Boyer Oral History Project has captured the memories of hundreds of Las Vegas residents from both recent and past decades.
-Su Kim Chung
Oral History Recordings
As part of this exhibition, we are specially including recordings of the actual oral history interviews. See the interviews of Dr. Boyer and Peg Crocket below:
Recording of Dr. Boyer interview
Recording of Peg Crockett Interview
Notes:
Boyer, Harold. “An Interview with Dr. Harold Boyer.” By Claytee D. White. Oral History Research Center, 15 & 30 November 2000.
Crockett, Peg. “An Interview with Peg Crockett.” By Claytee D. White. Oral History Research Center, 12 May 2012.
Continue learning about the "Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History" project here.
