Early June 2024 Updates.

 

Mayor of Las Vegas John L. Russell signed over land to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps for this development. The gunnery school would be the Nellis Air Force Base. The U.S. Army disagreed with legalized prostitution in Las Vegas So, in 1942, they forced Las Vegas to ban the practice, putting Block 16 (the local red-light district), out of business permanently. By April 3, 1941, hotel owner Thomas Hull opened the El Rancho Vegas. It was the first resort on what became the Las Vegas Strip The hotel gained much of its fame from the gourmet buffet that it offered. On October 30, 1942, Texas cinema magnate R. E. Griffith rebuilt on the site of a nightclub named Pair-O-Dice It first opened in 1930 and was renamed Hotel Last Frontier. A few more resorts were built on and around Fremont Street, but it was the next hotel on the Strip that publicly demonstrated the influenced the influence of organized crime on Las Vegas. Many ethnic organized crime figures were involved in some of 

operations at the hotels, the Mafia bosses never owned or controlled the hotels and clubs that remained monopolized by hard-bitten local Las Vegas families. These families back then didn't want to cede ground to the crime bosses and proved strong enough to push back. This changed during post-WWII Las Vegas. This was when gangster Bugsy Siegel with help from his friend fellow mob boss Meyer Lansky, poured money via local owned banks for cover of legitimacy and built The Flamingo in 1946 Siegel modeled his enterprises on the long running gambling empire in Galveston, Texas, which had pioneered the high-class casino concepts that became mainstays on the Strip.

The Flamingo initially lost money and Siegel died in a hail of gunfire in Beverly Hills, California, in the summer of 1947. Additionally, local police and Clark County Sheriff deputies were notorious for their heavy-handed tactics toward mobsters who "grew too big for their pants." However, many mobsters saw the potential that gambling offered in Las Vegas. After gambling was legalized, the Bank of Las Vegas, led by E. Parry Thomas, became the first bank to lend money to the casinos, which Thomas regarded as the most important business in Las Vegas. At the same time, Allen Dorfman, a close associate of longtime Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa and a known associate of the Chicago Outfit, took over the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund, which began lending money to Las Vegas casino owners and developers. They provided funding to build the Sahara, the Sands, the Riviera, the Fremont, and finally the Tropicana. Even with the general knowledge that some of the owners of these casino resorts had dubious backgrounds, by 1954, over 8 million people were visiting Las Vegas yearly pumping $200 million into casinos. Gambling was no longer the only attraction; the biggest stars of films and music like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Liberace, Bing Crosby, Carol Channing, and others performed in intimate settings. After coming to see these stars, the tourists would resume gambling, and then eat at the gourmet buffets that have become a staple of the casino industry. On November 15, 1950, the United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce (known at the Kefauver Hearings) met in Las Vegas. It was the seventh of 14 hearings held by the commission. Moe Sedway, manager of the Flamingo Hotel and a friend of mobster Bugsy Siegel, Wilbur Clark representing the Desert Inn, and Nevada Lieutenant Governor Clifford Jones were all called to testify. The hearings established that Las Vegas interests were required to pay Siegel to get the race wire transmitting the results of horse and dog races, prizefight results, and other sports action into their casinos.

The hearing concluded that money from organized crime incontrovertibly was tied to the Las Vegas casinos and was becoming the controlling interest in the city, earning the organized crime groups vast amounts of income, and strengthening their influence in the country. This led to a proposal by the Senate to institute federal gambling control. Nevada's Senator Pat McCarran was instrumental in defeating the measure in committee.

Along with their connections in Hollywood and New York City, these interests in Las Vegas were able to use publicity provided by these media capitals to steer the rapid growth of tourism into Las Vegas, thereby dooming Galveston, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and other illegal gaming centers around the nation. Nevada's legal gaming as well as the paradoxical increased scrutiny by local and federal law enforcement in these other locales during the 1950s made their demise inevitable.

The Strip was a location where bombs were tested. On January 27, 1951, the Atomic Energy Commission detonated the first of over 100 atmospheric explosions at the Nevada Test Site. There were dangers of radiation exposure from the fallout, Las Vegas advertised the explosions as another tourist attraction. Black then, many people didn't know about the radiation exposure from such explosion back in the day. Many people offered Atomic Cocktails in the Sky Room restaurant at the Desert Inn that provided the highest view of the mushroom clouds. During this time, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce successfully pushed for Vegas to become nicknamed the Atomic City. Several Miss Atomic pageants were held to help display the city's modernity and to continue spinning messages on the nearby testing to tourists. The influx of government employees for the Atomic Energy Commission and from the Mormon-controlled Bank of Las Vegas spearheaded by E. Parry Thomas during those years funded the growing boom in casinos. But Las Vegas was doing more than growing casinos. In 1948, McCarran Field was established for commercial air traffic. In 1957, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was established, initially as a branch of the University of Nevada, Reno and becoming independent in 1969. In 1959, the Clark County Commission built the Las Vegas Convention Center, which became a vital part of the area's economy. Southwest Gas expanded into Las Vegas in 1954. These atmospheric tests would continue until enactment of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 when the tests moved underground. The last test explosion was in 1992. Howard Hughes in 1966 was the eccentric promoter of American aviation who had OCD. He was also a virulent racist. Hughes lived in Las Vagas for years to build Las Vegas real estate, hotels, media outlets via an estimated $300 billion. Las Vegas changed from Wild West roots to have a more cosmopolitan vibe. Hank Greenspun via the Las Vegas Sun local newspaper helped to expose criminals and corruption in Las Vegas. 

His investigative reporting and editorials led to the exposure of Clark County Sheriff Glen Jones' ownership of a brothel and the resignation of Lieutenant Governor Clifford A. Jones as the state's national committeeman for the Democratic Party. Before his death in 1989, Hank Greenspun founded The Greenspun Corporation to manage his family's assets, and it remains a major influence in Las Vegas, with media holdings in print, television, and the Internet; substantial real estate holdings; and ownership stakes in several casinos. One problem for the City of Las Vegas was that the Strip did not reside in Las Vegas. Because of this, the city lost tax revenue. There was a push to annex the Strip by the City of Las Vegas, but The Syndicate used the Clark County Commissioners to pull a legal maneuver by organizing the Las Vegas Strip properties into an unincorporated township named Paradise. Under Nevada Law, an incorporated town, Las Vegas, cannot annex an unincorporated township. To this day, virtually all of the Strip remains outside the City of Las Vegas. 

Like many places of America, Las Vegas had segregation, and activists fought to defeat it Entertainment venues were segregated between black owned and white owned businesses. Almost all businesses in Las Vegas back then were owned by white people. Black Americans were banned from entering the venues. Black businesses were mainly confined to clubs on the west side of Las Vegas. Thus, African Americans (except those who provided the labor for low-paying menial positions or entertainment) and Hispanics were limited in employment occupations at the white-owned clubs. However, because of employment deals with black worker groups, many clubs favored black workers, and the Hispanic population actually decreased 90% from 2,275 to just 236 by the mid-1950s. Organized crime-owned businesses saw an opportunity in not dividing their clientele by race, and despite property deeds and city and county codes barring such activities, made several attempts at desegregating their businesses in the hopes of putting out of operation the non-white owned clubs and expanding their own market share. An attempt was made at forming an all-integrated night-club modeled on the Harlem Clubs of New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, like those owned by German-Jewish gangster Dutch Schultz. On May 24, 1955, Jewish crime boss Will Max Schwartz, along with other investors, opened the Moulin Rouge. It was a very upscale and racially integrated casino that actually competed against the resorts on the Strip, especially the non-white owned strips on the west side. By the end of the year, the casino closed as Schwartz and his partners had a falling out, but the seeds for racial integration were sown. 

Many sources have credited Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack as a significant driving force behind desegregation in the casinos. One famous story tells of Sinatra's refusal to perform at the Sands Hotel unless the hotel provided Sammy Davis Jr. with a room. The famed performing group made similar demands at other venues, forcing owners to amend their policies over time.

However, it took political action for racial desegregation to occur. In 1960, the NAACP threatened a protest of the city's casinos for their policies. A meeting among the NAACP, the mayor and local businessmen resulted in citywide casino desegregation, starting with the employees. Many whites were attritioned from positions and their jobs were given to the black unions. Along with the rest of the country, Las Vegas experienced the struggle for civil rights. Activists like James B. McMillan, Grant Sawyer, Bob Bailey, and Charles Keller dragged Las Vegas to racial integration. 

Aside from seeing no business advantage to excluding non-white customers from casinos and clubs, the organized crime groups were composed of people of ethnicities (Jewish and Italian) that faced discrimination from certain Americans and thus could understand the plight of black people. This was also a driving force behind the integration advocated by ethnic performers such as Sinatra and Martin. Another big force for equality was Mayor Oran Gragson. Spurred into local politics by a vigilante ring of cops who repeatedly broke into his appliance store, he implemented infrastructure improvements for the minority neighborhoods in Las Vegas, backed the NAACP in its actions, and promoted black workers for jobs. He also championed the cause of the Paiute tribe that owned a small portion of Las Vegas. Gragson stopped the U.S. government from evicting the tribe and made infrastructure improvements for them. His work helped reverse the decrease of minority populations in Las Vegas. Local legislation kept up with the national legislation, and integration was finally established. The only violence came as a result of school integration, with violent riots and fights occurring in Clark High School when people of many racists fought each other. This happened in Rancho High School too in racial riots. Integration sparked a white flight from the school district from 1965 to 1971.

 

The culture of Las Vegas is very diverse. It not just includes casinos, but tourism, gaming, various conventions, athletics, music, and restaurants. Most casinos in the downtown area are on Fremont Street, with The STRAT Hotel, Casino & Skypod as one of the few exceptions. Fremont East, adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience, was granted variances to allow bars to be closer together, similar to the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego, the goal being to attract a different demographic than the Strip attracts. The center of the gambling and entertainment industry is the Las Vegas Strip, outside the city limits in the surrounding unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester in Clark County. Some of the largest casinos and buildings are there. The city is home to several museums, including the Neon Museum (the location for many of the historical signs from Las Vegas's mid-20th century heyday), The Mob Museum, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, the DISCOVERY Children's Museum, the Nevada State Museum, and the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park.

The city is home to an extensive Downtown Arts District, which hosts numerous galleries and events including the annual Las Vegas Film Festival. "First Friday" is a monthly celebration that includes arts, music, special presentations and food in a section of the city's downtown region called 18b, The Las Vegas Arts District. The festival extends into the Fremont East Entertainment District. The Thursday evening before First Friday is known in the arts district as "Preview Thursday", which highlights new gallery exhibitions throughout the district. The Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts is a Grammy award-winning magnet school located in downtown Las Vegas. The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is downtown in Symphony Park and hosts various Broadway shows and other artistic performances. The Las Vegas Valley is the home of three major professional teams: the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion team that began play in the 2017–18 NHL season at T-Mobile Arena in nearby Paradise, the National Football League (NFL)'s Las Vegas Raiders, who relocated from Oakland, California in 2020 and play at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)'s Las Vegas Aces, who play at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. The Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) plans to move to Las Vegas by 2028.

Two minor league sports teams play in the Las Vegas area. The Las Vegas Aviators of the Pacific Coast League, the Triple-A farm club of the Oakland Athletics, play at Las Vegas Ballpark in nearby Summerlin. The Las Vegas Lights FC of the United Soccer League and the Vegas Vipers of the XFL, play in Cashman Field in Downtown Las Vegas. The mixed martial arts promotion, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), is headquartered in Las Vegas and also frequently holds fights in the city at T-Mobile Arena and at the UFC Apex training facility near the headquarters.

 

Diana Ross reunited with Mary Wilson first in 1976 to attend the funeral service of Florence Ballard, who died in February of that year.  In March 1983, Ross agreed to reunite with Wilson and Cindy Birdsong for the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. The Supremes did not rehearse their performance for that evening, due to time constraints. A scheduled medley of hits was canceled. Instead of following producer Suzanne de Passe's instructions to recreate their choreography from their final Ed Sullivan Show appearance, Wilson (according to her autobiography) planned with Birdsong to take a step forward every time Ross did the same, then began to sing lead on the group's final number-one hit song, "Someday We'll Be Together", on which Wilson did not perform. Later, Wilson introduced Berry Gordy from the stage (unaware that the program's script called for Ross to introduce Gordy), at which point Ross subtly pushed down Wilson's hand-held microphone, stating, "It's been taken care of." Ross then re-introduced Gordy. These moments were excised from the final edit of the taped special, but still made their way into the news media; People magazine reported that "Ross [did] some elbowing to get Wilson out of the spotlight."

In 1999, Ross and mega-tour promoter SFX Entertainment (which later became Live Nation) began negotiations regarding a Diana Ross tour which would include a Supremes segment. During negotiations with Ross, the promoters considered the creation of a Supremes tour, instead. Ross agreed. As the tour's co-producer, Ross invited all living former Supremes to participate. Neither Jean Terrell nor late 1970s member Susaye Greene chose to participate. 70s Supremes Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne were then touring as Former Ladies of the Supremes.

Ross contacted Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, who then began negotiations with SFX. Negotiations with Wilson and Birdsong (who allowed Wilson to negotiate on her behalf) failed when Wilson refused SFX's and Ross's offer of $4 million for 30 performances. Following the passage of SFX's final deadline for Wilson to accept their offer, Payne and Laurence, already negotiating with SFX, signed on to perform with Ross on the tour. Laurence and Payne would later say that they got along well with Ross. The newly formed group performed together on Today and The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as VH1's VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross. The Return to Love Tour launched in June 2000, to a capacity audience in Philadelphia. The tour's final performance was at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The tour was canceled by SFX shortly thereafter, due to mediocre ticket sales, despite glowing reviews from media as varied as Billboard magazine, the Detroit Free Press, the Los Angeles Times, and The Village Voice newspapers. On December 5, 2000, Ross received a Heroes Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). The Heroes Award is the highest distinction bestowed by the New York Chapter

Diana Ross's first public post RTL appearance was at a fundraiser for former President Bill Clinton.  In January 2001, Love & Life: The Very Best of Diana Ross was released in the United Kingdom, becoming Ross's 17th gold album in that country. In June, Ross presented costume designer Bob Mackie with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Fashion Awards. Two days before the September 11 attacks, Ross performed "God Bless America" at the US Open before the tournament's women's final, between Venus and Serena Williams. Immediately following the attacks, Ross performed the song again at Shea Stadium, before the New York Mets first game, after driving cross-country to be with her children (in the wake of the attacks, flying in the U.S. was temporarily restricted.). Ross teamed with legendary singers Patti LaBelle and Eartha Kitt, among others, for a Nile Rodgers-produced recording of Sister Sledge's classic disco hit, "We Are Family", recorded to benefit the families' of 9/11 victims. Diana Ross worked hard to tour in London and other places of the world. She fought alcohol addiction by the early 2000's. In May 2004, Ross and daughter Tracee Ellis Ross appeared on the cover of Essence magazine, in celebration of its 50th anniversary. On December 8, 2004, Ross was the featured performer for Stevie Wonder's Billboard Music Awards' Century Award tribute.

Diana Ross raised money for the tsunami victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. She promoted his M.A.C. Icon makeup collection, as part of the beauty corporation's Icon series. In 2005, Ross participated in Rod Stewart's Thanks for the Memory: The Great American Songbook, Volume IV recording a duet version of the Gershwin standard, "I've Got a Crush on You." The song was released as promotion for the album and later reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart, marking her first Billboard chart entry since 2000. Also in 2005, Ross was featured as an honored guest at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball Weekend, a three-day celebration honoring 25 African-American women in art, entertainment, and civil rights. On May 22, 2006, a year after the celebration, a one-hour program about the weekend aired on ABC, including celebrity interviews and behind-the-scenes moments. On March 22, 2006, Ross's televised Central Park concerts, entitled "For One & for All", were named TV Land Awards' Viewer's Choice for Television's Greatest Music Moment. In 2007, Ross was honored with the BET Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award and, later, as one of the honorees at the Kennedy Center Honors. She has the album I Love You in 2006. In 2011, Ross was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

In February 2012, Ross received her first Grammy Award, for Lifetime Achievement, and announced the nominees for the Album of the Year. In May, a DVD of her Central Park concert performances, For One & For All, was released and featured commentary from Steve Binder, who directed the special. A month later, on December 9, she performed as the marquee and headlining performer at the White House-hosted Christmas in Washington concert, where she performed before former President Barack Obama. The event was later broadcast as an annual special on TNT. On November 27, 2015, Motown/Universal released the album Diana Ross Sings Songs from The Wiz, recorded in 1978. The album features Ross's versions of songs from the film version of the musical The Wiz, in which she starred along with Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Richard Pryor and Lena Horne. She mourned the passing of Michael Jackson in 2009. 

On June 30, 2017, Ross headlined the Essence Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her daughter Rhonda Ross-Kendrick performing as the opening act. On November 19, 2017, Ross received the American Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. Ross performed several of her hits, ending with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", during which she brought all of her grandchildren onstage. Her eldest grandson, eight-year-old Raif-Henok Emmanuel Kendrick, son of Rhonda Ross-Kendrick and husband, Rodney, performed an impromptu dance behind Ross, which gained attention. Ross was then joined onstage by all of her children, their spouses, first ex-husband Robert Ellis, Smokey Robinson (who brought Ross to Motown) and Motown founder, Berry Gordy. Diana Ross promoted her fragrance called Diamond Diana on the Home Shopping Network. Ross released her twenty-fifth studio album Thank You in November 2021. It was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and contains her first original material since 1999's Every Day Is a New Day. The album had songs like Tur Up the Sunshine with the band Tame Impala. On November 15, 2022, Ross received a 2023 Grammy Award nomination in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category for Thank You. On June 9, 2023, Ross kicked off the US leg of The Music Legacy Tour which celebrated her greatest #1 hits. Later in 2023, Ross performed at London's Royal Albert Hall on October 14 and 15, and again in April 2024. 

Ross became romantically involved with Motown CEO Berry Gordy in 1965. The relationship lasted several years, resulting in the birth of Ross's eldest child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein, in August 1971. Two months into her pregnancy with Rhonda, in January 1971, Ross married music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein, who raised Rhonda as his own daughter, despite knowing her true paternity. Ross told Rhonda that Gordy was her biological father when Rhonda was 13 years old. Beforehand, Rhonda referred to Gordy as "Uncle B.B." Ross has two daughters with Silberstein, Tracee Joy Silberstein (Tracee Ellis Ross) and Chudney Lane Silberstein, born in 1972 and 1975, respectively. Ross and Silberstein divorced in 1977. Ross met her second husband, Norwegian shipping magnate Arne Næss Jr., in 1985, and married him the following year. She became stepmother to his three elder children; Katinka, Christoffer, and folk singer Leona Naess. They have two sons together: Ross Arne (born in 1987) and Evan Olav (born in 1988). Ross and Næss divorced in 2000, after press reports revealed that Næss had fathered a child with another woman in Norway. 

Ross has seven grandchildren: grandson Raif-Henok (born in 2009 to her daughter Rhonda); grandsons Leif (born on June 5, 2016) and Indigo (born 2017), born to her son Ross Næss; granddaughters Callaway Lane (born in 2012) and Everlee (born October 2019) born to Ross's daughter Chudney; granddaughter Jagger Snow (born in 2015), and grandson Ziggy (born in 2020) to her son Evan. Diana Ross was raised in the Baptist Church. She influenced Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Jade Thirlwall, Questlove, Ledisi, and the Ting Tings. Diana Ross helped to expand the influence and power of women inthe music industry. She gave voice to many women to achieve power moves inside the stage and outside the stage of musical culture. 

 

My 2nd cousin Arthur D. Jr. lived from April 18, 1947 to December 24, 2023. His parents were Arthur Alexander D. (1919-1993) and Alma Virginia Douglas (1926-2016). Arthur D. Jr. Married Mabel Rebecca Giles (b 1951) on September 2, 1975 at Richmond Virginia. Their marriage ended on June 20, 1985 in Virginia. Arthur D. Jr. was born in Scotland Neck, North Carolina. His siblings are: England Warner D. (1944-2006), Betty L. Copes (b. 1945), Wilhelmenia Teresa D. (b. 1949), Remona Ann D. (b. 1952), Sharon Darlene D. (b. 1955), and Alma Loretta D. Corbin (b. 1959). Arthur D. Jr. graduared from Mary N. Smith High School in Accomack, Virginia in 1965. He left home in 1966 to secure a job as a short-order cook in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He later furthered his education and attended Smithdeal-Massey Business College in Richmond, Virginia during the early 70’s.

Arthur joined the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wattsville, Virginia, and was baptized at an early age. He has always confessed his belief in Jesus Christ later in life in his family home on the Eastern Shore, as they gathered for prayer during Thanksgiving and Christmas everyone would recite the Prayer of Salvation. In October 1968, Arthur was inducted into the Army. From March 25, 1969, to March 24, 1970, he served his country in Vietnam. After serving in Vietnam, Arthur moved to Richmond, Virginia, and made his home there. He was employed with the John Marshall Hotel for over 30 years until the hotel closed its doors in 2004. During this time, he was also working evenings at the Richmond Times Dispatch and Diversco Integrated Services until his retirement in 2012. “Dog” as he was known to his friends, was a hard worker and excellent floor technician. Arthur had a great love for his children and family and was always telling beautiful stories about home on the Eastern Shore and his family as they grew up on the farm. After retirement, “AD”, as he was fondly called by most of his family in the latter years, enjoyed going back to his parent’s home on the Eastern Shore to visit his mom, Alma, his sisters, nieces and other family and childhood friends and to clean up the yard. “AD” loved working in the yard as his dad before him did. He made sure that everything in the yard was in top form before he left the Shore. He was a Dallas Cowboys fan. He has three sons, Antrea Doggett (b 1974) of Pocomoke, MD, Andre Doggett (b 1978) of Danville, VA, and King Revolution (formerly known as Quinton Doggett) of Richmond, VA; one daughter, Monique Doggett Chase (b. 1975) (She is married to Kevin Chase) of Atlantic City, NJ; one grandson, Kevin Chase of Atlantic City. 

 

Country music has a long history spanning eons of time. There was the banjo played by black people (which has been talked about by country music scholars Rhiannon Giddens and Dom Flemons) in America that influenced the creation of country music. Country music since its inception was expressed by Americans of every color. Lesley Riddle was a black blues and gospel guitar player who influenced the distinctive sound of the Carter Family (who are called the First Family of Country Music in the 1920's). Hank Williams learned his craft from the black guitar player Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne during the 1930's. Johnny Cash learned from the black musician Gus Cannon later on. Music from Appalachia and the West also influenced the development of gospel music too.  Country music is purely American in origin, but its influence is worldwide. Many people in many countries are fans of country music and create country music in their own right. Throughout the journey of life, music has inspired the minds and souls of humanity. Today, country music has still motivated people to be introspective about life, never shy away from challenges, and seek love as a great virtue to incorporate in daily life. 

By Timothy