Beyond the Mint: Walter Zick and Mid-Century Las Vegas

If all Walter Zick and partner Harris Sharpe ever designed was the Mint Hotel and it's beautiful neon sign that would be enough.

But Walter Zick designed much more than just the most beloved, lost neon sign of Las Vegas.  He designed a variety of commercial buildings, mainly banks, schools and residential homes.

A lot of his architecture is still standing which is really amazing considering the reputation Las Vegas has with preserving history.

As noted here earlier this year, we became much more aware of Walter Zick's architectural contribution to the Las Vegas Valley when we got a disc from Jack LeVine over at VeryVintageVegas that had been put together by Zick's daughters in hopes of having a school in the Valley named after their father.

While the School District turned down the daughters, we came up with an idea and working with the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas and Nevada Humanities, we received a grant to do a program centered around Walter Zick and his mid-century architecture.

On October 3rd we will have a panel discussion at the State Museum on the work of Walter Zick.  Confirmed panelists include our favorite mid-century author and historian, Alan Hess, Assemblage Studios' architect, Eric Strain, Karen Zick Goff and her sister, Claire and neon designer, Brian "Buzz" Leming.

Following the discussion, there will be an afternoon bus tour of some of Zick's still-standing architecture.  The final stop on the tour will be the Morelli House.  Though Zick did not design the Morelli House, it's mid-century architecture makes it a perfect place to have a small reception before returning to the State Museum.

We are currently working out the bus route, which we hope will include a few stops so that we can see the interiors of some of the buildings.  Once we have all the details worked out, we will post them here.

Seating for the bus tour is limited and reservations will be necessary.  Once we have the reservation number working, we will post that as well.

So, subscribe to this blog because you are not going to want to miss this.  If you ever wondered what happened to mid-century modern Las Vegas or how it came to be, this is the program for you.  If, like me, you've always appreciated how modern our Valley truly was, you won't want to miss this program.

It's going to be historic, fact-filled and lots of fun.

So, stay tuned.

This program made possible by Nevada Humanities and the Nevada State Museum and the generous donations of VeryVintageVegas, the Friends of Classic Las Vegas, Brian "Paco" Alvarez and the Junior League of Las Vegas.

McCarran Airport: Mid Century Modern

It doesn't look like it now, though the bones are all still there if you look close enough, but when I was a kid growing up in Las Vegas, McCarran Airport was a mid-century modern oasis.

The new terminal was designed by Los Angeles architect, Welton Beckett and it fit right in with the space age theme that was prevalant back then.  From the Landmark tower to the Convention Center, the new terminal would be right at home.

The Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas has a wonderful collection of photographs and negatives from one of the busiest and best photographers of that era, Jay Florian Mitchell.  Mitchell came to Las Vegas in the early 1950s and began photographing the town.  You can chart the transformation of Las Vegas from a town into a growing city by looking at the photos and negatives that are in this collection.  Mitchell's work spans the mid-1950s to the late 1970s and includes aerials.

Here are some of McCarran Airport:

This Week's EVENTS - DON'T MISS!- Entertainers, the Mob and a Meeting!

It's a busy week but we've got some great panels coming up as well as the Friends of Classic Las Vegas meeting. We hope to see you there!

Thursday, August 6th:

Untold Stories

This should be a great evening of stories, memories and laughter.

We will be talking about the "Entertainers of Classic Las Vegas". Back in the day, the showrooms and lounges were filled with the cream of the crop vocalists, entertainers and musicians.

If you missed out on the days when Las Vegas was known as the Entertainment Capital of the World or you remember those days fondly. please join us!

Panelists include: Lorraine Hunt-Bono, Peter Anthony, Babe Pier and Mike Weatherford.

Thursday, August 6th

Las Vegas Springs Preserve

Desert Learning Center

Admission is $12

Friday, August 7th:

The Mob has had a hand in running Las Vegas casinos since its earliest days until probably the early 1980s. Come watch a roundtable discussion and ask questions about this fascinating part of Clark County’s history in this free public event called

“Centennial Stories: Examining Our Past”

Friday, August 7 at 6 p.m.

Where: Clark County Government Center Commission Chambers

500 S. Grand Central Parkway in downtown Las Vegas

Featuring:

· Former Las Vegas Mobster Frank Cullotta

· Retired FBI Special Agent Dennis Arnoldy

· KLAS TV Channel 8 Investigative Reporter George Knapp

· Las Vegas Review-Journal Columnist John L. Smith

· Former Metro Intelligence Commander Kent Clifford

Sunday, August 9th:

The Friends of Classic Las Vegas will have their General Meeting

on Sunday, August 9th at 2:00 pm at the famed Morelli House.

861 East Bridger Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89101-5539

Come join us and find out how you can help with our upcoming tribute and tour to Mid-Century Modern Architect, Walter Zick!

Female Casino Executive Jeanne Hood Dies

First Claudine Williams, now Jeanne Hood.

From the R-J:

When former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones began her run for the office in 1990, one of the first people she sought out was Jeanne Hood, then president of the Four Queens.

“She wrote me one of my first checks when I was running for mayor,” said Jones, who is now a senior vice president at Harrah’s Entertainment. “I will never forget it. She pulled her check book out of her desk, we were sitting in her office, and she wrote me a personal check.”

Hood, a pioneering casino executive at the Four Queens in the 1970s, died Sunday.

Her age and cause of death were not available.

Hood took over as president and chief executive officer of the Four Queens upon the death of her husband, David Hood, in 1977. In 1985, she became president and chief executive officer at Elsinore, a publicly traded gaming subsidiary of the Hyatt hotel chain that owned the Four Queens.

She remained president of the Four Queens until 1993.

The unassuming Hood rarely gave interviews and tried to downplay her role as a woman in the casino industry.

Hood told the Review-Journal in 1985, when she and Claudine Williams were the only women running Las Vegas resorts, that she was not a “woman’s libber” and steered away from questions that went that direction.

“I just feel that people have to be qualified,” she told the newspaper. “I don’t care whether they’re a woman or a man, or what color or race they belong to. I think they need to know what they are doing in order to have the job. Because I’m qualified, I’m here.”

While she didn’t talk about her place in casino history often, her influence is undeniable.

“She is part of too small a group that proved a woman could do a job that is most associated with men,” said Michael Green, a history professor at College of Southern Nevada.

Hood’s death comes less than three months after the death of Williams. The first woman to run a Strip property at the Holiday Inn-Holiday Casino, Williams died May 13 at the age of 88.

“It is ironic Claudine Williams died not too long ago,” Green said. “Here are really two women who set a standard in their industry.”

While at the Four Queens and afterward, Hood was active in efforts to redevelop downtown Las Vegas with other big-name casino executives.

Jones said her mayor’s office and Hood were part of “the real working group” that included Steve Wynn, former Boyd Gaming Corp. CEO Don Snyder, and Bill Boyd, founder of the Boyd Gaming, that was focused on downtown redevelopment.

Hood met her husband while at the University of Minnesota. She spent her summers as a waitress at the Old Faithful Inn, where David was an assistant manager, at Yellowstone National Park. Hood managed her first hotel in 1958 in California.

She arrived in Las Vegas in just before Christmas in 1973 when her husband was named president of the Four Queens.

After her career at the Four Queens, , in 1994 she became a director of American Vantage Cos., a Las Vegas-based management investment company, a position she held until her death.

She was a gaming consultant for the company from February 1994 until April 2000.

She also served as American Vantage’s assistant corporate secretary, chairwoman of its audit committee and co-chair of its compensation committee.

Her career extended past casinos. She was director of Pioneer Citizen’s Bank until it merged with Zions Bancorporation in 2000. She served on the board of Southwest USA Bank starting in January 2000.

Jones said the importance of Hood serving alongside other women in the history of casinos cannot be overstated.

“The very fact Jeanne Hood, Margaret Elardi (former owner of the Frontier and the Pioneer Club), Claudine Williams could have been contemporaries and colleagues of Steve Wynn, Bill Boyd and Kirk Kerkorian tells you it was more about entrepreneurial vision than gender,” Jones said. “You don’t find that in any other industry.”

Hood was inducted into the Nevada Chapter of the International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame in 2004.

She is survived by a sister, four daughters, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Services will be private.