Changes Regarding Our Website

We hope you found the new website for the Las Vegas Media Group.  After consideration (mainly cost and user-friendliness), we decided to utilize Google Blogs for updates about our group.  Sorry for any inconvenience this change may have caused you while searching for us on the lasvegasmediagroup.org website.

Keep checking with us for all the news about LVMG. 

And remember to mark your calendars: every third Monday of the month is our meeting.  Reminders are sent to those on the email list.  To be included on this list, contact Lisa at lasvegasmediagroup@gmail.com

Have a great day! 

Lisa Gioia-Acres

January Meeting

What a great meeting we had to start the New Year!

For those of you that couldn't make it today, you missed a great lunch.

Featured guest speaker was local author, Stu Michaels, who shared stories from his recently published
book:  You Can't Make this Up: Cops, Crooks and Celebrities from Brooklyn to Las Vegas.  We are lucky to be graced with so many amazing speakers, who take the time out of their busy lives to visit with us! Stu's stories
were very Las Vegas-related: he talked about his encounters (protective services and eventual friendships, really) with the likes of President George Bush, Steve Wynn, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minelli.  More of his great stories are in his book.

We would also like to wish a happy January Birthday to

Thalia Dondero
Pat Weaver
Ester Lynn
Joan Massagli
Helen Mortenson
Rich Newman
Ralph Pressler

We would also like to wish Mark and Joan Massagli a happy 49th Wedding Anniversary.

Lisa's Nevada history class is a go this semester and her students will be interviewing Las Vegas Media Group members on their life and career histories.  If you haven't signed up to be a part of this project (and you all should, you all have stories that need to be told!), please contact her at 702-245-9206.  We have about 15 signed up so far.

Next meeting on Monday, Feb. 20, we will welcome news correspondent Ms. Myram Borders.  Mark your calendars.

See you again soon.

A SERENDIPITOUS MEETING I WILL NEVER REGRET

I never regret anything I’ve done in life, although there are a few things I shake my head at and say, “What was I thinking?” The reason I have no regrets is that no matter what I’ve done, there seems to have been a purpose and a lesson behind it. I’m the ultimate optimist and have gone through life seeing things just that way. How I met the members of the Las Vegas “Old Timers” Media Group is just such an example of a silver lining from a dark cloud, or period, in my life.

In 2001 my husband and I had just returned to Las Vegas after trying to make a go of it in a small, rural western New York village. I had wanted badly to return to small town life, to live where neighbors actually made eye contact with you and fresh produce could be purchased from the local farm down the road. It was a great experience – for the first couple of years. By the third winter that lasted six months, I was ready, as was my husband, to head back to the desert.

Luckily, we had the wisdom to rent out our home so we had a place to move back to. My husband had maintained contact with his former employer so, another spot of luck, he was rehired. For me, however, I went months without employment. Through a friend-of-a-friend, the way Las Vegas used to hire good employees, I received an invitation to interview at Jackie Gaughan’s downtown casino, The Plaza. First I was offered a position as Food and Beverage manager. I turned it down as one, I had no experience in that field and, two, I didn’t want to work in a smoky, old casino. While I thought I’d have to keep looking I received another offer from the Plaza, “How would you like to be Convention Manager?”

That position didn’t sound so bad; after all I knew how to plan and throw a good party. As I had no other offers pending and the pay wasn’t too bad, I reluctantly took the job. I lasted all of nine months, but while there I met some amazing people, both employees and clients. Frank Mitrani and his group were one of my favorites.

The “Old Timers” as they like to call themselves have been meeting for over a decade. When they came to me at the Plaza, they were looking for a place to hold their monthly meeting where they could eat and socialize for a price they could afford. It took a little convincing to my bosses, but I was able to book the group for the price of meals alone. It was during their monthly meetings that I came to know Frank and become familiar with the group.

I was drawn to find out more because I was (and still am) a “wanna-be-writer” and the group name, Las Vegas Media Group, seemed like a good place to start my future career. I was a little mistaken, however, as the members were retired from the world of journalism and weren’t in much of a position to further my career aspirations. But, they were really nice people who liked to get together and reminisce about Las Vegas history so I always stuck around to listen.

Frank never intended his quasi-club to be exclusive and anyone expressing an interest in history was welcome to join them at their meetings. He promptly placed me on his email list. From then on I received a monthly reminder about the day, time and place of the meetings.

Sometime in 2002 I left the Plaza, found a few other great opportunities that led me in the direction of the career I enjoy today – that of historian, college professor, and writer. While on that path I had little time to visit my old friends at the Las Vegas Media Group luncheons, but would make an appearance every now and then.

When, in 2008 I was hired to conduct a research history of the Spring Mountains, I knew just the place I needed to go. I went to a lunch meeting, was welcomed like an old lost friend, and received great leads on little-known stories about the history of Mt. Charleston to make my final report a rich one. After that re-acquaintance, I have been to almost every meeting since.

I see in this group of men and women, professional and hobby historians and long-time Las Vegans, a rich, diverse treasure trove of knowledge. I realize that so many of their members have passed on. Many of them are in the winter of their lives and when it is their time to say “So long,” with them goes their stories, recollections, and memories. It is my goal to gather and preserve those that remain. Each and every meeting is full of friends sharing their stories over a good meal and among good company. What more could a girl ask for?

No, I have no regrets because I am wise enough to know that every life experience is an opportunity. I know that taking that job that I didn’t really fit into was just my luck. I was in the right place at the right time and came away with a lifetime of great friends.

Now that I’m a member, I never really agreed with the group referring to themselves as “Old Timers” because I didn’t see myself as one. I suspect that down the road I will feel like I fit right in with that description – with no regrets whatsoever.

Blog Posts. |