Trish Geran's Two Books
Author Trish Geran and her two books on Las Vegas Blacks
“Beyond the Glimmering Lights” is the first installation in a two-book set detailing Las Vegas history. Specifically, the role of African-Americans in its development. Her first book tells the story of what Geran calls the most active period for Las Vegas Blacks, and Black entertainers, the 1940s through 1960. The second book continues that story.
An Untold Story
Geran explains that she decided to write these books because she wanted a record of Las Vegas African-Americans “You see things in the news, you don’t think they’re important. They are. Sinatra fought for integration. It’s about the development that occurred. I wanted to do something because nothing was done regarding African Americans’ role in the development of this city.”
Geran’s Aunt Magnolia, who is featured in the books, left Mississippi in the 1940s because she didn’t want to pick cotton. Women coming to Las Vegas at the time were willing to work as maids, Geran says. “The maids were important at the time. It’s about how (Blacks) turned negatives into positives,” she says.
“These books show a side of Las Vegas that I thought was necessary. Whether the entertainer, or the maid, your story is told.”
Entertainers and Maids
The second book covers the years 1960 through the present. It will show the inter-relations of ordinary people with national figures, according to Geran. “(Las Vegas) Mayor Oscar Goodman’s father was an attorney. He got Billie Holliday off in a drug trial,” she says. “Las Vegas is full of stories. It’s full of secrets. Take Wayne Newton. He had a $45 million dollar contract with the Sands. Why did he end up in Nashville? What really happened (in Las Vegas) the day Elvis died?”
Geran says that she thinks that Las Vegas is going through a transition right now. “I think the City Center will be the last big hotel complex built here,” she explains. “I want to preserve Las Vegas for future generations.”
Geran Herself
Geran has a business/marketing degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). “I had always done well in English classes,” she explains. “I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, and people couldn’t believe I had been born in, and lived in, Las Vegas.” Geran was in a San Francisco writers group at the time, and became interested in writing. She wanted to expand on what she knew of Las Vegas African-Americans.
“It took four years to gather all the information for the first book,” she says. “It took so long because I was working all the time (she has a full-time job). “It took another year of editing and revising to complete the book.” “Beyond the Glimmering Lights” was published in 2006.
She says that the book is a way “of preserving our rich history. (In Las Vegas) Buildings are being imploded all the time. If Howard Hughes had bought a lot of these hotels, he never would have sold them,” she asserts.
Las Vegas Secrets
Geran says that the second book will be “a little flashback to show how we got where we are now (Las Vegas residents). I’ll take you inside, so you’ll have the knowledge. How did UNLV’s basketball team (the Rebels) lose a championship game to Duke in 1991/1992 when they had won the year before? Why did Steve Wynn sell his hotels? Why did Mike Tyson bite off part of Holyfield’s ear? And Sonny Liston’s death? He didn’t use drugs. His death is still unsolved. O.J. Simpson used to spend summers here (in Las Vegas) when he was a teenager. Who knows about that?” The book, she says, will show the love-hate relationship she has with Las Vegas.
Geran says that after the second book is published, she wants to approach the Black organizations regarding Frank Sinatra’s role in integrating Las Vegas. “I would like to see him awarded for his humanitarian work,” she says.
For more information, check BeyondtheGlimmeringLights
