Abstract
The Norman Kaye Papers span the years of 1952 to 1969 and are comprised of material from the career of Norman Kaye, a Las Vegas lounge entertainer and longtime poet laureate of Nevada. The materials contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, music manuscripts and poetry, and audio recordings from the Mary Kaye Trio.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Norman Kaye Papers span the years of 1952 to 1969 and are comprised of material from the career of Norman Kaye, a Las Vegas lounge entertainer and longtime poet laureate of Nevada. The materials contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, music manuscripts and poetry, and audio recordings from the Mary Kaye Trio.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Material in box one of the collection is arranged alphabetically. The material in box two remains in original order.
Biographical / Historical Note
Award-winning poet and musician Norman Kaye was born Norman Kaaihue on September 22, 1922. He and his sister, Mary, were born into a Hawaiian show-business family, and played in their father's band, Johnny Kaaihue's Royal Hawaiians. After serving in the army during World War II, Kaye and his sister formed a group that evolved into the Mary Kaye Trio. They first played Las Vegas, Nevada in 1947.
In 1954, Kaye moved to Las Vegas to work the midnight-to-dawn shift 22 weeks per year at the Last Frontier Casino. In addition, he appeared in numerous movies and television shows, which spanned over three decades. He was inducted into the Casino Legends Hall of Fame in 1999. The March of Dimes selected Kaye's song "Throw a Dime My Way" from a field of over 39,000 entries to be their theme song. Kaye was also chairman of the Las Vegas Golden Circle, an organization that helped fund the Las Vegas Community Theatre. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awarded him eight national awards for his musical compositions, including one for "Have a Heart, Lend a Hand."
Kaye was active as a member of the advisory Board of Rose de Lima Hospital for five years, the board for Oran Gragson's Underprivileged Children's Valley Hospital, the board of the Drug Abuse Council for the State of Nevada, and many other local organiations.
As an active part of the business community, Norman Kaye Real Estate was the first brokerage firm in Southern Nevada and grew to be the largest and most successful independent operation of its kind, from 1963 to 1972. Kaye was a sponsor and committee member of the Urban League of Las Vegas among other organizations. He was appointed by Governor Grant Sawyer as the Poet Laureate of the State of Nevada in 1967.
Norman Kaye passed away September 17, 2012.
Preferred Citation
Norman Kaye Papers, 1952-1969. MS-00131. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were a gift of Norman Kaye in 1969; accession number T-14.
Processing Note
Material was processed by Joyce Moore in 2012. In 2014 as part of the legacy finding aid conversion project, Kayla McDuffie revised and enhanced the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards.
Subsequently Kayla McDuffie entered the data into ArchivesSpace.