The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, announces the debut of its documentary, “This Building of Ours: The Story of a Las Vegas Landmark,” on Tuesday, July 16 on YouTube and future airing on cable channel 2 and at www.kclv.tv/live.
This compelling feature-length film, produced in collaboration with Boyd Productions and funded in large part by The Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial, explores the rich history of one of Las Vegas’ most iconic buildings, originally serving as the city’s first U.S. post office and courthouse.
Celebrating the building’s multifaceted legacy – from its opening on Nov. 11, 1933, to its pivotal roles in historical events and transformation into The Mob Museum – the documentary premiered at a private showing in the very courtroom where one of the Kefauver Committee hearings took place. These seminal hearings exposed the prevalence of organized crime around the United States in the early 1950s.
“This Building of Ours” is now available on YouTube and will be available for viewing on cable channel 2 and at www.kclv.tv/live on Thursday, July 18 at 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, July 20 at 1 p.m.; Sunday, July 21 at 5:30 p.m.; and Monday, July 22 at 11 a.m.
“We envisioned ‘This Building of Ours’ as a tribute to one of Las Vegas’ most storied buildings and a lens through which to tell the story of Las Vegas,” said Geoff Schumacher, vice president of exhibits and programs at The Mob Museum.
The federal building served as a community resource and gathering place for seven decades before its transformation into The Mob Museum. “We wanted to show that the building continues to fulfill its historic role as a cornerstone of community and education in Las Vegas,” Schumacher added.
As the documentary relates, the federal building not only played host to a Kefauver Committee hearing in 1950 but also served as the setting for other high-profile hearings and trials. Before he became the U.S. president, Harry Truman held several hearings in the courtroom as a senator investigating defense spending during World War II. Maverick newspaper publisher Hank Greenspun battled the Mob and a political rival in separate trials in the 1950s, while Rat Pack leader Frank Sinatra testified before a grand jury in the 1960s.
The film features rarely seen historic images, film footage and interviews with an array of historians and individuals who share memories about the federal building and its transformation into The Mob Museum.
In addition to the film’s public debut, The Mob Museum introduced a new exhibit revealing important aspects of the building’s historical significance. This exhibit, located on the second floor, aims to enhance visitor understanding of the building’s architectural and cultural importance, highlighting its role in major national news events, subsequent adaptation into a museum attracting more than 400,000 visitors annually and inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The exhibit features artifacts linked to the building, including a Prohibition-era liquor bottle discovered inside a wall during the building’s restoration in the early 2000s. The exhibit was funded by both The Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial and Nevada Humanities.
Leave a Comment