Description of content: Jack Gurtler was a longtime Elitch Gardens employee who started as an usher in the theater and worked his way up to the presidency, serving in the latter position from 1962 to 1979. His achievements included bringing jazz musicians to Denver in the 1960s and developing Kiddieland, a children’s park in the Gardens. Gurtler co-authored a book with Corrine Hunt entitled "The Elitch Garden Story: Memories of Jack Gurtler." The book, held in the History Colorado collection, was developed from these oral histories.
Physical Description: Seven cassettes. Digital version available on SoundCloud. Total length: 4 hours, 35 minutes (first six cassettes).
The cassettes are unnumbered, making it unclear as to their order. When listening to the digital version, tapes begin at the following approximate times:
Tape 1: 0:00:00
Tape 2: 1:03:00
Tape 3: 1:34:00
Tape 4: 2:36:30
Tape 5: 2:58:30
Tape 6: 4:00:30
Tape 7: unknown, not a segment of digitally available version.
Seventh tape found in 2022. User will need to digitize.
Project description: Thanks to the generosity of the John W. Emery Family, History Colorado hired an Assistant Curator of Oral History in 2019 to manage all aspects of History Colorado’s oral history collections. The goal of the project includes adding the material to the Argus database and increasing its exposure and access.