A long bicycle ride to school, a photograph borrowed without a mother’s permission, and a retired Radio City Rockette kicking her way down California Avenue are among the memories Mark Curtis believes belong in Northern Nevada’s history.
Curtis opened the Churchill County Museum’s “Layers of Nevada” fall lecture series Sept. 8 with stories from “One of a Kind: The People and Places That Make Reno the Biggest Little City in the World,” his two-volume collection of personal essays and images.
The books bring together stories by prominent Nevadans, people known mainly within their own communities, and others whose names may be unfamiliar to most readers. Together, their memories offer a picture of Northern Nevada through its art, athletics, businesses, families, schools, and civic life.
Curtis said he did not want to write a conventional history in a single voice. Instead, he wanted people to tell the stories that mattered to them.
“I don’t consider myself the writer of these two,” Curtis said. “I consider myself the publisher of these two.”
Finding those stories meant looking beyond the people he already knew.
“You’ve got to get out of your own circle of family and friends,” Curtis said. “You’ve got to cast a wider net.”
Curtis credited his three co-publishers, contributors, and friends with introducing him to people throughout the region. Former Nevada Poet Laureate Gailmarie Pahmeier helped connect him with two Fallon contributors: writer Everett George and poet and tribal historian nila northSun.
The books took about 2½ years each to assemble. Some prospective contributors declined, some struggled to settle on a story, and others could not find the right image.
For Curtis, the image was essential.
“I’m not going to take a story that doesn’t have an interesting photograph,” he said.
That requirement nearly kept the late Tom Dolan out of the second volume. Curtis had a story but could not find an image with the candid quality he wanted. After nearly a year, a Dolan Auto Group marketing director produced a photograph of Dolan riding on a stagecoach at the rodeo and waving to the crowd.
Curtis also recalled visiting the late Rusty Crook, an athlete and founder of This Is It Day Camp. While looking around Crook’s crowded office, Curtis noticed an old military photograph pinned to a corkboard. The picture showed Crook doing a handstand on a Jeep while serving in the Army. It became the final photograph in the first volume.
Another contributor, Jennifer Capel, wanted to write about her father, a runner, coach, and attorney. A promising photograph was hanging in her mother’s home, but her mother was leaving on vacation. Capel proposed temporarily taking it so Curtis could photograph it and return it before her mother came home.
Curtis said the resulting image and story made it into the book.
Another story centers on Ashley Parisi of Truckee and a local tradition among graduating seniors. Parisi jumped from a rock into the frigid water of Lake Tahoe in February, and a family photograph captured the moment.
The collection also includes a contribution from “Pickles” creator Brian Crane, who once worked at Curtis’ advertising agency. Crane wrote about bringing his reluctant wife to Reno and joked that, years later, she would be equally reluctant to leave.
Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond contributed a memory from his school days. LeMond lived in Washoe Valley and rode his bicycle roughly 26 miles to Wooster High School. One day, he added a detour to the trip and arrived late to physical education class, where football coach Joe Sellers was waiting.
Curtis offered just enough of each anecdote to tempt the audience, frequently stopping before the ending and encouraging listeners to read the books.
The collection also includes a story by Suzy Darling, a former Radio City Rockette who worked at Curtis’ wife’s restaurant. When business was slow, Darling sometimes stepped onto California Avenue and performed Rockette-style kicks to attract customers. Curtis said the effort never brought in much business, but it made a memorable story.
Other contributors include former Nevada attorney general Frankie Sue Del Papa; former Seattle Seahawks linebacker Dave Wyman; professional golfer Patty Sheehan; Mark Twain impressionist McAvoy Layne; speed skier Franz Weber; and Warren Lerude, former publisher of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Curtis said the best contributions were personal rather than career summaries. Weber, a six-time world champion speed skier, ultimately wrote about what he considered the greatest moment of his career — an encounter with race car driver Jackie Stewart that had nothing to do with skiing.
Curtis has published three books, but considers himself the author of only one: “Reno: A Fabled City Finds Its Soul.” That book explores Reno’s transformation around the founding of Artown in 1996 and the festival’s role in drawing people downtown and back to the Truckee River.
Curtis, who spent about 35 years as an advertising agency principal, creative director, and writer, was a founding member of Reno’s first arts commission and conceived and co-founded Artown.
He closed with a saying that captured the change he saw taking place in Reno during that period.
“Reno always knew it had water running through town,” Curtis said, “but it never knew it had a river.”
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