Search Results

Oral history interview with Bonnie Hawkins conducted by Claytee D. White on November 02, 2009 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Hawkins discusses life in Las Vegas, Nevada since the 1950s. She then describes Madison School and the Westside. Lastly, Hawkins discusses the Moulin Rouge and changes within the Westside community.

Oral history interview with Anna Bailey conducted by Claytee White on March 03, 1997 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Bailey opens her interview by describing her early life, family, and dance training. She discusses moving to Los Angeles, California at age fifteen, her first dancing gigs, and touring in London, England. She also talks about her experiences as an African American dancer including issues with segregation while touring in the southern United States. Bailey then discusses her life in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1950s, and working as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge. She describes the club, the other dancers that performed there, and how the African American community felt when the club closed. Bailey then discusses how her husband and the entertainers Josephine Baker and Frank Sinatra helped integrate Las Vegas. She ends her interview by describing the last hotel she danced at, the Flamingo, where she performed in an integrated dance line.