WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS: WHEN SHOWGIRLS WERE THE QUEENS OF THE CITY
 

By Howard T. Brody

As we have explored in previous “What Happened in Vegas” articles, from our little desert town’s earliest days, hotels and casinos have always relied on entertainment to lure patrons to their establishments. And for as long as there have been entertainers in Sin City, there have been these ladies.

As recognizable as the Rat Pack, Liberace, or even Elvis Presley himself are, the Las Vegas Showgirl is as much a part of our city’s history and culture as any entertainer could be and is often considered the unofficial iconic symbol of Las Vegas entertainment.

In Las Vegas, the first casino to employ showgirls, or as they were initially called, dancing girls, was the El Rancho in 1941 as a diversion between acts.

But that’s not where the roots of the Las Vegas showgirl began. For that, we’ll have to go back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, when night club entertainers in Paris, France started performing a dance called the Can-Can.

Several Paris venues were becoming famous for their showgirls, including Le Lido de Paris, the Moulin Rouge, and the Folies Bergère music hall. The Folies opened in 1869 and, in 1918, featured the first nude showgirl. During the late 1920s, one of the most celebrated dancers who performed at the Folies was the legendary Josephine Baker.

But the showgirl didn’t make it to the U.S. until 1907 when Florenz Ziegfeld created his Ziegfeld Follies. His revue featured gorgeous women in amazing costumes performing in lavish production numbers on elaborate sets. Those extravagant musical numbers would inspire Hollywood director Busby Berkeley to add showgirls into his films during the 1930s.

While the west coast was being mesmerized by the Ziegfeld girls, back east in New York City, four brothers – Abe, Billy, Herbert and Morton – started something new that featured a different type of showgirl. They created a burlesque brand that would have a 25 year run from 1912 to 1937 under their family surname. While often declared obscene and outlawed at the time, they were rather tame by modern standards.

The Minsky family name became synonymous with burlesque – which combined chorus line dancers, strippers, variety acts and comedy sketches – and ended up operating several theaters in New York City. However, the coarse language and crude entertainment at the theaters made them the target of morality groups. Eventually, New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia caved-in for fear of losing voters and closed down the theaters. Despite being forced to leave New York, the family countered the political strife by opening burlesque productions at theaters in Chicago, New Orleans and Miami. At this time, the Minsky name also became identified with roadshows as they began playing the traveling circuits throughout the country and often faced the issues that plagued them in New York in different cities. It seemed wherever they went, Minsky’s Burlesque made headlines and helped them achieve legendary status.   

Meanwhile, back in Paris, a Folies Bergère showgirl named Miss Bluebell, who had been dancing there since 1930 and whose real name was Margaret Kelly Leibovici, created the Bluebell Girls in 1932. They performed at Folies throughout and stayed there until 1947 when she began collaborating with Donn Arden on shows for Le Lido de Paris, making the Bluebells the show’s sole stars, which leads us right back to Las Vegas.

As we’ve explored in previous What Happened in Vegas features, during the 1950s, casinos here in town began attempting to top each other by making their shows as lavish and memorable as possible. Instead of showgirls serving as a diversion between acts as they had been, casinos started using them more prominently. This is when various productions in town started emulating elements from Ziegfeld’s Follies by dressing their showgirls in enormous headdresses and exquisite costumes.

In 1952 showgirls started to be used as opening and closing acts for headliners throughout the city, sometimes dancing with or around the headliner. At the Sands Casino, for example, showgirls were introduced for a show with Danny Thomas, which at the time was a significant break from the norm.

This change came about thanks to Jack Entratter, the entertainment director at the Sands. Entratter had previously been a host at New York’s Stork Club, a famous and exclusive restaurant, as well as a “floor man” at the famed Copacabana Club, one of New York City’s hottest hotspots. Entratter not only became the show producer at the Copacabana, but he eventually became co-owner. Leveraging his show business connections that he had built up during 12 years of booking talent at the Copacabana, many Vegas entertainment historians credit Entratter for single-handedly making Las Vegas a major stop for the nightclub circuit. Entratter designed the Copa Room, which sat about 400, to replicate the Copacabana’s Brazilian decor. In addition to booking major acts, Entratter brought his Copa Girl theme with him from New York, which outdid the other hotels’ chorus lines. According to his then publicist, before the Copa Girls arriving, the six hotels that were in operation at the time had used their showgirls “in meaningless and unimpressive stage waits just to break up the appearances of various sets on each bill.” Entratter, according to his own press, was the one who brought a real revue to the Las Vegas stage. However, Entratter never allowed his showgirls to appear nude, which might have been a calculated error.

In 1954, in addition to the Copa Girls, Entratter brought the famed Ziegfeld Follies to town. It was the kind of showbiz coup that made Entratter and his Sands Hotel the city’s foremost entertainment venue.

As 1955 rolled around, Sin City was poised for a showgirl-explosion led by a quartet of French-inspired stage shows.

The first, named after the famed Parisian cabaret, the Moulin Rouge Hotel Casino (featured in the May 2020 issue of STRIPLV) opened its doors to fanfare and curiosity as it was billed as “America’s First Interracial Hotel.” While the Moulin Rouge had many features that brought in patrons, the new hotel and casino’s most popular attraction was its marquee number, a colorful African-themed late-night show called The Tropi Can Can, which was not only featured on the June 1955 cover of Life magazine but consisted of the city’s only all-black chorus line performing the famed Can-Can dance as its closing number.

Even though the Moulin Rouge itself was short-lived as it shuttered its doors by the end of the year, it set the stage for other shows to follow.

As 1957 began, while Jack Entratter at the Sands Hotel continued knocking out all the competition thanks to a huge entertainment budget for his Copa Girls and the Ziegfeld Follies, a new player arrived on the scene and would perhaps have the single biggest impact to Vegas showgirl-themed performances. With a show that borrowed elements from vaudeville, Broadway, burlesque and Paris, suddenly, all eyes shifted from the Sands to the Dunes because what put this show over the top was that it gave birth to the topless Las Vegas showgirl.

On January 10, 1957, Minsky’s Follies took the stage at the Dunes, and as they say, the rest is history.

Harold Minsky, the adopted son of Abe Minsky, who started in his family’s business during the height of the Great Depression in 1934 at the age of 19, and who learned the entertainment industry by working in all facets of it from the box office to theater management, brought the lavish production to the Dunes and had a 6-year run there before subsequently moving Follies to other landmark casinos like the Thunderbird, the Silver Slipper, and the Aladdin, which is where it ended its run.

In 1958 the second Parisian themed show opened. Conceived by Pierre-Louis Guerin and Rene Fraday, Lido de Paris was staged by none other than Donn Arden, who then brought Margaret Kelly Leibovici and her Bluebell Girls straight from France to the Stardust Casino. The casino’s original showroom was completely redesigned, expanded and equipped, complete with an orchestra pit off to the side, to mimic Arden’s stage effects in Paris. The large company arrived with truckloads of costumes and sets. The opening of Lido de Paris at the new Stardust was an instant sensation, attracting millions of patrons, and ran for 22,000 performances over 32 years, closing in February 1991. A 1991 Los Angeles Times article described the show as “one hour and 37 minutes of French fluff, flounce and flutter.”

A year later, the third Parisian-inspired show began in Las Vegas, and it turned out to be the longest-running Las Vegas show is history to feature showgirls. Lou Walters, father of TV newswoman Barbara Walters and entertainment director at the Tropicana, flew to Paris and brought back the Paris production of Folies Bergère.

For 50 years, until it closed in 2009, this was the show that defined what a Vegas showgirl was. Many believe that without Folies, there would never be a Jubilee!, or any of the other shows that came after it, for it was an over-the-top exotic and naughty French-style variety spectacle that included singing, dancing, comedy, elaborate sets and topless showgirls – lots and lots of topless showgirls, often gliding across the stage wearing large, cumbersome headdresses. This production and its kick-line “Can Can” finale helped turn the showgirl into a Sin City status symbol.

The fourth Parisian-inspired Las Vegas show got underway in 1963 when the Dunes Hotel and casino opened an American version of the famed Casino de Paris. Marking the first time the show was to play outside Paris, Casino de Paris – conceived, produced and directed by Frederic Apcar and staged/choreographed by Ron Lewis – cost $2 million (nearly $17 million in 2020 dollars) and had a cast of 100. The spectacular also brought in the incredible “Octuramic” stage, a 65-ton engineering masterpiece that moved out into the audience. Noted French singer Line Renaud was one of the many artists who performed on stage, surrounded by dozens of dancers and showgirls clothed in the creations of designer Jose Luis Vinas. Like the successful Lido de Paris at the Stardust, the show introduced many stage effects that Las Vegas had not seen before. In the 1970s and ‘80s, the Dunes experienced several ownership changes that struggled financially, forcing the show’s closure in 1981.

Just as Casino de Paris was closing, another iconic Vegas show was opening as 1981 saw the premiere of Jubilee! – a spectacular show filled with beautiful showgirls in lavish costumes and elaborate production sets.

Jubilee! opened on July 31 at an initial cost of $10 million ($28.5 million in 2020 dollars). Jubilee! was not just the last big feather show; it was the last Donn Arden show. For nearly 60 years, the choreographer, synonymous with rhinestones and feathers had a continuous presence on the Strip. Arden set the standard for all the spectacular Las Vegas shows that celebrated female beauty, in combination with a demand for only the best; in costumes, set, and talent. When the show closed at Bally’s in 2016, Jubilee! was the longest-running production show in Las Vegas, and its showgirls were an icon of old Vegas. The show used more than 1,000 costumes designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee, and the feathered headdresses worn by the showgirls weighed up to 35 pounds.

In 1988 another type of performance featuring showgirls opened on the Strip. Part revue, part burlesque, producer Norbert Aleman flew to Paris and worked out an arrangement with the Crazy Horse Paris owners to bring the Crazy Girls to Las Vegas. Taking up residency at the famed Riviera Hotel and Casino, what made Crazy Girls different than other shows was the fact it was one of the first Vegas performances to emphasize topless dancers while minimizing variety acts and completely discarding the big production numbers. Crazy Girls ran uninterrupted at the Riv until the hotel shuttered in 2015. The show relocated to Planet Hollywood, where it has remained. While some have claimed Crazy Girls is no longer the best topless revue in Sin City, considering that not many Vegas productions can boast an uninterrupted run for more than 30 years, Aleman must be doing something right. As he is often quick to point out, his show “set the sexy standard by which all other Las Vegas burlesque shows are measured.”

In 2001 The Crazy Horse Paris opened at MGM under the name La Femme. It was an attempt to avoid confusion with both the famous Crazy Horse strip club in town and the long-running Riviera revue that lifted the historic Crazy Horse club’s concept. By 2007 with new owners taking over the MGM, it was decided the show would go back to its roots and enjoy the name that had brand recognition throughout Europe dating back to 1951. The original Crazy Horse Saloon was a Paris institution, founded by the late Alain Bernardin. It was his children who pointed the Las Vegas production to the MGM, replicating the Parisian cabaret’s interior design and the picture-frame rectangular stage that displayed the dancers in kaleidoscopic patterns of light. In 2012, after an 11-year run, The Crazy Horse Paris Las Vegas came to an end.

In addition to the many shows that helped define and perpetuate the Vegas showgirl legacy, many performers wore the showgirl moniker. At one time or another, everyone from Gypsy Rose Lee to Lili St. Cyr to Candy Barr to Dita Von Teese shimmied through Sin City.

Aside from those who headlined as showgirls, many celebrity stand-ins, celebrity moms, sisters, and future wives graced the Vegas stage wearing elaborate costumes and oversized headdresses. Some of the more notable include:

• June Frances “Rose” Furcello – Jack Nicholson’s mother.

• Joan Browne – Alan Alda’s mother.

• Judith Brooke Massoli – Jenna Jameson’s mother.

• Mildred Stevens – Barbara Stanwyck’s sister.

• Barbara Blakeley – She was once married to Zeppo Marx but in 1976 married Frank Sinatra with whom she remained until Ol’ Blue Eyes’ death in 1998.

• Marli Renfro – A Playboy cover girl and actress who served as the body double for Janet Leigh in the shower scene for the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic “Psycho.”

It should also be noted that Robin Antin, who in 1995 founded the modern burlesque troupe the Pussycat Dolls, as well as her troupe mate Cyia Batten, were Vegas showgirls before becoming internationally known with the Dolls.

While many female performers have had their own shows in Vegas, such as Lola Falana, Ann-Margret, Sandy Duncan and Suzanne Somers, none really qualified as a showgirl except for one, and that was Jayne Mansfield.

In February 1958, Mansfield’s striptease revue, The Tropicana Holiday – produced by Monte Proser and co-starring Mickey Hargitay – opened at The Tropicana Las Vegas under a four-week contract. For her performance as Trixie Divoon in the show, Manfield earned $25,000 a week ($224K in 2020 dollars). By sharp contrast, her contract with 20th Century Fox at the time was only paying her $2,500 per week ($22K in 2020 dollars). The opening night raised $20,000 for the March of Dimes charity ($179K in 2020 dollars), and the Tropicana quickly extended her contract to eight weeks. To protect her and the hotel against a catastrophic event, Mansfield had a $1 million Lloyd’s of London insurance policy in place in the event Hargitay accidentally dropped her as he whirled her around the stage during the show.

In 1959, Mansfield returned to the Tropicana getting a $5,000 a week raise to $30,000 ($267K in 2020 dollars), and this time her show was extended twice. By December 1960, Mansfield moved to the Dunes hotel and casino and launched The House of Love revue – produced by Jack Cole and co-starring Hargitay – at a salary of $35,000 a week ($306,000 in 2020 dollars); the most she ever made in her career. Mansfield’s wardrobe for the shows at both the Tropicana and the Dunes featured a gold mesh dress with sequins covering her nipples and pubic area. The controversial dress was referred to in Vegas entertainment circles as “Jayne Mansfield and a few sequins.”

In early 1963, Mansfield left Las Vegas and started performing around the country. It was soon realized she could not command the same type of income as she was making in Vegas. That realization eventually led Mansfield back to Vegas in 1966, but instead of being on the Strip, her show was now staged on Fremont Street. A modified version of the show she did at the Tropicana, her new show ran for six weeks with moderate success.

Although today’s topless revues, including the aforementioned Crazy Girls, aren’t as extravagant as those shows from days gone by, the spirit of the Las Vegas Showgirl without a doubt lives on in such shows as Zumanity, X Burlesque, Fantasy, X Country, Zombie Burlesque, X Rocks and Sexxy.

While we always try to do a little play on words with What Happens in Vegas, in this instance when we look back at a time when the Las Vegas Showgirls were the true queens of the city, we can surely say that the spirit of What Happened in Vegas, actually stayed in Vegas.