FREEDOM AT THE MOULIN ROUGE Comes to MUSE/IQUE This Month

Just at summer’s end, MUSE/IQUE and Artistic & Music Director Rachael Worby will present MUSE/IQUE’s next show of their 2024 season Freedom at the Moulin Rouge, the under-told story of the first-ever fully integrated hotel and casino in the country.

For one short year, 1955, the Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino had its name up in neon lights.  Worby said, “Located 10 miles off The Strip in Las Vegas, which catered exclusively to white guests at that time, the Moulin Rouge was a miraculous, vibrant place where people of all backgrounds could come together to relax, gamble, and, of course, dance ‘til dawn.  I found this to be a remarkable, unknown story --- featuring some of the most famous entertainers of that era --  of America’s cultural history.”

Attracting a who’s-who of late-night patrons, including Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra, the Moulin Rouge sparked a new vision of people living, working, and making art together.

Join Worby, a magnificent lineup of vocalists in Crystal Starr, Ashley Faatoalia, LaVance Colley, and Kenton Chen, tap dancing by Jabu Graybeal, and a slate of incredible musicians for this show that will change the general thinking about Las Vegas and its rich and complicated history.  The Moulin Rouge ignited a movement and left an everlasting mark on Las Vegas that reverberates today.

The concerts take place at 7:30  pm on Tuesday August 27 and Wednesday August 28 outdoors at the Huntington Library in San Marino, and Wednesday September 4 and Thursday September 5 indoors at Skirball Cultural Center in West Los Angeles. Reservations for are now open. Visit muse-ique.com to learn about attending MUSE/IQUE events and to explore membership plans.

More about the Moulin Rouge and the history of Las Vegas

In the segregation era of mid-20th century in America, Las Vegas was no different. The city’s practice of segregation, which began in the 1930s, had earned Las Vegas the moniker “The Mississippi of the West.” While Las Vegas hotels and casinos employed black employees in behind-the-scenes jobs, workers who dealt with the public were white.

While black performers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald could dazzle crowds on stages across the city, they were not allowed to enter those same casino and hotel dining areas.  While their names appeared on hotel marquees, black performers were not permitted to enter through the front doors.

Promoters of the Moulin Rouge Hotel called it "the nation's first major interracial hotel." Until the hotel's opening on May 24, 1955, black entertainers performing in Las Vegas were also forced to seek overnight accommodations in black boarding houses.

Black tourism was non-existent. At that time, black Las Vegas residents also had been insisting that officials pass a civil rights ordinance to allow African Americans to dine, gamble and stay at the city’s hotels.  Then, Nevada assembly bills designed to bar discrimination in public places had failed, the last by only one vote.

A group of white investors led by Will Max Schwartz saw the business potential of an integrated hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis was recruited to serve as the Moulin Rouge’s official greeter and purported co-owner.

So, this diverse group of investors took a different tactic -- developing plans for an integrated hotel in a prime location: a site between the predominately white area of the Strip and the largely black west side. The result was a hotel integrated at all levels, from employees to patrons to entertainers.

Named after the famed Parisian cabaret, it had 110 rooms, a swimming pool, and a 60-foot-high neon Eiffel Tower, in addition to its iconic cursive neon sign in front of the casino. Opening night was a gala affair hosted by Joe Louis and featuring performances by The Platters and flashy chorus-line routines.

Within the next few months, the hotel attracted such performers as Louis Armstrong, George Burns, Nat King Cole, Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Prominent Black singers and musicians such as Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington, Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Lionel Hampton, and Count Basie would perform often. Initially, the night spot became so popular, a 2:30 a.m. "third show" was added.

The place attracted a mixed clientele of black and white patrons. Celebrities such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr., Edward G. Robinson, Bob Hope, Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Milton Berle, Dorothy Lamour, Judy Garland, Roy Rogers and Marlene Dietrich made their way to the Moulin Rouge.

Although the Moulin Rouge closed in October 1955 due to financial issues, its short life had a lasting impact. When civil rights activists scheduled a march on March 26, 1960, to protest racial discrimination in Las Vegas resorts, hotel owners, city and state officials, and Nevada Governor Grant Sawyer hurriedly set up a meeting with NAACP president, Dr. James McMillan and other black leaders at the Moulin Rouge. Most of the hotel owners agreed to integrate their establishments, and the planned march was canceled. Many of those who enjoyed and were employed by the hotel became activists and supporters.
 
For a while, after it closed, the hotel was owned by the first African American woman to hold a Nevada Gaming License, Sarann Knight-Preddy. The property was used for the filming of the movie "Casino," (1995).

The Moulin Rouge suffered major fires in 2003 and 2009, leaving only a portion of the two-story hotel. The large cursive neon sign designed by famed Yesco sign designer Betty Willis, who also designed the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, was moved a few days prior to the 2009 fire to the Neon Museum for safekeeping. The remaining portions of the hotel and casino, including the front facade and iconic tower, were demolished in 2010, due to safety reasons.
 
The site of the former Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino is at 900 West Bonanza Road. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and the property is currently not open to the public.

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