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Part of an interview with Anna Bailey by Claytee White on March 3, 1997. Bailey describes her arrival in Las Vegas and opening night at the Moulin Rouge.
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Anna Bailey oral history interview, 1997 March 03. OH-00096. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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So now you 're in Las Vegas. What have you heard about the Moulin Rouge? We thought it was on the Strip. So when they met us at the airport with cameras and television, we were just so thrilled. Then they put us in limousines and busses and we started riding and riding and riding. We passed the Strip, we went past the railroad tracks and we just look at each, "Well here we are again." But when we saw the Moulin Rouge, it was so beautiful. It doesn't look nothing like it did then. We were thrilled once we got in there. But we were really concerned where the club was. But once we got there we were just really happy. Tell me the feeling in the community, knowing that this new nightclub was being built on the Westside. They were just excited about it. They were just thrilled because you're putting something that they could be proud of to build up their neighborhood. And everything was springing up then, more hotels and more businesses and everything. There was so much hope. Everybody was so optimistic. It was employment. I think they employed over three hundred people and maybe more. 34 Were most of those black people that they were going to employ? Yes, they were all blacks. The uniforms were beautiful, the service was the best in town. And we were the only ones that were doing — I think that show was three o'clock in the morning, so it was a late show. We were the only ones in town that were doing it. So all of the Strip would empty out and they would all come over to the Moulin Rouge. You've never seen so many stars. Tallulah Bankhead and Belafonte and Sammy [Davis], just all of the stars would hang out there. I really in my heart believe that's why it was closed, because we closed to standing-room-only. Because we had really just cleaned out the Strip and they started doing the early shows. They still didn't have the flavor of what we had over there. Tell me about opening night. Opening night was exciting. Edward G. Robinson was there and I remember so many stars and we would just look out there and we couldn't believe it. All the flowers that were sent to us backstage