ent001673-024

This item has not been digitized in its entirety. The original item is available for research and handling at the UNLV University Libraries. Additional digitization is available upon request. Please contact Special Collections to request additional digitization or with any questions regarding access at special.collections@unlv.edu. calls it. ?╟úBeing a showgirl, wearing the big costumes, the feathers and headpieces, high heels... And Vegas!?╟Ñ m ^ _ til p.m., the stage elevators crank into motion and the staircase reap- pears. Fluff returns to her seat in the 12th row with her microphone?╟÷ Quiet on stage, please!?╟Ñ?╟÷and the rehearsal resumes with a tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Dancers, male and female, appear with black canes. Others assemble at the top of the staircase. Fluff counts it down: ?╟úFive, six, seven, eight... and a one, two, three, four... ?╟Ñ One of the line captains calls out?╟÷?╟úEverybody set? ?╟úNo,?╟Ñ Fluff interjects, ?╟úthey?╟╓re not in straight lines. They?╟╓re not getting in straight lines.?╟Ñ The line captain counts it down again: ?╟úFive^six, seven... and one, two, three, four, and...?╟Ñ ?╟úBe quiet up there!?╟Ñ Fluff calls to the dancers on the stairs. A moment later she?╟╓s seen something else she doesn?╟╓t like. ?╟úStop! You 11 have to do that a8a^-One thing I can?╟╓t stand when you?╟╓re up there is walking on your heels. Especi y you boys. Those big things flopping around up there... The cast takes it again from the top and makes it part way through Dancing in the Dark?╟Ñ when Fluff says, ?╟úOK, cut! This time we 11 go through to the ballroom scene. B They start ?╟úDancing in the Dark?╟Ñ again. KstopkStop!?╟Ñ Fluff cries. ?╟úWe?╟╓ve got a problem. Let?╟╓s wait until the set is fixed.?╟Ñ On the third try, ?╟úDancing in the Dark?╟Ñ is completed to her satisfaction. Or at least she hasn?╟╓t complained. It?╟╓s now well after midnight and time for ?╟úThe Yankee Doodlers, featuring the entire cast of 36 covered dancers in a Rockettes-style kick line. Fluff counts down their entrance, then suddenly cries out?╟÷?╟úBlah! Agh! Do it again!?╟Ñ The second time, fortunately, is better. The third, now with the music added, completes the run-through. The final number is called ?╟úThe Flaming Fans.?╟Ñ The dancers, all of them .top-. less in the show, prance about while waving huge red plumes?╟÷what you might expect had Tchaikovsky staged ?╟úSwan Lake?╟Ñ for Minsky?╟╓s. This number, too, is repeated three times before Fluff is satisfied and sends her weary charges home. It is 1 o?╟╓clock in the morning. You?╟╓ll excuse me,?╟Ñ she says; as she makes her way to a banquette down in front, visibly weary herself^Tm goingt0 break my own rule and have a cigarette.-?╟╓ She takes a pack of More menthols from the pocket of her jacket, slides one of the slender brown cigarettes from the pack and takes it between the fingers of her right hand, on which she wears a topaz the size of a cat?╟╓s eye marble. On her left hand she wears a smaller ring clustered with diamonds. She lights her cigarette vand draws a long, grateful drag. Fluff is a cluster of decades of show business past. She danced for Moulin Rouge, the famous production show that was staged at the old Earl Carroll Theater in Hollywood. She danced at the Florentine Gardens, a nightclub on Holly- 5Jeaihew and headpiecea, high heeh... cdrid QJegaaf CASINO PLAYER 61