Information
Narrator
Date
2008-07-08
Description
Part of an interview with Jean Bennett by Claytee White on July 8, 2008. Bennett describes how black entertainers were treated by the casinos.
Digital ID
ohr000155_clip
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I agree.Part of an interview with Jean Bennett by Claytee White on July 8, 2008. Bennett describes how black entertainers were treated by the casinos.
Jean Bennett oral history interview, 2008 July 08. OH-00111. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
English
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We weren't in the main room at the Flamingo. They had a revolving stage that was high up at the back of the bar. So people sat around the bar on high stools. Then the stage — they were up above and they were playing right there in front of them. And we were told — they put us in some old motel cabins back there. Way out in the back. Yeah, quite a ways. And it was cold. I remember and we told everybody bundle up, be sure and keep warm, don't get cold. Then they'd climb up on that stage and they'd sit in the kitchen between shows. But then the Moulin Rouge come along and from there we graduated. Now, tell them about when they left their jacket. Paul Robi left his jacket in the Flamingo. Yeah, in the Flamingo when we were down there before we had opened. They were there in the afternoon. They came in the back door and got up on the stage and rehearsed. Paul had hung his sweater on one of the stools there. And they come around the front. Without thinking he said, oh, I left my sweater back there and he ran in the front door and ran back to grab the sweater. And the doorman or somebody saw him. We got the word that if The Platters walk through the front door again, they're fired. So you could play and you could make money, but don't come in the front door. But that didn't last too long. That didn't last too long.