Three audio clips from an interview with Hazel Gay conducted by Claytee D. White on December 2, 1995. Hazel and her husband Jimmy Gay moved to Las Vegas in 1946, becoming leaders in the African American community during the civil rights era. In the clips, Gay recalls the Moulin Rouge from her perspective as manager of the dress shop.
Hazel Gay oral history interview, 1995 December 02. OH-00662. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
English
Now, how did you go about finding and getting that job? Well, I was on my job. I worked at Bayne's, which was also a dress shop downtown. It was Wanda Lida's Dress Shop at the time. And Jimmy and the Wirths came by there one day. And they said, "We came to take you for lunch." And I said okay. Then I went there. He came straight to the Westside, to the Moulin Rouge. And this wasn't nothing but a bare wall. And he said, "You see that, that's yours." I said, "What do you mean that's mine?" Pointing to? The bare wall at the dress shop. The bare wall in the Moulin Rouge? Yeah, the dress shop. Well, see, we didn't have no pictures, no nothing because they were still working. And I said, now, what does this man mean, that's mine? And he saw the expression on my face. He said, "Yes, that's going to be the dress shop. That's yours, young lady." That's what Mr. Wirth said to me. He said, "That's yours." Girl, I couldn't believe it. And you knew what he meant when he said that's yours? Uh-huh If I say six months -- they closed it. It was a beautiful place, honey. And the coffee shop and the pool area and that, it was beautiful. And the cocktail waitresses, at that time they had these real pleated little cocktail dresses with the flounce at the bottom. Oh, they were cute. And like I said, one white lady came over from the Strip. She said to me, "I'm telling you. I wished I'd come over here before now. See, I'm getting ready to leave tomorrow. But did they import all these people in here? I've never seen such gorgeous people in my life." Do you think that's why the Moulin Rouge went out of business? Just between — I know. I know that's why. Pressure. See, they pretend that the taxes, but the feds -- I was right there when they put the lock on the door because I managed a dress shop. So I was right there when they put the lock on the door. And a lot of the kids came to work. Not the porters, but the waiters and the waitresses. And they'd pull on that door, and that door was locked. There was one white man who pulled on that door. It was locked and he went down on his knees. He said, "Oh, lord, there goes that place."