William H. (Bob) Bailey oral history interview (OH-00097)

Oral history interview with William Bailey conducted by Betty Rosenthal on March 16, 1978 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Mr. Bailey, who came to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1955, discusses his experiences in the entertainment business. First employed as an assistant producer and master of ceremonies in the first interracial hotel in Nevada, the Moulin Rouge, he describes the impact that hotel had on black entertainers during its brief existence. He tells how the Moulin Rouge's three show policy made the hotel the after hours meeting place for Strip entertainers where black and white entertainers could fraternize. He lists famous Black performers who played the Moulin Rouge and declares, "Everybody who was big played here." Bailey says the hotel brought life to the Westside where, in 1955, there were only a few telephones and the streets were largely unpaved. He ascribes the failure of the hotel after only a few months operation to mismanagement.

Bailey subsequently became a local radio and television personality and that role, for the most part, allowed him to circulate in the hotels and casinos without difficulty while other black entertainers and spectators were denied entry. He reminisces about the indignities suffered by such black stars as: Josephine Baker, the Treniers, Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstein, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Diana Washington. S

Because of discrimination in booking, Bailey says blacks rarely were an opening act on the Strip, and it wasn't until 1963 that blacks were employed in any numbers in Strip lounges, although in the fifties such stars as Sarah Vaughn, Delia Reese, and the Ink Spots had played the lounges. Bailey's wife, Ann Bailey, was the first Black girl dancer on the Strip in the 1961 production, "Nymphs of the Nile."

Bailey claims responsibility for the descriptive phrase applied to Las Vegas, the Mississippi of the West. He says the basic tenor of Las Vegas is still one most Black casino/hotel employees are from the South and conditioned to discrimination and because casino management is reluctant to offend high rollers from the South by equality of treatment, discrimination and de facto segregation continue in Las Vegas. Bailey points out that downtown Las Vegas rarely employed black acts and appeals to a clientele drawn by country music, thus effectively eliminating blacks from downtown casinos.

Appointed by Gov. Grant Sawyer to the Nevada State Equal Rights Investigatory Commission in 1961, Bailey served as its chairman and traveled throughout the state holding hearings. He tells about his work on the commission and how discrimination in housing personally affected him then.

Digital audio and transcript available.