Adelaide Robbins was born in Manhattan (New York, New York) to a father who was a pianist and arranger and a mother who was a dancer on Broadway. She grew up as an only child in the theater district where she was exposed to the arts from a young age. She began piano lessons at age six and began working professionally by the age of 12. She attended the High School of Music and Art for four years.

William H. "Bob" Bailey was born in 1927 and came to Las Vegas in 1955. 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. Bailey says the hotel brought life to the Westside where, in 1955, there were only a few telephones and the streets were largely unpaved.