Gene Collins was born to Gertha and Isaac Collins in Lake Providence, Louisiana. Gene's mother relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1950's with his sisters but Gene stayed in Louisiana with his grandparents until college and then migrated to Las Vegas in 1966. Gene and his family lived in West Las Vegas which at the time was a thriving community due to segregation on the Strip. Gene worked as an operator's engineer at the Nevada Test Site and later trained as an engineer.
Gail Spaulding Jaros was born on October 16, 1937, in Cicero, Illinois. a suburb of Chicago. Her father Jerry Jaros was a professional saxaphone player and her mother, Fern Spaulding Jarosm was a professional trombone player. Gail began tap and ballet lessons when she was five years old. She signed as a dancer with Moro-Landis Productions in 1956, and she worked for that company at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the Riverside Hotel and Casino in Reno, and the Beverly Hills Country Club in Covington, Kentucky.
Frederic Apcar transformed Las Vegas entertainment with his French style shows. Born in Paris, France on September 16, 1914, he trained in dance and became a chorus boy in “Folies Bergere.” After World War II, he formed an adagio act and performed at the “Lido de Paris.” He later expanded the production and brought it to the United States, appearing on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and in the “Folies Bergere” at the Tropicana. He then opened “Vive Les Girls” at the Dunes.
American composer and motion picture music director William F. Schiller was born in New York, New York on January 11, 1887. He served in World War I in the United States Army 10th Ammunition Train, enlisting on June 29, 1915. He is credited as either an orchestrator or composer on 23 films in the 1920s and 1930s, including on The Phantom of the Opera (1925), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Great Expecations (1934), and Howard Hughes' The Outlaw (1943).