Series XXII. Social Functions

Sands Hotel and Casino

Black and white negative of policeman Hank Brush clowning around at the Moulin Rouge slot machines with Harold "Stumpy" Cromer of comedy team Stump and Stumpy, dated July 30, 1955.

Interview with William H. Bailey conducted by Betty Rosenthal on March 16, 1978. Arriving in Las Vegas in 1955, Bailey became an assistant producer and master of ceremonies in the first interracial hotel in Nevada, the Moulin Rouge, and subsequently worked in radio and television. Bailey reflects on the history of discrimination in Las Vegas and its impact on the entertainment industry. Bailey's wife Anna was the first black girl dancer on the Strip in the 1961 production, "Nymphs of the Nile." Appointed by Governor 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 describes his work on the commission and how discrimination in housing personally affected him.