In the 1950s and 1960s, the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel and Casino featured glamorous showgirls. For a few years, the Houston Chronicle sponsored a contest that added the Texas Copa Girls to the line. In 1958, one of the winners was 17-year-old Judith Lee Johnson. For the "wild" but "naive" Judy, the experience was a period of funfilled freedom, followed by relentless encouragement of others to attend college, which she reluctantly did. To her surprise, she embraced the college life, took her studies seriously, and received an education degree. She also became Miss Houston. Four years later she returned to Las Vegas and the Sands. As she stepped into her role as a showgirl this second time, she was no longer the newbie. She experiences the lifestyle with more maturity. She talks about the celebrities she met, the lasting friendships she formed, performing in the Elvis movie Viva Las Vegas, and her trip around the world, a trip that included her personal dream of going to Paris. Judy shares details of her family heritage and she wonders to what extent she might have been living her mother's dream. Though her love of performance and theatre is keen, Judy channeled her passions into a 29-year career as an educator. She married a Marine in 1965, raised their children, moved with his career. She and her husband, Walter F. Jones, live in Virginia.
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Dolly Kelepecz loves dance. Her entire life has been filled with the joy of movement. In this interview, Dolly begins with her life growing up in Covina, California and traveling with the Los Angeles Ballet Society as a young dancer. Eventually her career opportunities would have her traverse the globe as a dancer and as a circus entertainer. Her Las Vegas roots took hold in the mid-1970s when she was hired as a dancer in the Bluebells at a 19-year-old. She provides details of being a Las Vegas showgirl, crossing paths with Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, working with Fluff LeCoque, and becoming a dancer in Stardust's Lido show. Today Dolly is an instructor at UNLV, an important part of her legacy is working with young people. She also explains how she was integral in bringing Pilates to the valley, which continues to be a thriving studio here.
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On March 22, 1981, Stephen R. Johnson interviewed his friend, food and beverage cashier, Mary Ann Culver, (born on November 2nd, 1913, in Walton, Indiana) in her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers the Union in the 1950s, entertainers, showrooms, strikes, and organized crime. During the interview Mary also discusses Elvis, shows at the Thunderbird, ownership of the Thunderbird, weather, the local bus system, traffic, and Howard Hughes.
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Interview with Corinne Entratter Sidney by Claytee White on June 5, 2007. In this interview, Sidney talks about growing up with privilege in California, where her father served as the attorney general. She attended school at UCLA and took acting classes and signed with United Artists. She met Jack Entratter in Los Angeles and moved to Las Vegas and worked as a Copa Girl. She discusses Jack Entratter's generosity and influence in town, and his style, and their lifestyle together. She mentions the likes of Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Sammy Davis, Jr. and her extravagant life living at the Sands. After Jack's death in 1971, she moved back to Los Angeles, returned to acting, and wrote a newspaper column. On a visit to Las Vegas with George Sidney after Sidney's wife Jane died, Corinne and George began dating and were married shortly after. They moved back to Las Vegas together for a slower pace. She describes her love of Las Vegas and its continued growth.
Corinne Sidney's life story makes for fascinating reading. She was born in 1937, the daughter of Alice Polk, former Ziegfeld showgirl, and Carl Kegley, an attorney. She attended U. of C. Berkeley, transferred to UCLA, and was spotted by a talent scout who convinced her to enter a Miss USA contest. Corinne's runner-up status in the Miss USA contest led to job offers in acting, so she decided to study acting. This, along with her childhood lessons in ballet, piano, singing, tap dance and horseback riding, led to a contract with United Artists, freelance work, television parts, and plays. Around the age of 18, Corinne met Jack Entratter. Their relationship brought her to Las Vegas, where she worked as a showgirl at the Sands for a few months, and where she married Jack a few years later. They lived a fabulous lifestyle which included travel, beautiful homes, and friendships with noted celebrities. Corinne went back to acting in Los Angeles after Jack passed away, but then segued into writing a gossip column and hosting a television show. She reconnected with an old friend (George Sidney) by writing the obituary for his wife, and within a few months they were married. The Sidney's moved back to Las Vegas, where Corinne still makes her home today.
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Interview with Mary Louise Williams conducted by Claytee D. White on June 19, 1998. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Williams was musically trained and worked as a dancer at the opening of the Moulin Rouge in 1955. Following her career in social work and teaching in New York, she retired to Las Vegas.
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Raya was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel on July 8, 1935 to Edith and Gerhard Munzner. Her Mother was the daughter of Elsa and David Flachs from Berlin, Germany and her father was the son of Rachel and Zvi Munzner from Mannheim, Germany. Raya's father was jailed in 1931 as a 23 year old attorney, for being "out of the ordinary intelligent, and, therefore, highly dangerous," he was accused of being a communist because he defended social welfare cases. On the day of his release, he fled Germany, crossing the border overnight into Czechoslovakia and onward to Paris to reunite with his then fiancee (Raya's mother) and await immigration papers to the then Palestine, today's Israel. Raya's parents married upon their arrival in Jerusalem and settled in Tel Aviv in 1933. Raya's father obtained his doctorate in Economics and Law at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Upon arrival in Israel, he got a job counting the out-of-circulation money in the basement of "Bank Yaffet" in Tel Aviv an
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Series 7: Scrapbooks. Press clippings and publicity including advertisements, photographs, programs, and show reviews for Hallelujah Hollywood (inside front cover inscription to Donn Arden).
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Series 7: Scrapbooks. Press clippings and publicity including advertisements, show reviews, photographs and programs from Pzazz 68! Also includes small record (45) of Arden interview on the ""Famous American Stars"" series regarding Pzazz 68!
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Series 7: Scrapbooks. Press clippings and publicity including advertisements, show reviews, magazine articles and programs from Arden's shows at the Moulin Rouge, Latin Quarter (New York and Miami), and the Las Vegas Lido (C'est Magnifique, Avec Plaisir, Ca C'est L'Amour). Stars featured include Sophie Tucker, Milton Berl, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Jane Russell and Betty Grable. Includes autographed note to Arden from Sophie Tucker and telegrams from Madame Berthe, Carol Channing and others.
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Series 7: Scrapbooks. Photographs of the show and cast of Hello America with program and sheet music. (Dedicated to "Don" from the compiler of the scrapbook, dancer Shirl Hanley).
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