From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Drafts for the Las Vegas Sentinel Voice file. A Father's Day tribute to Mr. Sandy, author's stepfather.

Jillian Hrushowy arrived in Las Vegas in 1959 as part of a company hired to appear at the El Rancho Vegas Hotel in a production called La Nouvelle Eve. She has remained here (other than three short-term contracts in Reno, Nevada) until present day. She is now the production manager for Legends in Concert at the Imperial Palace Hotel. She was an only child, born in Rhodesia to English parents and raised in a home with servants and tutors. Her mother exposed her to the arts at an early age. Jillian took dancing lessons from the age of three years until she began dancing professionally. When she was fifteen years old, both parents agreed it was time for her to leave Rhodesia and finish her education in England. Living alone was difficult and lonely, but it afforded her a wealth of opportunities otherwise unavailable. She worked as a dancer in small, local productions while still in high school. When only eighteen, she got a job dancing in La Nouvelle Eve in Paris which eventually came to Las Vegas. This interview focuses on the years from Jillian’s arrival in 1959 until she retired from dancing in 1979. It follows her transitions from dancer, to principal dancer to production manager. [The first twenty minutes of the tape is warped and the text is garbled. The transcriber has lightly edited the transcript.]

This interview is compiled in the bound book version for OH-02270. Born Ffolliott Chorlton in Butte, Montana in 1923, Fluff Le Coque embarked on a career during World War II that would span fifty-five years. Le Coque’s experience as an entertainer started at the age of seven when she began dance lessons during the Great Depression. She expanded her interest in show business at the University of Washington. Attending on a drama scholarship, she performed in theatrical productions and supplemented the scholarship by teaching coordination to university athletes through dance. Le Coque toured as a dancer in a road company during World War II. After the war she came to Las Vegas for the first time. Although she did not consider herself a singer, she performed as a vocalist with the Chuck Gould Orchestra at the Last Frontier. After a brief excursion to Hollywood, she returned to Las Vegas to work at the Thunderbird Hotel as a dancer. It was at the Thunderbird that she became part of the glamour publicity that would help shape the image of Las Vegas. Crowned “Miss Thunderbird,” Le Coque took part in publicity photo shoots designed to attract vacationing customers to the Las Vegas resort casino. While performing at the Thunderbird, Le Coque learned of an opportunity to showcase her talents in a wider arena. She joined a touring company that was preparing to take the production of Hollywood Extravangza to Europe. In Paris, Le Coque took on additional responsibilities in the production end of the business. She served the Hollywood Extravaganza as principal dancer, choreographer, and ballet mistress. On her return to New York, she firmed up her career-long relationship with producers Donn Arden and Ron Fletcher. Le Coque’s association with Arden-Fletcher Productions proved beneficial for an already successful career. She performed as principal dancer for Arden and Fletcher beginning with a six-month engagement at the Lookout House in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the late 1950s Arden wanted her to return to Las Vegas and she accepted immediately. The Las Vegas Desert Inn opened a newly remodeled showroom with Fluff Le Coque as a featured principal dancer. Arden-Fletcher Productions kept a number of performers busy throughout the United States from California to New York. Le Coque, now a valued talent, appeared in the Arden-Fletcher production at the Moulin Rouge in Hollywood. She worked there as company captain and principal dancer for ten years. Following her extended engagement at the Moulin Rouge, she toured the United States and Europe before returning to Las Vegas for good in the late 1960s. Arden again asked her to open a renovated showroom at the Desert Inn and again she agreed. This time Le Coque made Las Vegas her permanent home. She danced until she was forty-five years old and during the later years worked both sides of the stage, as company manager and dancer. Fluff Le Coque retired from dancing in 1970 to enjoy leisure activities and volunteer work. She learned to paint and served as publicity director of the Las Vegas Art Museum. She was wooed out of retirement by Donn Arden, to become company manager of the production show at the new MGM Grand Hotel [later reopened as Bally’s]. At the time of the interview, Le Coque continued to serve as company manager for Jubilee at Bally’s Hotel & Casino. Le Coque’s narrative provides a vivid account of the history of the Las Vegas entertainment industry. In addition to the organization of club circuits during the post-war years, the narrative provides clues about white-black relations during the era. It also informs a wider historical context. Post-war American society underwent significant changes economically, politically, and socially. Expanded work opportunities for women were among those changes. Le Coque’s choice to complete a college education during the 1940s was atypical. Her successful dancing career and later move into production management provides an example of career achievement decades ealier than the majority of American women. By extending her career as a dancer into her forty-fifth year, she resisted the evolving publicity hype that only an ingenue could be a dancer. Her narrative provides a compelling description of both the glamour and physical demands associated with the Las Vegas entertainment industry.

Oral history interview with Rodrigo Vazquez conducted by Nathalie Martinez and Barbara Tabach on May 24, 2021 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Rodrigo was raised in a mixed status Mexican family. He was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States at the age of three, later becoming a citizen when he was in the 8th grade. Rodrigo is currently a graduate student worker for the Latinx Voices Oral History Project and reflects on what he has learned. He also discusses what the past year of the Coronavirus pandemic has been like for him. Subjects discussed include: Latinx and Mexican identities, COVID-19 era, and Latinx Voices Project oral historian.