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Black Entertainers in Las Vegas: 1940 - 1960

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Fitzgerald, Roosevelt

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Essay by Roosevelt Fitzgerald reflecting on black entertainers during the early days of the Las Vegas Strip, dated 1988.BLACK ENTERTAINERS IN LAS VEGAS: 1940-1960 In some circles Las Vegas is thought of as the entertainment capital of the world. One Las Vegas newspaper columnist has called it TBCOTA (The Best City of Them All). 1 Whether it is either is debatable and dependent on personal taste. For those who are interested in gambling--high rollers or penny pinchers, fabulous hotels, gourmet dining, spectacular stage productions, or big name entertainers, Las Vegas might well be the entertainment capital of the world. However, it was not always that way. In 1931, Phil Tobin introduced a Bill in the Nevada assembly to legalize gambling in the state of Nevada.2 His action was prompted by the effects of the Stock Market crash of 1929 on the state's economy. The Depression had put the state's silver industry in a shambers. Silver dropped from 53 cents an ounce in 1929 to 27 cents in 1931. Copper fell from 18 cents to 6 cents a pound. Agriculture suffered a 260 percent decline, brought on by a 19
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University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University Libraries

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Mountain West Digital Library

Keywords

  1. African American Entertainers
  2. African Americans
  3. Casinos
  4. Civil Rights
  5. Discrimination
  6. Discrimination In Employment
  7. Gambling
  8. Gambling Industry
  9. Mafia
  10. Migrations
  11. Moulin Rouge (Hotel Casino : Las Vegas, Nev.)
  12. National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People
  13. Race Relations
  14. Tourism

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