Difference between revisions of "Le Café"

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[[Category:Las Vegas, Nevada]]
 
[[Category:Las Vegas, Nevada]]
[[Category:Bars & Clubs]]
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[[Category:Bars and Clubs]]
 
[[Category:Entertainment]]
 
[[Category:Entertainment]]
 
[[Category: Nevada]]
 
[[Category: Nevada]]
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[[Category:Lesbians]]
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[[Category:Women]]
 
== Club Black Magic ==
 
== Club Black Magic ==
  
[[Image: Boys_in_the_band_08-29-69.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Cast from ''Boys in the Band'', 1969]]Le Café opened originally as the Club Black Magic on August 18, 1954 at 4817 Paradise Road on the southwest corner of Tropicana Avenue, then known as Bond Road. The Black Magic was the most popular jazz club in Las Vegas throughout the 1950s and '60s. When musicians got off work on the Strip they gathered at the Black Magic for all-night jam sessions. This night-stalker ambiance attracted show kids from the Strip, and people who lived on ranches in Paradise Valley rode their horses through the desert to the Black Magic and tied them to hitching posts out front.<ref name="ref1">''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' 08/17/1954, p. 9; Ibid. 01/13/1955, p. 11; Ibid. 01/30-1955, p. 7</ref>
+
[[Image: Boys_in_the_band_08-29-69.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Cast from ''Boys in the Band'', 1969]]Le Café opened originally as the Club Black Magic on August 18, 1954 at 4817 Paradise Road on the southwest corner of Tropicana Avenue, then known as Bond Road. The Black Magic was the most popular jazz club in Las Vegas throughout the 1950s and '60s. When musicians got off work on the Strip they gathered at the Black Magic for all-night jam sessions. This night-stalker ambiance attracted show kids from the Strip, and people who lived on ranches in Paradise Valley rode their horses through the desert to the Black Magic and tied them to hitching posts out front.<ref name="ref1">''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' (August 17, 1954), 89; (January 13, 1955), 11; (January 30, 1955), 7.</ref>
  
 
== Le Bistro French ==
 
== Le Bistro French ==
  
In November 1968 Camille Castro, a stylish and flamboyant European lesbian, opened Le Bistro French restaurant in the Black Magic, known by then as the Club de Paris. Camille had owned La Manche a Gigot restaurant on the Isle St. Louis in Paris among whose famous clientele were two well-known Las Vegans: Dunes Hotel owner Major Riddle and Line Renaud, star of the Dunes' ''Casino de Paris'' production. Camille was also associated with a celebrated Parisian lesbian bar called the Crazy Horse and she came to Las Vegas from Paris as the lighting engineer when Caesars Palace imported a show called the Crazy Horse Revue. When the revue went down, Camille, bankrolled by Riddle, stayed on to open her restaurant.<ref name="ref2">''Panorama'' 01/10/1969, p. 3; Ibid. 11/28/1969, p. 20; Marge Jacques interview; Karin Rodgers interview; Ralph Vandersnick interview</ref>
+
In November 1968 Camille Castro, a stylish and flamboyant European lesbian, opened Le Bistro French restaurant in the Black Magic, known by then as the Club de Paris. Camille had owned La Manche a Gigot restaurant on the Isle St. Louis in Paris among whose famous clientele were two well-known Las Vegans: Dunes Hotel owner Major Riddle and Line Renaud, star of the Dunes' ''Casino de Paris'' production. Camille was also associated with a celebrated Parisian lesbian bar called the Crazy Horse and she came to Las Vegas from Paris as the lighting engineer when Caesars Palace imported a show called the Crazy Horse Revue. When the revue went down, Camille, bankrolled by Riddle, stayed on to open her restaurant.<ref name="ref2">''Panorama'' (January 10, 1969), 3; (November 28, 1969), 20; Marge Jacques, interview by Dennis McBride, May 28-29, 1998 [author’s transcript]; Karin Rodgers, interview by Dennis McBride, February 24, 1998 [University of Nevada, Las Vegas Lied Library Special Collections (hereafter noted as UNLVSC) transcript HQ75.4 R63 R63 1998]; Ralph Vandersnick, interview by Dennis McBride, October 18, 1997 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N38 1997].</ref>
[[Image: Le_bistro_panorama_8-2-69.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Bistro Ad, 1969]]
+
[[Image: Le_bistro_panorama_8-2-69.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Bistro ad, 1969]]
Club de Paris and Le Bistro held their grand opening on January 10, 1969 and quickly became a favorite hangout for Las Vegas' gay community, particularly the show crowd from the Strip. Betty Grable, a Las Vegas resident at the time, often hosted parties at Le Bistro, and the cast of ''Boys in the Band'', performing at Caesars Palace during the summer of 1969, gathered at Le Bistro. Las Vegas food critic Fedora Bontempi frequently reviewed Le Bistro in her column in ''Panorama'' magazine noting that it was the first and the only authentic French restaurant in Las Vegas.<ref name="ref3">''Panorama'' 2/07/1969, pp. 12, 16; Ibid. 08/02/1969, pp. 17, 20; Ibid. 08/29/1969, pp. 21, 23; Jacques; Rodgers; Sally MacEachern interview</ref>
+
Club de Paris and Le Bistro held their grand opening on January 10, 1969 and quickly became a favorite hangout for Las Vegas' gay community, particularly the show crowd from the Strip. Betty Grable, a Las Vegas resident at the time, often hosted parties at Le Bistro, and the cast of ''Boys in the Band'', performing at Caesars Palace during the summer of 1969, gathered at Le Bistro. Las Vegas food critic Fedora Bontempi frequently reviewed Le Bistro in her column in ''Panorama'' magazine noting that it was the first and the only authentic French restaurant in Las Vegas.<ref name="ref3">''Panorama'' (February 7, 1969), 12, 16; (August 2, 1969), 17, 20; (August 29, 1969), 21, 23; Jacques interview; Rodgers interview; Sally MacEachern, interview by Dennis McBride, February 24 and March 11, 2002 [author’s transcript].</ref>
  
 
== Marge Jacques ==
 
== Marge Jacques ==
  
By late 1969 both Le Bistro and the Club de Paris were failing when Marge Jacques became interested in running the bar. Marge had worked as a cocktail waitress at the Sands Hotel and was at the Golden Nugget during the late 1960s when Las Vegas was forced to integrate the casino industry first by hiring black dealers, then by hiring women dealers and she had been in the forefront of both fights. Marge obtained a liquor license, bought the Club de Paris, changed the name to Le Café, and held a grand opening on January 16, 1970. Marge's club was unique because she opened it publicly as a gay bar, which had never been done in Las Vegas before. Both Maxine's and the Red Barn, two other gay bars operating at the time, were low-key and closeted—but Le Café was ''gay out loud''.[[Image: Le_Cafe_billboard_1970s_UNLS_MS2001-22.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Café Billboard, 1970s]] The club's motto, printed on matchbooks and t-shirts, was "Glitter and Be Gay at Le Café!" a motto which perfectly reflected 1970s gay disco glamour. The club's reputation spread around the world and throughout the 1970s Le Café was frequented by such entertainers as Liberace, Joan Rivers, Shirley Maclaine, Rip Taylor and Paul Lynde, Bobbie Gentry, Debbie Reynolds, Sammy Davis, Jr.—even Milton Burl.<ref name="ref4">Jacques; Bert Hood interview; Hanford Searle interview; ''Panorama'' 9/30/1977, p. 13; Ibid. 10/7/1977, p. 15; Ibid. 10/28/1977, p. 14; Ibid. 10/23/1977, p. 19</ref>
+
By late 1969 both Le Bistro and the Club de Paris were failing when Marge Jacques became interested in running the bar. Marge had worked as a cocktail waitress at the Sands Hotel and was at the Golden Nugget during the late 1960s when Las Vegas was forced to integrate the casino industry first by hiring black dealers, then by hiring women dealers and she had been in the forefront of both fights. Marge obtained a liquor license, bought the Club de Paris, changed the name to Le Café, and held a grand opening on January 16, 1970. Marge's club was unique because she opened it publicly as a gay bar, which had never been done in Las Vegas before. Both Maxine's and the Red Barn, two other gay bars operating at the time, were low-key and closeted—but Le Café was ''gay out loud''.[[Image: Le_Cafe_billboard_1970s_UNLS_MS2001-22.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Café billboard, 1970s]] The club's motto, printed on matchbooks and t-shirts, was "Glitter and Be Gay at Le Café!" a motto which perfectly reflected 1970s gay disco glamour. The club's reputation spread around the world and throughout the 1970s Le Café was frequented by such entertainers as Liberace, Joan Rivers, Shirley Maclaine, Rip Taylor and Paul Lynde, Bobbie Gentry, Debbie Reynolds, Sammy Davis, Jr.—even Milton Burl.<ref name="ref4">''Panorama'' (September 30, 1977), 13; (October 7, 1977), 15; (October 23, 1977), 19; (October 28, 1977), 14; Jacques interview; Bert Hood, interview by Dennis McBride, June 16, 1998 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N34 1998]; Hanford Searl, interview by Dennis McBride, November 2, 1996 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N37 1997].</ref>
  
  
[[Image: Le_cafe_neon_c1975.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Café Neon Sign, c. 1975]]
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[[Image: Le_cafe_neon_c1975.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Café neon sign, c. 1975]]
  
 
== Voice of the Gay Community ==
 
== Voice of the Gay Community ==
  
 
[[Image: Gay_notes_from_le_cafe_1972.jpg|thumb|left|200px|''Gay Notes from Le Café'', 1972]]
 
[[Image: Gay_notes_from_le_cafe_1972.jpg|thumb|left|200px|''Gay Notes from Le Café'', 1972]]
It was through Marge Jacques and Le Café that the Las Vegas gay community first found its voice. ''Gay Notes from Le Café'' was the first gay publication in Las Vegas. Openly gay herself, Marge appeared on a local NBC television news show in 1976, taped in the living room of her own house, and she was the contact for a two-part ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' series on gay people in Las Vegas in 1977. It was Marge and friends and employees from Le Café who founded the first Las Vegas chapter of the National Organization for Women in 1971 and who wrested control of the Clark County Democratic Party from the Mormon Church in the mid-1970s. Marge was in demand as a lecturer on gay people and gay life and addressed groups at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base. <ref name="ref5">Jacques; Searle; Gay, 5.10.71, 9; ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' 07/31/1977, section 1B; Ibid. 08/07/1977, section 1C</ref> (read a [[1977 eyewitness account for Le Café]])
+
It was through Marge Jacques and Le Café that the Las Vegas gay community first found its voice. ''Gay Notes from Le Café'' was the first gay publication in Las Vegas. Openly gay herself, Marge appeared on a local NBC television news show in 1976, taped in the living room of her own house, and she was the contact for a two-part ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' series on gay people in Las Vegas in 1977. It was Marge and friends and employees from Le Café who founded the first Las Vegas chapter of the National Organization for Women in 1971 and who wrested control of the Clark County Democratic Party from the Mormon Church in the mid-1970s. Marge was in demand as a lecturer on gay people and gay life and addressed groups at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base. <ref name="ref5">''Gay'' (May 10, 1971), 9; ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' (July 31, 1977), 1B; (August 7, 1977, 1C; Jacques interview; Searl interview.</ref> ([[Image:eyewitness.jpg]] read a [[1977 eyewitness account of Le Café]])
  
 
== Fire ==
 
== Fire ==
But the good times ended on August 24, 1978 when Le Café was torched. It was never determined beyond doubt who burned Marge's club, although rumor in the gay community had it that she was burned out by the owner of a bar down the street at 4310 Paradise Road called Prelude. That owner was Camille Castro, who had sold Le Bistro to Marge, left the country, then returned in 1975 to open a new bar and disco in direct competition with Le Café. There were rumors, too, that Marge had burned her own club, although at the time of the fire she had failed to update her insurance and lost everything. A second fire on May 5, 1979 completely gutted the empty building.<ref name="ref 6">''Panorama''10/24/1975, p. 16; Ibid. 5/14/1976, pp. 42, 43-44; Ibid. 4/11/1977, pp. 20-21; Ibid. 4/1/1977, p. 21; Ibid. 4/8/1977, 15, 23; McBride journal 08/12/1977; 8/30/1977; ''Vegas Gay Times'' October 1978, pp. 1-2; ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' 08/25/1978, section 6B; ''Las Vegas Sun''08/25/1978, p. 33; ''Vegas Gay Times'' June 1979, p. 1</ref>
+
But the good times ended on August 24, 1978 when Le Café was torched. It was never determined beyond doubt who burned Marge's club, although rumor in the gay community had it that she was burned out by the owner of a bar down the street at 4310 Paradise Road called Prelude. That owner was Camille Castro, who had sold Le Bistro to Marge, left the country, then returned in 1975 to open a new bar and disco in direct competition with Le Café. There were rumors, too, that Marge had burned her own club, although at the time of the fire she had failed to update her insurance and lost everything. A second fire on May 5, 1979 completely gutted the empty building.<ref name="ref 6">''Panorama'' (October 24, 1975), 16; (May 14, 1976), 42, 43-44; ''Vegas Gay Times'' (October 1978), 1-2; (June 1979), 1; ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' (August 25, 1978), 6B; ''Las Vegas Sun'' (August 25, 1978), 33; McBride journal, August 12 and 30, 1977 [author’s collection].</ref>
  
 
[[Image:Le_cafe_fire_08-24-1978.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Café Fire, 1978]]
 
[[Image:Le_cafe_fire_08-24-1978.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Le Café Fire, 1978]]
  
  
For the next five years Marge operated a number of other gay bars in Las Vegas including the Other Place at 5410 Paradise Road and the Village Station, which became the Gipsy in 1981.<ref name="ref7">Other Place financial records, 1978 [UNLS Jacques Collection]; ''Las Vegas Mirror'' 3/10/78, pp. 38-39; Vegas Gay ''Times'' July 1978, p. 2; Ibid. October 1978, insert; Ibid. February 1978, insert; August 1979, p. 6; Ibid. January 1980, p. 8; ''Nevada Action'' September 1980; ''Vegas Gay Times'' September 1980 pp., 2, 8; Ibid. October 1980, p.5 5</ref>
+
For the next five years Marge operated a number of other gay bars in Las Vegas including the Other Place at 5410 Paradise Road and the Village Station, which became the Gipsy in 1981.<ref name="ref7">''Las Vegas Mirror'' (March 10, 1978), 38-39; ''Vegas Gay Times'' (September 1978), 2; (October 1978), insert; (February 1979), insert; (August 1979), 6; (January 1980), 8; (September 1980), 2, 8; (October 1980), 5; Other Place financial records [Marge Jacques Collection, UNLVSC MS #2001-22].</ref>
  
  
 
== Disco Le Café Bar and Restaurant ==
 
== Disco Le Café Bar and Restaurant ==
  
When Marge lost the Gipsy in 1983, she resurrected Le Café as Disco Le Café Bar and Restaurant in the old Country Rebel Steakhouse at 2710 E. Desert Inn Road. Her partners in this venture were noted casino designer Don Schmitt, entertainer Breck Wall, and businessman Warren Fulbright. Disco Le Café had its grand opening on October 20, 1983. The nightclub came alive at night with drag, Punk, and New Wave shows, while the restaurant side hosted meetings of groups and organizations both straight and gay. The rooms were decorated with paintings by performer/designer Joey Skilbred, while a huge fireplace kept the foyer and restaurant warm. The menu featured dishes named after famous gay people such as James Dean Hot Cakes and the Bessie Smith Platter. For awhile some of the glamour that had made the first Le Café world famous was reborn at Disco Le Café.<ref name="ref8">Jacques; Christie Young interview; UNLS Jacques Collection; UNLS McBride Collection; UNLS Young Collection; Nevada Gay Times September 1983, insert; McBride journal 10/25/1983; ''Desert Gaze'' January 1984, 12; McBride to Young, 1/30/84; ''Nevada Gay Times'' October 1983, p. 12; Ibid. November 1983 pp.4, 5, 7; ''Desert Gaze'' December 1983, p. 15; ''Nevada Gay Times'' December 1983, p. 7; Ibid. January 1984, p. 3; ''Desert Gaze'' February 1984, p. 10; ''Nevada Gay Times'' February 1984, pp. 5, 6, 14; Ibid.  March 1984, p. 15; ''Las Vegas Mirror'' 03/09/1984, p. 5</ref>
+
When Marge lost the Gipsy in 1983, she resurrected Le Café as Disco Le Café Bar and Restaurant in the old Country Rebel Steakhouse at 2710 E. Desert Inn Road. Her partners in this venture were noted casino designer Don Schmitt, entertainer Breck Wall, and businessman Warren Fulbright. Disco Le Café had its grand opening on October 20, 1983. The nightclub came alive at night with drag, Punk, and New Wave shows, while the restaurant side hosted meetings of groups and organizations both straight and gay. The rooms were decorated with paintings by performer/designer Joey Skilbred, while a huge fireplace kept the foyer and restaurant warm. The menu featured dishes named after famous gay people such as James Dean Hot Cakes and the Bessie Smith Platter. For awhile some of the glamour that had made the first Le Café world famous was reborn at Disco Le Café.<ref name="ref8">''Nevada Gay Times'' (September 1983), insert; (November 1983), 4, 5, 7; (December 1983), 7; (January 1984), 3; (February 1984, 5, 6, 14); (March 1984), 15; ''Desert Gaze'' (December 1983), 15; (January 1984), 12; (February 1984), 10; ''Las Vegas Mirror'' (March 9, 1984), 5. Jacques interview; Christie Young, interview by Dennis McBride, October 18, 1998 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N359 1998]; McBride journal, October 25, 1983 [author’s collection] McBride to Young, January 30, 1984 [author’s collection].</ref>
  
But Disco Le Café died a quick death. Its East Desert Inn location worked against it because it was too remote from the Paradise Road/Naples area known as the Fruit Loop; Marge was aiming for a high-end clientele that didn't exist in Las Vegas then; and the bar owners in the Fruit Loop, angry with Marge's competition, spread rumors that the cops were following gay people from the Fruit Loop on their way to Disco Le Café and ticketing them on trumped-up DUIs. It was an effective lie which, taken with the other factors working against Marge, killed the bar. On April 13, 1984, the Women's Concerns Group of Nevadans for Human Rights arrived at Le Café for their monthly meeting only to find the doors locked. <ref name="ref9">Jacques; Young; ''Nevada Gay Times'' May 1984, p. 4; UNLS Young Collection (journal 4/12/1984)</ref>
+
But Disco Le Café died a quick death. Its East Desert Inn location worked against it because it was too remote from the Paradise Road/Naples area known as the Fruit Loop; Marge was aiming for a high-end clientele that didn't exist in Las Vegas then; and the bar owners in the Fruit Loop, angry with Marge's competition, spread rumors that the cops were following gay people from the Fruit Loop on their way to Disco Le Café and ticketing them on trumped-up DUIs. It was an effective lie which, taken with the other factors working against Marge, killed the bar. On April 13, 1984, the Women's Concerns Group of Nevadans for Human Rights arrived at Le Café for their monthly meeting only to find the doors locked. <ref name="ref9">''Nevada Gay Times'' (May 1984), 4; Jacques interview; Young interview; McBride journal, April 12, 1984 [author’s collection].</ref>
  
 
Le Café, closed the day before, had passed into history.
 
Le Café, closed the day before, had passed into history.
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<div style="text-align: center;">
 
<div style="text-align: center;">
 
<gallery>
 
<gallery>
Image: Boys_in_the_band_08-29-69.jpg|Boys in the Band, 1969
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Image: Boys_in_the_band_08-29-69.jpg|''Boys in the Band'', 1969
 
Image: Le_bistro_panorama_8-2-69.jpg|Le Bistro Ad, 1969
 
Image: Le_bistro_panorama_8-2-69.jpg|Le Bistro Ad, 1969
Image:Le_Cafe_billboard_1970s_UNLS_MS2001-22.jpg|Le Cafe Billboard, 1970s
+
Image:Le_Cafe_billboard_1970s_UNLS_MS2001-22.jpg|Le Café billboard, 1970s
Image:Gay_notes_from_le_cafe_1972.jpg|Gay Notes from Le Cafe, 1972
+
Image:Gay_notes_from_le_cafe_1972.jpg|''Gay Notes from Le Café'', 07/1972
Image:Le_cafe_neon_c1975.jpg|Le Cafe Neon Sign, c1975
+
Image:Le_cafe_neon_c1975.jpg|Le Cafe neon Sign, c1975
Image:Le_cafe_fire_08-24-1978.jpg|Le Cafe Fire, 1978
+
Image:Le_cafe_fire_08-24-1978.jpg|Le Café Fire, 1978
Image: lecafe02.jpg|Le Cafe burns, 1978
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Image: lecafe02.jpg|Le Café burns, 1978
Image: lecafe03.jpg|Gay Notes from Le Cafe, 1972
+
Image: lecafe03.jpg|''Gay Notes from Le Café'', 08/1972
Image: lecafe04.jpg|Le Cafe bartender Kenny  
+
Image: lecafe04.jpg|Le Café bartender Kenny, 1970
Image: lecafe05.jpg|Le Cafe fire coverage  
+
Image: lecafe05.jpg|Le Café fire coverage, ''Vegas Gay Times'', 10/1978
Image: lecafe06.jpg|Le Cafe fire news article  
+
Image: lecafe06.jpg|Le Café fire news article, ''Las Vegas Sun'', 8/25/1978
Image: lecafe07.jpg|Le Cafe matchbook, 1970s -inside
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Image: lecafe07.jpg|Le Café matchbook, 1970s - inside
Image: lecafe08.jpg|Le Cafe matchbook, 1970s - outside
+
Image: lecafe08.jpg|Le Café matchbook, 1970s - outside
Image: lecafe09.jpg|Le Cafe playing cards  
+
Image: lecafe09.jpg|Le Café playing cards, 1970s
Image: lecafe10.jpg|Le Cafe staff at Caesars Palace Bacchanal Room, 1975
+
Image: lecafe10.jpg|Le Café staff at Caesars Palace Bacchanal Room, 1975
Image: lecafe11.jpg|marge Jacques at Le Cafe, 1970  
+
Image: lecafe11.jpg|Marge Jacques at Le Café, 1970  
 
Image: lecafe12.jpg|Marge Jacques' hip flask  
 
Image: lecafe12.jpg|Marge Jacques' hip flask  
Image: lecafe13.jpg|Marge Jacques, c 1980s
+
Image: lecafe13.jpg|Marge Jacques, c1980s
 
Image: lecafe14.jpg|Marge Jacques, May 28, 1998  
 
Image: lecafe14.jpg|Marge Jacques, May 28, 1998  
Image: lecafe15.jpg|Patrick the All-American Stripper at Le Cafe
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Image: lecafe15.jpg|Patrick the All-American Stripper at Le Café, 1977
Image: lecafe16.jpg|Second Le Cafe fire, 1979  
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Image: lecafe16.jpg|Second Le Café fire, 1979  
Image: lecafe17.jpg|Disco Le Cafe show flier, 1984
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Image: lecafe17.jpg|Disco Le Café show flier, 1984
Image: lecafe18.jpg|Disco Le Cafe show flier, 1984
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Image: lecafe18.jpg|Disco Le Café show flier, 1984
Image: lecafe19.jpg|Disco Le Cafe business card, 1983-84
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Image: lecafe19.jpg|Disco Le Café business card, 1983-84
 
Image: lecafe20.jpg|Disco Le Cafe grand opening invitation, 1983
 
Image: lecafe20.jpg|Disco Le Cafe grand opening invitation, 1983
Image: lecafe21.jpg|Disco Le Cafe show flier, 1983
+
Image: lecafe21.jpg|Disco Le Café show flier, 1983
Image: lecafe22.jpg|Disco Le Cafe, 1983
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Image: lecafe22.jpg|Disco Le Café, 1983
Image: lecafe23.jpg|Grand opening of Disco Le Cafe,1983
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Image: lecafe23.jpg|Grand opening of Disco Le Café, 1983
  
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>

Latest revision as of 14:46, 26 March 2010

Le Café Las Vegas

(c) Dennis McBride, 2009

Club Black Magic

Cast from Boys in the Band, 1969

Le Café opened originally as the Club Black Magic on August 18, 1954 at 4817 Paradise Road on the southwest corner of Tropicana Avenue, then known as Bond Road. The Black Magic was the most popular jazz club in Las Vegas throughout the 1950s and '60s. When musicians got off work on the Strip they gathered at the Black Magic for all-night jam sessions. This night-stalker ambiance attracted show kids from the Strip, and people who lived on ranches in Paradise Valley rode their horses through the desert to the Black Magic and tied them to hitching posts out front.[1]

Le Bistro French

In November 1968 Camille Castro, a stylish and flamboyant European lesbian, opened Le Bistro French restaurant in the Black Magic, known by then as the Club de Paris. Camille had owned La Manche a Gigot restaurant on the Isle St. Louis in Paris among whose famous clientele were two well-known Las Vegans: Dunes Hotel owner Major Riddle and Line Renaud, star of the Dunes' Casino de Paris production. Camille was also associated with a celebrated Parisian lesbian bar called the Crazy Horse and she came to Las Vegas from Paris as the lighting engineer when Caesars Palace imported a show called the Crazy Horse Revue. When the revue went down, Camille, bankrolled by Riddle, stayed on to open her restaurant.[2]

Le Bistro ad, 1969

Club de Paris and Le Bistro held their grand opening on January 10, 1969 and quickly became a favorite hangout for Las Vegas' gay community, particularly the show crowd from the Strip. Betty Grable, a Las Vegas resident at the time, often hosted parties at Le Bistro, and the cast of Boys in the Band, performing at Caesars Palace during the summer of 1969, gathered at Le Bistro. Las Vegas food critic Fedora Bontempi frequently reviewed Le Bistro in her column in Panorama magazine noting that it was the first and the only authentic French restaurant in Las Vegas.[3]

Marge Jacques

By late 1969 both Le Bistro and the Club de Paris were failing when Marge Jacques became interested in running the bar. Marge had worked as a cocktail waitress at the Sands Hotel and was at the Golden Nugget during the late 1960s when Las Vegas was forced to integrate the casino industry first by hiring black dealers, then by hiring women dealers and she had been in the forefront of both fights. Marge obtained a liquor license, bought the Club de Paris, changed the name to Le Café, and held a grand opening on January 16, 1970. Marge's club was unique because she opened it publicly as a gay bar, which had never been done in Las Vegas before. Both Maxine's and the Red Barn, two other gay bars operating at the time, were low-key and closeted—but Le Café was gay out loud.

Le Café billboard, 1970s

The club's motto, printed on matchbooks and t-shirts, was "Glitter and Be Gay at Le Café!" a motto which perfectly reflected 1970s gay disco glamour. The club's reputation spread around the world and throughout the 1970s Le Café was frequented by such entertainers as Liberace, Joan Rivers, Shirley Maclaine, Rip Taylor and Paul Lynde, Bobbie Gentry, Debbie Reynolds, Sammy Davis, Jr.—even Milton Burl.[4]


Le Café neon sign, c. 1975

Voice of the Gay Community

Gay Notes from Le Café, 1972

It was through Marge Jacques and Le Café that the Las Vegas gay community first found its voice. Gay Notes from Le Café was the first gay publication in Las Vegas. Openly gay herself, Marge appeared on a local NBC television news show in 1976, taped in the living room of her own house, and she was the contact for a two-part Las Vegas Review-Journal series on gay people in Las Vegas in 1977. It was Marge and friends and employees from Le Café who founded the first Las Vegas chapter of the National Organization for Women in 1971 and who wrested control of the Clark County Democratic Party from the Mormon Church in the mid-1970s. Marge was in demand as a lecturer on gay people and gay life and addressed groups at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base. [5] (Eyewitness.jpg read a 1977 eyewitness account of Le Café)

Fire

But the good times ended on August 24, 1978 when Le Café was torched. It was never determined beyond doubt who burned Marge's club, although rumor in the gay community had it that she was burned out by the owner of a bar down the street at 4310 Paradise Road called Prelude. That owner was Camille Castro, who had sold Le Bistro to Marge, left the country, then returned in 1975 to open a new bar and disco in direct competition with Le Café. There were rumors, too, that Marge had burned her own club, although at the time of the fire she had failed to update her insurance and lost everything. A second fire on May 5, 1979 completely gutted the empty building.[6]

Le Café Fire, 1978


For the next five years Marge operated a number of other gay bars in Las Vegas including the Other Place at 5410 Paradise Road and the Village Station, which became the Gipsy in 1981.[7]


Disco Le Café Bar and Restaurant

When Marge lost the Gipsy in 1983, she resurrected Le Café as Disco Le Café Bar and Restaurant in the old Country Rebel Steakhouse at 2710 E. Desert Inn Road. Her partners in this venture were noted casino designer Don Schmitt, entertainer Breck Wall, and businessman Warren Fulbright. Disco Le Café had its grand opening on October 20, 1983. The nightclub came alive at night with drag, Punk, and New Wave shows, while the restaurant side hosted meetings of groups and organizations both straight and gay. The rooms were decorated with paintings by performer/designer Joey Skilbred, while a huge fireplace kept the foyer and restaurant warm. The menu featured dishes named after famous gay people such as James Dean Hot Cakes and the Bessie Smith Platter. For awhile some of the glamour that had made the first Le Café world famous was reborn at Disco Le Café.[8]

But Disco Le Café died a quick death. Its East Desert Inn location worked against it because it was too remote from the Paradise Road/Naples area known as the Fruit Loop; Marge was aiming for a high-end clientele that didn't exist in Las Vegas then; and the bar owners in the Fruit Loop, angry with Marge's competition, spread rumors that the cops were following gay people from the Fruit Loop on their way to Disco Le Café and ticketing them on trumped-up DUIs. It was an effective lie which, taken with the other factors working against Marge, killed the bar. On April 13, 1984, the Women's Concerns Group of Nevadans for Human Rights arrived at Le Café for their monthly meeting only to find the doors locked. [9]

Le Café, closed the day before, had passed into history.

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Notes

  1. Las Vegas Review-Journal (August 17, 1954), 89; (January 13, 1955), 11; (January 30, 1955), 7.
  2. Panorama (January 10, 1969), 3; (November 28, 1969), 20; Marge Jacques, interview by Dennis McBride, May 28-29, 1998 [author’s transcript]; Karin Rodgers, interview by Dennis McBride, February 24, 1998 [University of Nevada, Las Vegas Lied Library Special Collections (hereafter noted as UNLVSC) transcript HQ75.4 R63 R63 1998]; Ralph Vandersnick, interview by Dennis McBride, October 18, 1997 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N38 1997].
  3. Panorama (February 7, 1969), 12, 16; (August 2, 1969), 17, 20; (August 29, 1969), 21, 23; Jacques interview; Rodgers interview; Sally MacEachern, interview by Dennis McBride, February 24 and March 11, 2002 [author’s transcript].
  4. Panorama (September 30, 1977), 13; (October 7, 1977), 15; (October 23, 1977), 19; (October 28, 1977), 14; Jacques interview; Bert Hood, interview by Dennis McBride, June 16, 1998 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N34 1998]; Hanford Searl, interview by Dennis McBride, November 2, 1996 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N37 1997].
  5. Gay (May 10, 1971), 9; Las Vegas Review-Journal (July 31, 1977), 1B; (August 7, 1977, 1C; Jacques interview; Searl interview.
  6. Panorama (October 24, 1975), 16; (May 14, 1976), 42, 43-44; Vegas Gay Times (October 1978), 1-2; (June 1979), 1; Las Vegas Review-Journal (August 25, 1978), 6B; Las Vegas Sun (August 25, 1978), 33; McBride journal, August 12 and 30, 1977 [author’s collection].
  7. Las Vegas Mirror (March 10, 1978), 38-39; Vegas Gay Times (September 1978), 2; (October 1978), insert; (February 1979), insert; (August 1979), 6; (January 1980), 8; (September 1980), 2, 8; (October 1980), 5; Other Place financial records [Marge Jacques Collection, UNLVSC MS #2001-22].
  8. Nevada Gay Times (September 1983), insert; (November 1983), 4, 5, 7; (December 1983), 7; (January 1984), 3; (February 1984, 5, 6, 14); (March 1984), 15; Desert Gaze (December 1983), 15; (January 1984), 12; (February 1984), 10; Las Vegas Mirror (March 9, 1984), 5. Jacques interview; Christie Young, interview by Dennis McBride, October 18, 1998 [UNLVSC transcript HQ76.2 U52 N359 1998]; McBride journal, October 25, 1983 [author’s collection] McBride to Young, January 30, 1984 [author’s collection].
  9. Nevada Gay Times (May 1984), 4; Jacques interview; Young interview; McBride journal, April 12, 1984 [author’s collection].