Did Josephine Baker Change Vegas?
May 4, 2007 | 9:09
am
There is no question Las Vegas treated entertainment legend Josephine Baker
shamefully. Also, in little doubt is that her time here played a crucial role in
desegregating Las Vegas. Or, something like that; unless it is all an urban
myth. But one of the oddities about Las Vegas is that we look forward to the
future so feverishly much of our history is surprisingly ambiguous even to
scholars and historians. Add to that the number of scholars and historians who
care about Las Vegas has proven pitifully few. One thing Las Vegas acknowledges,
though never dwells on, is the many years that segregation reigned in the resort
corridor. Some called Las Vegas "The Mississippi of the West." This was Las
Vegas throughout the 1950's and, indeed, there are stories into the 70's of
black families being told upon arriving that certain Strip hotels had no
vacancies for them.So, this was the environment, when either at the end of the 50's or the
beginning of the 60's, the great singer-dancer Josephine Baker, who
Ernest Hemmingway called "the most sensational woman anyone ever saw," arrived
to perform her Las Vegas debut. Baker's debut was a moment recalled in the
Review-Journal yesterday in an interview with Trish Geran author of "Beyond the
Glimmering Lights: The Pride and Perseverance of African-Americans in Las
Vegas." According to the Review-Journal: "Geran relates how a Last Frontier
hotel swimming pool was drained after Baker, a singer beloved around the world,
swam in it. Baker never returned to Las Vegas."
After reading that sentence in the newspaper, I called Geran myself to get
more details of Josephine Baker's Las Vegas experience. It is a story she also
tells in her book. After Baker saw her first all white audience at
Last Frontier, she refused to perform her second show of the night. According
to Geran: "She was shocked by the segregation So, she looked into the showroom
and still didn't see any blacks, she refused to go on. They ended up pulling
two blacks off the streets, putting evening attire on them and putting them in
the audience. This is a true story. Then she went in and played that one night
and then she left and never came back." Geran tells the same story (pages
126-127) in her 2006 book.
Geran was not sure of the exact year that this incident with Josephine
Baker in Las Vegas at the Last Frontier took place. But since The Frontier,
under various owners, has been open continuously since 1942, it remains one of
the only properties still standing with a link to those years. Therefore, I
asked Geran, if there had ever been an apology or an expression of remorse given
by the resort for its treatment of the late entertainment icon? Geran said there
had not been any such thing and, in fact, even with different owners, even after
all these years, she felt an apology would be meaningful and appropriate. So, I
called the New Frontier to see about getting them to apologize, as a Vegas
institution, for this incident all those years ago. But how many years
ago?
Interestingly, The Hotel Last Frontier was named the New Frontier (which it
is still called today) in 1955. This would put the incident during the mid-50's,
years before the Strip engaged in wider desegregation. As the woman I spoke to
at the New Frontier pointed out to me when I called: no one currently working at
the New Frontier in 2007 was there anywhere near the time when this happened to
Josephine Baker. She did not see the connection. Still, I persevered, arguing in
essence that if you market the classic Vegas history of a property like New
Frontier you remain responsible for its entire legacy. She took my name and
e-mail and promised to get back to me later yesterday. I still have not heard
back. So, apparently, The New Frontier still has no regrets about its
showroom segregation policies (even for audiences seeing black performers!) or
that it treated Josephine Baker so inhumanely as to drain a swimming pool after
she swam in it.
But maybe New Frontier has nothing to apologize for? Or, at least, as
regards, Josephine Baker. While waiting in vain to hear back from New Frontier, I
did some digging about to try to find the exact year this incident took
place. The story about Baker single handedly desegregating a casino showroom is
also told in another recent book, Annelise Orleck's "Storming Caesars Palace:
How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War On Poverty" (2005, Beacon Press). The
details are almost identical to the ones offered by Geran. yet with
more information on who exactly the first black patrons of an integrated
showroom were. Orleck writes: "Anxious to prevent a scene, hotel managers ran
through the hotel and told several black maids and porters to go home, change
their clothes and come back dressed for the nightclub." But Orleck's book has
two significant discrepancies from Geran's account. Orleck writes that Baker did
not leave Vegas after that one night. On the contrary, she quotes a witness who
notes Baker remained in Vegas: "Every night thereafter she (Baker) had two
tables and she insisted that there be blacks at those tables. And she picked up
the check. It was fantastic. She really...shook things up." The more important
difference between the two accounts, Geran and Orleck, is that Orleck has the
entire incident taking place not at Last Frontier but at El Rancho Vegas. That
property, by the way, burned down in 1960 and so this also helps narrow the date
when this all might have happened.
Orleck's book says nothing at all about a swimming pool being drained
either at Last Frontier or El Rancho Vegas after Baker swam in it. However,
that event is mentioned, in passing, within an essay by Amie Williams included
in "The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the real Las Vegas" (2002,
University of California Press). But once again the location changes and the
year is not clear. Williams notes: "They drained the swimming pool at Sahara
Hotel after Josephine Baker swam in it."
Anyway, it seems surprising to me that there should be so much fog around
what are two significant events: Josephine Baker being the first person to
desegregate a showroom audience in Vegas and the shameful incident of draining a
pool because a person of color swam in it. Anyone with memories, details or
information please write or e-mail me.
AP Photo/Smithsonian Institute from Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
So who appointed you as the guy responsible for asking for apologies for wrongs that were allegedely committed against historical figures. you ask people who werent even born yet, working at businesses that have changed hands several times, to apologize for things that they probably have never heard about and you wonder why they act a little 'blind sided'. we can all read history and judge for ourselves the rights and wrongs that were committed, nobody asked you to represent society in its look back in history. get off the high horse.
Posted by: manabouttown | May 04, 2007 at 06:33 PM
Say, here's an idea. Next time, get your facts first, and THEN save the world. The only "fog" around here is in your head--of course there are conflicting stories around an obscure (sorry, "significant") event that may or may not have taken place half a century ago..in Las Vegas, the Capitol of Veracity, no less.
Yawn.
Posted by: JD | May 05, 2007 at 05:57 AM
And, in turn, wasn't there a story about either Lena Horne or another African American singing star just putting her dainty foot in a hotel pool, which was then draind??? Apochrypha, or truth???
Posted by: David Kramer | May 05, 2007 at 06:39 AM
"Anyway, it seems surprising to me that there should be so much fog around what are two significant events:"
It seems obvious to me that these were not " two significant events". If they were, there place in history probably would have been recorded or perserved with more clarity.
Interesting though. Hopefully you will get some response from someone who was there.
Posted by: R.A.Bergfalk | May 05, 2007 at 10:49 AM
I love how several posters fall into the typical racist stereotype by attempting to discount the history of racism against African Americans in Las Vegas. As a historian, we recognize that the gist of stories can be lost in the telling and retelling throughout the years. What is clear however, are your posters comments that mirror a historically racist attitude that unfortunately, still exists today in Las Vegas (especially in the recounting of the NBA all Stars fiasco). I am an African American who frequently visits Vegas, but I am always aware of its history of racism, which lives on in your less erudite posters above. Do let us know if you get to the bottom of the story....And while you are at it, perhaps a piece on the black casino the Moulin Rouge would be appropriate!
Posted by: Dr. Nat turner | May 06, 2007 at 05:16 AM
I want some proof that Josephine Baker is black...she looks like a white girl in that photo.
Seems to me, this is just more of the typical Vegas over hype.
Posted by: Big Karl | May 06, 2007 at 12:12 PM
Since we are talking Vegas, I would be willing to gamble that IF Dr. Turner is a Dr., then he is a professor of Victimology at one of our government funded institutions. He spouts the same tired 'race hucksterism' that Jesse Jackson and Sharpston have use to make a fortune on the backs of black people in this country. The learned Dr. should spend his wisdom on more current problems, such as the hip-hop gansterism that has nearly ruined a generation of black youth, or the low-test scores that black children produce in school. I suppose you will blame it all on racism, how convenient. Do you blame the 70% out of wedlock birthrate on society also? This is and low-education scores are two of the highest predicters of poverty there are. Not every black person can work for the post office or government thanks to affirmative action, they need to survive in the real world and making excuses based on who got to swim in a Vegas pool 50 years ago isnt going to help
Posted by: manabouttown | May 06, 2007 at 12:17 PM
"It seems obvious to me that these were not " two significant events". If they were, there place in history probably would have been recorded or perserved with more clarity."
I think just the opposite. This seems like the kind of history that may have been swept under the rug.
Posted by: Sarah Gerke | May 06, 2007 at 06:15 PM
Sarah Gerke speaks?
This should be it's own blog entry...it's kinda like when Orson Welles stepped out of the shadows in "The Third Man"....
Posted by: Big Karl | May 06, 2007 at 08:46 PM
OH..almost forgot...speaking of draining pools after a girl swims in them: Will Vegas make it through Paris Hitlon's 45 day jail stay? I think the whole city will crumble.
Here's to hoping she misses her jail date and gets 90 days!
Posted by: Big Karl | May 06, 2007 at 08:49 PM
So Big Karl doesn't think Josephine Baker was black??? I'm sure grateful for all these history buffs chiming in with such inane comments. What's next, somehow tying all this into Paris Hilton? Oh wait... I see Big Karl has covered all the angles.
Posted by: John Garrott | May 07, 2007 at 10:26 AM
Actually, manabouttown, Its religious studies, not victimology. And if you knew who Nat Turner was, you'd really be angry:)
Posted by: Dr. Nat turner | May 07, 2007 at 07:41 PM
manabouttown et all,
Racism did not happen back then? It was a figment of black peoples' imagination? Same as the KKK and the Repuglicans, I suppose.
Big Karl, you need prrof that JB was a black woman, what stops your hand from typing her name in Google and do n image search at the very least or read the Google web search results about her?
If you are under 13, get help from your guardians.
Posted by: Kokobin | May 08, 2007 at 11:03 AM
Richard,
I just wanted to say that I admire your courage for writing such a controversial article. I think you are a leader and that it took a lot of ___ to introduce this topic to your readers. When you get a chance, I would love to talk about the book and the many angles you could write about that has nothing to do with raciscm but more about America's Entertainment Capital of the World. Thanks again and keep up the great work.
Trish Geran
Posted by: Trish Geran | May 16, 2007 at 05:20 PM
Dear Richard,
Thanks for your interesting piece. Some of the responses were frightening but then, sadly, such views and vitriol continue to thrive. As for the swimming pool story, I suspect that it was not uncommon practice in Las Vegas where so many early customers were white Southerners. The story that appears in my book and that is part of Las Vegas lore is that Sammy Davis Jr dove into the pool at the Sands, where he was then one of the headliners. He was allowed to swim undisturbed but then hotel staff quickly came out and drained the pool.
Contrary to the views of several of your posters, the history of the "Jim Crow West" is significant and finally starting to be told.
Best,
Annelise Orleck
Posted by: Annelise Orleck | May 23, 2007 at 07:07 AM