Karan Feder - The Folies Bergere in Las Vegas

THE

Folies Bergere!

IN LAS VEGAS

In this photograph, a line of costumed showgirls pose with the iconic les Folies Bergere lighted set piece. This sign was illuminated with hundreds of bulbs and was first used onstage in the 1975 edition of the show. (Courtesy of UNLV Libraries Special Collections.)

FRONT COVER: This photograph features Joyce Grayson in 1970. Grayson was cast as a lead showgirl and was often featured in promotional materials for the Folies Bergere. (Wolf Wergin/Las Vegas News Bureau)

UPPER BACK COVER: The Folies Bergere was staged at the Hotel Tropicanas Fountain Theatre. (Las Vegas News Bureau)

LOWER BACK COVER (from left to right): Showgirl Janu Tornell-Ferraro elegantly poses in a traditional costume accessory of the cabaret genre called a backpack (UNLV Libraries Special Collections); this charming Folies Bergere dancer preens at her backstage dressing table (Photograph by Rob Gubbins); Folies Bergere showgirls flaunt their stuff wearing sensational stage costumes designed by Jerry Jackson (UNLV Libraries Special Collections)

THE

Folies Bergere!

IN LAS VEGAS

KARAN FEDER
FOREWORD BY JERRY JACKSON

Copyright 2017 by Karan Feder
ISBN 978-1-4671-2759-2
Ebook ISBN 978-1-4396-6355-4

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955633

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To Mr. Feder

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Celebrated as one of the biggest attractions in Paris, the Folies Bergere excelled at transporting audiences to a world of fantasy and glamour. The shows legacy in Las Vegas is worthy of comparison, and I am proud to have been a part of it.

My association with the Folies Bergere gave me the opportunity to pursue my passion for art, dance, and music. I was privileged to collaborate with brilliant designers, technicians, musicians, and the incredible Hotel Tropicana producers and entertainment department personnel who brought everything to fruition.

Although the Folies Bergere is famous for elaborate sets and costumes, it was the award-winning casts and the dedicated crew members who created magic on the stage night after night. We strived to maintain a high standard and relied on audience response and reviews. I am especially proud of one such review from 1991, written by Charles Marowitz for New York Magazine: Folies Bergere... staged and choreographed by Jerry Jackson... moves with the precision of a set of tumbling dominos and displays the kind of design-flair which, were it to be found in a Broadway musical, would be the talk of the town.... the gusto, fluidity, and choreographic invention that sustains Folies Bergere is a real achievement wherever one might encounter it.... [Folies Bergere] has the fanciest hoofers and the most esthetically-pleasing showgirls and is a marvel of synchronized stage-effects.

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Karan Feder for diligently researching, documenting, and preserving this legacy. Without the tireless efforts of her and her staff, the Folies Bergere would exist only in memories and fragmented references.

Jerry Jackson

Jerry Jacksons creative collaboration with the Folies Bergere commenced in 1966 and extended through the shows closing curtain in 2009. From 1975 forward, Jackson was the Las Vegas productions architect and patriarch. His indispensable contributions encompass a broad range of disciplines including creative director, choreographer, musical composer, lyricist, and costume designer.

In this photograph dated March 28, 2009, Jerry Jackson poses with show alumnae at the final performance of the Folies Bergere. Vicki Pettersson (left) and Debbie Freedman Kaufman (right) flank Jackson while Trish Willis-Randall, Rosemarie Brown Caspary, and Kristine Perchetti are pictured from left to right behind them. (Courtesy of Jerry Jackson.)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been conceived but for the generous donation made by the New Tropicana Las Vegas to the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, in 2015. My champion, entertainment manager Eric Puhl, facilitated their gift of over 8,000 costume pieces, and for this, the museum and I are forever grateful.

Many thanks to my Arcadia Publishing editors, Alyssa Godwin and Liz Gurley, and to publishing manager Michael Kinsella for embracing my fascination with the legacy of Las Vegass Folies Bergere and for having faith in my ambitious vision for the project.

I am thankful that Dennis McBride, director at the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, has trusted in my grandiose and outside-the-museum-box aspirations with absolute enthusiasm. The professional staff at the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, has been both patient and understanding while my department endeavors to process the ample donation into the permanent collection. I am indebted to the museums costume and textile collection volunteers who consistently and excitedly dedicate their expertise in service of the collection: Karen Bauer, Eduardo Jimenez, Jean Panaccione, David Porcello, Angela Santangelo, Hilda Scheiner, Jana Schultz, and Annie Stephens.

The many prominent professional photographers at the Las Vegas News Bureau, past and present, who have passionately documented the boundless splendor of Las Vegas, are my heroes. In my quest to preserve the Folies Bergere costume collection, the Las Vegas News Bureaus Lisa Jacob, Kelli Luchs, and Ginny Poehling have served as invaluable partners, and I am deeply thankful for their continued support.

At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the library staff, Delores Brownlee, Karla Irwin, and Su Kim Chung, provided an abundance of expert assistance relevant to the universitys Jerry Jackson Papers. The opportunity to directly correspond with Jerry Jackson during my research has been both indispensable and inspiring. I am delighted when Jackson warmly returns my telephone calls and replies to my letters filled with peculiar yet consequential queries.

And finally, I thank the Folies Bergere family of alumni who guided me on this journey and, in so doing, made me feel like one of their own.

INTRODUCTION

Las Vegass first gambling halls of the late 1940s introduced the chorus girl to the desert. The early chorus girls were dancers and sometime singers costumed in close-fitting and revealing outfits. Although appealing and captivating, nudity, height, and glamour were not yet a part of this entertainment equation. The phenomenon known as the Las Vegas showgirl was imported directly from the French music halls, where sophisticated, stylized French titillation was offered nightly.

As the mid-20th-century Las Vegas Strip developed, so did the competition between rival properties, with each hotel advertising the most beautiful girls in the world and boasting the grandest, most lavish, and expensive stage extravaganza produced to date. The objective was to lure folks in the door with an irresistible show and then send them directly onto the casino floor. In 1957, the Hotel Tropicana, nicknamed the Tiffany of the Strip, was the most expensive and swanky resort ever seen in Las Vegas.