Vegas - 1977

I graduated from the University of Texas with a BFA in Drama/Dance in 1976 and then spent a year in Washington D.C. drifting from one mediocre teaching job to another before heading to Vegas. I moved into a grubby little apartment that was near the Strip and eagerly pursued every audition, not knowing whether or not the shows were reputable. In the meantime, I worked as a cocktail waitress by the pool at the Circus-Circus Hotel. It took me three months but I finally landed a job as an honest-to-God showgirl in a fabulous show called "Casino de Paris" at the Dunes Hotel. I got the job because, by then, I had met a few dancers in some of the shows and I had gotten a call from one of them tipping me off to the fact that two girls in the show had gotten into a fistfight backstage during the show and had been fired. He suggested I call the Company Manager and casually ask if there were any openings. He knew they would need someone ASAP and although I wasn't really tall enough at 5'8" to qualify as a showgirl, I might do in a pinch.

Now if you didn't question my use of the phrase "honest-to-God showgirl," you should have. Here's why. There was a distinction between dancers and showgirls and then, as now, the dancers hated being referred to as showgirls. Showgirls were outrageously tall, most were quite buxom (not me) and did very little, if any, dancing. They were there to carry the huge costumes, decorate the stage and look pretty - no talent required. The dancers could be slightly shorter, were extremely well-trained and highly professional, and worked up a sweat every show, every night. They didn't just parade around, and it was offensive to be associated with a term that the general public used to connote brainless, untalented and probably easy. I remember that Joan Rivers, who frequently played Vegas back then, once made a joke that the Vegas showgirls couldn't spell MGM backwards. It's funny now but, at the time, no dancer was laughing.

I only spent a few months as a showgirl before being promoted to a dancer position and then I felt like I'd made it. I was on my way to fame and fortune.

Oh, and yes, pictures to follow...