This is one of our rare departures from the typical "Question of the Day" format, but upon learning of the passing this week of an iconic figure on the Las Vegas entertainment scene, this writer felt compelled to offer a personal tribute to someone she's honored to have called a long-time close acquaintance and inspiration. Rather than offering up some formal obituary, we'd prefer to share some informal memories. Here's to you, Fluff, and thanks for the memories -- and the cigarettes!
For those unfamiliar with the name, Fluff LeCoque hailed from the showbiz hotspot that is Butte, Montana, where she was born in 1923. She aspired to be a movie star but was deemed both too short and too athletic in her physique. So singing and, more importantly dancing, became her ticket to Hollywood, where Fluff's stage debut took place in a popular nightclub. Her talents soon lead her to Las Vegas, where Fluff first performed in 1947 at the Last Frontier. Eventually, she would cross paths with legendary show producer Donn Arden and a 40-year relationships was born that saw Fluff star as principal dancer in many of his classic showgirl spectaculars both in Hollywood and Las Vegas, prior to settling into a role, following her retirement from dancing aged 43, as company manager of Jubilee!, which she helmed from 1981 until 2012.
When Ffolliott "Fluff" LeCoque was once asked to describe herself, she responded: "I'm a bad loser. I'm determined to have my own way. I've always known who I am and what I am. I'm independent and difficult to handle. I like beautiful things. I love gardens. I love flowers. I like the outdoors. I used to be a pretty good athlete. I like people, but I don't like to be around a bunch of people. I like small gatherings. I never thought I was beautiful, but I'm vain. How do you describe that?" And that's pure Fluff!
In my previous capacity as a documentary producer, I had occasion to film Ms LeCoque on multiple occasions and to hang out with her informally both backstage and at her Las Vegas home, where we'd sup on wine and cheese and I'd bum those long menthol "More" cigarettes she liked to smoke (and which probably took another decade off her 92-year life). During those times, I was privy to her dry sense of humor, her zero tolerance for BS, and some poignant memories of Vegas from someone who, on this day that would have marked Frank Sinatra's 100th birthday, was there to see it all, kept it classy and professional when all around her modern nightclubs were being shut down for public displays of sex and intoxication, and got out just on the cusp of everything she'd dedicated her life and career to becoming an anachronism.
Below, we'll re-run a "QoD" from 2005 about the evolution of the Las Vegas showgirl, for which I interviewed Fluff. First, some random anecdotes and recollections about "Miss Thunderbird" (a moniker she gained thanks to her stint at the motel of the same name and her starring role in a string of advertisements):
Those are just a few colorful memories of this Las Vegas legend. Now here's that QoD from June, 2005, in which I asked Fluff about the changing role and status of the Vegas showgirl, which is extra-poignant now, given a decade of hindsight:
My first experience of Las Vegas was in 1947, when there were only two hotels on the Strip, namely the El Rancho Las Vegas and the Last Frontier hotel, neither of which exists anymore. They were both very "Western" in the daytime, then very elegant at night. There was dinner-dancing and a floorshow in each hotel, and the floorshow usually included a line of eight to ten girls, sometimes with a male singer. The girls would do an opening number, then there would be a warm-up act, then the girls did a second number, and finally the "star" came on and closed the show. My first job was as a singer in a band at the Last Frontier, and then two years later I came back as a dancer at the Thunderbird, which was one of the first venues in town to have an actual stage. I was working seven days a week, doing 15 shows a week, for $32 -- and that was good money at the time!
As time went by, more and more and bigger and bigger properties were built, and with them came bigger stages. The old nightclub or floorshow format (so-called because the show took place on the dancefloor) evolved into more complicated entertainment, with grander shows, more elaborate routines, and the first, true "showgirls." In Europe, where the concept originated, they were called "mannequins" and were topless, but they never moved! They just stood there like a painting. But in the United States in the 1950s, nudity on stage was a gray area, so at first they just had the girls walk around elegantly in those beautiful costumes. But then in 1958 the "Lido de Paris," the first big, topless production show, opened at the Stardust, and when the Nevada State legislature tried to ban naked breasts on stage with the so-called "bare bosom bill," they failed. The following year the world-famous "Folies Bergère," another Parisian import, opened at the new Tropicana resort, and from that point on the feathered, bejewelled showgirl has been a classic Las Vegas image, and those big production shows have been synonymous with the city ever since -- "Les Folies Bergère" and "Jubilee!" have been running here now for 46 and 24 years respectively.
But then in the late '80s things started to change again. Las Vegas began to gear towards family-oriented entertainment, with theme parks and properties like Circus Circus and Excalibur, and shows that catered to families with kids. But families don't spend that much money. Kids don't gamble! So once again there was a shift, this time back to more sophisticated, adult-oriented shows. In 1993 Cirque du Soleil came into town with "Mystère" and changed the face of entertainment here forever, but the Cirque shows all focus not on beautiful women, but on those extraordinary "acts" -- the acrobats and contortionists and so on. As far as female-oriented entertainment is concerned, the focus now is on the gentlemen's clubs because let's face it, people love to go and see wonderful entertainment like the Cirque shows, but Las Vegas has always been known for its beautiful, scantily-clad women. So if you're not seeing them on stage anymore, you're going to go to a strip club! Or to one of the after-hours joints that have the sexy dancing girls.
So how has this whole evolutionary process affected the status of showgirls in Las Vegas? Well, when I was working at the Desert Inn in the '50s and '60s, you never came to work in slacks, or shorts, or tank tops, or sandals. You came to work "dressed." And you didn't go in through the back door. You didn't have to go through the kitchen and the garbage cans to get to work, like you do now! And you didn't have to park in the employees' lot and walk six blocks to get to the entrance, and another four blocks to get to the stage door. All that doesn't help your image at all! And not only that. You're not supposed to fraternize with the guests anymore. In the old days, when the showgirls were on the arms of the stars, that was because of the old format. The stars were in the show, and the showgirls used to have to spend time in between shows, or after the show, out in the casino. Their job was to attract people, particularly men, to the gaming tables. So that was the reason for dressing up every night -- part of your job was enticement. Nowadays that's not happening here in the casinos, but it is happening in the gentlemen's clubs. The girls are the bait!
The money is still a good wage, but it's not what people expect. I know kids who can live very comfortably on the money they make, and others who work three jobs! Why is that? Well, it's either that they've already got themselves into so much debt that they have to pay it off, or else their eyes are bigger than their wallets and they get caught up in this business of "I have to have a $200k house, I need to have all this stuff because everyone else is getting it." So they have to work three jobs and kill themselves -- it's crazy!
As far as the future of showgirls is concerned, it's hard to say. You won't see another show like "Jubilee!" because it's too expensive to reproduce. And it seems to me that there is less interest in being a showgirl, or even a dancer in a show these days, because the girls don't see a future in it. There's not that much out there for them ten years from now. But what they like about working here, not just in "Jubilee!," but in Las Vegas in general, is that the shows run a long time. They get benefits from the hotels. And they are able to pursue other careers on the side. Bottom line, there will always be people who want to dance, and there will always be an audience for beautiful women. Showgirls have been synonymous with Las Vegas for so long, and people expect and want to see that kind of entertainment here, so I don't see shows like "Jubilee!" or "Les Folies" disappearing from the map anytime soon.
RIP Fluff; you are already sorely missed.
