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Say "cheesecake"

This year, Valentine’s Day means the Mob Museum’s opening and memories of a Chicago mob massacre. But it also means hearts and love. Las Vegas News Bureau photographers understood that showgirls and their beauty were important selling points for Las Vegas. This was typical of many “cheesecake” photos of the 1950s that featured celebrities or Strip showgirls.

This one links the past and present. The showgirl in this photo from the 1950s is Ffolliott “Fluff” LeCoque, who still serves as stage manager of “Jubilee!,” the last of the old-fashioned shows with feather headdresses, at Bally’s. Her first Las Vegas appearance was in 1947 as a singer at the Last Frontier. She opened for Liberace, served as “Miss Thunderbird,” and may have been in the first photo of a woman in a bikini taken in Las Vegas. She also performed at several resorts, and worked for Donn Arden, who created or adapted shows like “Lido de Paris” (a mainstay at the Stardust) and eventually the contemporary classic, “Jubilee!”