Ten years ago I wrote an article on the Westside clubs, for the CCTN. Here's the little bit of information that I was able to find:
Chic A Dee Club:
1314 North F St., c. 1955
I found a few paragraphs about Chinese Americans that operated casinos, with blacks as their target audience. It referred to Zee Louie’s Chickadee Club (later called the Louisiana Club), which closed in 1957 when Louie moved to San Francisco. Fuller has no listing for a Chickadee Club. TGT lists “Chic-A Dee Club, Las Vegas, NV, Owner: Jim & Willie, Opened: 1940’s Closed: 1940’s”.
With no listing in Fuller, and a different spelling and no address in TGT, I started looking in phone books. The August 1955, Nevada phone book had the Chic A Dee Club at 1314 North F Street (which was not the same address used by the Louisiana Club). The 1956 phone book doesn’t have listings for the Louisiana Club or the Chic A Dee Club. I did, however find a listing in the 1966 phone book for the Louisiana Club, which confirms the street address of 1322. I’m guessing that the two clubs could have been in the same building, but accessed by different entrances?
Louisiana Club:
1322 North F St., 8/16/1955-5/20/1970
The Louisiana Club was licensed for slots, blackjack, craps and keno. One set of Louisiana Club chips is marked with “Z L” for Zee Louie (aka Zhei Lhou or Zee Looie), who owned the club from April 19, 1966, until it closed on May 20, 1970. Does this mean that Zee Louie came back from San Francisco? Your guess is as good as mine, but those dates came from Harvey Fuller…and I’ll take his word for it. Another issue of the Louisiana Club chips is marked with a “W”, and Fuller says that Wong was the owner of the club from its opening on August 16, 1955 until April 18, 1966, the day before Louie took it over.
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