Posted on 04/03/2009 2:04:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
When Julie Kenyon read in the newspaper that the Tropicana's showgirl classic, “Les Folies Bergere,” was closing Saturday after nearly 50 years, she immediately got on the phone to the famed Las Vegas hotel. The 68-year-old Carmel Valley resident wanted to know if there was going to be a reunion for alumni of past revues.
If so, Kenyon, a member of one of the first troupes to perform the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana in 1960 and '61, wanted to be there for the last high kick.
Born Julie Newell-Brewster in Pinner Middlesex, England, Kenyon got her first taste of dancing before an audience at age 3 during World War II when she tapped a Shirley Temple routine for British and American troops in their camps. By age 7, she was training seriously in several forms of dance and auditioning for the Royal Ballet School in London.
By the time she was a teenager, Kenyon had a spot with an eight-member French ballet company. Dancing with the troupe brought her to America for the first time in 1959 to the Chicago World's Fair.
“A scout saw us at the fair and invited us eight girls to Las Vegas for the Folies Bergere,” Kenyon said. “We specialized in the French cancan.”
Folies Bergere opened Dec. 24, 1959, under the direction of Lou Walters, father of news icon Barbara Walters. The show came directly from Paris to the Tropicana.
Kenyon and her troupe kept a grueling work schedule for the two years they were in the Folies Bergere. They performed six or seven numbers a show – including a 20-minute acrobatic cancan with jumps, splits and cartwheels – and danced two shows a night, at 8 and 11, with a third show at 2 a.m. Saturdays.
They danced every night for six weeks before getting three days off. Then they'd start all over again.
“We were not as nude as it has been in recent years,” Kenyon said, referring to the less skimpy ensembles of her Folies days. “Our costumes were beautiful. We wore a little bra on top with a big skirt on the bottom. They were quite discreet.”
During their free time, the burgeoning city was their oyster. They went horseback riding, water-skied on Lake Mead and made public relations appearances by caddying at celebrity golf tournaments.
“We were all young, having a wonderful time, not gambling,” Kenyon said. “We saved our money.
“I think we made $160 a week. My rent was $100 a month for my duplex down the street from the Tropicana, and we were all on a diet, so we didn't eat much. I saved $9,000 in my time there.”
And, while Kenyon never met Frank Sinatra, she and her fellow dancers had their brush with the celebrities of the day, including Dean Martin, Don Rickles, Shecky Greene, Bob Hope, Elvis Presley and Sammy Davis Jr., who would invite the chorus girls up to the penthouse at the Sands Hotel for movie nights with sandwiches, Cokes and popcorn.
One member of Kenyon's troupe, Claudine Longet, made a more lasting impression with a member of Las Vegas' elite. Longet met pop singer Andy Williams in 1960, and the couple married in 1961. But real notoriety didn't come for Longet until 1977 when she was convicted of misdemeanor negligent homicide in connection with the death of former Olympic skier “Spider” Sabich.
During her time in Las Vegas, Kenyon met and married her husband, Richard. When her Folies gig ended, they moved to San Diego and began raising a family, which includes two children and 12 grandchildren.
Kenyon never lost the bug to dance, however. She teaches seven ballet classes a week to adults at Ballet Arte Academy in Solana Beach, North County Dance Arts, and the Mission Valley YMCA. She also sells a line of point shoes and dances in ballets at least twice a year.
At 8 p.m. Saturday, the Folies Bergere will dance its last cancan. Before the performance, Kenyon will be on stage with other alums for a photo opportunity.
“I basically want to see who comes,” Kenyon said. “I don't know whether we will recognize each other. It will be very interesting.”
The Aspen cops blew it and she walked.
Now THIS is a glorious opportunity to test out new pic technology!
Finally remember where I had seen her before, she was in a couple episodes of Combat! back in the 60’s playing a young French girl.
Yeah, sort of like how Mark Furhman “blew it” and that State Police sergeant “blew it” when he pulled Mary Jo Kopechne’s face out of the rear seat footwell of that 69 Olds and brought her to the surface.
“I don’t speak French, isn’t “Claudine Longet,” French for, “O.J.?”
Oui, mon ami
“Unable to cite any of the disallowed materials, prosecutors did use the autopsy report to suggest that when Sabich was struck he was bent over, facing away, and at least 6 feet (1.8 m) from Longet, which would be inconsistent with the position and relative distance of someone demonstrating the operation of a firearm.
The jury convicted her of a lesser charge—misdemeanor criminal negligence—and sentenced her to pay a small fine and spend 30 days in jail. [14] The judge allowed Longet to choose the days she served, believing that this arrangement would allow her to spend the most time with her children, and she chose to work off most of her sentence on weekends. (Critical reaction to the verdict and sentencing was exacerbated when she subsequently vacationed with her defense attorney, Ron Austin, who was married at the time; Longet and Austin later married and still live in Aspen.)”
No, they really did blow it. You can’t take blood samples from a defendant or confiscate her diary without a warrant. They had a case and the jury never heard it.
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