LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Grace Hayes, legendary Las Vegas and Hollywood nightclub hostess of the 1940s and 1950s, died Wednesday at a convalescent home. She was 93.
Forty years ago, Hayes operated the Las Vegas Strip's most chic nightclub, The Red Rooster, located on Las Vegas Boulevard South at Spring Mountain Road.
In its day, the nightclub catered to customers such as billionaire Howard Hughes, Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel, the reputed organized crime figure who built the Flamingo Hotel on the Strip, and a host of Hollywood movie stars.
The nightclub boasted a gourmet restaurant that attracted top society figures and Hayes lived in a ranch-style bungalow on the rear of the property.
Steve Wynn, who recently purchased the land from Hayes, is building a lavish new resort where The Red Rooster once stood.
Following the property sale, as part of the transaction, Hayes lived in a lavish suite at Wynn's Golden Nugget resort downtown until two years ago when ill health forced her to enter the convalescent home.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, she owned and operated a movie stars' nightclub hangout by the same name, The Red Rooster, in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.
Many of her customers followed her when she moved to Las Vegas and Hayes was credited with helping establish the star policy of most Las Vegas Strip hotel showrooms of the time.
Hayes was born in Springfield, Mo., on Aug. 23, 1898. Her mother moved her and four sisters to San Francisco when Hayes was a toddler.
She married at age 17, sang in Barbary Coast nightclubs, appeared as a singing comedienne on the Vaudeville stage and gravitated to Hollywood in the 1930s.
Her son and only child, entertainment personality Peter Lind Hayes, lives in Las Vegas and is involved in theater productions with his wife, Mary Healy.
A memorial service for Grace Hayes was tentatively scheduled for Saturday.
