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Women of Clark County

Grace Hayes

1896 - 1989

Grace Hayes was a singer, actor, and business owner. She began her singing career in nightclubs as a teenager in San Francisco. She starred in Broadway shows and became a radio star, but she is best known for her roles in motion pictures, such as King of Jazz (1930) and Zis Boom Bah (1941). The owner of the El Rancho Vegas Hotel persuaded Hayes to perform at his resort, and she went on to perform at several hotel-casinos around the city.

Not wanting to leave Las Vegas, Hayes purchased the Red Rooster nightclub in 1947, which she renamed the Grace Hayes Lodge. She had previously owned a club of the same name in Los Angeles. Due to poor health, she eventually had to give up the night club. She continued to live in a ranch house at the edge of the property, which Steve Wynn eventually purchased for a new hotel-casino, the Mirage. When Hayes sold her home, it was the last residential house on the Strip.

Pictured: Grace Hayes (one person in from the right), laughing with a group. Clark County Museum.

Sources

• “Grace Hayes Papers (MS-00271),” UNLV Special Collections Portal, accessed April 9, 2025, https://special.library.unlv.edu/ark%3A/62930/f1qs3p.
• M. A. Duvall, ed., Skirts That Swept the Desert Floor: One Hundred Biographical Profiles of Nevada Women in History, vol. 1 (Las Vegas: Stephens Press, LLC, 2006).

For questions or comments, please reach out to the Clark County Museum at ccmuseum@clarkcountynv.gov.