Early Las Vegas gay activist, nightclub owner Jacques dies

Jace Radke

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2001 | 9:54 a.m.

When Marge Jacques arrived in Las Vegas in 1957, she found a city with a mostly inhospitable attitude toward its gay community, but that didn't stop her from running openly gay-owned businesses.

It also didn't stop her from going to the state Legislature to fight politicians' anti-gay platforms, and becoming one of Las Vegas' early gay activists.

Jacques died of cancer surrounded by friends and family at her Sedona, Ariz., home Tuesday. Private services for the 66-year-old will be held in Arizona.

Dennis McBride, a historian currently working on a book about the history of the gay community in Las Vegas, said Jacques faced discrimination head on.

"When she opened her first club in 1970, everything was totally repressed, and she was constantly facing the threat of being shut down," McBride said. "She was probably the first openly gay person to go out and speak on behalf of Las Vegas' gay community."

Jacques opened Le Cafe on the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Paradise Road in 1970, and after it was destroyed by fire in 1979, she opened two other Las Vegas bars, the Other Place and the Gypsy.

Her bar's Gay Notes from Le Cafe, a "bar rag" that provided gossip and news, was the first gay publication in Las Vegas, McBride said.

Jacques also made news when she and her bartenders became delegates to state Democratic conventions in Northern Nevada to fight any anti-gay platform planks.

Jacques' cousin, Aline Jacques, also remembers Marge operating a poodle grooming business called Clip Joint and working as a cocktail waitress during her more than 30-year stay in Las Vegas.

"Whatever needed to be done, she would do," Aline said. "She was a friendly person who helped people all the time."

Jacques was also well liked among Las Vegas' celebrity set in the '50s, '60s and '70s, counting Sammy Davis Jr., Liberace, Siegfried and Roy and Joan Rivers among her friends.

"I have a whole wall of pictures of Marge with celebrities," Aline said. "She was in Las Vegas during its most magical time, and many people still remember her and how she went out of her way to help others."