Moulin Rouge

By Jason A. Adams

In 1955, one Las Vegas property took a risk.

Come see the beginning of something new.

Come see a young dancer find destiny and love.

Come see a casino change the city, and the world.

Come see opening night at The Moulin Rouge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spiral Publishing, Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393862017

Jason A. Adams

Jason A. Adams grew up in various Air Force towns, but Southwest Virginia has always been his homeplace. His military brat childhood exposed him to exotic locales, fascinating people from around the world, and a lifetime curiosity that informs his fiction.Jason is the author of many short stories based in and around the Virginia coalfields he lives in and loves. He currently lives on a forest mountain with assorted beasties, and his beautiful and talented wife, Kari Kilgore, also a writer of many wonderful stories.Find out more at www.jasonadams.info, where you can sign up for information on upcoming releases, and the occasional update from The Brain Squirrels.For all works released by Spiral Publishing, including Kari's many fantastic stories and non-fiction by Frank Kilgore, check out www.spiralpublishing.net.

Book preview

Moulin Rouge

For Anna Bailey and all the other groundbreakers

Moulin Rouge

Jason A. Adams

Spiral Publishing, Ltd.

Chapter 1

Some things only make sense in Las Vegas.

Johnny Bianchi walked through the huge crowd milling through the ruins of the Moulin Rouge, one of Vegas’ most famous casinos. Famous even though it had closed six months after opening, way back in 1955.

All around him the huge Gaming Night party roared, a whirl of lights, colors, and noise. The Rouge still kept its gambling license all these years later, although not much of the original buildings remained. The Nevada Gaming Commission allowed it so long as the establishment conducted routine gaming business not less than once every two calendar years.

Thus, the party. Tonight, a large flatbed truck sat parked amid the charred embers and toppled masonry of the old casino, which finally succumbed to repeated arsons back in 2003. Inside the shipping container, the truck carried a miniature casino. A row of sixteen video poker machines, but more gambling action than the place had seen for, well, two years.

Kiddie machines which most residents left to the tourists, but the gambling wasn’t the point at all.

Johnny had been sent by the Las Vegas Sun to write a byline about the event, something upbeat to counter all the depressing shit coming from the other side of the country. This would be his third assignment to cover the Moulin Rouge Gaming Night extravaganza, but he’d come even if it weren’t his job. He loved it.

Cool breezes rolled down from the surrounding mountains, carrying the resinous scent of desert creosote and competing with the heat radiating up from the sun-baked pavement. Johnny, like most locals, wore