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Vegas Retold

The history of Pussy Cat a Go-Go

Illustrated low Pussycat a Go-Go building with cream and terracotta panels, a cat-headed roadside sign and period cars.
Illustration of the Pussy Cat a Go-Go frontage and cat-topped roadside sign, based on the supplied historical photograph.

AI-assisted illustration for Vegas Retold, based on a Piers-supplied reference from The Museum of Gaming History’s ChipGuide.

Image source

The Pussy Cat a Go-Go belonged to the Strip’s late-night music world: live bands, go-go dancers and a dance floor that drew people who had already finished their own shows. In recollections preserved by Classic Las Vegas, musicians describe the club filling after 2 a.m., when dancers, showgirls and other Strip workers arrived.

Accounts date its opening to 1964 and associate it with bandleader Garwood Van. The club offered rock and roll alongside a small casino and restaurant. Contemporary entertainment listings held by UNLV place the Check-Mates, Alan Hodges and the Nite Owls, and go-go dancers on its March 1965 bill. Decades later, Sonny Charles and Marvin “Sweet Louie” Smith recalled the Pussy Cat as the Checkmates’ first Las Vegas engagement.

The club’s story opens a different view of the entertainment city: the places performers went to hear one another, dance and spend the hours after work.

A small club can reveal connections that a history of the big hotels misses. The Pussy Cat brought working entertainers and emerging bands into the same room, linking the Strip’s showroom circuit with its rock and R&B nightlife. Surviving listings, photographs and musicians’ recollections preserve a glimpse of the city’s working music community beyond the headline acts.

  1. Classic Las Vegas — Pussycat A-Go-Go musicians’ recollections

What remains uncertain

  • The closing date remains unresolved: ChipGuide gives September 10, 1971, while Vintage Las Vegas traces the Pussycat name into 1972 and a Chez Pussycat phase. No exact closing date is selected.
  • Accounts disagree about the later redevelopment site. Vintage Las Vegas places the venue in the southern part of the present Wynn site; ChipGuide and Spinetti’s identify the Palazzo. No exact footprint, address or map pin is selected.
  • Late-night atmosphere and the club’s internal layout come from retrospective participant accounts; they are presented as recollection.
  • UNLV’s Van family collection biography gives 1954 for the club’s opening, conflicting with the 1964 date in other accounts. The date is discussed in the text rather than entered as a settled date field.
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