The Bon Aire site
Bon Aire Club and motel opened in July 1945 under Harvey Bynum, Max Travis and Lester Welch. The club building passed through several names, including Mondoray and Blue Heaven, before Bar of Music appeared.
The address, 3415 South Fifth Street or Highway 91, belonged to an automobile-oriented entertainment corridor. A customer could stop for food and nightlife beside a motor court rather than enter a large integrated resort.
Dine, dance and listen
A specialist chronology places Bar of Music's opening on March 17, 1948. Promotional descriptions offered plentiful chicken and steak and a dine-and-dance evening. The name emphasized entertainment, while collectible catalogs identify casino activity without establishing a complete game list.
Art Tatum's engagement provides a stronger musical anchor. A February 1949 DownBeat account described him as playing his first Las Vegas date at Bar of Music. The small club therefore participated in national jazz touring, not merely local background entertainment.
A 1953 trade clipping praised the value of two leading acts for one admission, although it did not identify the address or performers in the surviving excerpt.
Names that overlap
One collectible chronology places a change to Club Copa around March 1949, but the 1953 trade reference still uses Bar of Music. The name may have returned, persisted informally or overlapped with another phase. It is not sound to choose the shortest date range and discard the later evidence.
A musicians' publication associates Robert D. Lawrence with the club, while a later specialist account names Bob and Doris Lawrence. Those references suggest operating or booking involvement without settling precise legal ownership.
This is a reminder that hotel name, club name, proprietor and gaming license can change on different schedules at one roadside address.
The roadside world disappears
The building continued through Copa and Louigi's identities while the motel remained part of the site. In 1963, the older complex was demolished for the Caravan Motor Hotel and restaurant; the parcel later entered the Casino Royale lineage.
No reliable original table inventory, limits or complete entertainment calendar survives in the assembled material. The best history is therefore the specific one: a small dining-and-music stop, a major pianist's documented appearance, uncertain overlapping names and a site overtaken by a newer Strip.
Bar of Music shows that early Las Vegas entertainment history was made in modest highway clubs as well as famous showrooms.
The story in time
- 1945
Bon Aire club and motel open.
- March 17, 1948
Reported Bar of Music opening.
- 1949
Art Tatum plays his first Las Vegas engagement.
- 1953
Trade coverage still uses the Bar of Music name.
- 1963
The old complex is replaced.
Sources & further reading
The numbered links in each chapter point to the supporting material below. The wider bibliography also includes archival collections and specialist references. Historical uncertainty is explained where it affects the story; a source link does not grant permission to reproduce its images.
Start with these sources
Museum of Gaming History timelineVintage Las Vegas: Bon Aire ClubCasino Collectible News, Volume 24, Number 3Billboard, April 10, 1954Cash Box, June 12, 1954- Research sourceChipGuide Nevada city index
- Research sourceMuseum of Gaming History timeline
- Research sourceVintage Las Vegas: Bon Aire Club
- Research sourceCasino Collectible News, Volume 24, Number 3
- Research sourceBillboard, April 10, 1954
- Research sourceCash Box, June 12, 1954
- Research sourceUNLV Special Collections: Sands News Bureau scrapbook clipping, June 29, 1953
- Research sourceTrasinda Las Vegas token/matchbook reference
- Research sourceInternational Musician, November 1949
- Research sourceDownBeat, February 25, 1949
- Research sourceArt Tatum chronology
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