A new name on an existing club
Club Alabama did not begin on an empty lot. The West Side Club had already operated a casino and tavern at the location. A May advertisement promised gaming, drinks and cocktail-lounge service under the new name.
Joe La Due's affidavit in Johnson v. Fong said that he bought and reopened the business with Bob Kroloff on May 14. The coincidence with the advertisement provides a strong anchor for the handoff, although the exact ownership arrangements among all named parties remain unresolved.
What the records describe
The predecessor's court description includes craps, other games, liquor and food. Later Westside chronology attributes blackjack and slots to Club Alabama. Those descriptions concern related phases and should not be merged into a single comprehensive license inventory.
The advertisement establishes the successor's public offer, but not table numbers, stakes or a full entertainment program. The short history supports a small neighborhood gaming lounge rather than claims of a large showroom or hotel operation.
The wartime market
Black defense workers, military personnel and residents needed places to spend leisure time in a city that excluded them from many restaurants, hotels and casinos. Westside clubs met that demand through gambling, drinks and social contact.
Club Alabama formed part of this early commercial growth, before better-known postwar venues. Its brief life illustrates how quickly operators could enter the market. It does not prove that customers were absent or that a particular financial or licensing problem caused failure.
Names without a complete biography
The advertised Smokey Joe LaDue is the firmest named connection. Oral-history references to similarly named people elsewhere in Southern Nevada may be related, but they do not securely establish a personal biography for this proprietor.
The court case likewise names several Fong and Kroloff parties, but litigation defendants are not automatically a list of equal owners. Distinguishing an advertisement, an affidavit and a final judicial finding keeps the business story from becoming more certain than its evidence.
A short life with a clear place
Specialist chronology places closure in July 1943, about two months after reopening. The final day, reason and immediate successor are not established. There is no reliable venue-specific menu, performer roster or complete set of gaming objects in the current evidence.
Even so, Club Alabama gives early Westside history a concrete address, an owner advertised by name and a visible operating transition. It demonstrates that the neighborhood's casino economy was already active and changing during the war, not something that suddenly appeared with the Moulin Rouge in 1955.
The story in time
- Before May 1943
West Side Club operates at the location.
- May 14, 1943
Smokey Joe's Club Alabama is advertised and reopened.
- July 1943
Specialist chronology places the closure.
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
Westside chronology / specialist casino-history PDFLas Vegas Black Image Magazine — African-American Timeline, 1941–1960Las Vegas Black Image Magazine — Jackson Avenue Nightclubs in the 1940sCity of Nevada African American Historic Resource Survey- Research sourceWestside chronology / specialist casino-history PDF
- Research sourceLas Vegas Black Image Magazine — African-American Timeline, 1941–1960
- Research sourceLas Vegas Black Image Magazine — Jackson Avenue Nightclubs in the 1940s
- Research sourceCity of Nevada African American Historic Resource Survey
- Research sourceUNLV — Cleophis Williams oral history
- Research sourceUNLV — Roosevelt Fitzgerald, “Chapter 7: Civil Rights in a Resort City”
- Research sourceUNLV — Herman Jimerson oral-history transcript
- Research sourceVegas PBS / Nevada Week interview about Across the Tracks: A Las Vegas Westside Story
- Research sourceRoosevelt Fitzgerald, “A Brief Look of the Development of the Black Community of Las Vegas”
- Research sourceUNLV photograph: D.D. Cotton with friends at a Westside Club
- Research sourceUNLV — Nevada newspaper holdings
- Research sourceJoe La Due film/biographical record
- Research sourceRaymond Wiley oral history, Nye County history
- Research sourceNevada magazine, November–December 1995
- Research sourceCemetery-index lead for Joseph “Smokey” Ladue
- Research sourceUNLV J. David Hoggard oral-history search record
- Research sourceJohnson v. Fong, 62 Nev. 249, 147 P.2d 884 (1944)
- Research sourcePoison Smith boxing record
- Research sourceClarence Ray oral-history search record
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