The Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino opened on May 24, 1955 to fanfare, long lines of well-dressed visitors, and Las Vegas' newest showroom revue, the Tropi-Can-Can Revue. Hotly anticipated, the Moulin Rouge was the first racially integrated casino to open in the United States, and for that summer and fall in 1955 the Moulin Rouge was a glimmering, energetic party that never stopped on the otherwise segregated Westside of Las Vegas.

At a cost of $3.5 million, the commercial moderne Moulin Rouge casino building and its motel wings were designed by local architects and engineers Walter Zick and Harris Sharp. The resort boasted all of the modern luxuries that hotel-casino oases on the Las Vegas Strip offered tourists, including an olympic-size pool surrounded by palm trees, a gourmet restaurant with Las Vegas' largest kitchen, a sumptous showroom, and a casino and lounge adorned by hand-painted murals of Parisian scenes and Can-Can Girls.

The popularity of the Moulin Rouge blew up almost overnight. The hotel made the June 20th, 1955 cover of Life magazine, with a photo of two female showgirls. A veritable A-List of 50-60's era performers regularly showed to party until dawn. Great black singers and musicians such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey, and Louis Armstrong would perform often. These men were banned from gambling or staying at the hotels on the strip. In addition, white performers including George Burns, Jack Benny, and Frank Sinatra would drop in after their shows to gamble and perform. Eventually management added a 2:30am Third Show to accommodate the popularity and crowds.*

In November of 1955 the Moulin Rouge closed its doors. Some say it was a victim of a casino oversaturation (the Moulin Rouge was one of 4 new hotels that ran into major financial issues that year). Some say it was poor management. The exact cause will probably never be known. By December 1955, the Moulin Rouge had declared bankruptcy.*

The short but brief life of the Moulin Rouge helped the civil-rights movement in Las Vegas. Many of those who enjoyed and were employed by the hotel became activists and supporters. The hotel was also the spark needed to bring an end to segregation on the strip. Under threat of a protest down the Las Vegas Strip against racial discrimination from Las Vegas casinos, a meeting was hurriedly arranged by then-Governor Grant Sawyer between hotel owners, city and state officials; local black leaders and then-NAACP president Dr. James McMillan. Hank Greenspun, who would become an important media figure in the town, mediated the agreement. The meeting was held on March 26, 1960 at the closed Moulin Rouge, and lead to an agreement to desegregate all strip casinos.*

Though the hotel and casino never regained the success of its first months, this meeting of hotels and government officials, later known as the "Moulin Rouge Agreement", was one of the primary reasons that the Moulin Rouge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. A tragic fire in 2003 devastated the Moulin Rouge building, leaving a charred husk. Though the casino structure was entirely gutted by the blaze, the famous street facade and Moulin Rouge signage tower were saved.