06/30/2025
FRUIT LOOP GAINS LEGISLATTIVE
RECOGNITION AS CULTURAL LANDMARK
By ROB Rob Schlegel
Publisher, Las Vegas LV Spectrum
(Editor’s note: This is a speech or presentation regarding the recent designation of the Paradise/Naples corridor, being officially named as the Fruit Loop LGBTQ Cultural area). The presentation was made by Rob Schlegel, for those attending the June 24, 2025 Silver State Equality lunch at the Tuscany Hotel. Rob’s presentation was limited to three minutes, so this is the full version, with details he wasn’t able to include in the Silver State speech, thus, it’s in the first person.)
So, it’s official, the Nevada Legislature welcomes you to the Fruit Loop, located in the most well-known, LGBTQ neighborhood in Nevada. Andre Wade has asked me to say a few words about this historic designation but has limited me to three minutes. I’ll try.
If you would like to read the full story, including several arson fires, police harassment, undercover stings, a battle with Clark County and the airport, but a LGBTQ community that thrived despite all the obstacles, you can read the complete story on the Las Vegas Spectrum’s page, available later this week. Or ask me or my lovely husband, Lucas Navarro Schlegel, for one of my real estate business cards. Email me and ask for a link to this historical document.
The area along Paradise Road, between Tropicana and Flamingo, has been home to many LGBTQ bars, some legendary, some not so memorable. Of course, there was the original, Le Cafe and Black Magic, located at Tropicana and Paradise. After a tragic arson fire at La Cafe, Studio 54 opened just a quarter mile north at Paradise and Naples. Studio 54 was soon rebranded as Village Station but after a fight with the county, which didn’t want tourists to see gay people on Paradise Road, the front door was relocated to the rear of the building and it reopened as The Gipsy.
Meanwhile, the neighboring Chinese restaurant and bar, known as Gelo’s, started catering to the gay clientele and then became a full-time, gay bar. The Buffalo relocated across Paradise, fronting Naples, R&R Assordid Sundries opened and we suddenly had a gayborhood, which even included several restaurants over the years. Club Paradisio opened a bit further to the north, which eventually became Carousel, later The Body Shop and then the area’s first le***an bar, The Upper Ledge.
During this time, I became publisher of the Las Vegas Bugle, Nevada’s first, commercially successful LGBTQ publication. That was 1985.
In 1986, after having regularly visited A Different Light Bookstore in Los Angeles, I came up with the idea of opening a FEMINIST, LE***AN, GAY and BEHAVIORAL HEALTH bookstore. What better place to do that but in the smoke-filled corner room of The Body Shop bar? Age requirements, cigarette smoke and spilled drinks from would-be-patrons, soon taught me that bars and books don’t mix, so we moved to Naples and Paradise, in our own space but next door to the Buffalo. It was also the publishing office for the Las Vegas Bugle.
The area had been a hotbed of police harassment, undercover stings and bar raids. Police would record license plates of the cars parked outside the clubs. Our struggling bookstore was harassed nightly by Metro Police cars, parked outside or front door, all because we planned to carry a book, critical of Metro’s record of shooting, unarmed suspects. None the less, we survived!
On August 8, 1988, another arson fire and this time it consumed the Gipsy. 8888 – bad luck numbers for the Gipsy! Long after it was rebuilt, a Clark County fire official, when questioned about a photo from the fire which hung in their office on Flamingo Road, allegedly said, “It was a fa**ot bar. We let it burn.” The Gipsy persevered and was rebuilt.
Our little gayborhood was now home to four or five, LGBTQ bars, usually a restaurant or two, the office for my newspaper, the Las Vegas Bugle, and of course, my bookstore, Bright Pink Literature with its well-known, neon pink triangle in the window. The pink triangle, which was the store’s logo, was to memorialize the estimated 100,000+ gay men who were arrested in Germany after 1933, with many thousands dying in the German concentration camps, while being forced to wear pink triangles as identification. We used the Nazi’s pink triangle but we named the store Bright Pink because Bright signified hope. We used the word “Literature” rather than bookstore, because Clark County Business Licensing was convinced, we were opening an adult bookstore – which of course, we were not.
At some point, circa 1989 or 1990, property developer Ed Uehling and Marlon Tinana, at my suggestion, purchased the land and buildings which housed Gelo’s Lounge, along with three duplexes behind the bar. Gelo’s was soon replaced by Angles Lounge.
Clark County wasn’t happy with the emerging LGBTQ community.
From a business standpoint, one of the toughest hurdles came when Clark County Department of Aviation bought vacant land adjacent to Angles. For years, the Gipsy had an informal lease with the Howard Hughes/Summa Corporation and on weekends, several hundred cars would use the vacant lot for parking. In the blink of an eye, a cable fence, stretched from Tropicana, along Paradise, nearly to Naples and that weekend, our customers suddenly found that 75% of the parking had disappeared.
The first night when our parking was taken away, there was an airport vehicle parked inside the fenced off area, with two men watching and laughing at the LGBTQ folks as they entered what was now a dead-end driveway. They had to back out, when they realized they couldn’t park.
Shortly thereafter, Paradise Road became one-way, southbound from Harmon into the airport. Naples became a one-way loop, west bound from Swenson, connecting exiting airport traffic to Paradise and then Tropicana, west to the Strip.
The parking was definitely done to mess with the gay clubs and likely part of the new traffic configuration was also. We soon learned that airport Director Bob Broadbent and his assistant, Randy Walker, the two gentlemen watching from the airport vehicle, wanted the gay bars gone. We were an afront to the good airport customers who shouldn’t, in their opinion, be forced to drive past our businesses on the way to catch their flights.
We decided to fight back.
Ed Uehling, the area’s major property owner, suggested that if we were an embarrassment to the airport officials, we should protest by making a statement. His idea was to rename the area, “The Fruit Loop,” and erect a major billboard where every car that exited the airport and drove through the Naples Loop, would know they were in the gayborhood. In addition, we would be reclaiming the often-derogatory term, “Fruit,” much like we later reclaimed the term Q***r. While the giant billboard never happened, the Fruit Loop stuck and it’s been known as such, ever since.
The community blossomed. At one point, Ed Uehling and Marlon Tinana owned seven or eight duplexes on Naples, west of Paradise. On the east side of Swenson, they purchased a 23-unit apartment building, naming it Lambda Arms, and we had our first, dedicated LGBTQ housing complex. Between my jobs, publishing the Bugle and running Bright Pink Literature, I became the bookkeeper for the two larger bars and managed the residential rentals. Alas, many of those residential properties were later sold to either the airport or UNLV, but there is a possibility of residential units returning one day.
For years, we pleaded with the Clark County Commission to get a traffic light and crosswalks installed at the intersection of Naples and Paradise. Sadly, that took many accidents, cost a county commissioner her re-election but the LGBTQ community showed its power and helped elect Chris Giunchliani, mostly over her promises to help solve the traffic nightmares in the Fruit Loop. We believe our vote made the difference in this close election.
Before Chris G was even sworn in, meetings were arranged with Commission Chair Rory Reid, CC Public Works director Marty Manning and incoming commissioner Chris G. Plans were immediately drawn up to change the traffic configuration on Paradise. Naples again became a two-way street; traffic lights and one crosswalk were installed. Additionally, the airport was instructed to find land to lease to the clubs, to provide extra parking. That was in 2007.
Once we learned the power of organized voting, the LGBTQ community was finally acknowledged. That has continued to this day, with Nevada Impact, the LGBTQ Progressive voter guide, which continues to offer voting endorsements for races throughout Southern Nevada. Our voices are known and heard.
On a lighter note, one year, Bright Pink Literature, passed out snack baggies of Froot Loop cereal at a National Coming Out Day Celebration, which was held in the Fruit Loop.
Since then, many things have changed.
Previously, I had sold Bright Pink Literature to Wes Miller and Marlon Tinana. It was renamed Get Booked, as a play on all the former police undercover arrests which had plagued the area. Credit the Internet, but Get Booked is no longer a bookstore but still remains as a great community information resource.
The building which housed Angles and Lace, the area’s women’s bar, was sold and transformed into the first ultra lounge, known as Piranah, a multi-million dollar investment by Paul San Filipo and Jerry Massini. Years later, the Buffalo closed and was reopened as Quadz. The FreeZone, once owned by an out, proud le***an, was sold and continues as a bar, attracting a different clientele.
The Gipsy, an institution for so many years, closed and was demolished. Like a butterfly, emerging from a cocoon, it just reopened last year after an investment of many millions of dollars. The reimagined Gipsy has morphed into one of Southern Nevada’s most extravagant destinations and now rivals any property on the Strip.
Jerry Masinni, purchased additional duplexes behind the Gipsy and his two clubs have added several hundred new parking spaces. Never-the-less, he still works with Quadz to rent additional space from the county.
Pedestrian traffic in the area has increased, which became a safety issue. After several accidents, community and business leaders petitioned the County to add the second crosswalk on the south side of the Paradise/Naples intersection.
With the help of a now, very accepting Metro Police Department, the airport, County Commissioners and CC Public Works, traffic was reconfigured once again, and the second crosswalk was installed about six months ago.
During this discussion and lobbying, Sen. Fabian Donate became involved. The ad hoc committee on the crosswalk, after learning the historical significance of the “Fruit Loop” designation, at the suggestion of Sen. Donate, decided to petition the Nevada Legislature to make the area a cultural landmark and corridor area for the LGBTQ community.
That designation, after several hearings, passed through the Legislature in late May. Lambda Business Association, the local LGBTQ business chamber of commerce, has generously offered to raise the funds to pay for the signage.
Special thanks to all who participated. Those organizations included, The Center, Quadz, Piranah, The Gipsy, Sen. David Parks, Garret and Russ from QVegas, Silver State Equality, Pam Jones from Lambda Business Association, the Las Vegas Spectrum, Sen. James Ohrenschall and many others.
If you’re interested in contributing to this project, contact attorney Pam Jones, president of Lambda Business Association – and if your business isn’t a member, you should join!
Photos are from the June 24 Silver State Equality lunch and include the Pam Jones, Jerry Cade, Andre Wade, David Parks, Rob Schlegel, Renato Navarro Schlegel and Rob Schlegel.
