Richard "Chick" Ramirez Oral History

Object number2010.001.0045

Date06/08/2010

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Richard "Chick" Ramirez

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file)

DimensionsDuration: 46 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Richard "Chick" Ramirez. In the early 1960s, Ramirez was the drummer in the Dallas-based musical group The Jumping Jacks. His band performed at Jack Ruby's Vegas Club in 1962 and 1963. At the same time, Ramirez and his family owned and operated their own Dallas nightclub. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on June 8, 2010 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is forty-six minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Jack Ruby acquired an interest in the Vegas Club at 3508 Oak Lawn in Dallas in 1953. While the Vegas Club occasionally featured striptease acts, it was considered a dance club as opposed to a burlesque establishment like the Carousel Club. Ruby ran into legal trouble with his brother Sam in 1955 after Sam loaned Jack several thousand dollars for federal taxes with the Vegas Club as security for the loan. Despite Sam's claim that he owned the Vegas Club after his brother defaulted on his loan, Jack Ruby ultimately retained ownership of the Vegas Club after the case was settled. When Ruby's sister, Eva Grant, returned to Dallas from San Francisco in 1959, she assumed management of the Vegas Club, although she held no ownership interest. Jack Ruby was still the owner of the Vegas Club at the time of the assassination in 1963. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator