Nat King Cole was an enormously popular crooner, earning $4,500 a week1 in Las Vegas in 1956. He headlined at the whites-only Thunderbird Hotel, where he wasn’t allowed to venture beyond the showroom and the cook’s resting area behind the kitchen. Cole’s road manager was given a room in the hotel because he was white, but the high-paid feature attraction had to find other accommodations. He regularly stayed in a rooming house on the West Side.
Source: http://www.museyon.com/shop/chronicles-of-old-las-vegas/
Average annual wage in the USA in 1956 was $4,800 and Cole was earning nearly that each week.
A typical song is here “Ramblin’ Rose” Nat King Cole – YouTube It sold a million+ during the segregation era
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