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Test your your luck at Dawson City’s Diamond Tooth Gerties

Dawson City visitors can add another to-do to their travel itinerary with live cancan returning to Canada’s first gambling hall.
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Diamond Tooth Gerties in Dawson City will open July 9 for the first time this season. Government of Yukon photo.

Dawson City visitors can add another to-do to their travel itinerary with live cancan returning to Canada’s first gambling hall.

Following the re-opening of Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall with slots, table games, bar service and Big Al’s concession July 9, the Klondike Visitors Association recently announced that the popular live cancan shows will also return Aug. 7, with performances at 9 and 1 p.m.

Measures taken due to COVID-19 include reduced capacity, fewer slot machines and fewer players per gaming table.

Operated by the Klondike Visitors Association, Diamond Tooth Gerties has been sharing Klondike-period cancan entertainment and friendly charm since 1971, promising “a night at the saloon just like the original stampeders.”

During a typical season, the entertainment lineup features three different shows with Gertie and her Goldrush Girls each night.

The cast of professional singers, dancers and live musicians includes Diamond Tooth Gertie, who’ll dazzle you with her wit, charm and powerhouse vocals, and Goldrush Girls, whose high kicks, splits and colourful skirts are a spectacle.

With a staggered reopening plan, the Klondike Visitors Association hopes to add live shows to the rest of the offerings at Diamond Tooth Gerties before the end of the summer. YG/Cathie Archbould photo. © Government of Yukon

The KVA says the real Gertie Lovejoy remains a bit of Klondike Goldrush mystery.

According to the legend of Diamond Tooth Gertie, “she was a dance hall girl who later married Dawson City’s most prominent lawyer and did in fact have a diamond between her teeth.

The building that today houses Diamond Tooth Gerties was originally built in 1901 by the Arctic Brotherhood and is a municipal historic site.

All proceeds are re-invested in the community.

Gerties is open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.!

Guests must be 19 years old to enter, with valid ID. Learn more at dawsoncity.ca.

The building that today houses Diamond Tooth Gerties was originally built in 1901 by the Arctic Brotherhood and is a municipal historic site. Maura Forrest/Yukon News file