Photo of Lynette Chappell by Joseph Donato (Cashman Photo)

Lynette Chappell

The Magical Evil Queen

BY JOAN S. PECK

One must wonder about any woman known as the “Evil Queen,” especially since she is a tall, beautiful woman with a commanding appearance and a quick sense of humor. Lynette Chappell, a Las Vegas entertainment royalty member, was so much more than her stage name while performing with Siegfried & Roy, famous Las Vegas illusionists. Lynette was their friend, personal manager, confidant, and partner.
But let’s start at the beginning….

Lynette was born in Kenya during a period known as the Jomo Kenyatta era. She was christened in a chapel on Mt. Kenya, an ancient extinct volcano nearly 200 kilometers from the capital, Nairobi.

Her father worked throughout Africa as a mining engineer. The family lived with other mining families in a fenced gated compound to protect themselves from the animals and the upheaval surrounding them. It was a turbulent time in Africa, with a rebellion happening. Colonial Africa was becoming divided, and war rumbled at the edges of Kenya.

Seven years later, her sister Dawn was born. As the tale goes, women in labor were kept in the hospital’s basement to keep them out of the harsh heat until they were ready to give birth. Lynette’s mother was whisked to the proper floor when the time came. After her mother delivered, she opened her eyes to see the sky alight with the beautiful colors and the sun breaking over the magnificent Victoria Falls. “My mother named my sister DAWN.” It’s a memory that Lynette holds close to her heart.

When it was time for school, Lynette and a dozen other children would be driven from the compound to school on a special bus under armed guards. “I was often late for school because elephants or other animals blocked the road, and in Africa, animals have the right of way.” From an early age, Lynette loved exotic animals, and that love continued to grow and became a part of her life and soul.

As a little girl, Lynette loved to dance, which became an important facet of her life. She was classically trained in dance from age three. She even has a picture of herself at that age in an “emerald green bunny suit.” Her first brush with magic and magicians was when John Calvert chose her at age 12 as one of the little girls to appear magically out of a vase on stage. For the next illusion, she assisted him in a Cadillac with him and a cheetah while he drove blindfolded! It was then, in the leather seats of a Cadillac with a predator of the savanna next to her, that Lynette learned a vital lesson. With magic, anything is possible. Lynette looks back at her childhood with fondness.

Through the British systems in academics, at the age of 15, Lynette was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London. She desperately wanted to go, and her parents only allowed her to attend because of the war rippling through the country. They felt she would be safer there than staying in Africa.

She had outgrown the gates of the compound.

Living in England was quite an adjustment for Lynette—visualize coming from the movie “Out of Africa” with its open spaces and natural beauty into London’s bustling, crowded metropolis. She studied dance, and at age 17, she became too tall for ballet. However, her talent and discipline caught the eye of the manager of the dance troupe. She became one of the youngest students to be invited by Miss Bluebell to perform at the Lido de Paris show at the Stardust in Las Vegas.

Margaret Kelly, known as “Miss Bluebell,” formed and managed a legendary Parisian dance troupe …Bluebell Girls dance troupe. Her shows were different from the others. Bluebell had an inventory of the tallest, leggiest, and most beautiful dancers, who towered over everybody on stage with their costumes and high heels. By the end of the 1950s, the Bluebell Girls had become an internationally recognized organization with their base in Paris, supplemented by what had become permanent troupes in Las Vegas.

Eight girls came to the Stardust Hotel in Vegas in 1966—a time when Las Vegas was still “a jewel in the desert.” All but Lynette had a work visa. Being a minor and under the constant supervision of a chaperone, Lynette wasn’t allowed to enter the casino. She could only be escorted by a chaperone, reaching the stage from the back door. It was classic showgirl fare, the jeweled bodysuits and huge feathered headdresses, which Lynette comments, “They were heavy, weighing up to 10-12 pounds!”

At the Stardust, she met Siegfried & Roy backstage while they performed in the Lido de Paris show as the top act. Neither man spoke English well and needed an interpreter. One day, while the Bluebell Girls were rehearsing, Lynette helped clarify something Siegfried and Roy asked the interpreter. A black leopard cub from Africa was with them, and they needed formula to feed it. “Roy and I would go for the formula and feed baby Sabu.”

There was an immediate connection between Lynette and Roy. They were kindred spirits with their shared interest in wild animals. “Watching Roy’s magnetism with the animals was amazing.”

Later on, as a tribute to their friendship, a Nubian Lion was named in honor of her hometown, Mombasa. In turn, Lynette’s good friend, Princess Michael of Kent, would throw a birthday party for Roy at Kensington Palace.

Siegfried & Roy recognized Lynette’s natural affinity for exotic animals, and she became their “third arm,” assisting them in every area of their on and offstage existence. From her years of performing in their shows, Lynette holds the world record as the most levitated and sawed-in-half performer.

For those who may not know, Siegfried & Roy’s entire show at the Mirage was a classic storyline about good versus evil. Lynette was their Evil Queen, giving the duo an enemy to fight and the audience a “bad” guy to taunt.

“The Mirage show was our most significant achievement and, until then, the most complex show ever staged in Las Vegas. The cast was enormous, and it was often technically a nightmare. All of the illusions, the complicated mechanics, the tremendous staging, and the lighting pushed the limits of technology at that time and era.”

Asked if they ever took a day off, Lynette quipped, “No, only the Lord took a day off, but He had a different union!”

Her work with Siegfried & Roy fueled Lynette’s love for animals. She worked with a menagerie of lions, tigers, (no bears) elephants, horses, eagles, and an 8-foot snake named Sherman. This work brought her back to the country she loves — Africa.

“I’ve been told that I should have been the one checking in the animals for the Ark,” she laughs.
Yet, Lynette loves the big cats the most of all. The royal white tigers with piercing blue eyes and snow-white fur hold a special place in her heart. She had a hand in raising many litters of cubs during her time with Siegfried & Roy. Lynette helped raise not only white tigers but lions, leopards, and panthers. She adored them. To any creature that needed it, she was their surrogate mother.

“I’ve led a remarkable, extremely privileged life with treasured memories,” Lynette recalls. “I’ve traveled the world and met incredible people—royalty, presidents, politicians, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, and so many more.”

When asked if she has a favorite person, Lynette responds, “No, each provided something special.” If you ask her if there is a person she hasn’t met that she would like to, she will tell you, “Yes! Jane Goodall or Maya Angelo.”

“One thing I am most proud of, especially in the early days, is that, although I was a woman in an entertainment industry dominated by men, I was able to break the glass ceiling during a time and an era in history when women were not in the forefront of management. As a strong working woman, I was quickly respected and treated as a person in charge.”

Today, three years later, Lynette is still mourning the loss of her nearly lifelong friends, who both passed away in 2020. “It’s been a challenging time. I haven’t quite got my head around it.”

While they are no longer with us, the magic duo lives on in Lynette, who brings her magic everywhere she goes and instills it in everything she touches.

Lynette’s home life is now far less exotic but still carries importance. She works with many non-profits across the valley, using her years of experience to advance causes forward. She is passionate about many things, including advocating for people to rescue dogs rather than buy them. She works closely with Hope for Prisoners and has been instrumental in organizing the Collaboration Center’s Night En Blanc gala this fall, honoring her small-in-stature, larger-than-life friend, Robert Dolan, and Cashman Photo.

Loving animals as much as Lynette does, she shares her home across from the Jungle Palace with her two schnauzers, Thelma and Louise, and a cockatoo named Serafina. She relaxes on her patio and watches her dogs romp and play, reaping the harvest of a well-lived life.

Lynette has led an astonishing life and is a piece of Las Vegas entertainment history. She means so much to many from all walks of life, not only to her friends and family but to magicians, artists, Siegfried & Roy enthusiasts, and the community of Las Vegas as a whole. No one compares. Lynette continues to live each day gracefully, elegantly, and with tremendous passion and gratitude, enriching the lives of all she touches, always bringing a sense of magic and illusion wherever she goes.

You may think of her as the EVIL QUEEN… but she is the EVIL QUEEN with the heart of a lioness.