This was just sent to me. Although there was no gaming I am going to include it on the Ashtray Site because of the history.

What Dwayne Kling had to say is below and picture below that.

Ironically, Vince Hanlon just died a few weeks ago. There was an obit in the paper, but I didn't cut it out as there was no gaming connection. Today was recycle day and all my old papers were carried away about ten minutes before I read your letter, so I lost the obit. I will see if I can find the obit at the library. The Harold Smith is the same Harold Smith associated with Harolds Club. As I recall, Hanlon and Harold were friends and Harold wanted a place where he could go drink and socialize away from his casino. While there he did not have to worry about Pappy keeping an eye on him while he was drinking and he could play the role of VIP. He had a large ego that needed to be satisfied and the Siamese Room was one way he could do that. It was originally called "The Siamese Room" and was usually referred to only as The Siamese Room (without Harold's name being mentioned). Harold was a lover of Siamese cats and owned several at one time or another. I see by various postings that you have the address and the phone number. The First Street location is not that close to the former location of Harolds Club. If you look at Map #2 in the appendix of my book, The Rise, etc. it was located on First St. about where the S is in St. You can see it was pretty close to the Mapes Hotel and about 2 1/2 blocks from Harolds Club.

I was only in the bar one time, and that had to be in 1957 or 58. It was just a small little bar with probably 12-14 stools and a couple of cocktail tables.

Mark