Punched in "Vegas" as I remembered that they had covered that town several times and poked around for a few minutes. Hit the jackpot so to speak when I entered a search for my favorite Nevada city, Reno!
Actually I was puzzled by a bunch of photos simply titled "Reno Burglary". Pics of a big old stone house and various individuals I took to be cops since it was probably a crime story. The "Burglary" photos were taken in 1952 and were associated with pics of roulette wheels. Well, looking at the house and its construction did jog a thought. Nailed It! Entered the pertinent words into the regular Google search and guess what? Levere Redfield's Reno home was burgaled in 1952!
Redfield as you may know was an eccentric millionaire who lived in Reno. As I understand the story, he'd made his fortune in silver mining and had a real prediliction for silver. He was Reno's biggest high roller at the time and he loved playing at Lincoln Fitzgerald's Nevada Club. Had his own chips and the Club let him spin the wheel and throw the ball whenever he appeared. I gather that Redfield didn't look like a millionaire and that new employees often mistook him for a street vagrant when he'd come in the door. Redfield and Fitz apparently agreed on the value of the NN wheel chips that Redfield used. In Redfield's eyes, the real beauty of the arrangement was collecting his winnings. He loved that Fitz would pay off with bags of silver dollars...ahhh, silver! Guards would deliver the bags to Redfield's stone mansion in Reno and throw them down a coal chute to the basement. After Redfield passed away, these hoarded dollars were discoved in a secret room or wall in the basement and their appearance on the market set the collector world atilt for awhile.
Might be worthwhile to check out the Life photos, I found one from 1942 titled, "A police officer locking the entrance door to the Red Light Distrcit gambling room." Must have been before Spellcheck. Found a very cool pic of Lincoln Alley featuring the Reno Casino and lots of pics of Bill Harrah. Found out the dustjacket photo on Kling's oral history of Harrah, Every Light Was On was a Life job.
Something else. I spent a lot of time this weekend helping my ladyfriend move. She told me that she had to have a Reno "police card" to work in Harrah's accounting dept back when Bill was still alive. Did she still have the card? Nope, long gone. Anyone get a scan of one of those items? I've never seen one and think it would be interesting for folks to see.
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