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() Fast forward a few years and we were at a smallish local flea market. Found an ashtray that advertised "Joe W. Brown's Horseshoe Club" in downtown Las Vegas. Wait...who?? I'd read a couple of books and articles on Las Vegas and thought I knew quite a bit about old LV (yeah...right! lol!), and I KNEW that Benny Binion had opened the Horseshoe and his son Jack still ran the place...so who in the heck was Joe W. Brown? So I bought the ashtray and took it home. Searched every book that we had about Vegas (probably about 3!) and couldn't find any mention of Joe W. Brown. Decided the ashtray must be some kind of souvenir thing...like the key chains that I had from some of the casinos, and more or less forgot about it.
One day we were at an antique/collectibles show and we were looking through some Nevada postcards. We weren't collecting anything at that point, but it was kinda' fun to look at the old cards and think about how LV had changed (Had a couple more trips under my belt by that time). Ran across a postcard that had the Horseshoe $1,000,000 display...HEY!! That says Joe W. Brown's Horseshoe on it!!!!???? That time when we got home I dug out a copy of the "Las Vegas Magazine", wrote a letter to Barney Vinson...the author of a couple of our books, and a contributing author to the magazine, and asked him "Who is or was Joe W. Brown?"...enclosed a copy of the postcard and sent it on its way. I also kept a copy of the postcard, we happened to be heading out to Vegas and I took the copy with us.
So we're in Vegas, at an antique shop on Industrial Drive (I think), and saw a Joe W. Brown ashtray! We asked the clerk if she knew anything about the tray or Joe W. Brown, and she didn't. She did, however, tell us that she knew who we needed to talk to. She left the room and came back with a gentleman. We asked him about Joe W. Brown and the ashtray, and showed him the copy of the postcard. He got all excited and said he had something to show us, and he ran up some stairs. He came back a few minutes later with a boxed game...it was a craps game from Joe W. Brown's Horseshoe Club!!! He then told us the story about Benny Binion having been sent up the river for income tax evasion, and Joe W. Brown running the Horseshoe while he was gone. He also told us that he knew the Binion family while he was growing up, and had helped the Binion kids put the parts into the game boxes!
A day or so later we were at the Gambler's General Store in Vegas. I saw the book by Art Anderson "Casinos and their Ashtrays". I looked in it to see if our Joe W. ashtray was shown, and it was!! The book said it was worth $12-$15...and I'd spent less than $1 for it...COOL!! What was REALLY cool though, is that the story about how Joe W. Brown got the Horseshoe was in the book...and there were other stories, too!!! I had to have that book.
Once we got home I dug out the box of ashtrays from 1981, and several were in the book. Some listed as $3-$4 values, a couple were $12=$15...and I'd picked 'em up for free !! So that started us collecting the casino ashtrays, usually at antique shows or flea markets and usually for less than $5. We used to see Bob Matthews at some of the shows and always looked at his ashtrays. He also had chips (more chips than ashtrays, actually, but I just wasn't interested in the chips ), and my hubby bought a couple of chips...El Rancho Vegas and Mizpah. Bob gave us an application to the CCGTCC, and it seemed like a good way to find out about other casino ashtray collectors...so I joined. And then we started buying more chips...as well as ashtrays...and postcards...and swizzle sticks...and decks of cards...and banks...and glassware...and china...and lighters...and dice...and.........and I eventually discovered that I love the casino stories as much as I love the 'stuff', so lots more books have been added to the collection!!
Sorry...didn't mean to write a novel!! 
Here's the ashtray that started it all...
It's Fun &
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