Dave Brown sent me the yellow CR chip but he did not have info on it. Strange as he is one of my GO-TO guys for Chicago history.

Awhile later Mike Vuolo got some yellow and black on ebay and sent me the black one. Mike wanted to know what CR stood for. My answer, “No One Knows.” Mikes research on 750 Rush St came up empty. He could not find a name for CR either.

Mike should be along with chips to sell and or traders.

When all else fails, go to where you should have in the first place.

Enter our “Friend Of The Hobby.” He not only put a name to CR (IMO), he also placed the 750 Club inside the Colony Club as the high roller room. I have another story of chips with a Club name that only existed within another joint in Illinois to post, hopefully soon.

Special bonus: Bugsy Siegels’ future girlfriend Virginia Hill supposedly worked at the Colony during this time period.

Enough Of That:

Illinois:

Needs a little research as I want to know who CR was and which outfit was running it. Will post an update as soon as I get the info.

The above was posted on 10/4/10 in “Illegal Of The Day-Illinois 4.”

I sent the new CR research to Dave Brown. Here is his reply.

Gene
An interesting suggestion... 750 Club chips and Colony Club. It was a common practice to put a gambling operation in an adjoining space where customers could be taken after being vetted.

Descriptions of the Colony Club gambling rooms suggest they were "upstairs" and the apparent total lack of references to 750 Club are consistent with it being a private key club for Colony Club. Most of the Rush St night clubs advertised their shows and special new years events, etc... I have nothing on 750 Club in my files other than the chip order. "CR" as Charles Rosenberg? Maybe.

Nice work. If I find anything else I'll be sure to let you know.
Dave

I totally agree with Dave. The 750 Club was a high roller private gambling room in the Colony Club and the CR on the chips is Charles Rosenberg.

S Goldstone ordered the C with a Club pip Colony Club chips in 1939 same year as CR order. You will see Goldstones name below in an ad for the reopening of The Colony Club in 1939.

CR

I gave a good look for any reference to a 750 Club and couldn’t find any (tried Club 750, Seven-Fifty, Seven-Five-O, etc.). Also searched the address, 750 N. Rush, and couldn’t find any references to gambling there (also 750 North Rush, 750 Rush).

As you probably know, for many years Rush Street was a center of Chicago night life. When the chips were ordered in Nov.1939 the 700 block of Rush housed two of Chicago’s most popular night clubs: Club Alabam and the Colony Club. Both had fine dining, entertainment and gambling.

The Colony Club, at 744 Rush, was located in a building next to the one that housed 750 and the Club Alabam was located across the street at 747 Rush. Here’s a map from the 1940’s which shows the locations. 750 was in a 2 story building with a basement and was part of a structure which wrapped around the corner and went west on E. Chicago Ave. (building also housed 746 Rush). None of the structures on the map below still exist except the one housing 730 & 740 Rush.

Here’s a pic of a painting done in 1933 looking south down Rush St. from Chicago Ave.750 is located on the right where the CAFÉ sign is; the sign next to Café says LAUNDRY—there was a laundry at 746 in the late 20’s.The top of 744 can be seen above the 748/750 building—it was a private residence until the Colony Club opened there around 1935. Club Alabam can be seen across the street—the covered walkway leading to its entrance.

Here’s a pic of the outside of the Colony Club. The place had closed for remodeling in the summer of 1939 and reopened in Sept.1939—about two months before the 750 Club chip order.

here’s an ad for the reopening: Sonny Goldstone ordered the C with a Club pip chips in Part 1.

The Nicholas Dean named in the ad was an alias for a Chicago Outfit guy named Nick Circella. Circella was heavily involved in the Outfit’s well documented shakedown of the motion picture business. Supposedly, part of the money he got from the Outfit’s extortion was put into the Colony Club. Also, Bugsy Siegels’ future girlfriend Virginia Hill supposedly worked at the Colony during this time period.

Here’s a pic looking southeast across Chicago Ave. toward Rush which shows the Club Alabam—the large neon sign on the roof remained for years after the club closed in the 1960’s (it had opened in the 1920’s).

ad from Jan.1940 (a “Galaxy of Pulchritudinous Girls”):
My note: Can you imagine the uproar today if you used Hitler’s name in a Club ad promoting your joint!

In March 1941-16 months after the 750 chip order, the police cracked down on gambling in the neighborhood.

On March 6th they raided both the Colony Club and Club Alabam. A day later they raided a handbook operating on the second floor of 751 Rush—no raids mentioned at 750.The handbook was reportedly owned by a major Outfit gambling guy named Lawrence “Dago” Mangano but was operated by a guy named Charles Rosenberg—maybe a possibility for the CR on the 750 chip???? Later that same year Mangano was arrested in what was called a “nerve center” for neighborhood handbooks located at 59 E. Chicago—this was in the same building as 750 Rush (see map above).

My Note: AHA! “but was operated by a guy named Charles Rosenberg.”

Chicago Tribune—8march1941

Lot of info about Mangano online.
Sometime in the early 1940’s Mangano opened a place in the same building as 750 called the Bomb Shelter. It was located on the corner of Chicago & Rush. Here’s a pic—if the photo extended a little more to the left then 750 Rush could be seen:

So a lot of stuff going on around 750 Rush at the time of the chip order but I couldn’t come up with anything at 750.
Maybe some Chicago chippers can shed some light on this.
Another possible line of research would be to contact a descendant of the DuMolin family. The DuMolin’s were associated with 750 Rush as a residential address from the 1920’s to the 1950’s—I’m assuming the residential part of the address was on the 2nd floor. A widow Margaret DuMolin moved her family of 4 sons into the address in the 1920’s. I never saw any evidence that any of the DuMolin’s were involved with gambling. One son, Roger, seems to have lived at the address with his family into the 1950’s.

Roger’s daughter in 1957

We intend to try and contact Denice.