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The staff at I.O.T.D. decided to give Gene a little vacation and take the week off. If he took my advice he would be sipping a daiquiri on an island somewhere. Knowing Gene, he’s probably at home digging up the history of something like the arodie mold instead. Either way, here is my big chance!
Today’s IOTD is another “clean-up” week where we have some data, but not enough for a full blown IOTD write-up all its own.
Ohio is one of those areas that is far out of my comfort zone and I was very glad when Jim Steffner contacted me a couple months ago asking if I had some chips and matchbooks to go into a book he is writing about gambling in the greater Cleveland area. Not only was I happy to help in any way I could, I was thrilled that maybe he could lend me a hand on some loose ends I had in Ohio.
When I talk about “boots on the ground” I’m referring to people who live in the area doing a little field work. Jim did just that. I would ask about a local area and he would get in his car and drive there. His knowledge about the area was immense and I really look forward to his book. I’m told it might be ready for the convention. Hopefully putting him on the spot will force it out sooner than later! HA! (He sent me some excerpts and I am really looking forward to seeing the finished product).
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Sent to:
J.R. Knapp
1778 – 9th St
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
1945
I got real lazy with this one. After looking around for a few minutes I gave up and asked Jim Steffner, my northern Ohio go-to expert, to take a look and see what he could dig up. It was the right call as he not only found me the club name, but drove up the address and snapped me a picture. What service!
Jim tracked down the address on the chip order. It was residential, and although city directories listed Joseph R. Knapp at 1717 – 9th St, it was obviously a printing error and the chip order address of 1778 9th was correct (that’s a first). The problem with home addresses is that it gives very little info about the clubs these guys ran. Again, Jim did some digging and found that at the time of the chip order Knapp was serving as secretary of an incorporated billiards parlor at 2219 Front called the “Clover Club”.
Knapp was listed as an officer of the club until 1950 when the Clover Club moved down the street and Knapp quit to start working as a floor polisher. There is probably a story there, but I can’t find it.
Our “Friend of the Hobby” managed to find this nighttime shot of downtown Cuyahoga Falls in the 1940s with the Clover Club shown at 2219 and its future address at 2239 Front St.
Jim snapped the picture below showing the building today. The red door is for 2219 Front which leads upstairs and was the address for the Clover Club.
Thanks Jim!
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Sent to:
T.A. Taylor
Mansfield, OH
1931
A look reveals that the owner of these chips must have been Tennis A. Taylor of Mansfield. I was having considerable difficulty putting together what was happening with Tennis until Jim came in to do a little snooping.
In the couple of years before the chips were ordered, Tennis Taylor and Ernest Cooper had a cigar store at 247 N. Mulberry in Mansfield. Another Cooper ran a billiards parlor next door.
At around the time the chips were ordered, the listings for the cigar store disappeared and the address was tagged as “vacant”. If these chips were used for illegal gambling, my bet is that they were used here at the former Taylor & Cooper cigar store. With a billiards hall next door and a vacant sign on the window, it seems the perfect set-up.
Jim did some stalking in Mansfield and took this shot. The old cigar store was at 247 N Mulberry and the billiards hall was on the end at 249.
In a couple years Tennis and Cooper would be listed as having regular jobs – Tennis as a salesman and Cooper as a clerk. The chips are in great shape so I don’t think they were used much. The end of the 1930s was not kind to Tennis as he was sued for neglect by his wife (too much poker maybe?) and divorced. He passed away in 1955.
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Sent to:
Garfield Café
1126 Garfield St
Middleton, OH
1944
Most of the information is given on the identification. I’m always a stickler for initials and I thought I would give this one a try. I got close, but unfortunately I could only identify the “H” and “L” owners of the café – Pruitt (sometimes spelled Prewitt) Hatton and Daniel Lawson. Who the “S” was I could not find.
Although there wasn’t anything gambling related that I turned up, I found it odd that once again we have a messy divorce. After 17 years, Sue Hatton was filing papers on her husband Pruitt claiming neglect and cruelty. What is it with these Ohio gamblers that they can’t give a little attention to their wives every now and then?
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This chip has been haunting me for a long time and I’ve put considerable time in trying to crack its secret. Unfortunately, the fruits of my labors have not given me much to work with as all efforts to find evidence of gambling was coming up empty. Whatever Richard Kajdasz was doing, he was doing it quietly.
All was not lost however. In the early 1950s, Estes Kefauver was on the hunt to stamp out organized crime and he focused hard on the illegal gambling business. He subpoenaed Taylor and Company and demanded that they answer questions about their business as well as hand over their customer address list. Luckily, Richard (Dick) Kajdasz was listed – twice… well sort of.
The first instance gives his address as 1002 Parkside Bend. This corresponds with his ordering a different chip hot stamped “Sparky”. (I’ve never seen these chips before, but would love to get one.)
I’m not sure what club this was for, or who this Sparky character is, but it shows Dick Kajdasz has a history of ordering chips.
So there is another listing in the customer addresses, but this one is a little harder to find. Instead of listing Kajdasz, we have to look for the address:
(Well… Loredo should be “Toledo” but that’s not too difficult to figure out.)
Finally! A match with something on the address. I normally like at least a couple connections, but so far I have a Kajdasz and Henry’s Bar of two different sources, but nothing together as a link. But then I was able to find one more independent source. I was able to find Richard Kajdasz’ son (who unfortunately passed away at the end of 2013) and asked him without giving him anything I already suspected. He said:
“Richard worked at Henry’s Bar on the corner of Dorr and Upton. It was owned by his father named Henry Morris.” I assume because of the last name that it was probably his father-in-law. I believe the story because it was given without any knowledge of what I had found.
There are some loose ends of course. The “D” on the chip is probably for Dick Kajdasz, but I don’t know what the “T” is for. It’s obviously not Henry Morris. Needs more work for sure.
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So that is all for this week’s IOTD. Hopefully this give you a little more info, even though none of them were homeruns.
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