This is a cut & paste from an article that I wrote several years ago for the Club magazine...

The Northern Club and Mayme Stocker-Las Vegas

In 1911 Oscar Stocker arrived in Las Vegas, with his wife Mayme and their three sons. With no streets or sidewalks and no flowers, grass or trees, Las Vegas seemed to be on the doorstep of hell. Still, tired of moving every few years because of Oscar’s job with the railroad, the Stockers vowed to stay in Las Vegas as long as possible. Like other members of the community, they hiked to the “Old Ranch” on hot summer days, to picnic and spend a few hours relaxing in the shade of the big trees that surrounded the ranch house. They listened to Ben Emrick and his band performing on Saturday nights, they cooled off at Ladd’s Swimming Pool on East Fremont Street and they went to the Princess Theater to watch movies.

The 18th amendment went into law in 1920, forbidding the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors. The law was widely disregarded by the thousands of speakeasies that operated throughout the country. The Stockers opened the Northern Club on Mayme’s birthday, September 5, 1920; to those in the know, the name indicated that they offered more than just soft drinks. Since the railroad frowned on their employees being involved in anything like drinking or gambling, Mayme was the owner of the club. The Stockers served only mixed drinks insuring that, in the event of a federal raid, they couldn’t be accused of selling liquor…at least not without the proof from a costly analysis While wide-open gambling wasn’t legalized until 1931, there were five games that were legal before that: stud, draw, and lowball poker, as well as “500” and bridge. During the 1920’s, The Northern offered those games under the guidance of Mayme’s son Harold, who had learned to deal the games when he was 17; he’d spent the summer working at a casino in Tijuana, where there were no age restrictions.

Mayme’s son Lester was a professional gambler who was trying to get wide-open gambling legalized in Nevada. According to his brother Harold, Lester had tried but failed to get it passed in 1925, 1927 and 1929. In 1930 Lester called a meeting with some club owners, businessmen and politicians. The meeting, shrouded in secrecy, was held at a table in the back of the Northern Club. Reportedly an un-named person said “If I had some money to spread around, I could probably get it done.” The Stockers and their partners contributed much of the $10,000 that was requested. Harold didn’t know (or care) where the money went from there, but Phil Tobin introduced the gambling bill, and it was passed. In a 1970 interview Tobin said that all he made from the deal was three bottles of scotch…he was “just plumb sick and tired of seeing gamblin’ going on all over the state, payoffs being made all over the place”. On March 19, 1931, wide-open gambling was legalized. It only seems appropriate that the first gambling license issued in Clark County went to Mayme Stocker and the Northern Club, which was located at 15 Fremont Street. According to Fuller’s Index, the Club was licensed for 21, craps, roulette, poker and pan.

Harold and his brothers ran the club, while Mayme ran the hotel that was above the club. In 1943 the Stockers leased out the casino, which was renamed the Turf Club and Bar, but Clarence Stocker continued to operate the hotel. Mayme Stocker passed away in 1972, at the age of 97.
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Some of these pictures are from our collection...some were found online (most of the early B&W ones).... Any of them that were published as part of the article looked a lot better with the article, thanks to Todd Barrett (editor at that time ). Apologies in advance for any that should have been resized for the Chipboard...