A few weeks ago I posted the B harp mold on the BB as a new to me California chip. I picked it up at the last Las Vegas chip show. No big deal.

Email from our “Friend Of The Hobby”.

“Saw your post about the B harp. You may already know this but the “E. Remer” on the order card is “Big-Time.”

Yes, I had heard of “Big Daddy” Elmer “Bones” Remmer. His name came up in connection with other San Francisco area chips but had never looked into him. CA illegal chips had never been my first sought out illegals. IMO, CA more than likely has way more chips issued than any other state outside of NV and the many legal card room chips are hard to differentiate from the illegals.

That opinion changed when the Sphinx’s with “SPX” chips on them were found. See “Illegal Of The Day” California 5 posted on 7/8/11. Geo B. Goldie ordered the SPX chips for a Los Angeles CA illegal at the same time he owned the Cal Neva in 1929, 12 years prior to Remmer’s orders for a San Francisco CA illegal while owning the Cal Neva in 1941. History has a funny way of repeating itself.

“Big Daddy’s” story follows and is a good one. Take the time to read his 1963 obit. Clara Bow, Rudy Vallee, funny dice and cards on the tables at the Cal Neva, the IRS, refilling name brand whisky bottles, Estes Kefauver Commission, and next on the mobs list as “The man most likely to succeed Bugsy Siegel in a very permanent status,” all played chapters in his life.

Enough of that:

California:

Bay area gambler Elmer “Bones” Remmer; the Stockton, CA address was his residential address at the time.

He also ordered these chips at the same time:

My note: The NV boys got all excited when they saw both “B” and Cal Neva orders together. Same day, same address and eerily close to the same orders. Did “Big Daddy” use the B’s at the Cal Neva? Could be but I cannot say that. He had several big operations going in the Bay area at the same time the Cal Neva “Castle In The Air” opened. The bad part of this story is we cannot pin the B chips down to which operation he used them in. My gut tells me one of the Bay area illegals he operated.

My note: I am wondering who P Pearl was that bought the 3 returned colors in 1942 and where he used them. I could not find P Pearl on the Taylor customer list. As you will see in a future series of posts on Illinois illegals, returned Taylor chips had a way of making it to East Cape Girardeau, IL.

Not long after the 2 orders:

ad announcing opening of 1941 season on June 28th 1941:

My note: For some reason I had it in my mind, the word “Gaming,” no B was a much more modern term. Here it is being used in 1941.

Remmer’s obit from June 1963:

“Big Daddy” Elmer “Bones” Remmer led a very colorful life including outlasting the mob as:
“The man most likely to succeed Bugsy Siegel in a very permanent status.”