Enter our "Friend Of The Hobby."

A new twist Request for chip info came in reverse.

Our "Friend of the Hobby" emailed "ME" asking if I needed a FMR, ED, and FD in a horseshoe hubs. He had a bad scan from a seller. Looked like ED with partially wore off D. He ask if I happened to have the ID's. I did. I sent them. Yes I needed the chips!

Special note: To a special friend. Remember this day as the day I warned you about the "Slippery Slope." Sorry I could not resist a small practical joke only 5 people in the world will get.

BTW you can look for Future "Illegal Of The Day" posts on the FMR and FD in horseshoe chips. FMR is Ivy Miller/Benny Binion/Southland Hotel/Dallas. FD in Horseshoe is a new Houston illegal.

A little explanation: L's and D's on worn hubs can be a little tricky. Some L's have what I call phantom lines on the hot stamps. You almost have to have the chip in hand and a loupe to tell them apart. There are a couple other letters in this font that have similar phantom lines.

Second email about the chips:
Chips arrived.

While I was packing up the FMR, ED & FD horseshoe hubs to take to the post office tomorrow I stopped and took a closer look at the ED—I’m not sure it’s ED. All 6 six chips are very worn.
Of the 12 different sides to the 6 chips, the 3 hot stamps below are probably the clearest. It looks to me more like EL. What do you think?

My note: By golly I think he is right. The actual letters hand written on the original Mason record proved it. My fault. I did not look at the written letters only the actual hot stamp with the phantom lines.
All of a sudden we have a new Galveston illegal instead of a new California chip. That should make the Texas boys happy. Three new Texas illegals in one day, may be a 1st.

Enough of that:

Texas:

EL
C.A. Evans
Elite Restaurant
2208 Ave D
Galveston, TX
6/16/1934

The Elite Restaurant, or Elite Café, was opened by Nicholas Ballich on Market Street (Ave D) on October 25th 1900—45 days after the devastating Hurricane of 1900 had destroyed much of the city and left thousands dead. Ballich was still running the Elite when Clarence A. Evans had the EL chips delivered to the Café in June of 1934. Evans, an Illinois native, moved to Galveston in the early 1910’s from Tyler, Texas where he had operated a billiard hall and upon his arrival at the Texas coast he did the same thing (initially with his father Albert who owned a couple of pool halls).

A few months prior to Evan’s 1934 order, the Elite had been completely renovated:

It’s possible that the new “special room at the rear for private parties” was the Elite Club.
--snip from the 1934 city directory:

One of the reasons the Elite was remodeled is that it needed to keep up with its new neighbor, the Turf Grill, which had just opened in October 1933:

Here’s a pic of Market Street from the 1910’s. A sign for the Elite at 2208 can be seen on the right. In 1934 the building which housed the Turf Grill at 2216 also housed the Turf Cigar Stand at 2214 and on the 3rd floor Sam Maceo’s Turf Gymnasium. The building would be the HQ for the Maceo’s enterprises for many years and would be the home of many of their gambling operations including the Western Room and Studio Lounge.

postcard of Turf Grill:

In March 1937 a fire destroyed the building which sat between the Elite and the Turf. The building had recently been purchased by the Maceo’s and they were storing numerous new slot machines and other gambling equipment there which was all destroyed by the fire. Neither the Turf nor the Elite was hurt by the flames but the Elite was damaged when the building which burned collapsed and fell on its roof.

After the fire Ballich moved the Elite from the downtown location it had occupied for 37 years to a new spot on the beachfront at 3502 Seawall Boulevard. Ballich died in 1946 and the Elite closed down in 1953. Evans seems to have disappeared from Galveston around the time of the Elite’s move in 1937.

My note: The Maceo’s and the Fertitta's were the two big operators of illegals in the Galveston area. Similar to other illegal operators from Northern KY, Detroit, etc, when the "Era Of The Illegals" ended, the Fertitta's moved on to Las Vegas and their heirs now own Station Casinos, the biggest company by far, catering to the "Local's" market in Las Vegas.