Westen Charles sent me The Cellar Club chips earlier this year. They were UFC's as far as we could tell. Weston started the research by contacting the seller who was the granddaughter of the owner of The Cellar Club. Over the following months I received a number of emails from Westen, Mike Spinetti, and our "Friend Of The Hobby" with bits and pieces of research. I called Mike Spinetti and we had lunch earlier this week. I hope I have cobbled the research together so the flow is readable. As you will read Jackson, CA was wide open gambling. Newspapers called it "Little Reno," depending on who was in the California Attorney General's office.

Here is what we have so far.... I got the chips from the granddaughter of one of the owners. Turns out she used to date Mike Spinetti in the 60's. lol... Small world in Jackson. I'll send another email with a couple more clips.

The Amador County archives has these items as part of their collection:

photo--

matchbook--

Here’s a current aerial view of Main St. The red X is 220 N. Main; the red arrow shows the point where the photographer was located in the image of Main St. you sent.

Heard back from the Amador County Archives. They sent a scan of the matchbook (they said they don’t normally send scans, but they made an exception—lucky us .

Matchbook says “Ray and Art” which would be Platz and Melanie. Gives the address as 111 Main St.--which is different than the 220 Main St. which we have as the address.
However, I checked an old map of Jackson and what is today 220 Main used to be 111 Main.

Also, when I was looking through some Jackson stuff I kept seeing the name Spinetti. Ad from 1949:

It’s kind of an unusual name and one I’ve seen on TheChipBoard and on eBay, belonging to Mike Spinetti of Spinetti’s Gaming Supply. Turns out it’s the same Spinetti family. Mike Spinetti was mayor of Jackson.

If you contact Mike he might be able to give you some good info.
Post on TCB: http://www.thechipboard.com/archives/archives.pl/bid/305/md/read/id/163458/sbj/yip-s-illegal-s-casino-s-and-more/

Also, I saw a source say that the “Hair Cellar” was once located at 220 North Main St., right on the edge of downtown. Not sure if this is where the Cellar Club was located.

My note: I contacted Mike. He has helped me in the past with Jackson illegal chips.

Gene...just got home today from the summer in Jackson last couple months. Some of what is in the research is not correct. I don't type fast enough to write all the corrections. But the idea is correct, town was wide open, really didn't close down till 1958. I was born in 1949, and remember eating at most of these places so I know my date is much closer to be right. Will be around the next 4 months. Knee deep in crap for next couple days. But after that, will be wide open days if you want to do lunch sometime....mike

My note:

Mike was the Mayor of Jackson for 16 years from 1972-88. He still owns a number of properties there including several businesses. Most of the illegals of the era were nice family restaurants with swinging doors into the full blown gambling rooms. The term "Little Reno" was common in those days. In 2001 Mike came to the Palms for lunch with me. He brought me chips from The Bank Club and roulette chips The Louvre.

A few more Jackson illegals Mike could remember:
The R&R
Pioneer Rex
The Louvre
Bank Club
Club Mil-Mar - Dice depicted on the tray.
Appears nothing was hidden in Jackson.

Back to the research.

I did find a little info on Melani and Platz. Arthur Augustus “Art” Melanie was born in Italy in 1890 and was brought to California by his apparently widowed mother a few years later. Shortly thereafter his mother married Virgil Belluomini, the son of an early settler of Jackson, CA. Belluomini operated a saloon in Jackson as well as various other enterprises. By the 1930’s Melani had moved to the Oakland area where he resided until the early 1950’s when he returned to Jackson, dying there in 1977.

Around 1921 Raymond William “Ray” Platz (born 1896 in Oklahoma) moves to California and marries Elise Belluomini, Art Melani’s step-sister. Art and Elise lived in Sacramento for most of the 1920’s-1940’s. Art operated a café called “Bridge Lunch” there for most of the 1940’s. Around 1950 Ray and Elise appear to leave Sacramento and go to Jackson where Ray dies in 1982.

In 1948 a place called the “Cellar Recreation Club” was registered as a business in California, but I’m not sure if this is the one in Jackson.

I’ve attached a pdf file of a 1979 oral history interview of an old Jackson resident talking about the gambling places there. He doesn’t mention the Cellar Club by name but he says there was a bar and gambling place down Main Street next to the Krabbenhoft Building. The place that we think was the location of the Cellar Club was next to the Krabbenhoft Building.

My note: If you want to read the interview email me and I will email it. poker4@cox.net.

a few more pics of Main St. in Jackson, both from 1947:

looking north:

looking south (at the end of the street is the National Hotel; I saw several references to John Wayne, while taking a break from shooting a movie, getting involved in a high stakes poker game there and losing big):

My note: I bet John Wayne "Losing Big" in a poker game was not depicted in the movie.

Article from 1951:

My note.

The 2 part article is a little hard to read but well worth the time.
The republican Attorney General closed the casino operations in Jackson pre 1951. Democrat Pat Brown took over the AG's office on Jan 8, 1951. That night the operators in Jackson started getting their operations ready and opened the gambling full bore on Jan 11, 1951.

If you have never visited Spinetti's, I highly recommend it on your next visit to Las Vegas. You will not be disappointed. If it is gambling related, Mike will have it.

Mike has been a friend for many years. I've known him since the 1980's and my days at the Four Queens. He is a pretty good poker player and hopefully someday he will catch up with his lovely wife's poker playing skills. She is a 2 time WSOP bracelet winner.