When Fitzgerald and Sullivan re-opened the Nevada Club (from the former Robbins Nevada Club) in 1946, they operated about 20 table games and about 400 slot machines.
By April of 1952 the Nevada Club corporation grew by acquiring the Jacobs Building at 230 North Virginia Street, next door to the original Robbins Nevada Club.
The building which had a front footage of 17 feet and extended 140 feet back to Lincoln Alley, was annexed to the Nevada Club.
Lincoln Fitzgerald used the single-zero Roulette wheel instead of the usual double zero wheel. The single zero lowered the house advantage (sometimes called the vig, which represents the house's cut, or profit from which all overhead must be paid) from 5.26% to a meager 2.7%.
This single zero table attracted many roulette players, especially system players. The wheel stayed in use until the Nevada Club was sold to the the Las Vegas based Lincoln Management Group. The idea of offering a better chance to the customer would and still does send uninformed casino managers into fits of rage.
The Nevada Club was one of the first casinos to install a restaurant on its property. Its fine food and reasonable prices, along with its famous pies and desserts, made the Nevada Club a popular place to eat and gamble.
Business continued to grow. By 1955 the Nevada Club operated about 630 slot machines, 20 Blackjack 21 games, and four craps games.
Though the Nevada Club was smaller than Harolds Club or Harrah's, it had more slot machines, and about the same number of table games. Fitzgerald was one of the first casino operators to see the value of the slot machine.
The Nevada Club always featured Jennings slot machines, regarded as the Rolls Royce of slot machines by those knowledgeable in the industry. Fitzgerald had brought Jennings machines with him from Detroit. They were the most robust, and also the most expensive machines available. Most all the other clubs used either the Mills or Pace machines, and an occasional Buckley or other re-vamps.
In October 1955 the Nevada Club introduced the new four-reel Jennings Buckaroo slot machines. Many of them were still in use in the Nevada Club when it closed in 1997. They were advertised as the first machines with "no lemons or other blanks." A player could win $5,000 with a $1 bet.
The Nevada Club was also famous for the way it paid jackpots. Slot machines in those days prevented the machines from dropping the total amount of a full jackpot, so the casino change person hand-paid the customer with currency.
At the Nevada Club machines dropped twenty coins when a jackpot hit, and the balance of the payout, in coins, was prepackaged in a brown paper bag bearing the Nevada Club logo and handed to the winner. Naturally, with all those coins instantly available to them, many customers played their winnings right back into the machines.
The Jennings slot machines in the Nevada Club were very popular with local players. During the 1950s and 1960s the Nevada Club had as much local slot play as any casino in town.
Fitz and Danny Sullivan had been running a casino since the 1930's, and unlike many of the competition in town, had been doing it successfully. It is clear that compared to the other management teams in Reno, they had the upper hand in terms of casino experience, and it showed in the operation of the Nevada Club from the outset.
Unlike other clubs in Reno, the Nevada Club began in 1946 as a casino, not a saloon, or Bingo parlor. While Harolds Club grew its Western theme and added attractions such as the gun collection, the Nevada Club simply capitalized on the tremendous growth of the post-war boom period.
While Harrah's Club turned the corner from Bingo club, to being an upscale destination with the best amenities, the Nevada Club paid attention to costs, hold, drop, while offering good games with good percentages for the player, and investing where appropriate such as in the Nevada Club restaurant.
While the casino restaurant is commonplace today, the Nevada Club restaurant was among the first inside a casino, and provided excellent food, and was well known for such things as having fresh pastries, a signature item of Fitzgerald's.
Compared to other Reno casinos, the Nevada Club enjoyed keeping many longtime employees. Among the dealers and other casino workers, the Nevada Club was seen as a career destination. Many employees spent 20 or more years at the club.
Fitzgerald was known as "Fitz" or "Boss" to his staff and others in the industry. Especially compared to other operations, Fitz was seen as a tough, no-nonsense boss. This however was a requirement for any successfull casino operation, and avoided much of the trouble experienced in more loosely run operations where cash was known to flow outside with less than 100% honest employees.
The casino business is a tough business, and requires a tough hand to manage with success.
A dealer at the Nevada Club was not permitted to leave the club during their shift. Unlike Harolds Club which actually encouraged husband-wife employment on same shift, such familiarization was not permitted at the Nevada Club.
As in all casinos at the time, anyone suspected of violating any rules of employment, or jeopardizing the club's integrity were fired on the spot. On the other hand, Fitzgerald personally interviewed every prospective employee. The Nevada Club had a pay scale which liberally rewarded long-term employees.
Employees were forbidden to tell anyone how much they earned, but it was was well known around the downtown casinos that "Fitz was good pay."
In many respects, Fitzgerald and the Nevada Club were the direct opposite of Bill Harrah and Harrah's Club next door. Where Harrah was absent much of the time, Fitz was onsite every day, being very hands-on in every aspect of the operation.
In contrast to many other smaller clubs in Reno and certainly all over Nevada, Fitzgerald ran a clean and honest operation. Fitz knew too well how sloppy employee relations could bankrupt an operation, and worked very hard to make the Nevada Club one of the most open and honest casino operations in Nevada. Fitzgerald never had any hint of trouble in any regard with the smooth, legal, and above-board operation of his three casinos, which eventually spelled nothing but good for employees and other Reno citizens.
From 1956 until 1983, The Nevada Club and later the Nevada Lodge and Fitzgerald's Hotel and Casino were run on a daily basis by Lincoln and Meta Fitzgerald. There was no Board of Directors, partners, or Corporate Staff to help out. Time off and vacations for The Boss were short and infrequent. The dedication and work involved in such an enterprise is a true testament to the Fitzgerald's ethic.
Fitz allowed no "Heein and Sheein" and often has his security people check local bars and spots to find employees out with other employees.
If you got fired, he sent a telegram.
He fired one 21 dealer who he "heard" was practicing dealing "seconds" at home. He never hired anyone who had the reputation as a "mechanic."
Fitz trained many of the dealers in Nevada, and preferred it that way. They learned how to deal HIS WAY. Harold and Fitz originally were about the only two who did that. There were no "schools" to learn how to deal. I am sure there are still a few around Nevada who got their start with Fitz.
He never hired, as trainees, anyone who had been a cab driver or a bartender.
He payed his dealers with little brown envelopes, IN CASH.
Showing posts with label chesterfield club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chesterfield club. Show all posts
Saturday, June 20, 2009
More history
Seeking refuge from legal prosecution in Michigan, on March 22, 1946 Lincoln Fitzgerald, Danny Sullivan, Mert Wertheimer, and Ruby Mathis became partners with Harry and Ed Robbins in "Robbins Nevada Club" in Reno Nevada, shortening the name to simply The Nevada Club. The Robbins' had opened Robbins' Nevada Club in April of 1941 at 224 North Virginia Street.
Lincoln Fitzgerald had been chums with Danny Sullivan and George Weinbrenner since their youth. The three had come from St. Louis to Detroit in the early 20's following the allure of then wide-open Detroit.
After launching the Nevada Club in 1946, Mathis and Wertheimer left the partnership.
By 1949 Mathis and Wertheimer had taken over management of the Riverside Hotel and casino, which they eventually purchased in 1955.
The Wertheimer brothers sold the Riverside in 1958, and both died shortly thereafter.
In 1959 Ruby Mathis bought a portion of the Horseshoe Club across from the Nevada Club, and remained a partner there until it was sold in 1967. Mathis died in Reno in March 1986.
Danny Sullivan, Ed Robbins, and Lincoln Fitzgerald remained partners in the Nevada Club, forming an ownership corporation in 1952. Danny Sullivan died in 1956, and at that time Lincoln Fitzgerald bought out Robbins to become the sole owner of the Nevada Club. Until his death, Danny Sullivan had been the General Manager and Fitzgerald the Casino Manager in the partnership.
George Weinbrenner who grew up with Sullivan and Fitzgerald in St. Louis and went with them to the Detroit area to seek fortune becoming one of the 3 partners in the Chesterfield Club, became the successful owner of the B.C. Wills Company. The B.C. Wills Company was a large gambling supply house, operating in Reno from 1955.
After leaving the Chesterfield partnership with Sullivan and Fitzgerald in 1929, Weinbrenner (known to the Detroit press as "Dutch" Weinbrenner) concentrated on the gambling supplies business. He produced a high quality die and other items for casinos. Funnily enough, the name of the company came from the building Weinbrenner acquired for his business. As "Weinbrenner" was too big for the signs, and it was cheaper to keep those already on the building, Weinbrenner's company acquired the name B.C. Wills. Weinbrenner died in 1949 at age 58, and his son Paul continued to operate the B.C. Wills company after him.
By the late 1940's it seemed that all of the once-illegal gambling machine out of Detroit had relocated to Reno, and become a legitimate operation, free from the harassment of the mob, and the need to pay off the local officials for back-door favors. What it must have been like to finally be in business where a Cop at the door would be more for you and your patron's protection than to put the bite on you.
Fitzgerald had brought with him to Reno many items from the Chesterfield Club, among which were slot machines, tables, and other equipment of the trade such as gambling checks, or chips. These chips with interleaved "CC" on them are highly sought collectibles today, reminders of an interesting past.
Oddly enough,we used to vacation in northern Michigan at Burt Lake and Mullett Lake. Wertheimer had a cabin next to one we rented. Many of the other "members" had cabins on Mullett Lake. Fitz, who hired me some 20 years later, vacationed on Mullett Lake. Small world.
Lincoln Fitzgerald had been chums with Danny Sullivan and George Weinbrenner since their youth. The three had come from St. Louis to Detroit in the early 20's following the allure of then wide-open Detroit.
After launching the Nevada Club in 1946, Mathis and Wertheimer left the partnership.
By 1949 Mathis and Wertheimer had taken over management of the Riverside Hotel and casino, which they eventually purchased in 1955.
The Wertheimer brothers sold the Riverside in 1958, and both died shortly thereafter.
In 1959 Ruby Mathis bought a portion of the Horseshoe Club across from the Nevada Club, and remained a partner there until it was sold in 1967. Mathis died in Reno in March 1986.
Danny Sullivan, Ed Robbins, and Lincoln Fitzgerald remained partners in the Nevada Club, forming an ownership corporation in 1952. Danny Sullivan died in 1956, and at that time Lincoln Fitzgerald bought out Robbins to become the sole owner of the Nevada Club. Until his death, Danny Sullivan had been the General Manager and Fitzgerald the Casino Manager in the partnership.
George Weinbrenner who grew up with Sullivan and Fitzgerald in St. Louis and went with them to the Detroit area to seek fortune becoming one of the 3 partners in the Chesterfield Club, became the successful owner of the B.C. Wills Company. The B.C. Wills Company was a large gambling supply house, operating in Reno from 1955.
After leaving the Chesterfield partnership with Sullivan and Fitzgerald in 1929, Weinbrenner (known to the Detroit press as "Dutch" Weinbrenner) concentrated on the gambling supplies business. He produced a high quality die and other items for casinos. Funnily enough, the name of the company came from the building Weinbrenner acquired for his business. As "Weinbrenner" was too big for the signs, and it was cheaper to keep those already on the building, Weinbrenner's company acquired the name B.C. Wills. Weinbrenner died in 1949 at age 58, and his son Paul continued to operate the B.C. Wills company after him.
By the late 1940's it seemed that all of the once-illegal gambling machine out of Detroit had relocated to Reno, and become a legitimate operation, free from the harassment of the mob, and the need to pay off the local officials for back-door favors. What it must have been like to finally be in business where a Cop at the door would be more for you and your patron's protection than to put the bite on you.
Fitzgerald had brought with him to Reno many items from the Chesterfield Club, among which were slot machines, tables, and other equipment of the trade such as gambling checks, or chips. These chips with interleaved "CC" on them are highly sought collectibles today, reminders of an interesting past.
Oddly enough,we used to vacation in northern Michigan at Burt Lake and Mullett Lake. Wertheimer had a cabin next to one we rented. Many of the other "members" had cabins on Mullett Lake. Fitz, who hired me some 20 years later, vacationed on Mullett Lake. Small world.
More history
Organized crime of the 1920's was exemplified by the Al Capone gang in Chicago, and the Purple Gang and Chesterfield Syndicate in Detroit.
In the 20's, a syndicate would create and work a profitable craps game, or gambling establishment. A syndicate would be associated with the legitimate political authorities of that particular jurisdiction, which would give them more or less a monopoly to operate in the local area. A place wouldn't operate unless they had the permission of the authorities. Nobody would be foolish enough to open an expensive gambling house knowing that the authorities might find it the next day, just to put them out of business, or just to put the bite on them. You just wouldn't do that.
Competing syndicates might divide up the territory. It is a matter of record in Chicago that they even had conferences between the gangsters to divide the territory. When you get into somebody else's territory, then you are in trouble. For example in Chicago, if you wanted to operate a gambling establishment, you first went to the ward committeeman. You would ask to operate a place at such-and-such an address, and the ward committeeman would say, "All right. I will think it over." The ward committeeman would contact the syndicate's representative. The syndicate's representative in this particular area said either "He can go at that address" or "He can't go." If he can go, the syndicate would get 60 percent of the total profits. They put their own man in the place to make certain they got the 60 percent of the profits. All of the protection, everything, was handled by the syndicate.
Mert Wertheimer was the head of the Chesterfield syndicate, concentrating its activities in Macomb County Michigan, near Detroit. It was once politically powerful in Michigan. Mert Wertheimer was by many accounts part of the Purple Gang of Jewish gangsters, so one could assume that the Chesterfield Syndicate operated at least by permission of the Purple Gang.
Mert Wertheimer had been one of America's biggest gamblers. For a time, he was in partnership in Florida with some of the most notorious gangsters of the Nation, including Joe Adonis, alias Joe Doto, Meyer Lansky, Jake Lansky, Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo, and Frank Erickson, of the Frank Costello mob in New York. These men, together with Wertheimer, operated the Colonial Inn, at that time an elaborate gambling place at Hallandale, Fla.
Next to Wertheimer, Lincoln Fitzgerald was the most powerful member of the Chesterfield syndicate. Other members of the syndicate included Lefty Clark, Red Gorman, Mike Brunton, Al Driscoll, and Daniel Sullivan.
The Chesterfield Club gambling house was operated in Chesterfield Township until 1929 by George "Dutch" Weinbrenner, Danny Sullivan and Linc Fitzgerald, who had moved to the Detroit area in the 20's. Eventually Weinbrenner disagreed with Fitzgerald on club operations, and sold his interest to the other two who operated the club until 1946. Though technically illegal, the Chesterfield Club was a full blown casino with numerous slot machines and table games such as craps and 21. Illegal gaming was very popular in many states in the U.S. through the depression era, and was accepted as a fact of life.
I have two of the CC Chesterfield Club blue $20's next to me as sI write this. When I hold them in my hand I can almost feel who all could have held them. They almost radiate with history.
In the 20's, a syndicate would create and work a profitable craps game, or gambling establishment. A syndicate would be associated with the legitimate political authorities of that particular jurisdiction, which would give them more or less a monopoly to operate in the local area. A place wouldn't operate unless they had the permission of the authorities. Nobody would be foolish enough to open an expensive gambling house knowing that the authorities might find it the next day, just to put them out of business, or just to put the bite on them. You just wouldn't do that.
Competing syndicates might divide up the territory. It is a matter of record in Chicago that they even had conferences between the gangsters to divide the territory. When you get into somebody else's territory, then you are in trouble. For example in Chicago, if you wanted to operate a gambling establishment, you first went to the ward committeeman. You would ask to operate a place at such-and-such an address, and the ward committeeman would say, "All right. I will think it over." The ward committeeman would contact the syndicate's representative. The syndicate's representative in this particular area said either "He can go at that address" or "He can't go." If he can go, the syndicate would get 60 percent of the total profits. They put their own man in the place to make certain they got the 60 percent of the profits. All of the protection, everything, was handled by the syndicate.
Mert Wertheimer was the head of the Chesterfield syndicate, concentrating its activities in Macomb County Michigan, near Detroit. It was once politically powerful in Michigan. Mert Wertheimer was by many accounts part of the Purple Gang of Jewish gangsters, so one could assume that the Chesterfield Syndicate operated at least by permission of the Purple Gang.
Mert Wertheimer had been one of America's biggest gamblers. For a time, he was in partnership in Florida with some of the most notorious gangsters of the Nation, including Joe Adonis, alias Joe Doto, Meyer Lansky, Jake Lansky, Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo, and Frank Erickson, of the Frank Costello mob in New York. These men, together with Wertheimer, operated the Colonial Inn, at that time an elaborate gambling place at Hallandale, Fla.
Next to Wertheimer, Lincoln Fitzgerald was the most powerful member of the Chesterfield syndicate. Other members of the syndicate included Lefty Clark, Red Gorman, Mike Brunton, Al Driscoll, and Daniel Sullivan.
The Chesterfield Club gambling house was operated in Chesterfield Township until 1929 by George "Dutch" Weinbrenner, Danny Sullivan and Linc Fitzgerald, who had moved to the Detroit area in the 20's. Eventually Weinbrenner disagreed with Fitzgerald on club operations, and sold his interest to the other two who operated the club until 1946. Though technically illegal, the Chesterfield Club was a full blown casino with numerous slot machines and table games such as craps and 21. Illegal gaming was very popular in many states in the U.S. through the depression era, and was accepted as a fact of life.
I have two of the CC Chesterfield Club blue $20's next to me as sI write this. When I hold them in my hand I can almost feel who all could have held them. They almost radiate with history.
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