DOCSLIB.ORG

Universfty of HAWAI'l LIBRARY By

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Universfty of HAWAI'l LIBRARY By _._~~-.~._-_..,--_.,_._----_.- '-'.- ---._._-. _. ----~-----,- UNIVERSfTY OF HAWAI'l LIBRARY WOMEN OF THE STRIP: A GENDERED HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAll IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN mSTORY DECEMBER 2002 By Darlene B. Dunston Thesis Committee: Margot A. Henriksen, Chairperson Louise McReynolds Robert McGlone COPYRIGHT © 2002, Darlene B. Dunston iii Acknowledgments The i4eas in this thesis evolved with the support and encouragement ofa great number ofpeople. First and foremost, I am extremely grateful to Mimi Hemiksen, my thesis advisor and mentor, who had faith in me. Her intellectual guidance, support, insightful comments and editorial suggestions improved this thesis immeasurably. I would also like to thank Louise McReynolds for her scholarly guidance and for her encouragement to keep writing. I am also grateful to Robert McGlone for all ofhis erudite advice and for his understanding during all ofthe challenges I faced. I want to offer special thanks to Joyce Marshall, who not only assisted me in my research work in the special collections at the University ofNevada Las Vegas' Lied Library, but who also shared with me her working experiences as a Las Vegas cocktail waitress. She proved to be very insightful and her observations helped to shape my understanding ofwomen in Las Vegas. I would also like to thank the entire staffat Lied Library's special collections for their assistant during my research. I am also thankful to the many friends and family members who offered their support in various ways. I am especially grateful to Gail Levy, my first college instructor at Leeward Community College, who has academically encouraged me since that first semester. I would also like to thank my parents, John and Violet Dunston, who always had words ofpraise. Also, I am grateful for my daughter, Shayna Ashley, who cared enough to listen, especially when I IV thought I had had enough and then encouraged me to continue. She also tirelessly helped me to copy hundreds ofpages ofresearch material while on vacation in Las Vegas. My nieces Shannon Han and Jessica Puchert also believed in me and offered many loving words that helped me through some of my darkest days. In addition, I would like to thank the staffin the Department of History, Pauline Sugiura, Margaret Hattori, Susan Abe, and Gwen Agina for their assistance throughout my graduate career. They helped to make my days very enjoyable. Last but certainly not least, I wish to thank my best friend and biggest supporter, Elaine Doi, whose encouragement, involvement, and understanding are what truly helped me throughout my entire academic career. Elaine, thank you for continuing to believe in me. v Abstract This thesis offers a gendered history ofLas Vegas. It does so by investigating the histories ofwomen workers in Las Vegas, especially showgirls, cocktail waitresses, and casino card dealers. It also does so by exposing the masculine political economy ofLas Vegas that restricted women to the realm of sex workers or rendered them invisible in histories ofLas Vegas. Showgirls and cocktail waitresses were shadowed by the image ofsex and prostitution for decades. In contrast, female blackjack dealers had to divorce themselves from sexuality in order to gain employment in a field with direct male competition. Women in Las Vegas had to learn to live between sexual extremes and to inhabit what one scholar termed their "liminal space" in Las Vegas. In doing so, though, they experienced a real sort offinancial empowerment and a real sense of liberation, particularly when viewed in the context ofthe larger American culture and society, These women were sexual outlaws, often breaking barriers firmly in place for women elsewhere in America. It is argued here that the threat posed by female sexuality was acknowledged by a masculinized Las Vegas in two ways: by reducing women to what men saw as the demeaning roles of"strippers and prostitutes," and by outlawing female sexuality when it directly competed with masculine employment, as in casino card dealing. Women in Las Vegas, however, also used their bodies-both by exposing and concealing them-to survive and prosper in Las Vegas, and to become a significant part ofthe city's history. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS · .. S19nature page ................................................ 11 Copyright page ............................................. .. iii Acknowledgments iv Abstract .................................................. .. VI Chapter 1: Introduction Sex in the City: Complicating the Masculine Constructions ofLas Vegas Women. ............................ .. 1 Chapter 2: Sexual Outlaws: Las Vegas Showgirls and the Empowerment ofBeauty and Nudity 16 Chapter 3: Accessories to Larceny: Las Vegas Cocktail Waitresses and Therr. "C'nmm. al" L'lIDIDa. l'Ity . 43 Chapter 4: "What is going to happen to the quality ofIife for the men of Las Vegas?": Female Dealers as a Sexual and Economic Threat 80 Chapter 5: Conclusion "I'm a part ofLas Vegas": Women's Place in Las Vegas. .. 111 Bibliography ............................................... .. 114 vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION SEX IN THE CITY: COMPLICATING THE MASCULINE CONSTRUCTION OF LAS VEGAS WOMEN All women in Las Vegas are either strippers or prostitutes. Frank Lamb, former Governor ofColorado Arnie Williams, director ofthe 1998 documentary Strippedand Teased: Tales From Las Vegas Women, interviewed women who worked in Las Vegas to gain insights about their lives in the city. She interviewed and filmed, among others, a cab driver, a cocktail waitress, a construction worker, an exotic dancer, a maid, a professional card player, a showgirl, a casino/hotel corporate vice-president, and the then-mayor ofthe city. Every one ofthese women claimed to have found empowerment and self-satisfaction in their Las Vegas employment. These are concepts about female work in Las Vegas that have long escaped the attention of most men and most historians. Mayor Jan Jones, during her interview with Williams, stated that there had always been a problem with the perception ofwomen in Las Vegas. Jones shared with Williams a recent experience. While she was doing a promotion for the local NBC television station, one ofher political consultants heard entertainer LL Cool's manager state, "Isn't it amazing that only in Las Vegas could you find a mayor who in her past life had been a showgirl." When the consultant corrected the manager, 1 pointing out that Mayor Jones had never been a showgirl, Cool's manager replied, "Dh well, NBC thinks she was." 1 This type ofassumption about women workers in Las Vegas, that somehow they must be linked to what could broadly be termed sexualized employment, paralleled former governor Frank Lamb's statement that "All women in Las Vegas are either strippers or prostitutes.,,2 This simplified notion ofwomen selling their bodies in Las Vegas derived in large p«m: from Las Vegas' history oflegalized and then decriminalized prostitution and from its overall reputation for sexual permissiveness. It also developed, however, from the masculine control over Las Vegas that permitted men to shape the city and women's presumed places within it. Throughout much ofLas Vegas' history, women have been perceived as sexual commodities, as a means ofsatisfying high rollers, politicians, businessmen, and male tourists. There is, ofcourse, some real merit to the presentation ofwomen as sexual beings in Las Vegas, and there is little doubt that women's bodies have been featured prominently in the development ofthe sex industry in the city ofLas Vegas. The city was founded in 1905, and between that year and the next, Block 16--the nascent city's gambling, drinking, and "red light" district--flourished as the one area in "Glitter Gulch" where women could in fact work, ifonly as prostitutes.3 Between 1906 and 1942, when the United States military presence in Las Vegas forced the 1 Stripped and Teased: Tales from Las Vegas Women. 00. and prod. Arnie Williams (Bat-Maiden films Production, 1998). 2 Frank Lamb, as cited in Stripped and Teased: 3 William 1. Morris, "I've Seen All the Rooms: Female Prostitution in Las Vegas," 1. Taken from website www.wfu.edn, on 26 Sept 2002. 2 closure ofBlock 16, the only women laborers who roamed the most sought-after section ofdowntown Las Vegas were prostitutes.4 This image ofwomen selling sex attached to almost all female workers in Las Vegas thereafter, and this sensualized presentation ofwomen in Las Vegas was fostered and exploited by the men in control ofthe political economy ofthe city. The gendered language in the title ofa recent historical treatment ofLas Vegas suggests the masculinized vision that usually controls representations ofthe city--Players: The Men Mo Made Las Vegas, edited by Jack Sheehan.5 From its urban origins in 1905, but especially from the founding of "the Strip" in the 194Os, Las Vegas has evolved under a watchful male gaze. The men who made Las Vegas were also the ones who conceived ofthe roles women would play in Las Vegas, particularly those forms ofwork exclusive to women, such as performing as showgirls and serving cocktails inside casinos. Men resisted seeing women in ways that went beyond the sexual, especially since male casino owners and entertainment directors, for example, stood to profit from the sexual attractiveness oftheir showgirls and cocktail waitresses. They rarely acknowledged the sort offemale- derived satisfaction that could stem from such employment, the sort ofsatisfaction documented in Arnie Williams' documentary, Strippedand Teased In her film, Williams attempts to complicate the understanding ofwomen's roles in Las Vegas and to move beyond the stereotypical definitions ofwomen's work in Las Vegas, including work in the sex industry. This thesis also seeks to 4 John M. Findlay, People ofChance: Gambling in American Society from Jamestown to Las Vegas (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 127.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Sheffield Hallam University Thesis
    How do I look? Viewing, embodiment, performance, showgirls, and art practice. CARR, Alison J. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19426/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19426/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. How Do I Look? Viewing, Embodiment, Performance, Showgirls, & Art Practice Alison Jane Carr A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ProQuest Number: 10694307 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10694307 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Declaration I, Alison J Carr, declare that the enclosed submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and consisting of a written thesis and a DVD booklet, meets the regulations stated in the handbook for the mode of submission selected and approved by the Research Degrees Sub-Committee of Sheffield Hallam University.
    [Show full text]
  • January/February 2007 the Stardust Was One of the Oldest Hotels On
    January/February 2007 by Mike Prero The Stardust was one of the oldest hotels on the strip and opened at 12:00pm on July 2, 1958. The attendees of the opening included Governors, Senators, city and county officials and Hollywood celebrities. The entertainment registry started with the spectacular French production show Lido de Paris. Billy Daniels became the first entertainer to sign a long-term residency contract in Las Vegas when he agreed to appear for 40 weeks per year for three years. Tony Cornero's dream became a $10 million, 1,065 room reality with what was little more than a warehouse, charging just $6.00 a day. The resort contained the Big Dipper swimming pool measuring 105 feet in length, a 13,500 square foot lobby, 16,500 square foot casino, and a rich decor. The Stardust sign was the largest in the world at the time. The Stardust gave visitors a panorama view of the solar system that exploded beyond the edges of the building. At the sign's center sat a plastic earth which was 16 feet in diameter, formed in slices three feet across, taken from the Sputnik which was off the front pages of the newspaper. Cosmic rays of neon and electric light bulbs pulled out from behind the earth in all direction. Three-dimensional acrylic glass planets spun alongside 20 scintillating neon starbursts. Across the universe was a jagged galaxy of electric lettering spelling out "Stardust". The sign utilized 7,100 feet of neon tubing with over 11,000 bulbs along its 216 foot front.
    [Show full text]
  • Nevada Gaming History
    From Lionel Sawyer & Collins Nevada Gaming Law – 3rd Ed. Chapter 1 Short History of Gaming And Regulatory Control in Nevada hen the history books are written on gaming in this state,” Bill Curran, Chairman of the Nevada Gaming “W Commission, said in voting to license MGM Grand, “they will focus on what happens today forward, rather than what has happened in the past.” The MGM Grand was then the most ambitious project in the history of gaming. But, as is the rule in this highly competitive industry, others have come forward to challenge the best and the brightest. The opening of the Bellagio in October of 1998 marked yet another step in the amazing evolution of the Nevada tourism industry. The $1.6 billion evidences opulence never before experienced in a casino- resort. But, even as it basked in the deserving glow of international media attention, other properties in various stages of completion promise to battle the Mirage-owned property for their share of the tourist dollar. On the south end of the strip, Mandalay Bay offers Circus Circus vision of the perfect vacation with its luxury accommodations and aquatic features. Others include the new Aladdin, offering European-style gambling through the world-renowned London Club casinos. Likewise, Hilton will debut its Paris hotel. Among the most visionary is Sheldon Adelson. He has recreated the wonders and sights of ancient Venice in his $1.4 billion Venetian project, with a second connected hotel set to break ground. The Venetian authentically reproduces the statues, canals, squares and bridges of Venice. Amenities include world-class A Brief History of Gaming in Nevada 3 rooms, dozens of the world’s best-known restaurants and more convention space than most major American cities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contemporary Casino: Evolution and Protection
    THE CONTEMPORARY CASINO: EVOLUTION AND PROTECTION Todd Staub July 2006 The Contemporary Casino: Evolution and Protection Page 1 The casino industry is not just about gambling: casinos have become family oriented tourist attraction and are now designated as mega-resorts. Producing a strong income, casinos have become one of the most successful businesses in the United States, and with so many assets, security measures must be continually enhanced. The reader can develop an understanding of the casino industry and the methods used in casino security. Discussion of the history of gambling in the United States as well as the beginnings and development of casinos, leading to these mega-resorts, and the methods of security implemented will show how far this industry has come. HISTORY OF GAMBLING IN THE UNITED STATES Colonial Period Extensive gambling in the United States can be traced back to the time of English colonization. The ships that came to the east coast in the early 1600’s were not just Puritans seeking religious freedom or people who wanted to get away from the tyrant called the King; gamblers were also onboard (Barker & Britz, 2000). Forms of gambling brought over by the English and the Dutch were playing cards, dice, and cockfighting. Bear-baiting, which was basically a sport where dogs tortured a chained bear, was also introduced by the British and the Dutch; however, bear- baiting was banned by the Puritans “not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators” (Begun, Siegel, & Jacobs, 1998). Puritans prohibited all forms of gambling because it promoted idleness, in other words, it was meaningless to the Puritan way (Barker & Britz, 2000).
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix to Book 2 Old Casinos
    Las Vegas Sins and Scams – Appendix to Book 2 – Old Casinos Paul Wallace Winquist Published by Paul Wallace Winquist at Smashwords Copyright 2006 pwinquist.com [email protected] US Phone 503-278-7316 9600 SW 74the Ave, Tigard OR 97223 ISBN 9781310761232 9781310360367 eBooks Version 1.1 (c) 2006 Paul Wallace Winquist Freemont Street While it Still Had Trees, Las Vegas, NV Photo by Paul Winquist The following information is mostly from Wikipedia during October, 2011. It is edited to only have the material of interest for the context of the books Las Vegas Sins and Scams by Paul Winquist. No references are given, and the material has been seriously edited; to get the full story on each character, casino, or organization see the Wikipedia listing, and then the reference material given. All green writing is by me. (PWW) All photos marked Wikipedia are some sort or another of semi-copyright material; you should look up the source contracts on the Wikipedia sites before copying them. All photos by me can be copied for non-publishing uses as long as credit is given to Paul Wallace Winquist. For commercial uses call me at 503-431-1032 or e-mail [email protected] Table of Contents The Plaza Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas Las Vegas Union Pacific Station Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco Binion's Horseshoe, Las Vegas The Mint, Las Vegas Moulin Rouge Hotel, Las Vegas Hotel Del Rey, San Jose, Costa Rica Key Largo, San Jose Costa Rica Bourbon Street Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas Four Queens - Casino and Hotel, Las Vegas Main Street Station
    [Show full text]
  • The Las Vegas Strip...The Early Years
    The Las Vegas Strip the early years by Pam Goertler assisted by Brian Cashman El Rancho Vegas The first hotel on the Strip In the 1930’s there was no Las Vegas “Strip”. Las Vegas was a railroad town, built to house the railroad workers and their families. The clubs, casinos, stores, schools, hotels, professional offices, and railroad station were all downtown. Highway 91 (now the Strip) went from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, passing through Las Vegas. Scattered along the highway, leading into Las Vegas, were some small clubs, but they were few and far between. his new hotel. Mrs. Jessie Hunt owned the proper- As the legend goes…in 1938 Tommy Hull and ty, and Tommy began negotiations with her. Mrs. a friend were driving along highway 91. They were Hunt felt that the property was worthless. She offered a few miles outside of Las Vegas when to give it to Tommy, just to get rid of it! She finally they got a flat tire. Tommy waited with accepted payment of $150 per acre, for about 33 acres. the car while his friend hitchhiked into Las Vegas to get help. While waiting, After months of planning and construction, El Rancho Tommy counted the cars that passed Vegas opened on April 3, 1941. Having seen the beautiful him on the highway, and began to get resort while it was being built, Las Vegans dressed in their an idea. Highway 91 was a long stretch of finest attire to attend the gala opening. Wanting a com- road through a hot, dusty desert.
    [Show full text]
  • The Strip: Las Vegas and the Symbolic Destruction of Spectacle
    The Strip: Las Vegas and the Symbolic Destruction of Spectacle By Stefan Johannes Al A dissertation submitted in the partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in City and Regional Planning in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Nezar AlSayyad, Chair Professor Greig Crysler Professor Ananya Roy Professor Michael Southworth Fall 2010 The Strip: Las Vegas and the Symbolic Destruction of Spectacle © 2010 by Stefan Johannes Al Abstract The Strip: Las Vegas and the Symbolic Destruction of Spectacle by Stefan Johannes Al Doctor of Philosophy in City and Regional Planning University of California, Berkeley Professor Nezar AlSayyad, Chair Over the past 70 years, various actors have dramatically reconfigured the Las Vegas Strip in many forms. I claim that behind the Strip’s “reinventions” lies a process of symbolic destruction. Since resorts distinguish themselves symbolically, each new round of capital accumulation relies on the destruction of symbolic capital of existing resorts. A new resort either ups the language within a paradigm, or causes a paradigm shift, which devalues the previous resorts even further. This is why, in the context of the Strip, buildings have such a short lifespan. This dissertation is chronologically structured around the four building booms of new resort construction that occurred on the Strip. Historically, there are periodic waves of new casino resort constructions with continuous upgrades and renovation projects in between. They have been successively theorized as suburbanization, corporatization, Disneyfication, and global branding. Each building boom either conforms to a single paradigm or witnesses a paradigm shift halfway: these paradigms have been theorized as Wild West, Los Angeles Cool, Pop City, Corporate Modern, Disneyland, Sim City, and Starchitecture.
    [Show full text]
  • Winter 1996 Nevada Historical Society Quarterly
    Nevada Historical Society Quarterly WINTER 1996 NEVADA HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY EDITORIAL BOARD Eugene Moehring, Chairman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Marie Boutte, University of Nevada, Reno Robert Davenport, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Doris Dwyer, Western Nevada Community College Jerome E. Edwards, University of Nevada, Reno Candace C. Kant, Community College of Southern Nevada Guy Louis Rocha, Nevada State Library and Archives Willard H. Rollings, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Hal K. Rothman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas The Nevada Historical Society Quarterly solicits contributions of scholarly or popular interest dealing with the following subjects: the general (e.g., the political, social, economic, constitutional) or the natural history of Nevada and the Great Basin; the literature, languages, anthropology, and archaeology of these areas; reprints of historic documents; reviews and essays concerning the historical literature of Nevada, the Great Basin, and the West. Prospective authors should send their work to The Editor, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno, Nevada 89503. Papers should be typed double-spaced and sent in duplicate. All manuscripts, whether articles, edited documents, or essays, should conform to the most recent edition of the University of Chicago Press Manual of Style. Footnotes should be typed double-spaced on separate pages and numbered consecutively. Correspondence concerning articles and essays is welcomed, and should be addressed to The Editor. © Copyright Nevada Historical Society, 1996. The Nevada Historical Society Quarterly (ISSN 0047-9462) is published quarterly by the Nevada Historical Society. The Quarterly is sent to all members of the Society. Membership dues are: Student, $15; Senior Citizen without Quarterly, $15; Regular, $25; Family, $35; Sustaining, $50; Contributing, $100; Departmental Fellow, $250; Patron, $500; Benefactor, $1,000.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 39 Number 3 July 2008
    Volume 39 Number 3 July 2008 Western Association of Map Libraries “. to encourage high standards in every phase of organization and administration of map libraries . .” The Western Association of Map Libraries is an independent association of persons. The Membership has defined its Principal Region for meeting locations as: the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and the States of Alaska, Ari- zona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Membership in WAML is open to any individual interested in furthering the purpose of the Association, which is “to encourage high standards in every phase of the organization and administration of map libraries.” Membership includes receipt of all issues of the Information Bulletin and Electronic News & Notes (if an email address is provided), mail an- nouncements of WAML meetings, voting privileges and receipt of WAML ballots. Dues are US$30 per year and all memberships begin July 1. You may join any time of the year by sending your name, address, phone, fax, email address and US$30 to the WAML Treasurer at the address below. Make checks payable to “WAML” or the “Western Association of Map Libraries.” Lifetime membership is open to any individual for a one-time payment of US$500. In addition to all membership privileges listed above, Lifetime Members also receive a copy of each volume published in the WAML Occasional Paper series. For more information about WAML, its purpose, meetings and membership, see the WAML Web site at http://www.waml.org or contact an officer listed below. WAML and its Information Bulletin operate on a membership/volume-year basis.
    [Show full text]
  • (Speculative) Realism: the Objects of Conceptual and Post-Conceptual Art
    Materialism to (Speculative) Realism: The Objects of Conceptual and Post-Conceptual Art By Constanza Salazar A Thesis Presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfillment of requirements For the degree of Master of Arts In Art History and Visual Culture Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Constanza Salazar, July, 2015 ABSTRACT MATERIALISM TO (SPECULATIVE) REALISM: THE OBJECTS OF CONCEPTUAL AND POST-CONCEPTUAL ART Constanza Salazar Advisor: University of Guelph, 2015 Professor A. Boetzkes This thesis is an investigation which overturns the misconceptions of Conceptual art and its legacies in order to illuminate the movement’s contributions to subsequent art-making and aesthetics. While initially conceived to promote the “dematerialization of art,” Conceptual art instead expanded the rigid definition of art from Greenberg’s modernist aesthetics and explored new avenues of art-making. This thesis reconsiders the medium of language within the work of Conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner and the Post-Conceptual artists Judy Natal and Jung Lee as it overcomes the characteristics of dematerialization. Instead, within the theoretical model of Speculative Realism, art-objects and language can be further understood as ontological and autonomous entities that withdraw from human-access and which only relate to other objects vicariously. Art is thus able to overcome the assumption of a passive, human-dependent object and instead challenges our perception of objects and the interpretations and analyses we derive from their surface qualities. DEDICATION For our countless conversations about philosophy, art and theology and to your transcendent presence: to Aracely del Carmen Salazar-Clára. To Don Raul Antonio Salazar-Sigüenza and our conversations that only exist in dreams.
    [Show full text]
  • The Platinum Collection by Howard W
    The Platinum Collection by Howard W. Herz The Platinum Collection sought. In several instances entire In several months collectors will collections were purchased to com- have a unique opportunity to bid (or bine missing pieces with the master watch others bid) on one of America’s collection. These included the superb greatest gaming collections that com- collection of Dr. Ariagno and the bines gaming check rarities and gam- unique dies and samples of the 1965 ing tokens. The Platinum collection gaming tokens produced by Osbourne has two distinct characteristics that Coinage Co. In the 1990’s, the unique Harrah’s platinum token was finally set it apart from other collections. As Harvey’s original collection con- added to the token collection making a collection of gaming tokens, it is the tained more than 26,000 gaming it the most complete in the world. definitive collection that has almost checks from around the world and every known specimen issued by around 3,800 different Nevada gam- Today, the collection represents Nevada casinos. As a collection of ing tokens. Between 1965, when the the definitive collection of Nevada gaming checks, it features some of collection was started and the early gaming tokens and contains numer- the great rarities from Reno, Lake 1990’s, when the collection was sold, ous patterns, proofs and specimen Tahoe and Las Vegas. As a combined Harvey’s obtained many of the rarest strikes along with the standard busi- collection, it has the distinction of and highest quality gaming checks ness strikes. being a collection that can not be and tokens that were available when reproduced and is the single finest collecting gaming items was in its Luck, fate and fortune have all collection of Nevada chips and tokens infancy.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the Neon in Nevada Photograph Collection
    Guide to the Neon in Nevada Photograph Collection This finding aid was created by Lindsay Oden. This copy was published on March 25, 2021. Persistent URL for this finding aid: http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/f1691f © 2021 The Regents of the University of Nevada. All rights reserved. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives. Box 457010 4505 S. Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-7010 [email protected] Guide to the Neon in Nevada Photograph Collection Table of Contents Summary Information ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Contents Note ................................................................................................................................ 3 Arrangement .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................. 4 Related Materials ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Names and Subjects ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Collection Inventory .......................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]