1931 Catalyzed by unexpected circumstances, Colorado-born Clara Antoinette Rowan (née Beggs) became the first woman to own a legal casino in the United States. Her husband, Thomas “Tom” George Rowan and his partner Leo Kind obtained one of the first gambling licenses issued in Clark County after Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, for the Rainbow…
1941 The brief union between Tony and Dorothy Stralla ended in a suspicious tragedy. Antonio Cornero Stralla was a colorful, law defying, Southern California rumrunner turned gambler. He was involved, most often as the owner/operator, in a string of casino enterprises, including the: • Meadows (Las Vegas, Nevada) • S.S. Rex (Las Vegas, Nevada) •…
1969-1971 Patron Alvin Glasky sat in the Stardust hotel-casino’s showroom in Las Vegas, Nevada, watching Lido de Paris on a Saturday evening in 1969. As one of the topless showgirls was being lowered from the ceiling over the crowd, she fell off the platform and landed on him. Two years later, Glasky filed a lawsuit,…
1967 Ironically, considering the entity’s name, water poured inside the Showboat Hotel (later Castaways) when flash floods hit Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday, August 8. At 2800 E. Fremont Street, east of the city, the gambling room, restaurant, and show and guestrooms were evacuated. Other casinos were forced to do the same, including Caesars Palace,…
1957 In 1957, Club Primadonna chartered passengers to and from San Francisco to the Reno, Nevada casino on “champagne tours.” On the September 28 return flight, delayed from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. due to bad weather, the plane’s engines failed near the San Francisco International Airport. The pilot shouted, “Fasten your belts, loosen your…
1950 The Truckee River in downtown Reno, Nevada overflowed, the raging waters swelling high enough to deluge nearby businesses. One was the Riverside hotel where 4+ feet of water amassed in the casino, restaurant and lobby. Photo from freeimages.com: by John Watkin