Meathooke
Straight
Inspiration for this thread came directly from @Thomacetti 's PCA thread years ago. Although this will certainly not be anywhere near as informative or interesting. Especially considering the extremely limited documentation for these types of operations…But I’m gonna give it a shot anyway! Haha
-For some this might not be that big of a deal, however, for myself it is quite a big deal.
So, where to start??
From the onset, I have generally attempted to avoid being a singles collector as best as I could, with exception of a handful that I thought were either really neat, or had (in my opinion) a very cool history. The era of prohibition, speakeasy’s and of course the age of the American gangster were certainly wild times. I assume I’m not alone in that I have always found that time period quite fascinating. As such, back when I first started getting interested in chips (early 2008-ish??) the first “single” I ever purchased was, in fact, a Hollywood Club $1.
My (certainly unknowledgeable) thoughts at the time:
Very cool chip mold…414 spots… and history!!!! Oh the history!! Gangsters, liquor, gambling… and better yet…. Very close to home! My family is from a little railroad town about a half hour or so south of Toledo. So, not only American (gangster) history, but Ohio specific to boot! Childishly, I’d often wonder what was going on in that place? Or who’s hands may have actually been betting with that chip?? If chips could talk, surely some interesting stories there.
From that initial purchase, and continuing off and on throughout the years, I had always thought it would be way cool to have a full, playable, set. However, the fact of the matter was, having no idea how many chips actually still existed, I didn’t know if it would even be possible. Not to mention I was not very fond of the idea having to put it together one chip at a time. So it really was put on the back burner for years…. Until now.
An opportunity arose to finally obtain a large quantity of Hollywood Club chips -including many other illegals from that time period/area as well- thanks to @David Spragg !!
This entire lot consisted of about 1400 chips. With around 850 of them being Hollywood’s. Another 400+ from The Pine’s Club (1945) and 200-ish from the Maumee Club (unknown when opened, but closed in 1962). All 3 clubs being tied to various iterations of the Detroit Purple Gang, Licavoli Mob/Toledo Purple Gang/River Gang.
It was truly Christmas in July!!!
At this point, I think I’ll just post more details/pics of each individual lot in a separate post as I’m just too excited to share the Hollywood part for now!!
…and it has already taken me the better part of 2 days just to get this far!
Haha
On to business.
The Hollywood Club opened as a night club in downtown Toledo, Ohio in the early 1930s. With gambling being added soon thereafter. It was owned and operated by Louis “Paddock” Walker, “Chalky Red” Yaranowski, Tony Paul, Ben Aronoff, the Fretti brothers, the Detroit partnership (The Purple Gang), Stanley Barsh, among various others.
**As an aside, Aronoff became 50% owner, and Walker manager, of El Rancho in Las Vegas in the late 50’s. Both Tony Paul and Chalky Red were part of the Purple Gang/Licavoli Mob.
The club was temporarily “closed” multiple times and at some point in late 1941 the original downtown location, at 227 Superior Street, was closed. By February of 1942, a new “$150,000 theater cafe” was opened at 6115 Telegraph Road, on the Ohio/Michigan boarder. Just as with the original location aside from the usual "night club" offerings, betting on horses and table games were also available. Including craps, blackjack, and poker.
(Re-Grand opening newspaper ad circa 1942)
Finding pictures of the club while it was actually in operation has proven to be extremely difficult. As in, I've yet to find a single photograph! However, these will give you an idea of what it looked like.
In 1943 the owners of the Hollywood Club donated the use of the building for use as headquarters for Squadron One of the Civil Air Patrol. (Pure speculation but… Can you say trying to avoid “the heat”??? Hahaha) It was eventually taken back by the owners and gambling/partying resumed. Photo from the Toledo Blade
By 1946 the club had been raided at least 4 times...
After a 1946 raid, detectives look upon an empty horse race board at the Hollywood Club. Photo from the Toledo Blade
and in 1951 the Hollywood Club was padlocked and closed permanently, by court order.
At some point after closing permanently, it became home to Nash Tool & Die. Eventually, the entire building was demolished and God only knows what is there now.
Enough history lesson already! WE WANT THE CHIPS!!!! I get it... here ya go:
The chips:
Manufactured by BC Wills
The (MD-87) “small key” mold $1, $10 and $25 chips were certainly used at Hollywood whilst it was open…
However, the (MD-89) “Roman” mold non-denominated chips bring some controversy/mystery as to their authenticity. Being that Hollywood was closed in 1951 and the Roman mold was supposedly not available/used until “some time in 1950s”, it certainly doesn’t sound very possible that they were ever actually used there. That said, it turns out that some of the Hollywood chips (which hadn’t been confiscated by the police) were also used at smaller, more obscure Toledo area operations during the 60’s.
**According to Terry Shaffer (author of Illegal Gambling Clubs of Toledo) in a series of meetings between he and Donnie Van Gunten (who was involved with multiple illegal clubs throughout Toledo) Donnie shed some light on the subject of the mysterious Roman mold chips. Van Gunten confirmed that not only did he use the Hollywood chips at multiple other clubs he operated -among them being the 3D Club and Blue Note- but he specifically stated that "Joseph Besase (Toledo Purple Gang) had to personally go to Detroit to pick them up.."
So it seems they are at very least legit “gangster” era chips… In the end, I have always LOVED the Roman mold and they are simply gorgeous chips, so who cares!!! Haha
I thought you said we were getting to the chips?????!!! We are... Right now
Finally, the good part: Pics of the haul… Well, at least The Hollywood's! The others will be later.
Combined total Hollywood Club chips: 879
Quite used, dirty as sin:
107 x $1 white w/black inserts - Small key
184 x $1 white w/red inserts - Sm key
282 x $10 yellow w/red insets - Sm key
"Like new", super clean and sharp:
118 x no $ chocolate? w/red (brighter) inserts - Roman
101 x $1 white w/red inserts - Sm key
25 x $1 white w/black inserts - Sm key
53 x $10 yellow w/red inserts - Sm key
9 x $10 orange w/ 2 blue-green inserts - Sm key
So there ya have it!!!
***I’m not much of a “presentation” or “book report” kind of guy, so please forgive the poor writing and any missing/left out information. Hopefully this is wasn’t too long, and boring, of a read!
BTW, if you happen to have more info, I would certainly love to hear it!! -Wouldn't mind any leads to more chips too!!! Haha
Finally, let me end this with a question….
To clean or not to clean??? Give me your opinions… Would it be a travesty to attempt to clean them up? Or should they be left in their incredibly nasty state??
The pics don't truly show just how gross these really are... I cannot tell you how many times I had to wash my hands after this photoshoot... Even had to clean the poker table!!!
Cheers and hope you've enjoyed!!
-For some this might not be that big of a deal, however, for myself it is quite a big deal.
So, where to start??
From the onset, I have generally attempted to avoid being a singles collector as best as I could, with exception of a handful that I thought were either really neat, or had (in my opinion) a very cool history. The era of prohibition, speakeasy’s and of course the age of the American gangster were certainly wild times. I assume I’m not alone in that I have always found that time period quite fascinating. As such, back when I first started getting interested in chips (early 2008-ish??) the first “single” I ever purchased was, in fact, a Hollywood Club $1.
My (certainly unknowledgeable) thoughts at the time:
Very cool chip mold…414 spots… and history!!!! Oh the history!! Gangsters, liquor, gambling… and better yet…. Very close to home! My family is from a little railroad town about a half hour or so south of Toledo. So, not only American (gangster) history, but Ohio specific to boot! Childishly, I’d often wonder what was going on in that place? Or who’s hands may have actually been betting with that chip?? If chips could talk, surely some interesting stories there.
From that initial purchase, and continuing off and on throughout the years, I had always thought it would be way cool to have a full, playable, set. However, the fact of the matter was, having no idea how many chips actually still existed, I didn’t know if it would even be possible. Not to mention I was not very fond of the idea having to put it together one chip at a time. So it really was put on the back burner for years…. Until now.
An opportunity arose to finally obtain a large quantity of Hollywood Club chips -including many other illegals from that time period/area as well- thanks to @David Spragg !!
This entire lot consisted of about 1400 chips. With around 850 of them being Hollywood’s. Another 400+ from The Pine’s Club (1945) and 200-ish from the Maumee Club (unknown when opened, but closed in 1962). All 3 clubs being tied to various iterations of the Detroit Purple Gang, Licavoli Mob/Toledo Purple Gang/River Gang.
It was truly Christmas in July!!!
At this point, I think I’ll just post more details/pics of each individual lot in a separate post as I’m just too excited to share the Hollywood part for now!!
…and it has already taken me the better part of 2 days just to get this far!
HahaOn to business.
The Hollywood Club opened as a night club in downtown Toledo, Ohio in the early 1930s. With gambling being added soon thereafter. It was owned and operated by Louis “Paddock” Walker, “Chalky Red” Yaranowski, Tony Paul, Ben Aronoff, the Fretti brothers, the Detroit partnership (The Purple Gang), Stanley Barsh, among various others.
**As an aside, Aronoff became 50% owner, and Walker manager, of El Rancho in Las Vegas in the late 50’s. Both Tony Paul and Chalky Red were part of the Purple Gang/Licavoli Mob.
The club was temporarily “closed” multiple times and at some point in late 1941 the original downtown location, at 227 Superior Street, was closed. By February of 1942, a new “$150,000 theater cafe” was opened at 6115 Telegraph Road, on the Ohio/Michigan boarder. Just as with the original location aside from the usual "night club" offerings, betting on horses and table games were also available. Including craps, blackjack, and poker.
(Re-Grand opening newspaper ad circa 1942)
Finding pictures of the club while it was actually in operation has proven to be extremely difficult. As in, I've yet to find a single photograph! However, these will give you an idea of what it looked like.
In 1943 the owners of the Hollywood Club donated the use of the building for use as headquarters for Squadron One of the Civil Air Patrol. (Pure speculation but… Can you say trying to avoid “the heat”??? Hahaha) It was eventually taken back by the owners and gambling/partying resumed. Photo from the Toledo Blade
By 1946 the club had been raided at least 4 times...
After a 1946 raid, detectives look upon an empty horse race board at the Hollywood Club. Photo from the Toledo Blade
and in 1951 the Hollywood Club was padlocked and closed permanently, by court order.
At some point after closing permanently, it became home to Nash Tool & Die. Eventually, the entire building was demolished and God only knows what is there now.
Enough history lesson already! WE WANT THE CHIPS!!!! I get it... here ya go:
The chips:
Manufactured by BC Wills
The (MD-87) “small key” mold $1, $10 and $25 chips were certainly used at Hollywood whilst it was open…
However, the (MD-89) “Roman” mold non-denominated chips bring some controversy/mystery as to their authenticity. Being that Hollywood was closed in 1951 and the Roman mold was supposedly not available/used until “some time in 1950s”, it certainly doesn’t sound very possible that they were ever actually used there. That said, it turns out that some of the Hollywood chips (which hadn’t been confiscated by the police) were also used at smaller, more obscure Toledo area operations during the 60’s.
**According to Terry Shaffer (author of Illegal Gambling Clubs of Toledo) in a series of meetings between he and Donnie Van Gunten (who was involved with multiple illegal clubs throughout Toledo) Donnie shed some light on the subject of the mysterious Roman mold chips. Van Gunten confirmed that not only did he use the Hollywood chips at multiple other clubs he operated -among them being the 3D Club and Blue Note- but he specifically stated that "Joseph Besase (Toledo Purple Gang) had to personally go to Detroit to pick them up.."
So it seems they are at very least legit “gangster” era chips… In the end, I have always LOVED the Roman mold and they are simply gorgeous chips, so who cares!!! Haha
I thought you said we were getting to the chips?????!!! We are... Right now
Finally, the good part: Pics of the haul… Well, at least The Hollywood's! The others will be later.
Combined total Hollywood Club chips: 879
Quite used, dirty as sin:
107 x $1 white w/black inserts - Small key
184 x $1 white w/red inserts - Sm key
282 x $10 yellow w/red insets - Sm key
"Like new", super clean and sharp:
118 x no $ chocolate? w/red (brighter) inserts - Roman
101 x $1 white w/red inserts - Sm key
25 x $1 white w/black inserts - Sm key
53 x $10 yellow w/red inserts - Sm key
9 x $10 orange w/ 2 blue-green inserts - Sm key
So there ya have it!!!
***I’m not much of a “presentation” or “book report” kind of guy, so please forgive the poor writing and any missing/left out information. Hopefully this is wasn’t too long, and boring, of a read!
BTW, if you happen to have more info, I would certainly love to hear it!! -Wouldn't mind any leads to more chips too!!! Haha
Finally, let me end this with a question….
To clean or not to clean??? Give me your opinions… Would it be a travesty to attempt to clean them up? Or should they be left in their incredibly nasty state??
The pics don't truly show just how gross these really are... I cannot tell you how many times I had to wash my hands after this photoshoot... Even had to clean the poker table!!!
Cheers and hope you've enjoyed!!
It's much more like just dirt/grime/dust built up from literally just sitting (unused) for likely an easy 40-50 years. A big part of me really hates to clean them. Solely because of "history"... But on the other hand, they are pretty musty (as in kinda stinky) and so covered that handling them at all leaves shit on your hands and the table and there's just no way I could ever convince the guys (or myself) to use them that way.
