Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno
Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno
Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno
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22 <strong>Silvio</strong> E. <strong>Petricciani</strong><br />
and get him to go in one hole or another. It was<br />
comical. It was a strange thing. At that time<br />
everybody that was anybody in the gambling<br />
business when Pappy Smith came to town (and<br />
this includes myself) laughed at him with his<br />
Penny Roulette and his mice running around<br />
in this little circular affair. It had holes around<br />
it, you know, and you could bet on which<br />
hole the mouse would run into. And as I say,<br />
everybody laughed at him. They thought he<br />
was crazy. Of course, when Pappy Smith came<br />
here, he was an old carnival man, and he knew<br />
how to advertise. But anyway as time went on,<br />
why he grew and grew and grew. And nobody<br />
thought he would get as big as he did. But<br />
everybody watched him, and everybody said<br />
that there’s no chance for him. And this was<br />
the concensus <strong>of</strong> opinion all over town.<br />
So, as he grew one day—strange thing,<br />
Jack Sullivan came in to talk to my dad about<br />
something. It was during the Fourth <strong>of</strong> July<br />
celebration, and they were in the <strong>of</strong>fice. Of<br />
course, as you grow up in a town, you know,<br />
the kid grows up and the kid is going to<br />
learn. So Jack and my dad were talking about<br />
business and a few other things—they were<br />
always sort <strong>of</strong> arguing back and forth on wage<br />
scales and this and that and the other thing.<br />
I told them, I said, “You know, you people<br />
sit here on Center Street bickering back and<br />
forth and arguing amongst each other, and<br />
you can’t see the forest for the trees. You’re<br />
watching somebody grow strong on Virginia<br />
Street, and it’s going to break you both.”<br />
And I’ll never forget Sullivan’s reaction to<br />
that. My dad didn’t say anything, and Sullivan<br />
said—patted me on the face, you know, which<br />
I just loved [sarcastically], “It’s all right my<br />
boy; there’s plenty <strong>of</strong> business for everybody.”<br />
“Oh, okay, fine, you guys go ahead and<br />
bicker then.”<br />
So strangely enough my prediction came<br />
true in effect that the bulk <strong>of</strong> the business was<br />
brought over onto Virginia Street, as opposed<br />
to Center Street. My expression <strong>of</strong> breaking<br />
them was not really correct, but I did say that.<br />
But it did put a dent in both places at that time.<br />
And, <strong>of</strong> course, it’s hard for a young person<br />
to go and tell older so-called experienced<br />
people that somebody’s going to give them<br />
untold competition. But it came to pass, and<br />
I kind <strong>of</strong> pride myself on being able to predict<br />
the success <strong>of</strong> Virginia Street in the gambling<br />
business.<br />
And Smiths grew with the town, and<br />
yet they became part <strong>of</strong> the town. Of all the<br />
people in my estimation that I’ve seen (other<br />
than Harrah) that have come into the town<br />
and been in the business in town, all <strong>of</strong> a<br />
sudden they become indoctrinated into the<br />
philosophy <strong>of</strong> <strong>Reno</strong>, that <strong>Reno</strong> should be kept<br />
small and so on. And they did a darn good<br />
job <strong>of</strong> doing it, until the advent <strong>of</strong> Bill Harrah,<br />
because no doubt with the money that was<br />
made by the Smith family and Fitzgerald—<br />
in effect, they didn’t plow it back into their<br />
establishments which is very evident by what’s<br />
happened in the town. They sort <strong>of</strong> sat back<br />
on their laurels and watched Bill Harrah just<br />
get stronger and stronger and stronger. It’s<br />
the old history repeating itself all over again,<br />
which as long as I wasn’t a part <strong>of</strong> it, I used<br />
to be able to sit back and objectively see what<br />
was going on.<br />
And <strong>of</strong> course, as you can see, the Smith<br />
family eventually sold out to the Hughes<br />
organization which is another do-nothing<br />
organization, in my estimation. They came<br />
into the state <strong>of</strong> <strong>Nevada</strong>. They bought up all<br />
going businesses and kept them going. Their<br />
remodeling and processes in their business—<br />
that just started in the past year—they started<br />
to remodel the Desert Inn in 1977, and they<br />
started to remodel—oh, they’ve torn the<br />
buildings down here in 1978. So actually in<br />
coming into the state <strong>of</strong> <strong>Nevada</strong>, everybody