Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

28 Silvio E. Petricciani
unless he shows the identification. So, they
put you right in the middle. So when that
happens, I just go and say, well, I can do
one of two things: I can pay the man and
say he refused to give me any identification,
maybe give a description of him; or I can
call an Internal Revenue agent, which you
can’t do in the middle of the night, because
they quit work at four o’clock and that’s it. So
consequently, you see, you’re damned if you
do and damned if you don’t. But you have two
conflicting governments—a state agency and
a government agency—there you are.
Here is a 1931 advertisement for the Bank
Palace Club stating that they feature an electric
Keno board, and yet you stated that the Palace
Club had the first Keno game in the state in
1936. Can you explain this?
This goes back to when we closed the
Palace upstairs, and they went downstairs
here and they called it the Bank Palace Club.
And they were downstairs in—?
In the old Golden Hotel building right here
on the corner of the alley. And, now, when they
say we feature the only electric Keno board in
Reno, they had a Bingo game in the back, and
they called it Keno. And when they say they
feature the only electric Keno board in Reno,
they would light up the numbers on the board
back there for the Bingo game. And they drew
the numbers out of a little wooden goose. And
then they would put the numbers up; and
before, they used to put the numbers up and
people—if they wanted to see them, they’d have
to come and take a look, physically look at the
little pellets that they took out of the goose.
But now this electric Keno board—they would
light up the numbers on the board. And it was
the first Keno board in Reno. Now this was
Graham and McKay and Sullivan. That’s when
they closed up the place upstairs [the Palace
Club], went downstairs; but it was the Bank
Club. Eventually my dad opened up the Palace
here, why then they called it the Bank Club, the
old Bank Club. You got this what year?
Nineteen thirty-one.
Nineteen thirty-one, right. I think it was
1930 when they moved downstairs, when
they moved out of here and went downstairs.
Because I remember back in 1929 when they
still had the club upstairs [Palace], and I think
it was 1930. So they closed up upstairs, and
they were still paying my dad rent, as you
remember, and then they went downstairs
and opened up the Bank Club. And they
had the electric Keno board, that’s correct.
So that’s where that came from. I’m glad you
brought that out. I’d never seen that really or
don’t recollect it.
It was in a publicity publication that the airport
people put out to win support for a new airport.
That’s when they went from Blanch Field
where the golf course is now, and—well,
United Airlines wanted to build the airport
over there. And United Airlines did build the
airport there. They called it Hubbard Field—
as a matter of fact the road that used to lead
to it is still down there and still has the same
name, Hubbard Lane. And United Airlines
built the airport and sold it to the city of Reno
at a later date.
This was called In the Air, Reno Municipal
Airport Magazine. It mentioned Sam Frank,
Tom White—
Sam Frank was the mayor at the time—
used to have the old Grand Central Garage