One Million Dollar Horseshoe
Las Vegas, Nevada - 1954

Nevada casinos are imaginative when it comes to gimmicks to lure players in to gamble. The Nugget in Sparks had a near life size gold rooster on display. It weighed several pounds. The Carson City Nugget had a large display of gold nuggets greeting customers near the front door. Reno’s famed Harold’s Club featured a huge collection of firearms.

In Las Vegas, where ideas are bigger and more costly, casinos lure gamblers with a spewing volcano, magnificent fountains, thundering sea battles, an Eiffel Tower, New York City buildings, a replica of King Tutankamun’s burial chamber - the list is long and imaginative. All this had to start somewhere but it didn’t begin on The Strip where one upmanship reigns. It happened  downtown on Fremont Street in 1954.

Benny Binion, who ran the Horseshoe, had an idea to draw in customers. He was going to put one million dollars in a display case near the front door. Benny, with his family, was in Washington, D.C. He saw people lined up at the U.S. Treasury to see the money there and figured they might do the same to look at a million dollars in one place, the Horseshoe. A close friend who had the money, Joe W. Brown, suggested they display the bills in a golden horseshoe. Brown supplied the notes.

This was just about the time that Benny lost his battle with the feds and was convicted of tax evasion. He went to Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1954, where he stayed as a guest of the government until 1957. In an unusual transaction, he “sold” the Horseshoe to Joe Brown with the understanding that Binion would again have control when he came back home to Las Vegas. Brown was now ready to put a million dollars on exhibit near the front door of the Horseshoe.

Chuck Brooks was supervisor of the loan department at the Bank of Nevada branch at Fifth (now Las Vegas Boulevard) and Gass Street. He remembers how the bank came up with the bills.  Brown talked to vice president and manager C.D. Sutherland who ordered 100 $10,000 Salmon P. Chase Federal Reserve Notes from the Denver Mint.

When the money arrived from Colorado, Brown and Robert “Doby Doc” Caudill* came to the bank. While Sutherland and Brown talked, Brooks counted the bills in front of Doby, wrapped the money between two loan application pads, put a rubber band around the packet and placed it in a cloth money bag. He handed it to Doby who gave it to Brown. Brown placed it in a suit pocket then he and Doby walked out of the bank. There were no security guards with them. As they passed by a Salvation Army donation kettle in front of the bank, the two paused and Joe put a few bucks in the pot. They continued their walk to the Horseshoe.

Brooks said the whole thing boggled his mind. Whenever he transferred that much money it was always in the back of an armored truck with armed guards.

Waiting at the club was a huge horseshoe. It was eight fee tall, weighed 2,000 pounds and the case to hold the bills was bullet proof. At the top, on a large plaque inscribed with “Joe W. Brown’s  Horseshoe.”

It was an immediate success. Visitors, to the tune of about six hundred a day, more or less, had their photographs taken in front of the million dollar display.

When Brown died, the 100 bills were taken out and put into his estate. That isn’t the end of the story.

A few years later, Binion decided to put the display up again - people missed it. He had a hard time finding 100 $10,000 bills but Parry Thomas solved Binion’s problem. Thomas owned the Las Vegas Bank and located enough notes at a bank in New York.

In all it’s glory, the gold horseshoe displayed more money than most people would ever see in their lifetime, This time, the plaque proclaimed “Binion’s Horseshoe - Las Vegas.”

A few years ago, Chuck Brooks visited the Horseshoe and it was gone. He asked an older female employee in the money cage what had happened. She said it had been sold to a collector for $13 million.

* See Doby Doc 1-4 in the index for the story of this unique one of a kind Nevada character.

Sources: Chuck Brooks, former Las Vegas resident, sent an email to the author about the bank transaction. His experience gave life to this vignette. Other information came from  http://gaming.unlv.edu/WSOP/history.html.  Author’s personal knowledge.

 ©Copyright 2008 by Howard Hickson 
 
* See Doby Doc 1-4 in the index for the story of this unique one of a kind Nevada character.

Sources: Chuck Brooks, former Las Vegas resident, sent an email to the author about the bank transaction. His experience gave life to this vignette. Other information came from  http://gaming.unlv.edu/WSOP/history.html.  Author’s personal knowledge.

 ©Copyright 2008 by Howard Hickson