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BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

Just came across this while Googling images for Harold's Club. http://haroldsclubmovie.org/

There's even a facebook page dedicated to the movie https://www.facebook.com/HaroldsClubMovie

The documentary was supposed to be out in 2012 or 2013. Hope they're still working on it.

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

The Facebook page I linked to above is a treasure trove of Harold's Club history - including photos and a few videos. A recent post links to a RGJ article which reports on the documentary's progress. http://www.rgj.com/article/20140223/LIV/302230002/-Harolds-Club-screen-bust

JD · Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 956

BC Dave: One of those facebook links had a photo of Douglas Alley.

There was a door that led up some stairs where you could check your kids into something like a 1955 Harold's Club version of Chucky Cheese. A small theater showing Davey Crockett movie and an early arcade of games where you could steer a car left and right while a drum rolled around that had a painted wavey road painted on the drum.

It had a gate where parents got a ticket stub and half was pinned to the kid's lapel.

Kinda like a coat check for kids, manned by high school girls.

Harold's Club main casino floor often had live music and the mezzanine had those cowboys or Indian slot machines near the escalator and the gun collection went all around the mezzanine . Not sure, but the escalator MIGHT have been the same one later used in the Nevada Club.

Burma Shave & Harold's Club or Bust signs were big diversions on the road trip. I still have Harold's Club matches.

spdmrcht · Joined: 12 Oct 2012 Posts: 498

Did Douglas Alley go to both sides of Virginia st?

JD · Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 956

I wasn't aware at the time....but up next to Siri's new casino on the WEST side of Virginia is still an alley....and I think it is called DOUGLAS ALLEY.

On the East side of Virginia...the alley is gone and part of the square in front of Harrah's.

And I forgot one more thing I remember so clearly from walking down Virginia as a 6 year old or so.

I think it was Harold's Club but a few other casinos ....had an air curtain for a front door.

You did not open a door, as you walked in, the was a 6-8 foot area where there was a fan system blowing air from ceiling to floor. And as you walked along the street you would catch an unique odor... I guess it was of cigarette smoke, stale beer, whiskey probably cheap perfume & maybe worse.

The last time I blasted back with that scent was five or six years ago in the "OLD RENO" (which also had a back door up to Douglas Alley).

That odor is so deeply embedded in my brain....it's kinda scary.

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

At least according to Google maps (which may be somewhat dated). Douglas Alley lives on, at least on the west side of Virginia. http://goo.gl/maps/N8Zyv Give this link a bit of time and you'll end up in street view.

JD I seem to remember the lower part of Harold's had the two sections divided by the alley. I have read Harold Smith Sr. book, "I Want to Quit Winners", and remember reading something about the daycare too.

The Harold's Club I knew (from 1985 until it's demise) had two escalators in the back just ahead of a cozy keno lounge. I toured the gun collection on the mezzanine and bought two dollar t-shirts in their gift shop. The mezzanine was somewhat similar to that 2nd floor in the Cal Neva's front building. I loved the place but it was probably only a pale reflection of the great Smith family operation.

Howard Hughes' corporation purchased Harold's in 1970 and I guess it never was the same after that. Apparently many employees expressed their dissatisfaction with the new ownership and quit.

In the last few years of their operation the Nevada Club and Harold's were linked by knocking out a wall on the second floor. Boy, I miss those places!

CaSwede · Joined: 28 Feb 2006 Posts: 866

This is an interesting project that I would sure like to see the end result. However, it looks like the progress may have stalled. ??

JD, your comment about the kiddie check in brought back a memory that I have forgotten about. Where did you read about the details? Or is this a memory? I remember my parents put me in the baby sitting place at Harold's. This had to be in the 1950's and I remember the movie playing on a large screen and they also had some toys with which to play. There was one kid screaming and crying the whole time I was there. I also remember another kid with a stinky diaper that was ignored. I really thought my parents had left me there never to return. I stood by the bars looking out wishing my parents had not totally forgotten me. I think my mother started to worry about me and came by to check on how I was doing. I yelled out- "get me out of here!!!" which they did.....it was horrible.

I also recall the air blowing entrance, but I know it was at Harrah's and was there into the 1970's. I remember the dirty old men standing there waiting for the women in skirts walking over the blower (floor blowing) and having their skirts blow up to around their ears - a la Marilyn Monroe. They may have had one at Harold's too, but I don't remember that.

I have one of the Harold's club Jim Beam decorative decanters. It is actually full. Maybe I should put it on e-bay?

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

There were a lot of the "air doors" there even in 1985. I think most of the casinos from the tracks down to Harrah's had them, both sides of the street too. They made quite an impression on me - I guess 'cause I was there in January.

JD · Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 956

This thread has me really reaching back in the Way Back Machine, Mr. Peabody.

That was all from memory, Swede. And it might be an inaccurate mashup of different vacations. We always took one, extended car vacation (Disneyland the year after it opened, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone) and almost always swung thru Reno coming and/or going. And I always ordered, "silver dollar pancakes".

So that "baby sitting" ( I THINK it was run by Harold's and/or Harrahs) I thought might have been sponsored by both. But it might have just been independent. They probably took all ages but I clearly recall some primitive coin operated old arcade machines and the theater.... or it seemed like a theater to me. And what you remember as "bars" I think was more of a kiddie gate. But with a latch too high for a child to open so it might have looked like jail. It was the very first time I saw a water cooler & those cone shaped paper cups. "Why don't they use the tap water?" Every time I see an old photo of Douglas Alley I look for a sign or something. Not sure how long the child care was there.

But even today, I'm a bit of history freak. And I have no doubt Harold's Club had some influence. "Dedicated in all humility to those that blazed the Trail" was on the big mural

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XICeSrG_KKc/TnR9-1Q4BkI/AAAAAAAAFHI/eVM49LLIRoA/s1600/haroldsmural.jpg

with stereotypes of Pahutes (Pah=water, Utah... the Utes that lived near water) peeking over the rocks preparing to attack the wagon train.

Bonanza showed up about the same time ('59?) & my Uncle had one of the new color TVs.

And there was a restaurant upstairs just across the street from the mural where I sat and studied that mural when I revisited Reno for the first time as an adult.

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

CaSwede, that is a cool decanter. Probably could fetch a tidy sum on Ebay. Now I have regrets about not buying the Harold's Club Portable Pub I saw at an antique show last summer. http://www.visitreno.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1850 they wanted $25.

The one I saw on the Harold's Club Movie facebook page was asking $250.00.