Stateline Country Club
Encyclopedia
Stateline, Nevada
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,215 people, 510 households, and 245 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,803.3 people per square mile . There were 562 housing units at an average density of 834.1 per square mile...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
started as a small cafe with a pair of gas pumps. Inside, visitors enjoying the early 1930s at Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of , it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is , making it the USA's second-deepest...
could find a soda fountain bar and a few tables to enjoy a meal. There was a small room in the rear where a poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
game started-up most nights, and next door there was provision for vacationers at the Stateline Market. To the rear of the market, along the actual state line between California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, Carl's Bar attracted an older crowd of visitors.
History
When Nevada legalized gamblingGambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
in 1931, Cal Custer, a long-time rum-runner from Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
, purchased the club and expanded the operation to include a 21 table, tub-style craps
Craps
Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank...
game, and a dozen slot machine
Slot machine
A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...
s. The following summer, Cal expanded again, and by 1933, Nick Abelman of Reno and his partners Steve Pavlovich and Bert Riddick were very interested in the sixteen-acre property.
The partners talked Custer down from his $100,000 asking price to $84,000 and purchased the club and property. Abelman, always a stickler for providing a superior product, immediately spent $48,000 building an expansion that offered a large, hard-wood dance floor and a huge fireplace. In the back of the club under a row of chandeliers was a small stage where a band played every night.
The club offered dozens of slot machines, roulette
Roulette
Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....
, chuck-a-luck
Chuck-a-luck
Chuck-a-luck, also known as birdcage, is a game of chance played with three dice. It is derived from grand hazard, and both can be considered a variant of sic bo, a popular casino game, although chuck-a-luck is more of a carnival game than a true casino game...
, faro
Faro (card game)
Faro, Pharaoh, or Farobank, is a late 17th century French gambling card game descendant of basset, and belongs to the lansquenet and Monte Bank family of games, in that it is played between a banker and several players winning or losing according to the cards turned up matching those already...
, and 21
Blackjack
Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
. It prospered for years under the watchful eye of Steve Pavlovich, who managed the club most summers. Big-name entertainment was standard, and the club offered wonderful meals such as a crab cocktail, soup and a main course like "famous Louisiana frog legs," Idaho Trout," or a filet mignon
Filet mignon
Filet mignon is a steak cut of beef taken from the smaller end of the tenderloin, or psoas major of the beef carcass, usually a steer or heifer...
, plus vegetables, potatoes, and a nice dessert for $2.50.
In the mid 1940's, as Nick Abelman approached the age of seventy, he admitted it was becoming tougher and tougher to make the trek from Reno
Reno
Reno is the fourth most populous city in Nevada, US.Reno may also refer to:-Places:Italy*The Reno River, in Northern ItalyCanada*Reno No...
to Tahoe every day, and his manager, Pavlovich was too sick to handle the club alone. The three partners conferred and agreed it was time to sell.
At a meeting at the St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...
in San Francisco, Abelman came to terms with Nick and Eddie Sahati to purchase the club. A final price of $350,000 was agreed to, and the Sahati brothers took over for the 1945 summer season.
They got off to a rocky start, but eventually the club prospered under their management. Entertainers such as Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Sons of the Pioneers
Sons of the Pioneers
The Sons of the Pioneers are one of America's earliest Western singing groups whose classic recordings set a new standard for performers of Western music. Known for the high quality of their vocal performances, musicianship, and songwriting, they produced finely-crafted and innovative recordings...
, and the Ink Spots brought gamblers into the club, and times were good.
Eddie Sahati died of Cancer in 1952 at the age of forty-one. His brother, Nick, then leased the operation to a group of businessmen including Karl Berge, who ran the bar (Berge later owned Karl's Silver Club in Sparks).
Bill Harrah purchased George's Gateway Club, across Highway "50" from the Country Club, and after a successful couple of years was able to persuade the businessmen to give up their lease so Nick Sahati could sell the property and auto-court to Bill.
In 1958, Nick Sahati did just that, for the same $350,000 he purchased it for. Eventually, Harrah also purchased the tiny Main Entrance casino and also Bud Beecher's Nevada Club, allowing him to expand all the way to the actual state line. Harrah's Lake Tahoe
Harrah's Lake Tahoe
Harrah's Lake Tahoe, is a resort casino, in South Lake Tahoe, at Stateline, Nevada. It is branded with the name of its former owner William Fisk Harrah and owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp.. The 18-story tower and 525 rooms, plus of casino make it one of the largest resorts at South Lake...
now sits on the site.