IllegalEagle
Waiting List
Man, this chips hit RIGHT in my wheelhouse. I do a pretty consistent series of articles in the CCA's quarterly magazine called the Chip Detective that unravels history like these.
In another thread, Mushmanchuman posted that he got these chips from a guy whose grandfather ran the parking lot at a New Orleans illegal gambling club. He said the initials stood for "Rudy's Southport Den Inn".
So my first thought is, what a terrible name! "Den Inn". Sounds either made up, or jumbled after 60 years of memories. It looks like the guy was a little right, but alot wrong.
First things first, we check the Jones records and see these chips were originally ordered in 1960 (then again in 1961) for a guy named "Cyril Perratto". Search that name comes up with nothing, but digging a little deeper finds a Cyril PORRETTO, who was a big time bookmaker and gambler working for Carlos Marcello.
With these small clues, we need to understand what was happening in 1960/1 with Carlos Marcello's operations, and one weird event stands out. At the intersection of Oak, Monticello and River Ave, there is a small spot just feet over the Jefferson Parish county line. And on this spot sat the infamous gambling casino the Old Southport Club.
After constant harassment from law enforcement, in 1960 they had the bright idea to try something different. They closed down the Old Southport, and changed the business from an illegal gambling club to a member's only, non-profit, men's organization which would promote "the social well-being and pleasures" of its members. And what was the name of this new venture: the Riverside Drive Inn.
So there are the initials for the chips "RiverSide Drive Inn". And before you say, "Hey, that's one word and two letters!!" its been done before in New Orleans. Examples are R-V for Riverview Club and C-F Club for Chesterfield Club.
So just to wrap it up, did the big rebrand work. Well... no. You see, the police were infact born, it just wasn't yesterday. They raided the club many times and found cards being played. The owners claimed it was just for-fun between members (thus the lawsuit above asking a judge to stop the raids), but the law wasn't buying it. In one raid, they looked behind a curtain and found a giant roulette wheel along with tons of chips. You might play cards for fun, but roulette? The owners again claimed the roulette wheel was just there, left over from the Old Southport Club days, but a chip order in 1961 for 300 each of five colors of nondenominational of chips would suggest different.
After a few years, most were reverting back to calling in the Old Southport Club, even though the name Riverside Inn was still technically on the sign outside. The experiment failed, but we got some neat looking chips out of it.
So the old man's recollection of "Rudy's Southport Den Inn" was a little right. It was the Southport at one time. However, everything else was a little of a jumbled mess.
I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading.
Ed Hertel
In another thread, Mushmanchuman posted that he got these chips from a guy whose grandfather ran the parking lot at a New Orleans illegal gambling club. He said the initials stood for "Rudy's Southport Den Inn".
So my first thought is, what a terrible name! "Den Inn". Sounds either made up, or jumbled after 60 years of memories. It looks like the guy was a little right, but alot wrong.
First things first, we check the Jones records and see these chips were originally ordered in 1960 (then again in 1961) for a guy named "Cyril Perratto". Search that name comes up with nothing, but digging a little deeper finds a Cyril PORRETTO, who was a big time bookmaker and gambler working for Carlos Marcello.
With these small clues, we need to understand what was happening in 1960/1 with Carlos Marcello's operations, and one weird event stands out. At the intersection of Oak, Monticello and River Ave, there is a small spot just feet over the Jefferson Parish county line. And on this spot sat the infamous gambling casino the Old Southport Club.
After constant harassment from law enforcement, in 1960 they had the bright idea to try something different. They closed down the Old Southport, and changed the business from an illegal gambling club to a member's only, non-profit, men's organization which would promote "the social well-being and pleasures" of its members. And what was the name of this new venture: the Riverside Drive Inn.
So there are the initials for the chips "RiverSide Drive Inn". And before you say, "Hey, that's one word and two letters!!" its been done before in New Orleans. Examples are R-V for Riverview Club and C-F Club for Chesterfield Club.
So just to wrap it up, did the big rebrand work. Well... no. You see, the police were infact born, it just wasn't yesterday. They raided the club many times and found cards being played. The owners claimed it was just for-fun between members (thus the lawsuit above asking a judge to stop the raids), but the law wasn't buying it. In one raid, they looked behind a curtain and found a giant roulette wheel along with tons of chips. You might play cards for fun, but roulette? The owners again claimed the roulette wheel was just there, left over from the Old Southport Club days, but a chip order in 1961 for 300 each of five colors of nondenominational of chips would suggest different.
After a few years, most were reverting back to calling in the Old Southport Club, even though the name Riverside Inn was still technically on the sign outside. The experiment failed, but we got some neat looking chips out of it.
So the old man's recollection of "Rudy's Southport Den Inn" was a little right. It was the Southport at one time. However, everything else was a little of a jumbled mess.
I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading.
Ed Hertel
