Warren Nelson - University of Nevada, Reno

My friend Howard Farris, who by the
way is my partner now, and he and I worked
together in the Palace Club before the war,
and Howard is a varied character in many,
many ways. He’s always got a business deal of
some kind, and he was dickering with a little
fellow by the name of Nick Abelman. Nick
Abelman was a famous old character from
Tonopah, had been partners with Tex Rickard
in Tonopah in a gambling house, and then he
came to Reno and had the Riverside for years.
And the Riverside in the old days was what
we call a “nick joint.” Anytime a big player
come along, they always took advantage of
them; and it was a sort of a—just a way of life
at that time. All the small joints did not deal
on the square at all times. A big player come
along, they had somebody that could take
the money.
Now Nick was not a dealer himself, but
he was a very good little businessman. And
nobody thought any worse or any less of
anybody in those days, although now it’s a
heinous crime, and I really believe that too.
Nick had nothing to do at this time.
6
Waldorf Club
Howard Farris came to me and said, “I got
a chance to buy the Waldorf. Do you want a
part of it?”
And I said, “I don’t have any money.”
He said, “Well if you can get twenty
thousand dollars, we can buy it.”
It looked like a good deal. Th is might be
hard to believe, but I started at the Palace
Club, walked around to the Bank Club
through Harolds Club and back down in front
of Harrah’s, and within an hour and a half I
had borrowed the twenty thousand dollars
on the street. You better believe I borrowed
from some pretty tough customers too, some
people that wouldn’t give anybody anything;
but it always pleased me very much to know
that—that people trusted me that much that
I could go out and borrow that much money
in that little time. Th ere was no way I could
have gone to the bank at that time; I had no
collateral. So I was in business, went down
and took over the Waldorf.
It was a mistake from the beginning. I
had been around gambling houses all my
life, but I had never been around food or bar