1962

After the Seattle World’s Fair, or the Century 21 Exposition, the bronze coins used as trade dollars during that event appeared in slot machines throughout Nevada.

1962

How ’bout a game of burro? Fred Carrier, a Stateline, Nevada accountant, developed a gambling game with this name, the concept for which came to him in a nightmare.

Based on magnetism, it featured a plastic burro that rotated in the middle of an octagonal table. The player had a choice of betting on which part of the animal ended up facing him/her or on any one, two or four of eight colors.

I’m guessing state gaming regulators didn’t approve the game, but does anyone know for sure?

Illustration from pond5.com by Vac

1962-1999

You’ve likely heard of Dumbo, Horton and Babar, but what about Bertha?

Real, unlike the others, Bertha is an elephant renowned for having performed in shows at the Nugget hotel-casino, in Sparks, Nevada, for 38 years!

Former Nugget owner, John Ascuaga, bought Bertha in 1962 for $8,000 (that’s $63,000 in today’s dollars) from a Wisconsin circus museum and, soon after, had the 17 year old appear on stage for opening night of the showroom Circus Room and regularly thereafter.

“Bertha is really super. She’s so gentle and very intelligent. We do a trick where she lays on top of me. She is so careful that I’m not afraid at all,” said Diane Gustin, who performed with her (Nevada State Journal, July 20, 1975). “She is one in a million. She has a fine temperament.”

This Asian star often performed with a stunning female and, over the years, with a younger elephant sidekick, first Tina, then Angel. Once, she carried to the stage Liberace who was bedecked in a $100,000 costume. She also did her act at local elementary schools.

In 1973, Ascuaga awarded Bertha with a 10-year pin and inclusion into the prestigious Nugget employee Hall of Fame; she celebrated by consuming an extra hay bale.

Bertha lived in a barn adjacent to the Nugget, a $75,000 facility equipped with water, electricity, heat and an outdoor exercise yard. Her trainers lived in an apartment above it.

Beauty Routine

This 9,800-pound pachyderm chowed down five times a day, mostly on hay, grain, oat mash, bread, lettuce and other vegetables.

Her beauty and hygiene regimen read like a spa menu. During the summers, peak performance season, Bertha’s trainer bathed her and exfoliated her skin (with fine sandpaper) daily to keep her soft and smelling good. He cut her hair every six to eight weeks with … a blowtorch.

He routinely trimmed her toenails and cuticles. In the winter, when she didn’t perform because the showroom was closed, she basked in a total body, pore-clearing oil treatment that remained on her skin for four weeks.

The entertainment icon retired in October 1999 and died a month later at age 48.

Sources

1962

The City of Winnemucca in Nevada had an ordinance that prohibited women from working in a casino in which they had some ownership. Bea Hawkins, who with her husband Don, owned the Ferris Hotel and Casino,* asked the city council members to amend the ordinance on the grounds it was unconstitutional. They refused.

She defied the law and worked for three days at the Ferris, at which time the council shut down her casino and didn’t renew her gambling license.

She threatened to sue the governing body.

It’s unclear how, but the parties came to this agreement: The council would reinstate her permit but she had to stop tending bar and dealing cards at the Ferris.

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* The Ferris was located at 229 Bridge St.