Sinatra debate fills Home Ranch tent

There was a full tent of around 80 people at the Dangberg Historic Home Ranch to hear historians Guy Farmer and Mike Archer discuss Frank Sinatra’s legacy in Nevada’s gaming lore.

Sinatra famously lost his gaming license in 1963 after he allowed Sam Giancana to stay at the Cal Neva.

Farmer, who came to Carson City in 1962 as an AP correspondent before taking a job as public information officer for the Nevada Gaming Commission for three years, was in the office while Sinatra was fighting to keep his license.

Farmer said he was on the other line in 1963 when Sinatra called to argue his position, starting out by inviting Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Ed Olsen to come up to the CalNeva with his family and friends, and ended up calling him “every name in the book.”

Farmer described Sinatra as one of the most famous people in the world at the time, which meant that every media outlet in the country was following the story.

Gambling was approved in Nevada in 1931 and was originally regulated by the Nevada Tax Commission.

After the organized crime hearings conducted by Estes Kefauver in the early 1950s, the Nevada Legislature created the Gaming Control Board with a goal to remove alleged mobsters from Nevada’s casinos in 1955.

Four years later, the Nevada Gaming Control Act created the gaming commission. In 1960, the Gaming Control Board released its first edition of “The Black Book” listing 11 men who were banned from owning, managing or even setting foot in a Nevada casino.

Giancana was one of the literal “Original Gangsters” excluded from casinos in the book.

Archer wrote longtime Sen. Bill Raggio’s biography and Raggio had a different view of Sinatra. Then Washoe County district attorney, Raggio aided Sinatra when his son was kidnapped from a South Lake Tahoe hotel room in December 1963. Sinatra paid a $240,000 ransom on Dec. 11 and his son was released. Sinatra turned 46 the same day.

Raggio represented Sinatra before the gaming commission in 1981 when Sinatra sought to regain his gaming license.

The discussion at the Dangberg Home Ranch was moderated by Dr. Michael “Doc” Fischer, a Chautauquan who often portrays Gov. John Sparks and H.F. Dangberg and the former director of the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Dangberg Home Ranch’s summer festival continues in July with Kim Harris portraying Titanic and Britannic sinkings survivor on July 10 and Cora Johnson portraying Hannah Clapp on July 12.

Visit Dangberg.org for more events.