In the late 50's I went with a friend to meet L. Ron Hubbard, who was on the Seventh Floor of Harolds Club in Reno, meeting with some people, and giving a brief speech. I had read Dianetics, so I knew who he was, but then, he was just the guy who wrote the book. Someone said, "The crowd is thinning out, let's go over and talk with him." I didn't want to.
We attended a presentation one evening for Koscot, and Glenn Turner spoke, the couple that we went with, knew him, "Come on, let's go down and I will introduce you to him, we can chat a bit."
"Not now, let's head back to Newark."
On another occasion, my friend, Danny, who had a limo, in New York, was contracted to take a lady around to meetings in New York City, for the day. I opted not to go with him, I missed spending the day, possibly, with Debbie Reynolds.
Last, but not least, a few dealer friends of mind, and myself, had a night off. We decided to head to Lake Tahoe, go to the Cal Neva, to see Dean Martin who "might" be appearing there for his good friend. We partied a bit before we got there, hit a few other spots, and by the time we got there, well, I was feeling good, and getting short on money. To make a long story short, we roamed around, not taking reservations, room full, so Hoot saw the Maitre de's reservation book, erased a name and put in Dooley, party of four. Apparently, Frank saw him do it, joked with them a bit about it, and invited them in to his table in the lounge. I had gone out to gamble a little.
I shot craps, the boxman was an "old timer," he fit the part. I had a "shot" I had worked on for some time, could hold a "high" or a "low" side on one die. Got pretty good at it, Don Eammelli had shown me the shot. Anyway, and had enough to drink to be brave .... made some bets, tried the shot, it either worked some or I just got lucky, won a few hundred. But when I sevened out, on a six ace, I had held the six, the boxman beckoned me down to the end of the table. He looked at me and said, "Son, I don't know what you were doing to me, I know you were doing something, so we would rather you take your action someplace else."
I headed to the bar, Hoot saw me and said, "Hey Joe, come on in with us, Frank is buying us a drink."
"No, I'm gonna go to the lounge, I want to hear Trini Lopez, I like that hammer song." I did, Trini was singing his one and only song, "If I Had A Hammer," which he sang over and over, I thought, who, FRANK!" Too late, they joined me in the bar, after having their drink with Sinatra. I did go to the rest room later and stood next to Trini ..... but .... I could have had a drink with Frank.
That same weekend, Sam and Dorothy were there, as was Marilyn and Ted, and rumor had it that perhaps John, his brother might have secretly flown in, the Gaming Commission spotted Sam there and Frank ultimately lost his license, and rumor has it that Frank and Marilyn might still be there, doing a little haunting.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda ...............
