specializing in coin operated machines at 159 East Broadway in downtown Salt Lake City. He returned to Utah, and with a partner, opened up Utah Exhibit Co. He was able to make an agreement that he could buy Mills slot machines factory direct and was to be a factory rep for Exhibit. – Chicago or Bust! – He introduced himself to the slot machine maker Mills Manufacturing, and to Exhibit Supply Company. With this rudimentary experience and spark of an idea he went on the bum again to Chicago. Back at home he bought a couple of used slot machines and placed them in a local speakeasy and in his parents soda fountain. He went “on the bum” to California to look up distant relatives for ideas for his future but returned home sans inspiration. Dad was born in 1911, and entered adulthood at the beginning of the depression. My grandparents and their two boys lived in a small apartment above their floral/soda shop on Midvale Main Street. It was the Canyon’s way of saying “get off my lawn!”. Ultimately they had to call to Salt Lake for help. Their calls for local help were met with unsatisfactory responses. When they came back to their car it had 4 punctured tires. There was one incident when undercover Utah State agents went into Bingham Canyon to investigate local police corruption. Local law enforcement could be sympathetic.

Those communities held an attitude that anything but local government should stay out of their own local business. Gambling and slot machines could be found in fraternal clubs and out-of-the-way areas like Bingham Canyon and Carbon County that had little use for state or federal law-enforcement. Slot Machines were used discreetly in Utah well into the ‘70s and even a few snuck by into the 1980’s. My father had operated slot machines since the 1930’s, so in fact I grew up around these great American relics. In 1975, soon after he married Bobbie Gentry he held an auction, not for the cars, but for the early California and Nevada gaming equipment and surplus antique slot machines. Like most collectors after a while he purged his own excesses. Living in Reno he also collected Virginia City, Nevada and surrounding California gold country gambling memorabilia. Bill Harrah, the Nevada casino owner, was known for his extensive automobile collection.

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