Well according to the caption it looks like it was taken in 1959. I wasn't even one yet.
Okay since the olympia is coming up and Vegas is in the air, here are some vegas stories (a few of a whole lot).
My uncle Joe is a very close friend of Chuck Norris's. In fact when Chuck was falling on hard times after selling all his karate studios Joe helped him. And Joe ran Chuck's Fan Club for a side thing. Anyway, I like going to Vegas with my friends allot. But when I started hanging with Joe more (cause he ran one of my companies)allot changed. He was what Vegas considered a Whale. He basically spent every Saturday and Sunday in Vegas for years. What I found awesome was how whenever a boxing match came to town how many tickets the casinos would give him. I knw for a fact for the Tyson/Bruno fight we had 20 ringside seats (actually 5th row). For one of the Hearns/Leonard fights i too with him he had 30.
In fact, I was in his office when over the intercom his secretary says "Joe Secret Service on line 2". He looks at me and picks up the phone. After a few what the hell is with you guys, he says I can get you 4 and then hangs up. He tells me that some of George Bush's agents were going to be in Vegas for an assignment and wanted to see the fight. Well everyone knew Joe was the guy to get tickets (FREE) to any fight in vegas. He says to me "I can't belive these son-of-a-b***hes can't get tickets and have to call me. Joe gave Bush allot of money for his campaign. There are pictures all over his ffice wth Bush.
well my very first trip of many with Joe was to the Hearns/Leonard fight. he asked me if I wanted to go and of course i said yes. He tells me to go to the Garrett hanger at LAX off of Imperial. Be there at 3pm. We were leaving on Friday. I thought we were going to all meet up there and drive on a shuttle or something to the airport. I was about 10 minutes late and was realy scared that they left without me. I get t the guard gate and he says go right in Mr. Jones. He tells me where to park and go in the hanger. When I get there Joe is standing there on the steps to his private jet. It surprised me cause i knew he had a plane but he never told me it was a jet. So, as he is telling me never to be late again I am climbing into this beautiful British Hawker. Now I have flown once before on a private jet when I was younger and didn't think of it much.
This plane was really nice. And the biggest thing I remember was it had buckets of KFC on the counter. It only sat I think 10 people. Myself, Joe and his wife, Richard Rountree (Shaft), Benny Urquidez (famous fighter)and his wife, Chuck Norris and his wife, and Bob Sidell (famus make-up artist) and his wife were on board.
Anyway, about 45 minutes later we were in Vegas. Had limos at the plane to take us to the hotel. The Barbary Coast was Joe's home hotel. he and the owner were great friends basically anything and everything was comped except Michaels. Joe always had an entire floor reserved for him and his friends. He always stayed in the John Wayne suite. Never saw Chucks suite.
When you are n vegas and have an extra couple hundred dollars and want great food and service you have to eat at Michaels inside the Barbary Coast. With good Champagne or wine expect about $500+ for a couple. There specialty is the Filet of Sole which is ala carte and then cost about $75. Joe told me if I order that to order 2 cause two won't fill me up. I said no one is fine. I ended up having 3.
Anway, after dinner we hit the tables. Now this was the first time I've been to vegas with Joe so i didn't knwo what to expect. joe is one of the best known crap players in vegas. So we get to the table everyone says hi to Joe and then he introduces me to all of them. This story could get really long if I really et into it. So I will tell you the best parts.
Joe likes to play his money for his friends at first. I'm saying $500 chips on the line for everyone in his group. Now the women went off to play slots. The men are with Joe. In short, in a little over 4 hours Joe had won me $8,000+. I said I am tired and went upstairs ($8,000 richer). At breakfast the next morning, I ended up sitting with Tony Halme and his girlfriend who managed Crazywear then and they drove up that morning), Benny and his wife. Joe and the others were at the table next to us. Chuck comes up to me and say Keith why did you leave so early, you should have hung around longer. benny then says we all ended up winning $12,000. I couldn't believe it.
So then it's time to order breakfast and Tony is looking at the Keno cards, he asks me what it is and I tell him to play. he picks numbers and hands the girl a $20 bill. He says give me $15 back. I said just play that you cheap ass and he says no way he doesn't want to throw away money. So he plays $5. Anyway he isn't even paying attention to his numbers and i am and he ended up winning $5,000. If he played the $20 I think it would have paid him $100,000.
Anyway, I remember watching Joe play craps. And he draws a very large crowd all the time. I never seen anyone play with so much money until I started going with Joe to Vegas. I remember counting the chips he had on the table one time. There was close to $40,000 on the table. I ws looking at most of the people playng and was certain just what was on the table was more than they made in a year.
Anyway I have a ton of these stories about Vegas. if you find them interesting tell me cause I have some good ones. In leaving, when Joe would hit a bad streak he wuld play Blackjack. I went with him once to play. Now tell me if you have ever seen this before. When a dealer had an ACE showing they'll always ask for insurance. If Joe is at the table, he would simply reach across the table and look at the dealers cards. Now I only saw him do this at the Barbary Coast. I'm not sure if other casinos would like this.
One more thing about Joe. Caesars Palace once owed him $50,000+ for some things they had bought from Joe. They didn't pay him for about 4 months. He was really pissed off at them and when they finally had his money (after months of trying), he told them he'd be comng to pick it up personally and make them be very sorry for taking so long. Well he cashed the check and used the money to gamble at Caesars. In short, he won $876,000+ that night. At 1am he called his friend who is the largest jeweler in Vegas (Mordikai?) and told him to be at his store he needs to buy some jewelry for his wife. he spent the entire amount on her for her birthday.
If I am at the Olympia I will be with him most of the time when I am l playing. so be sure to come see us. But don't talk to him while he has the dice he gets pissed, right Stunt.
