Nice day at work, got a cold local brew sitting beside me and Bob Marley & The Wailers Legend going. Got this chip in the mail today and the Cincinnati Kid photo card has been sitting in view over on the cabinet for a week or so.

Steve and James offer the parenthetical comment under their listing of this dimer that "Many are cigarette burned!" Suppose they were talking about these yellow chips but perhaps you could say the same of the patrons of The Pit. One of D. Saito's Chip Chat issues covered Ely and offered that The Pit originally opened in '36 with unknown chips and that two issues of C&J's were used on different tables concurrently. They had slots, one blackjack game, one poker game and one pan game. No mention of any ashtrays or lack thereof. The picture Doug shows of the place is a miserable square brick building across and down a block from the Hotel Nevada. Wonder what sort of crowd was hanging at The Pit. The Outcasts Of Ely? You see, I'd like to think that the red mark you see on this baby is lipstick. Miss Ely is sweating Her Man at the poker table nursing her fifth can of Hamm's. Reaches around the worthy to bum a drag off his PallMall smoldering on a stack of 10 centers. Lip to coffin nail, smeared ciggy back to chip stack and the arsonist out back sloshing gasoline around. Well, it looked like a joint that oughtta be burned down anyway...

I seem to have an affinity for these scorched little urchins, got about a half dozen of these poor guys, all living pampered lives in return for their stories. The Pit had several owners lose their licenses including the guy that sold the joint to fellow Idahoan 'Hutch' Hutchinson, an ex-rodeo guy that brought us these last issues of Christy & Jones. Business wasn't so good in early '70's but good enough to keep the fire insurance up to date. An old Ely story. BTW, uhh, I hear that hot-stamp small town Nevada is gonna be the Next Big Thing. Glad I got Hotel Nevada completed yesterday!

Well, Ann-Margret... speaking of setting fires.

You don't have to have seen the movie to understand what's going on here. AND! I have a hot-stamped Ely chip that matches her green eyes!