by Ernest Marquez
208 pp. Angel City Press, 2011, $40
What we’re going through now seems unique, but today is not the first time that casinos have had to deal with social distancing. In the late 1920s and 30s, the rule in southern California was not six feet apart, but rather three miles. Gaming then was illegal in the U.S., even in Nevada, but if you left the state and headed west into territorial waters, those laws didn’t apply. That boundary was just three miles offshore, and water taxis and speedboats were happy to transport eager guests to gambling ships lying in anchor at sea.
At the time, casinos were not the only thing illegal ashore but permitted on the open waters. Prohibition was another boon for the gaming ships, since you could legally consume alcohol – and, presumably, at these floating bars you’d get far better liquor than the bathtub gin you could expect at speakeasies. Sadly, there’s no similar relief at hand today for all the watering holes in California, New York and Nevada that remain closed at the time of this writing.
Italian gangster Tony Cornero Stralla certainly recognized an opportunity whenever one floated his way. His profession at various times could have been listed as robber, deserter, smuggler, mobster, gambler, bootlegger, and casino owner (both legal and illegal). He had several monikers: King of the Rumrunners, Admiral of the Gambling Ship Fleet, or just Tony the Hat. Most just knew him, and his brothers, as Cornero.
Noir Afloat, by Santa Monica-based author Ernest Marquez, provides an extensive history of Cornero, his “associates,” and the ships they, and others, operated to meet the public’s thirst for booze and gambling. Marquez has also written a few other historical works that revolved around similar Southern California subjects like the Port of Los Angeles and Santa Monica Beach.
The book is meticulously detailed and beautifully illustrated. It contains a wealth of historic photographs. While it could be considered an academic work, it reads like an extended episode of The Untouchables. At times, you wonder who is more crooked: the gamblers or the Los Angeles politicians.
Cornero and his brothers also had a Las Vegas connection, opening one of Nevada’s first casinos in May of 1931. That was the first year that the state legalized gaming, and Cornero was after the hefty paychecks from the construction workers building Hoover Dam (then known as Boulder Dam). His Meadows Club was at the far end of Fremont Street, about halfway between downtown and Boulder City. Few realize that Cornero also started building the famous (or infamous) Stardust. Unfortunately, he did not live to see it completed in July of 1958. It was perhaps ironic that lifelong gambler Cornero died of a heart attack at age 55 while shooting craps at the Desert Inn. His underworld connections spawned rumors that his heart attack was caused by a drink that had been poisoned. Adding to the conspiracy theories were the fact that his glass was washed immediately, and no autopsy was ever performed.
But it is the waters three miles off Santa Monica, Redondo Beach and Long Beach – and the casino ships that sailed them – that are the main focus of this book.
The ships reigned for just a dozen years, 1927 until 1939, and their ultimate demise was largely the work of legendary crime fighter – and later Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court – Earl Warren. During the time Marquez writes about, Warren was the crusading attorney general of California, and his mission was to rid the waters of gambling and corruption. He succeeded. If you have ever seen photos of law enforcement dumping slot machines in the ocean, and there are plenty of those in this book, they were most likely taken during the final days of these ships.
You’ll learn about legendary ships such as the Tango, the Rex, the Johanna Smith, the Caliente, the Lux, and many others. There’s an interesting historical poster shown for one ship, the City of Panama, that reads “Let’s Go Nowhere Tonight!” They subtitled their promotion a “Thrilling 6-hour Cruise to Nowhere.” Maybe that’s where some of the southern and midwestern states got their ridiculous ideas for the early regulations governing the more-recent casino riverboats.
During these days of pandemic, many of us might have some idle time on our hands. You could do far worse than to spend some of it reading this fascinating book. It lists for $40 in stores and on most sites, but you can probably find a used edition for about half that amount. It’s worth it at either price.
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(Note: I was curious about the title Noir Afloat, which the author doesn’t explain. The Oxford dictionary defines “noir” as “a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity.” By that definition, the title is quite apropos).
