Evening star., 1937-03-14
CLASSES HIMSELF
As 'SPECULAT0R'
Born Gambler, Has Toi|ed in
Steel Mills, on Plains,
Fought Indians.
BY STAT Correspondent OF The Star.


- The latest stop gambling
order issued by Gov. Cone,
extending the ban to Palm
Beach, brings into prominence again
the colorful figure of Col. E. R.
Bradley, owner of the Beach Club at
Palm Beach, which up to the present
always has escaped the fury of
Florida's anti-gambling campaigns.
Edward Riley Bradley has been
called ''turfman" ever since his
horses. which have brought him the
distinction of being the only owner
OF four Kentucky Derby winners,
started getting him into the public
prints, but he still is in the habit of
referring to himself as "a speculator,
meaning gambler"
He was II last December IL, and
If there was any part of that long
stretch of years when his main
source of income and fun did not
consist of making or taking bets, it
came before he acquired long trousers.
Worked In Steel Mills.
He WAS born in Johnstown, Pa,
the eldest of the four children of
Irish Immigrants. As boy he worked
In the steel mills around Pittsburgh,
but he hardly had begun to shave
when he moved on to the Southwest.
This period of his life is covered
with many conflicting stories and
only Col. Bradley himself knows the
details. He arrived in the frontier
country when he was about IA, and
at various times has admitted to hav-
ing been cowboy, Government scout
in the campaigns against the Apache
Indians, gold miner and prospector.
The main forms of entertainment in
that country were faro, poker and
betting on the Indian pony races,
which at one time benefited from the
riding talents Of former Vice President
Charles Curtis and sam Hildreth.
Late in the 80's, Col. Bradley made
his appearance as bookmaker at the
race tracks in Hot Springs, Ark, and
Memphis, Tenn. And from then on,
his sporting ventures grew steadily,
taking him to Chicago and from there
to those Eastern cities which enjoyed
the patronage of plungers. He and his
brother, John, owned the BacchuS Club
at Ell Paso, largest gambling house in
Texas, and at one time or another
he owned gambling houses in the
Rockaways on Long Island, Long
Branch, N. j., and ST Augustine, Fla.
Women Put Over Casino.
TN 1898. the brothers opened their
present Casino at Palm Beach. BY
permitting women to gamble as well as
men, they turned what looked to be
q disastrous venture into a fabulous
moneymaker.
At one time, back in the '90's, doc
tors told him his heart was weak and
gave him year to live unless he took
things very quietly. He has been TAX
ing things very quietly ever since,
winning or losing thousands of dollars
on race or turn of the card or the
dropping Of a roulette ball without
letting flicker Of emotion disturb the
even friendlinesS of his nature.
He is middIng tall man, spare,
austere-looking, blue-eyed, thin-lipped,
sombrely tailored, his back straight
as a ramrod, a fat specially made
cigar almost always stuck in his i'm
passive face. His life alternates vio-
lently between nighttime and day.
time labors.
From January until the end Of
March, he gets up late in the after
noon and spends almost all the time
until dawn at his Beach Club. Nearly
all the rest of the year he is up and at
his horses at dawn and retires re-
ligiously at 9 in the evening,
Spends Much Time on Farm.
A PRIL generally finds him at Idle
Hour, his 1,O00-acre horse farm
near Lexington, KY. He is there until
after the Derby is run. Then he fol-
lows his horses around to Belmont
Park, occasionally Saratoga, and
Maryland. November generally finds
him back at Idle Hour, busy with his
stock until 1t is time to reopen the
Beach Club.
For amusement, he likes the COM
pany of men who know as much Of
the ahstruse lore of horse-flesh as he
does and are willing to talk the sub
1ect blue. His public appearances
these days, aside from the race track,
are confined nearly exclusively to
charity affairs. He once said that,
when he dies, he will give his club and
its grounds to the city.
He has built an impressive looking
church, named st. Edwards, about
. block from the club and there is
q chapel on his Kentucky place He
leads his racing stable employees to
mass in bunch every Sunday.
His favorite charity is the Orphans
day race meeting that he gives at
Idle Hour Farm. This nets about
$4,000 year and is distributed
equally among all the orphanages in
that section of the country.
{Copyright. 1887. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, Inc)