Detroit evening times., 1946-01-26
By Paul Calico
Novelist and Short Story Writer
CHAPTER ii

CHAPTER ii
@E-O BE a success, a professional gambler
needs luck, a bankro and a knowledge of
1 human nature. Col Edward Riley Bradley,
who ran Bradley's Beach Club at Palm Beach
for wealthy and willing suckers so that he
could indulge himself i'm his love of race horses,
had all of those attributes, and to them he
added strict honesty, impeccable taste, genteel
suavity and answering discretion.
He made no bones about his profession.
Years ago, when Huey Long had him up before
a Congressional investigating committee the
eventempered colonel was asked his business.
Bradley replied Il am gambler"
Huey glared at him. What do you bet NJ"
BET on anything" said +. r. blandly.
And he did. 1t can probably be said of
Colonel Bradley that he never refused wager
provided he had a fair chance of winning
and could afford to pay if he lost
An honest gambling establishment can make
operating expenses and a small, reasonable
profit on the house percentage in such games
as roulette, craps brd-cage, Black Jack, etc.
If 80 patrons are indulging in fairly even play
around a roulette table, they are gambling
against one another The house collects its
percentage on the 20" or 90
But ii is when the big shot plunger, the
"fat-cat" walks in with bankrol TO buck the
house that the professional gambler the pro
pretor of the establishment must be one of two
things TO win-lucky or dishonest Ed Bradley
was Scrupulously square and his games were
above-board. But he had gamblers luck. There
were times when his profit for the season at
Palm Beach was more than million dollars.
1t is not -diffieHlt-te-t -'vhenee-caf
Bradey's flair for gambling When in 1873 ne
cot sick of the JohnstoWn steel mills and went
west he found himself in a country where
gambling was the only recreation. He played
poker, faro and bet on the Indian pony races.
And he discovered that he had the nerve, the
GOODNESS and the luck TO gamble successfully.
But whence came the strain of social Eraces,
auStcrity and his brilliant formula for catering
10 the rich? For Bradey's parents were Irish
immigrants and his boyhood was spent in the
smoky centers of the mill towns
Ii is only known that somewhere between
the years 1890 and 1898 Bradley made the all
important transition from a small timer TO one
of the biggest operators the country has ever
known. During those years he opened a room
in a Chicago hotel prospered bought the fash
ionable Chicago Beach Hotel, and studied the
behavior, psychology and curious habits of the
new American genus, homo millionairibus.
LOW well he learned them, any blue blood
] who in the past was permitted to cross the
threshold of gamblings Holy of Holes, the
Beach Club, can testify. The job of catering to
the natural cupldity and gambllng-adVenture
instinct in men and women conducted in
the atmosphere of luxury and muted efficiency.
The gambling salon at the end of a long
corridor leading from the dining room CON-
tanned five roulette tables and dice, or craps,
layout The colors were green and white, green
carpets green baiZe on the tables, white enamel
on the walls. Some said that Bradley chose
green and white because 1t showed of the
gowns and jewelry of the women TO good adj
vantage, but that, onea suspects, is giving the
good Colonel little too much. And besides,
green and white are not too flattering to most
women except redhcads. Green and white also
happened to be Bradey's turf colors, and
probably the real reason for the decor was that
Some Frightened WeokIins BIeofins
Out His Accusation, the Cot-Like
Approach of fhe Colonel. Then-"The
Cashier Will, of Course. Return You
Your Money. Moy ! Trouble You
for Your Admission Cord? Good
Evening. Sir
IN January n, 1915