After reading today's QoD [on the Joe Louis statue at Caesars Palace], it seems like who was Irving “Ash” Resnick should be the next one, don't you think?
We certainly do. And thanks for asking.
Irving “Ash” Resnick was a Las Vegas casino executive and sports promoter for nearly 40 years, working at Caesars Palace, Dunes, Thunderbird/El Rancho, and Maxim. He's remembered primarily for organizing the first junkets that became a common way for casinos to bring in high rollers. He's also credited with bringing in one of the first baccarat games, which was unveiled at the Dunes.
He was born in 1916 in Brooklyn. By the time he went to NYU, he was six-one and played NCAA basketball for the university team. He was good enough to turn pro and from 1937 to 1948, he played for various teams in the American Basketball and Independent leagues, with a break between 1942 and 1945, during which he served in the U.S. Army during WW II. In the 1946-47 season, he led the ABL in points scored, averaging 16.1 per game. Injuries forced him to retire after the 1948 season when he was 32.
Also, he had an illegal-gambling conviction in New York, which was no doubt part of the impetus for his moving to Las Vegas in 1949. It's believed, though never proven to our knowledge, that Resnick had connections in the underworld, primarily to Meyer Lansky and Vincent Alo.
In 1974, Resnick was convicted of income-tax evasion, allegedly having skimmed upwards of $300,000 from Caesars Palace and, predictably, failing to pay taxes on it. But the conviction was overturned and he never served time.
His colorful career included boxing management and as mentioned in the Joe Louis QoD, Resnick befriended the long-term champion during the war and hired him as a greeter at Caesars; some sources maintain that Louis was also an enforcer when Resnick attempted to collect gambling debts. He also managed Sonny Liston for a time and has been cited as being involved in Liston's death in Las Vegas over money Liston owed him, though whether or not Liston's death from an overdose of heroin was murder has never been solved.
Try as we might, we couldn't find out where the nickname "Ash" came from. We do know that he was married twice; he got divorced from his first wife Miriam. His second was Marilyn Johnson, who won the Miss Hollywood beauty contest in 1956, which sent her to Las Vegas as a singer and showgirl. When they met, Marilyn was 20 years younger than Ash. They were married in 1958, had two daughters, and remained together for 31 years, until Resnick died of heart failure in 1989 at the age of 72.
