{"id":327692,"date":"2024-08-12T17:32:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T22:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=327692"},"modified":"2024-08-13T16:48:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T21:48:45","slug":"what-happened-to-the-famous-art-from-las-vegas-silver-slipper-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/what-happened-to-the-famous-art-from-las-vegas-silver-slipper-casino\/","title":{"rendered":"LOST VEGAS: What Happened to the Art from the Silver Slipper Casino"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 30, 1968, Howard Hughes purchased the Silver Slipper for $5.4 million from an investment group led by Maurice Friedman, T.W. Richardson, and Shelby Williams. (Yes, all had ties to organized crime.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Silver Slipper was opened in 1950 as part of the Last Frontier Village. (Note how its lettering matched the village welcome sign’s.) The casino was originally named the Golden Slipper. (Image: X\/Twitter\/Neon Museum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sale didn’t include Hughes\u2019 favorite thing in the building, however.<\/p>\n

\n

That\u2019s not a reference to the famous high-heeled slipper sign spinning around on top of it. Hughes didn\u2019t love that, but he didn\u2019t hate it either. Specifically, Hughes didn’t purchase the Silver Slipper just to dim the sign, despite a persistent myth we busted to the contrary.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What Hughes loved was the artwork — 33 oil paintings hanging throughout the property created by Julian Ritter.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ritter — born Julian Stawski on Sept. 19, 1909, in Hamburg, Germany — attended the Chicago Art Institute and later won a scholarship to the Art Center School in LA, where he learned to paint figures. (Image: Greg Autry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lost Art<\/h2>\n

Julian Ritter was a 20th-century painter known for his vibrant and often provocative female nudes, showgirls, and clowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulian painted using glazes on his skin tones that brought out luminosity in the flesh reminiscent of the great masters of the Renaissance,” Greg Autry, the world\u2019s foremost collector of Ritter\u2019s work, told Casino.org. <\/em>“His paintings had a vibrancy. People would line up at the Silver Slipper just to look at them.”<\/p>\n

Most of the paintings displayed by the Silver Slipper were purchased by Autry and have sat in storage since he got divorced in the ’90s — well, minus the five that were \u201ctaken as mementos\u201d by Hughes-employed casino managers before his purchase, Autry alleges, and the six his ex-wife took as mementos of their divorce settlement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That leaves Autry with 22.<\/p>\n

Ritter began his career painting sets for the Warner Bros., MGM, Paramount, and Universal movie studios in the mid-1930s. On the side, he accepted commissions for the movie stars he met — including Jimmy Stewart, Olivia de Haviland, Claudette Colbert, and Veronica Lake — to paint portraits for their homes.<\/p>\n

In 1941, two major New York exhibitions finally earned Ritter the notoriety with the general public that he craved. And, in February 1950, at the urging of his brother-in-law, the artist took a road trip with him to Las Vegas to try and sell his work to casinos.<\/p>\n

\"\"
“Lady of the Evening,” painted on Masonite hardboard in 1950 and measuring 42 by 58 inches, was one of two Julian Ritter paintings hanging for more than three decades high in the Silver Slipper’s entryway. (Image: Greg Autry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe had a lot of success by then, but like any artist, he was always looking to sell more,\u201d Autry said. \u201cThey were sitting in Julian\u2019s backyard in Woodland Hills having drinks when his wife\u2019s brother came up with the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of hotels and casinos being built in Las Vegas and they all needed art.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ritter\u2019s 1949 Dodge Wayfarer had no back seat, but they crammed its trunk with 13 of the best paintings Ritter had on hand at the time. The two went from casino to casino on the Strip without any success until they met Bill Moore.<\/p>\n

The owner of the Last Frontier fell so hard for Ritter\u2019s paintings, he bought all 13 for $1,000 ($12,500 today) and commissioned 10 more to hang in the new casino he planned for the Last Frontier Village, a mock-up Wild West town of old-timey shops and gunfight re-enactments that Moore opened on the grounds of the Last Frontier in 1950.<\/p>\n

The Auction That Wasn\u2019t<\/h2>\n

The Silver Slipper\u2019s art collection hasn’t been seen publicly since October 1988. That\u2019s when, according to every article written about them since, Autry won the paintings in a closed auction.<\/p>\n

Except that this auction never took place. Instead, Autry, who earned a good living in Southern California\u2019s booming 1980s commercial real estate market, drove to Hughes\u2019 Summa Corporation office with a U-Haul and a cashier\u2019s check.<\/p>\n

He won\u2019t say how much it was for, but it was enough to get the auction canceled.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Greg Autry poses with some of the 28 Julian Ritter paintings he acquired from the Silver Slipper in 1988. (Image: courtesy of Greg Autry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI laid the cashier\u2019s check face up, facing the receptionist, on her desk,\u201d Autry said. \u201cShe looked down at it and her jaw dropped. After she regained her composure, she picked up the check and excused herself as she took the check to the offices in back.\u201d<\/p>\n

She disappeared for 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
“Showgirl Dreams,” which measures 4 by 6 feet, hung alongside “Lady of the Evening” in the Silver Slipper entryway. Both were among the original 13 oil paintings Ritter sold to Last Frontier owner Bill Moore in February 1950. (Image: Greg Autry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they were checking to see if the check was real,\u201d Autry said, \u201cand when she came back, she said, \u2018Thank you, Mr. Autry, you bought yourself some paintings, and you have to have them out of there in 72 hours,\u2019 which is when the demolition was scheduled to begin.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Margaret Elardi had purchased the Silver Slipper that August. She decided to knock it down so it could become a parking lot for the Frontier, which she also owned.<\/p>\n

When Autry entered the doomed 38-year-old casino for the first time, he was greeted by two massive Ritters high in the entryway. One was of a reclining nude and the other of multiple topless showgirls. He said they created \u201cthe biggest state of awe in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another emotion that struck him at the time was disgust.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t believe how neglected and uncared for this amazing art was,\u201d he said. \u201cThe paintings, which smelled of tobacco, had all been screwed to the walls to prevent people from stealing them. Some had their frames nailed in with railroad spikes. And others were covered with acrylic because of the booze that flew during bar fights.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI spent years having them cleaned and their frames restored.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Art of Friendship<\/h2>\n

Autry was a superfan of Ritter\u2019s who made his first purchase of the artist\u2019s work in 1983 at a prominent Laguna Beach, Calif. gallery, which had priced it at $13K.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got the guy down to three thousand and thought, \u2018Man, I am really<\/em> good,\u2019\u201d Autry said.<\/p>\n

\n

Through some pre-internet research, Autry discovered that Ritter was still alive and residing in Santa Barbara. He used his purchase to wangle an invitation for him and his wife to meet Ritter at his house.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When they unwrapped the painting, seeking Ritter\u2019s reaction, it wasn’t what they anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a dumb(expletive), aren\u2019t you?\u2019\u201d the artist asked Autry.<\/p>\n

The painting was a fake. But the nearly 20-year friendship that it sparked, wasn’t.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went up there almost every weekend,\u201d Autry recalled. \u201cI often took my kids and my wife, sometimes just myself. I’d sit in the studio and he\u2019d paint and we talked about painting, classical music, World War II, the Silver Slipper, showgirls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Julian Ritter paints at his studio in Santa Barbara in his later years. (Image: courtesy of Greg Autry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few months after Autry purchased the paintings, Julian and his son, Michael, came to see them. At the time, they were displayed in the Culver City house Autry shared with his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promised Julian that I would take care of them and treat them with the respect they deserved,\u201d Autry said. \u201cAnd I have honored my word.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Honor Among Thieves<\/h2>\n

When Bill Moore sold the Slipper to Friedman, Williams, and Richardson for $5 million in 1964, the sale included all of its 33 Ritters.<\/p>\n

\"Howard
Howard Hughes circa 1950. (Image: UNLV Special Collections)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hughes, however, had to pony up separately for those. Right after he bought the casino, its previous owners removed the paintings, claiming they were personal property and not part of the sale.<\/p>\n

Hughes took them to court and won, according to Autry, but the judge stipulated that the owners had to be compensated for the paintings\u2019 current value. (Ritter was among the people consulted by Hughes during the appraisal process.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Oct. 28, 1970, the billionaire negotiated the sale for $471K ($3.3 million in today\u2019s dollars).<\/p>\n

Hughes died in 1976 at age 70. Ritter died in 2000 at age 90. The Silver Slipper is now a vacant lot on the south side of Resorts World. And Autry, who at age 76 is focusing beyond his own remaining years, wants the long-gone casino\u2019s former art collection to find a home where it can be enjoyed again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d like to sell the paintings, but I don\u2019t want to sell them individually,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to sell them all to somebody who will appreciate them and let them be seen by the public in the right kind of environment again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Autry said that interested parties can find his contact information by clicking \u201cconnect\u201d at www.julianritter.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cLost Vegas\u201d is an occasional\u00a0Casino.org<\/em>\u00a0series spotlighting Las Vegas\u2019 forgotten history.\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email corey@casino.org.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 30, 1968, Howard Hughes purchased the Silver Slipper for $5.4 million from an investment group led by Maurice Friedman, T.W. Richardson, and Shelby Williams. (Yes, all had ties to organized crime.) The sale didn’t include Hughes\u2019 favorite thing in the building, however. That\u2019s not a reference to the famous high-heeled slipper sign spinning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":327713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81886],"tags":[92008,83806,92006,84317,92005,23,82012,84119,92009,92007,84630,85970,84731],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLOST VEGAS: What Happened to the Art from the Silver Slipper Casino - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On April 30, 1968, Howard Hughes purchased the Silver Slipper for $5.4 million from an investment group led by Maurice Friedman, T.W. 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