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\tBy JOHN L. SMITH
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tOne of the most recognized gamblers in popular American history died Saturday, and the keepers of the Strip didn\u2019t even bother to dim the lights.<\/p>\n
\tAlthough he never won a World Series of Poker bracelet or a $1 million jackpot, James Garner\u2019s \u201cMaverick\u201d character was the first acceptable gambler portrayed on television. He was handsome, clever, never cheated a sucker \u2014 and always outsmarted the bad guys.<\/p>\n
\tCompared to the long line of dysfunctional desperados usually associated with the gambling scene in the 1950s and early \u201960s, Maverick was an ace in an otherwise crooked deck.<\/p>\n
\tOther characters from popular culture either didn\u2019t send the right message or were so superior they were hard to relate to. Danny Ocean and his crew were a kick in the head, but they weren\u2019t gamblers. They were thieves. They were out to beat Las Vegas, not enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\tJames Bond came along and scored big with the chicks and at the baccarat tables, but mere mortals could never approach his degree of style and expertise with the latest spy technology. When it came to selling the acceptability of gambling to the masses, he was truly a foreign agent.<\/p>\n
\tWhere Sinatra\u2019s Frankie Machine in \u201cThe Man with the Golden Arm\u201d was on dope and Steve McQueen\u2019s \u201cCincinnati Kid\u201d fought desperation in the pool hall, Bret Maverick was a wisecracking vagabond card player who always got the last laugh. And he played a helluva poker hand, too.<\/p>\n
\tGarner, the man who brought him into American living rooms near the outset of a long and successful film career, died Saturday. He was 86.<\/p>\n
\tAs expected, tributes to Garner have flowed across the media like cheap whiskey. He was a movie star who never lost the common touch with his audience.<\/p>\n
\tBut although Garner enjoyed huge success on television as the star of \u201cThe Rockford Files\u201d and won big-screen adulation in numerous movies that ranged from \u201cThe Great Escape\u201d and \u201cGrand Prix\u201d to \u201cSupport Your Local Gunfighter\u201d and \u201cMurphy\u2019s Romance,\u201d Las Vegans should pay respect to his Maverick character.<\/p>\n
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\tIt was the role of a traveling Texas poker sharpie that not only put Garner on the map, but also gave the great American gambling subculture a character worth admiring. \u201cMaverick\u201d ran from 1957-1962 and has ridden the range of syndication for decades. But Maverick the character was a guy you\u2019d want to hang out with.<\/p>\n
\tHe wasn\u2019t just quarterback good looking and smooth with a deck of cards. He also had a sense of ethics. He paid his debts. And if he cheated, well, those he took advantage of surely deserved it.<\/p>\n
\tMaverick\u2019s Wikipedia entry notes that Bret and his brothers were \u201cconstantly getting into and out of life-threatening trouble of one sort or another, usually involving money, women, or both. They would typically find themselves weighing a financial windfall against a moral dilemma. More often than not, their consciences trumped their wallets since both Mavericks were intensely ethical.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIntensely ethical?<\/p>\n
\tHow refreshing.<\/p>\n
\tThe series even produced an episode called \u201cAccording to Hoyle,\u201d which extolled the virtues of Maverick repaying \u201ca questionable debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tToday, there would be a lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\tWe take the acceptance of legalized casinos for granted now, and Hollywood abounds with tales of gamblers and \u201cVegas\u201d themes, but the first episode of \u201cMaverick\u201d aired just five years after the Kefauver national rackets hearings were the top show on television. Gambling was legal only in Nevada, a state with a considerable image problem and a casino industry riddled with organized crime connections and hidden ownership.<\/p>\n
\tIf the founding fathers of the casino racket were really on the ball in those days, they would have elected Garner Nevada\u2019s Governor and had him dress in that signature black hat and vest Maverick wore.<\/p>\n
\tInstead, Garner went on to a long career in Hollywood. The outlaws of Nevada gaming evolved into corporations traded on the stock exchange.<\/p>\n
\tGambling\u2019s acceptance in modern America came about gradually and benefited from positive imagery in pop culture. On the cusp of the 1960s, who was more popular on TV than Maverick?<\/p>\n
\tA tip of our hats shouldn\u2019t be too much to ask.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By JOHN L. SMITH LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL One of the most recognized gamblers in popular American history died Saturday, and the keepers of the Strip didn\u2019t even bother to dim the lights. Although he never won a World Series of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}