The Legendary Lodge on the California-Nevada Border That's Trying to Make a Comeback

A postcard shows the Cal Neva Resort & Casino as it appeared in the early 1960s (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Picture a place straight out of a crime novel or movie, a den of darkness disguised by bright lights, loud music, and decidedly delightful distractions, and then place it in the real world and give it a quintessential quirk — like locating it in two American states at the same time, say, just to up the ante — and what have you got?

Well, friends, that would be the historic Cal Neva Resort & Casino, the legendary lodge located partially in California and mostly in Nevada where the two states meet on the northern end of Lake Tahoe. Associated with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in its heyday in the 1960s, the defunct resort has been closed since 2013, but an über-wealthy individual you may have heard of bought the place recently, and is looking to revamp it.

Larry Ellison, cofounder and chief technical officer of big tech company Oracle, purchased the Cal Neva out of bankruptcy in 2017 for nearly $36 million and has been scheming since then to get the resort up and running again. One of the latest updates on the project broke the news that actor Robert De Niro, chef Nobu Matsuhisa, and former film producer Meir Teper had all signed on to breathe new life into the place, as well.

If you know anything about Ellison or the Cal Neva’s storied history, it won’t be lost on you just how fitting it is that the billionaire is the one spearheading this undertaking. Listed as one of the top five richest people in the U.S. in The Forbes 400 from October 2019, Ellison is fairly recognizable as a business magnate, investor, and philanthropist — but he also comes with a big personality.

One of the easiest ways to convey just how true this is, is simply by sharing the title of a 1997 book authored by Church of Christ evangelist Mike Wilson. Debuting in November of that year, Wilson called his biography of the tech billionaire “The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn’t Think He’s Larry Ellison.” That should give you a pretty good idea of who we’re dealing with here.

The entrance to the Cal Neva Resort & Casino, as seen in 2010 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Ellison is just the latest famous name to be associated with the Cal Neva, which got its start back in 1926. Four years later, the resort found itself in national headlines in regards to a dispute over canceled checks worth about $14,000 with silent film star and America’s “It” Girl, Clara Bow. The actress claimed she thought she had been playing blackjack with 50-cent chips; management at the casino said the chips were worth $100 each. Bow never paid the alleged debt.

Things got a lot more interesting after the resort burned down and was promptly rebuilt in the late 1930s (in just 30 days, it should be mentioned). Come the ‘50s, plenty of the era’s major socialites frequented the Cal Neva. This included the likes of John F. Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy clan, as well as the Rat Pack: Sinatra, Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.

Sinatra apparently liked the place so much that he and a few others bought it in 1960. Co-owners included Martin; music manager, publisher, businessman, and pianist Hank Sinacola; and Atlantic City nightclub owner Paul D’Amoto — but it was also rumored that known Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana was a silent partner in the business venture.

In a 2019 writeup covering the history of the Cal Neva, Katie Dowd, managing editor at SFGATE, said Sinatra amped up the atmosphere at the resort in a number of ways. “He added the famed Celebrity Room, where he and other top-draw talent performed to sell-out crowds,” she says. “He also had a helipad built so celebrity guests could easily arrive from the Reno airport. And, allegedly, he started using the Prohibition-era tunnels under the property to get friends like Giancana in and out of the resort away from prying eyes.”

In late July 1962, Marilyn Monroe spent her last weekend alive at the Cal Neva, possibly as a guest of Rat Pack member Peter Lawford and his wife Patricia Kennedy (the president’s sister), though it’s also said she may have come to see Giancana. Pictures taken of her that weekend, July 28th and 29th, show her hanging around Lawford, Sinatra, and jazz and pop singer Buddy Greco. On August 5th, she was found dead in her home in Los Angeles.

A line running through part of the resort’s lobby, as well as the swimming pool, as seen here in 2007, marks the divide between Nevada and California (Photo: Flickr)

It was a year after that, in the summer of ‘63, that Sinatra’s association with Mr. Giancana, who was blacklisted from entering Nevada’s casinos, wound up losing him the Cal Neva’s gaming license. Having learned of Giancana’s stay at the resort between July 17th and 28th, the Nevada Gambling Control Board called up Sinatra and told him his license was being revoked. Sinatra, as one might imagine, was furious, but as big a star as he was, there was nothing he could do.

With that, the Cal Neva’s so-called golden era came to a close, and it’s never quite been the same. Whether or not Ellison can change that remains to be seen, but he’s certainly giving it a go. Renovation plans call for potentially demolishing all or most of the existing lodge and casino, and revamping the 10-story, 200-room hotel tower that was initially constructed in the late ‘60s. Ellison is also reportedly planning to build a new, two-story building that would house lodging, restaurants, a casino, conference center, spa, and more, all under one roof.

Will he succeed in restoring the legendary lodge’s former glory? God, I hope so.

-LTH

*P.S. The 2018 movie “Bad Times at the El Royale”, which found inspiration for its setting in the Cal Neva, is the reason I started digging into any of this stuff. While the plot is admittedly lackluster, I’d still recommend giving it a watch if you haven’t seen it.