Casinos, Las Vegas

The photographs contained in this lot are culled from an essay originally intended for LIFE magazine but never published. The photographer, Peter Stackpole and the writer assigned to the story, William Saroyan (1908-1981), were both noted figures on the West Coast between the World Wars. Stackpole, a photojournalist with the eyes of a purist, was a member of the illustrious West Coast photographic association, Group f/64. Saroyan, a native of Fresno, enjoyed much fame in the pre-War years for his irreverent style and brash use of vernacular language that created characters in his stories with an especially lively appeal. Self-educated, Saroyan began publishing in the mid-1930s. His collections of stories, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934) and Inhale and Exhale (1936) were exceedingly well received bringing him fame, especially in the Bay Area that would last through the War years.

While Stackpole was documenting the construction of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, he photographed Saroyan on it, beginning their long friendship. Given the attraction of the subject matter of the casinos to both Stackpole and Saroyan, it would seem natural that the two artists would work together on an essay describing and picturing the peopled interiors of the gambling havens of Las Vegas. The photographs contained in this lot were given to Saroyan by Stackpole at the time and have remained in the photographer's family since the writer's death in 1981. It is unclear whether Saroyan ever created a manuscript for the assignment. No draft for the story has been discovered.

Stackpole's obituary in the New York Times on May 14, 199 suggests that these prints may now be unique. The article states that '...In 19991, a fire at his home in Oakland, Calif., destroyed most of his negatives. Friends said Mr. Stackpole had less than 20 minutes to save what he could and managed to salvage only the work...showing the building of San Francisco's great bridges.'