Beldon Katleman

Beldon Katleman (1914–1988) was an American businessman. He was the owner of El Rancho Vegas, a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he invented the buffet for guests. He was an investor in two other casinos, the Frontier Hotel and the Silver Slipper.

Beldon Katleman
BornJuly 14, 1914
Iowa, U.S.
DiedSeptember 28, 1988
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeHillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
OccupationBusinessman
Spouse(s)Leonore Cohn
Children1

Early life

Beldon Katleman was born to an affluent Jewish family[1] on July 14, 1914 in Iowa. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.[2] His parents owned the Circle K national chain of parking lots and owned real estate in Los Angeles.[3] During World War II, Katleman served as a lieutenant in the motion picture division of the Signal Corps in the U.S. Army.[3]

Career

From the late 1940s until it was destroyed by a fire in 1960, he owned and operated El Rancho Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.[4] In an effort to keep patrons in his casino, Katleman came up with the idea of the buffet in 1947.[5]

The Last Frontier Hotel and Casino.

With Guy McAfee and Jake Kozloff, Katleman acquired the Frontier Hotel from Bill Moore for US$5.5 million in 1951.[6] He succeeded Kozloff as its manager in 1955.[2]

Katleman was an investor in the Silver Slipper, another casino in Las Vegas, alongside Jack Barenfeld, Norma Friedman, Irving Leff and T.W. Richardson.[7] After leasing it to Howard Hughes since 1968, they sued Hughes over a year's unpaid rents in 1974.[7]

In April 1988, the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee Senate reviewed the "murky" settlement of taxes Katleman may have owed to the state of California in the 1960s.[8]

Personal life

In January 1941, Katleman married Leonore Cohn, whom he had met at the Hillcrest Country Club, the Jewish golf club in Los Angeles; Leonore was the niece of Columbia Pictures founder Harry Cohn.[3] In 1942,[3] They had a daughter named Diane Katleman Deshong.[9] They resided in Beverly Hills, California.[9] The couple separated in 1944 and divorced soon after;[3]she married Walter H. Annenberg in 1946.[9]

Death

Katleman died on September 28, 1988 in Los Angeles, California. He was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

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References

  1. Burgess, Muriel (August 31, 2013). Shirley. Cornerstone Digital.
  2. Considine, Bob (January 30, 1955). "Gambling Enjoyed While Behind-Scenes Action Ignored. If Las Vegas Walks With Devil, Nobody Seems To Care". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Lubbock, Texas. p. 3. Retrieved March 5, 2016 via Newspapers.com.
  3. Ogden, Christopher (November 29, 2009). Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg. Little, Brown and Company. p. 308.
  4. Ryon, Ruth (October 24, 1993). "Hunk Falls for $2M Hacienda". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 4, 2016. GARY COOPER'S Holmby Hills home when he died in 1961 has come on the market at $3.45 million. [...] The owner is the widow of Beldon Katleman, a pioneer Nevada hotel man who died in 1988. Katleman owned the El Rancho Vegas, a popular getaway for Hollywood stars until the hotel-casino, built in 1940, was razed by fire in 1960. (A hotel on another Las Vegas site later assumed the El Rancho name.)
  5. Rinella, Heidi Knapp (January 1, 2006). "Buffet Bonanza". The New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  6. Wright, Frank (2005). Nevada Yesterdays: Short Looks at Las Vegas History. Las Vegas, Nevada: Stephens Press. p. 104. ISBN 9781932173277. OCLC 60708529.
  7. "Suit Seeks Eviction of Hughes". The Times. San Mateo, California. May 17, 1974. p. 13. Retrieved March 5, 2016 via Newspapers.com.
  8. Walters, Dan (April 4, 1988). "Murky tax case coming to light". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Santa Cruz, California. p. 11. Retrieved March 5, 2016 via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Howard Cooper Deshong Jr. Is Fiance of Diane Katleman". The New York Times. December 27, 1964. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
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