The Nevada Club was a Fremont Street fixture long before it picked up its flashier name. A 1959 flyer gave 1952 as the opening date of its Fremont Street location, and in 1957 the Fortune Club, the Nevada Club, and an adjoining Western Union office were combined into a larger Nevada Club.
The “Diamond Jim’s” name came in the early 1960s. One chip-collector site lists Diamond Jim’s Nevada Club as operating from 1962 to 1969, while a vintage photo archive says the marquee was changed to read Diamond Jim’s in the summer of 1963. Either way, it was a downtown Vegas club in the heart of the neon, and a c. 1964 photo shows it sitting between the Lucky Casino and the California Club on Fremont Street. The entertainment fit the era: a 1962 ad for the Nevada Club promoted twist dancing from 6 PM to 6 AM, and a 1963 listing shows limbo acts and a trumpeter on the bill.
Then the block changed. The Nevada Club merged with the Lucky Casino in 1967 to become the Lucky Nevada Club, which ran until 1969. Eventually the Golden Nugget’s expansion absorbed the Nevada Club, as it did many other old properties, so a Diamond Jim’s chip comes from a casino whose address is now part of a larger resort.
The Nevada Club was a Fremont Street fixture long before it picked up its flashier name. A 1959 flyer gave 1952 as the opening date of its Fremont Street location, and in 1957 the Fortune Club, the Nevada Club, and an adjoining Western Union office were combined into a larger Nevada Club.
The “Diamond Jim’s” name came in the early 1960s. One chip-collector site lists Diamond Jim’s Nevada Club as operating from 1962 to 1969, while a vintage photo archive says the marquee was changed to read Diamond Jim’s in the summer of 1963. Either way, it was a downtown Vegas club in the heart of the neon, and a c. 1964 photo shows it sitting between the Lucky Casino and the California Club on Fremont Street. The entertainment fit the era: a 1962 ad for the Nevada Club promoted twist dancing from 6 PM to 6 AM, and a 1963 listing shows limbo acts and a trumpeter on the bill.
Then the block changed. The Nevada Club merged with the Lucky Casino in 1967 to become the Lucky Nevada Club, which ran until 1969. Eventually the Golden Nugget’s expansion absorbed the Nevada Club, as it did many other old properties, so a Diamond Jim’s chip comes from a casino whose address is now part of a larger resort.
