Paper, Parlay, and The Park

Paper, Parlay, and The Park

Ryan L. Thomas Harvard GSD Fall 2018 DES 3241:

Theories of Landscape as Urbanism Instructor: Charles Waldheim

The playing card industry’s production of the Las Vegas Strip.

Introduction: The origin of the playing card has

Las Vegas, Nevada, where the entire

This dossier will provide a frame

many trails far and wide, all of which

lifeblood of its main gambling district is

of reference for contextual review and

converge in the mid 19th century with

fundamentally dependent on cyclical

speculation in the following themes:

the creation of the Ohio company that

processes of production & destruction

today produces the most ubiquitous

of its playing cards.

playing cards in modern history, the

Through the changing of casinos

Paper: (On the Industrial Revolution)

United States Playing Card Company.

in the Vegas Strip, one can observe

Parlay: (On the Gambling Frontier)

The advent of rolled paper and

landscapes emerging among them

The Park:

technological innovations in printing

and identify motives attached to their

industries can provide valuable insight

tourism and gambling markets; as

These themes will be organized

to the successes and failures of early

made evident by a mode of production.

through the sequential lifespan of

gambling establishments across the

This analysis will seek to examine one

a playing card, while illustrating the

American frontier. This relationship

such example of emergent landscape.

back-end systems that manifested it;

(On Spatial Remnants)

can be seen nowhere more clearly

culminating in the query of landscape

than in the casino capital of the world,

agency in the process that construct it.

United States Playing Card Company, Cincinnati. ca. 1935-1943 (Ohio History Connection)

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[Procurement]

“Group of Young Business Men” [most in the paper industry] Middletown in Black and White.

1906. p 90

During the 19th Century the region surrounding Cincinnati, Ohio was saturated

This may not compare greatly to the 77 in Massachusetts or the 131 in Pennsyl-

Though sparsely found around the state of Ohio, the paper industry was booming

with many a prosperous industry. Cincinnati was a boomtown by many standards

vania, but considering that paper making was dominated by New England in the ear-

in every corner, and mills opened up in droves, seemingly overnight. This market was

and was able to accommodate commerce involving steam, coal, and wood given the

ly 1800’s and Cincinnati, being entirely mainland, had to rely on rail and steamboat

so lucrative it put young moguls into prominent financial status and quiet places like

proximity of the many towns that supplied it. North of the “Queen of the West”, one

for any far-reaching commerce, these figures are not so inconceivable comparatively.

Middletown on the map for trade. (Simms 1906, 90) It is important to note that this

can encounter Middletown, a nearby small town that specialized as a purveyor of

The relative consumption of paper was much smaller before the introduction of the

boom had not come about from seeking remote land or en route trading (though that

timber and lumber to the consumers of Cincinnati. This mill town was among many

printing-press, yet the invention of modern paper preceded the milestone by several

surely played its roles), but rather it came from the streamlining of all production by

in the area as the Rust Belt incrementally expanded. Between 1690 and 1832, there

centuries. In 1622 the first newspaper was printed in England; with it came the trends

revolutionizing the paper making process in itself. (Lockwood’s Directory of the Paper

were some 509 paper mills operating in the country, 18 of which were in Ohio, the

of commercial print and stationery goods. Paper mills started up everywhere around

and Allied Trades 1874, 4)

majority situated relative to Cincinnati. (Bidwell 2013, 288-95)

Europe accordingly. (Bolles 1881, 458)

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Paper [Process] Pressing and Printing

Processes of mid 18th century card-making.

(Adapted from “Cartier”, L’Encyclopédie, 1751. plates I-V)

The latest European sensation: The Celebrated French Aerielists & Acrobats poster ca. 1891. Russell & Morgan Co. Traditionally, a stack of a hundred and twenty sheets of paper —when produced

which intensely squeeze it, leaving the paper strong and dry. It travels between the

companies in the greater Cincinnati region, their largest purveyor of goods and major

by hand— took two weeks to complete its process and finishing, where by the 1800’s

pressing rolls, over the face of steam heated steel cylinders for about forty feet, and is

stockholder was the U.S. Playing Card Company. To better understand their field of

the same work could be entirely done in under four minutes. (Ibid. Bolles, 462-3) Paper

then wound up tightly on a single roller — as a final continuous sheet of rolled paper.

influence, a progression of the company’s establishment should be made:

would be produced in what’s known as a Fourdrinier paper making machine, introduced

Roll production met speeds up to “forty feet a minute”, or “three to five miles a day.” (Ibid.

It was in Cincinnati, 1867 that Russell & Morgan Printing Company was established.

in 1806. The machine required a creation of wood pulp prepared by grinding, bleaching,

Bolles) This expedient production of roll paper changed operating rates of mills forever.

A printing company, formed in the partnership of A. O. Russell, Robert J. Morgan,

and washing wood matter through a cistern across a large room; it is comprised of

It especially affected the printing industry and paper purveyors.

John F. Robinson Jr., and James M. Armstrong from the remnants of printing rooms of

various mechanical parts, aprons, steam heated-pipes, and heavy rollers arranged

These innovations for manufacturing paper outpaced other arenas of the market

the Cincinnati Enquirer. They established themselves by printing circus and theatrical

perpendicularly atop of one another throughout. The machine was a symphony of

and had brought mill towns massive quantities they could suddenly now produce,

posters, production labels and placards. During this time, the field of entertainment was

paper development. The pulp falls upon an apron and flows onto an endless wire-

and this influx of supply bred business in unlikely places. It was too lucrative not to

still heavily European influenced, and that took shape in the products once produced by

cloth, forming a web. The wire-cloth is constantly vibrating to aid the drainage of water.

work on. In Middletown, Ohio, there existed the W. B. Oglesby Paper Company, a

Russell, Morgan & Co., from English theater, to French acrobats, to magic showcases.

With the majority of the water gone, a moist web remains and is taken through a pair

booming company, “the pioneer industry of the kind” there. (Simms 1906, 170) They

The company would transition its work beyond posters and situate its successes by

of condensing rollers, covered with flannel, to squeeze out the remaining moisture. It

were producing paper goods with all the latest appliances as seen in their competitors

advertisement of purely American virtues in its product; establishing itself as the pride

is then taken through a second set of wet press-rolls, and then to a clear set of rolls,

from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Like many other advancing paper

of the country’s printing manufacturing, setting it apart from its competitors.

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Paper [Process] Partnerships & Prospect

Advertisement card by Russell & Morgan Printing Co. ca. 1885 (Hinrichs, 2001. p. 73)

Factory postcard - U. S. Playing Card Co. , Norwood OH. 1906

Having became so popular they had to move and upscale operations through the

It was the proper alignment of circumstances; from a wave of paper machinery

next decade. By the 1880’s, Russell recommended to his partners that they should

advancement, to the proximity of mill towns, to a well-established printing company, to

embark upon manufacturing playing cards, an industry dominated by companies on

the cultural identity of a unifying United States post-Civil War, culminating to make the

the East Coast. In agreement, arrangements were made to add two additional stories

U.S. Playing Card Company a monopolizing force for playing cards in the 20th Century.

to their building to accommodate card production. Many new machines were designed

The U.S. Playing Card Company was not able to acquire other businesses by merit

in-house and built expressly for their company. Through the better half of the decade,

of work alone, but rather because of its adoption of the Rotary Printing Press and its

the company’s 20 employees manufactured 1600 decks of playing cards per day.

in-house development of many machines specific to the production of playing cards,

(Dawson 2000) By the 1890’s The company relinquished their former name to become

as best suited to their factory. Operating as Russell & Morgan Co. the company’s vice

the U.S. Printing Company, but within the first few years, their business in playing cards

president Samuel J. Murray, a well-versed inventor, developed machinery to be imple-

was so successful it needed to stand alone. In 1894, The U.S. Playing Card Company

mented to solve complex issues in card manufacturing. He developed card punching

was made. From 1890’s through the 1930’s, the acquisition of many other neighboring

machines, packaging and box construction, and (most importantly) the new process of

playing card companies postured the U.S. Playing Card Company as household name

printing cards from rolls rather than sheets, as done by their competitors. Murray also

in the region.

happened to be the director of their main supplier, the W.B Oglesby Paper company.

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Ace from Squared Faro #366 deck [made to supply casinos]

by Russell & Morgan Co. 1887 in The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. p. 81

Parlay [Printing]

Cylinder Press Advertisement in The Inland Printer. 1884. (top right)

“Eight-Cylinder Type-Revolving Printing-Machine”. Industrial History of the United States, 1881. (bottom right)

Murray, Machine for Punching Cards, 1888.

The advent of the cylindrical printing press revolutionized the systems of printing and lithography because of the ability to streamline rolled paper and utilize it seamlessly from one print to the next. (The Popular Science Monthly [v. 56 (1899-1900)] 1899) The use of printing by plates was a thing of the past, left behind as inefficient for new adapting machines that maximize total printing output. Of the prints produced, the means of cutting and packaging were further optimized. The use of Murray’s card punch at Russell & Morgan Co. dropped labor cost for card cutting by 60%, and increased output several times over. The vast output of decks of playing cards became a kind of industrial phenomena, moreover it was exploitable for commercial gambling.

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Parlay [Printing] Cyclic Card Consumption

Before the establishment of the U.S. Playing Card Company, then partner Robert Morgan of Russell & Morgan Co. was the president of the Cincinnatti Board of Police Commissioners, and according to the New York times, he was instrumental in getting the board to side with the directed closure of all gambling houses in the city. This story may appear as a conflict of interest, considering the gambling houses were using Russell & Morgan Co. cards in their games, however, the act was likely a deterrent against illicit uses of the company’s product to protect it for future sales. Morgan may have intended to assure that the use of his company’s cards remained for legitimate household play, and with the proliferation of frontier gambling across the American West (DeArment 1982), there was no certainty except for closing them close to the home.

These efforts were met with heavy scrutiny from the gambling community, through protest and boycott of the cards made by Russell & Morgan Co. What is particularly fascinating is the networking and mobilizing of dissent among the gambling houses in response to the boycott. Publications were made and disseminated to across the country, meaning there was a deep nexus of sites for the American gambling house, and the sites took several forms, from poker rooms to casinos.

All of these sites shared a common factor. Not merely using of the Russel & Morgan Co. playing cards but the continual discarding of them to maintain the legitimacy of the games they hosted. With high stakes often wagered across these sites, protecting the legitimacy of the game was important for “fair” play.

In the late 1800’s, gambling houses would continually acquire, play, and discard their decks to maintain this standard. This process of removing cards once played would later become what is known as “cancelling” cards, and is still practiced avidly in more complex systems by casinos to this day.

New York Times. (Oct 22, 1886)

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New York Times. (Oct 22, 1886)

Parlay [Production] from cutting to cancellation

trees / logs / rolls / sheets / decks / casinos

U.S. Playing Card Company Annual Paper Consumption (right) 5’ diameter roll*

1 Roll can produce 22,000 decks*

Southern Desert Correctional Center relative to the Las Vegas Strip

Deck Packaging from “How Playing Cards Are Made.” (left)

Presently, the United States Playing Card Company is the largest manufacturer

is a preventative measure to minimize risk of cheating in the casino. As examined in

Nevada casinos are concerned with canceling of cards that have been in play to

of playing cards in the world, and sells more than 20 million decks to casinos each

the 1800’s, even now cards are discarded to legitimize the game, however the current

keep from unforeseen outcomes in games. To change game outcomes with altered

year. (Casino City Times, 2016) In total, the company produces over 130 million decks

cancellation process has more complicated social systems involved.

cards is a state offense with a minimum one year jail-time, and the irony is that the

annually (How Many People Does it Take?, 2011), therefore, over 15% of all the decks

Canceled cards are destroyed, altered for re-sale, or returned to the card company.

cards are altered by those already incarcerated. Nevada’s Department of Corrections

produced by the company are allocated for use in casinos. Inspecting the number of

In Las Vegas, for instance, some casinos will cancel the cards themselves, where

has allowed for several correctional facilities to take part in the storage, sorting, and

decks produced by roll, one can approximate that the company expends over 900

others might outsource this discarding task. The methods by which this discarding is

repackaging of canceled cards, and in some cases have put inmates at risk of harm

massive rolls of paper annually. The volume of decks produced daily is incredible,

carried out can be problematic.

on the job. (Facility Condition Analysis Report, 2013) The “cancellation” process is

however the area of interest is in the consumption of decks by the casino industry; for

“Most cards from casinos in Nevada are sent to one of the prisons in the state

essentially pacifying the commodification of incarcerated labor for an extractive

not only are casinos purchasing millions of decks, they are discarding them after use.

where the ‘residents’ cancel them. After returning them to a casino, the decks are

industry that is designed to be wasted with financial leverage.

The removal of decks from a game is actually quite arduous, as casinos go to great

given away to customers, sold in gift stores or given to charitable intuitions, and

lengths to ensure they are not reintroduced into their games. To “cancel” a deck of cards

sometimes sent to military organizations servicing around the world.” (Ibid. 2016)

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Parlay [Production]

400 ft +

from cutting to cancellation

trees / logs / rolls / sheets / decks / casinos

Casino playing card volume per day * values approximated

To better quantify the volume of playing cards canceled by casinos daily, an analysis of total decks in Las Vegas table games by the numbers is made.

Whether it is blackjack, baccarat, poker, or any other table game, eight can be an average number of decks used (Business Wire, 2007), and when one considers the six to eight deck exchanges per table, and about one hundred card tables in a casino — and with just over one hundred casinos in Las Vegas, a conservative estimate would be just shy of five hundred thousand decks a day.

The successes and failures of the modern casino depend on its security, efficiency of game play, and its profitability of operations. When regarding the stewardship of its most expended commodity, one can see that playing cards are investments for casinos, not just the medium for their games. The misuse or miscalculation of decks needed to sustain operations can define the overall financial success of a casino. The success of casinos in the Las Vegas Strip have defined the spatial identity of the urban district. The interplay among casinos in 10 0+

the strip define conditions where landscapes of gambling may emerge.

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15% + of playing cards made by the U.S. Playing Card Company are for casino consumption *

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Designed and built in the mid 2010’s by !melk landscape architecture & urban design studio, “The Park” situated across the MGM Grand, sits in the shadow of Park MGM Resort and Casino, a subset of MGM Resorts — the only enduring casino enterprise on the Las Vegas Strip that has been operating

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under the same proprietary since it was first established.

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maps and diagram by author

“The Park”— commissioned by MGM Resorts International to attract guests and tourists — attempted to “[reinstate] what Las Vegas once was – an oasis in the desert”, as put by the design studio. The 5-acre partial-incision in the sea of casinos hosts entirely hard-scaped surfaces, minimally xeriscaped seating features, and relatively few plants and trees (as well as massive shading structures that appear tree-like). !melk describes the result as an example of “sustainable, authentic, and contextual design”. That “a more complete and mature urban condition has begun to form as a contrast to the prevailing thematic and artificial attractions that gave Las Vegas its familiar reputation to date.”

While these points appear quite altruistic, the project appears more ruderal

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it is not a park, but that it is a pseudo-park, marketed as the ‘first park’ in a vastly unsustainable region. The Vegas Strip is wildly wasteful in both monetary and

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!melk, “The Park” Las Vegas, NV. 2016. (left) (below)

than it does ‘authentic’ in its ironic approach. This project is quite self-aware that

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ecological terms; be it by water and power needed to sustain it in the Mojave,

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or the sheer quantity of paper it requires to operate its casinos every single day.

This completed project is a prime example of irony in a landscape process that emerged, not merely from capital accumulation in the gambling industry, but as the byproduct of excess in its consumption.

In summary, the wealth that came from Cincinnati and its neighboring paper

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mills and the boom of the U.S. Playing Card Company manifested a pattern of gambling sites that would catalyze itself fully in the form of the Las Vegas Strip,

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where the successes of the casino showcase emergent and ironic landscapes.

The Park [Plan]

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Bibliography All images, maps, drawings, & diagrams are provided by the author unless otherwise specified.

Bidwell, John. American Paper Mills, 1690–1832: A Directory of the Paper Trade with Notes on Products, Watermarks, Distribution Methods, and Manufacturing Techniques. Hanover: University Press of New England, 2013.

Bolles, Albert Sidney. 1881a. “Chapter VIII: Paper and Paper-Hangings.” In Industrial History of the United States: From the Earliest Settlements to the Present Time, 457–68. Norwich, CT: Henry Bill. Photograph.

Business Wire. 2007. “U.S. Playing Card Named Official World Series Of Poker(R) Supplier,” 2007.

“Cartier” (plates I-V) Diderot, Denis, Alain Pons, and Alain Pons. 1963. Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1751-1772. J’ai lu l’essentiel.

Paris: J’ai lu. Photograph.

DeArment, Robert K. 1982. Knights of the Green Cloth: The Saga of the Frontier Gamblers. 1st ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Factory postcard - U. S. Playing Card Co. , Norwood OH. 1906 Photograph.

Hargrave, Catherine Perry. 2000. A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming. Mineola, NY. Dover Publications.

Hinrichs, Kit. 2001. Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag. 1st ed. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. Photograph.

How Many People Does It Take? Directed by Brian Spoor. Performed by Dave Holmes. United States: OmniBus Entertainment, The Wolper Organization, Dirty Robber Content Creation Studio, History Channel, 2011. TV. “How Playing Cards Are Made.” How Products Are Made. July 26, 2007. Accessed October 30, 2018. http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/ Playing-Cards.html. Photograph.

Lockwood’s Directory of the Paper and Allied Trades.

1874. New York: Vance PubCorp, etc.

Marchel, John. “Canceled Playing Cards” Casino City Times. April 9, 2016. Accessed October 30, 2018. http://www.casinocitytimes.com/article/ canceled-playing-cards-65202 (sales figures not confirmed by USPCC) !melk Landscape Architecture & Urban Design. “The Park”, Las Vegas, NV. 2016. Digital Drawings.

Murray, Samuel J. Machine for Punching Cards. U.S. Patent 381,716 issued April 24, 1888. Photograph.

New York Times. 1886. “Boycotted by Gamblers.: Card Players Propose to Get Even with a Police Commissioner”.

Russell & Morgan Co. The latest European sensation: The Celebrated French Aerielists & Acrobats, ca. 1891. Cincinnati, OH: Russell & Morgan Co. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/ item/2014637323/.

Simms, Harry. 1906. Middletown in Black and White.

Middletown, OH: Journal Printing Company.

Southern Desert Correctional Center Facility Condition Analysis. State of Nevada Department of Corrections, December 2013. Accessed October 30, 2018. http://publicworks.nv.gov/ uploadedFiles/publicworksnvgov/content/Documents/FCA_Reports/9970_SDCC_FCA_ Site_Report.pdf The Inland Printer. Chicago: Maclean-Hunter PubCorp, 1883.

The Popular Science Monthly [v. 56 (1899-1900)].

1899. New York: D. Appleton and Company, Popular Science PubCo. United States Playing Card Company, Cincinnati. ca.

1935-1943 (Ohio History Connection archives). Photograph.

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