Document text
Accession no.
WPA L. C. PROJECT ittritax.e' UNIT
Form -3
W 36P9 agilaQrs__collection (or Type)
Date received Title Handbooks. LBeginj, Last nisIzti,s
10/1.0/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
Sftsh. Ottioe
Label
Amount
9p
Place of origin Chloaw,. Illinois 6ate 64(11.P)9
Project worker Abs Ursa
Project editor
Remarks
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
FOLKLORE
CHICAGO
STATE Illinois
NAME OF 'WORKER Abe Aaron
ADDRESS 5471 Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois
DATE June 1, 1939
SUBJECT
1. Date and time of interview
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant
4. Name and address of person, if any,
who put you in touch with informant.philip Marcus, 4523 S. Cottage Grove Ave.,
AEREinisLives
May 20th -21st ff.
47th Cottage Grove
Many names and addresses may not be given
material available only on this condition.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying ycu
6. Description of roam,house, surroundings, etc. Handbook
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each bearing
the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
W3609
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
FOLKLORE
CHICAGO
STATE Illinois
NAME OF WORKER Abe Aaron
ADDRESS 5471 Ellis Ave., Chicago
DATE June 1, 1939
SUBJECT Handbooks
NAME OF INFORMANT Philip Marcus, et al
Last night's last race, there was an eight -horse race up, and some
screwy dame, she had six tickets, on six different horses, all on the nose;
and not one of them was hers. The winner only paid four to one, so she'd
o' lost money anyway, even if she'd 0 had the winner. That was over in
Happy's jthint.
II
You know what house odd s are. The hcuse handicaps the horses the
same way the track handicapper does ant offers odds on 'em, ant if you place
your bet before the race comes up an' the mutuels at the track start changinl
the odds too fast, you can take house prices if ya want when ya bet, up to
a minute or two before the race cones up. The house usually pays more in
the track odds, blcause take it as a rule, the irices always go down in the
mutuels, especially if the horse is a favorite, if it's a good pony an' it
aint no dog. Ya can't get house in Chicago no more; the books pay off on
the mutuels.
When the books had house prices, I remember one time, there was a guy
who'd been bettin' deuces, fives an' tens all afternoon, an' knockin'
'em
FORM C
off. An' he was pickinl 'is own horses. There was a hot horse in the
seventh race up at Arlington, an' the buy picked it ant wanted to bet
five on it; but the book wouldn't give lim house on it, because the
guy'd been pickin, 'em all day an' the book thought it was a system
horse anl the system was clickin, that day. It was a hot horse, but
the guy had picked it accidentally; but 'e couldn't get house.
III
Red was fixint up one of 'is joints one time, decoratint it all
over. There was a painter who worked there almost all winter. This
painter, leld be up on 'is ladder workin' away, an' as le worked, le'd
be keepin0 'is eyes on the sheets an' watchin' the ponies. They'd yell,
"They're off," an' this painter, "he'd yell out, "Give me two on so and
so," an' when 'e was done with the job, te owed money to the book.
Iv
You know what skeleton service is. Sometimes, if it's a small book,
or if it's a track the book don*t care too much about, they get only
skeleton service; they don't get no description on the race; they just
call the race an' tell you when it s over an' who won. If you don't close
bettin' when the service tells you, wire tappers get in. The service
protects you if you close your bettin' on time.
You know Carl, the wall man at Red's. Well, he's bettin' one o'
these tracks that Red's gettin' Ekeleton ter -Tice oi. But he has too
much to do, writin' up the sheets an' all, to keep watch when the race
comes up for it to get off an' to get his bets in an time, an' he likes
to play that track. The service says the race is comin, off, an' then
it don't say nothin' more till the race is over an' it tells you Who won
an' how much it paid. Carl, he has all the races at all the tracks to
take care of, so for this track he keeps an alarm clock to tell when the
race comes up sols he can get his bets on time. avin so much to do,
FORT, C
he sets the alarm so's he can get two bucks on the horse.
I was in thereon° day when the alarm goes off. Carl, he's workinl
on a sheet, changin' the prices that're comm' over the wire, when the
alarm goes off. He rushes over to sut off the alarm ant goes over to
make his bet. Just then the alarm goc:s off again, an' he has to rush
back to shut it off again, --he didn't shut it off all the way the first
time00anl when he rushes back to the counter to make the bet, just as he
get there the service yells. "They're off," and it's too late to make a
bet. Ant his horse wins.
(a
V
When D. was just five years old, Slim S. was shop boy at Ray's then
sign shop), me an' the wife Id had a spat --you know me, old Dr. X.
an I'd left her for a while. I was livin' up above the shop --I was
workin' for Ray then --an' Slimy boy, he'd go dcwn to see the wife an'
he'd bring D. back with him to see me. Later in the day, or maybe the next
day he'd take the little fellow back to the wife.
One day Slim come from the wife' an' he had D. with him. He couldn't
find me in my room or in the shop, so he comes over to the book, an' there
I am. I had D. with me all afternoon. He'd sit beside me, never peepin's
an' every once in a while when they'd yell, "They're off," if there was
somethin'Iliked in the race, I'd rush up to lay a half buck on it. The
little guy, he wasn't sayin' nothin', just sittin' there watchinl, takini
it all in, unknown to me. It was like that for several races. Then they
yell, "They're off," again, ant I run up there, an' the little guy, he
tugs at my coat an' says, "Daddy, haven't you given them enough money
already,* He noticed they wasn't givin' me any.
FOX" U
VI
Every once in a while you'll near the story about the horse player
who was found dead in the street, He's got a ticket for a parlay in his
pocket an' the parlay won. I guess maybe it might happen sometime, that
or somethint like it; why not?
VII
We was at the book one day --you know, for our daily whippint--, me
ant Charley, ant Charley, he says to me, "Jesus, why don't we get toge-
ther with Abe ant write a book showint why you can't beat the races; you
could make plenty an samethint like that; I bet it would go over big.
Me, I pipe up, "Yeh. An' with all our money, why, we'd have enough to
start play -in' our system."
VIII
Why, Goddamnit, Abe, a guy come to the book for six months with a
tear in his pants so big he had it patched with two diaper pins. He
played two bucks or so every day.
An' Carl, the sheet -writer, why, last winter he had a hole in his
overcoat. He always had the scratch sheet in his hip pocket, and that
scratch sheet stuck through that hole in his overcoat every time you
saw him. Maybe he didn't repair it becaust it was easier to get at his
pants pocket with that hole there, but I maintain he just couldn't take
time off from thinkin' about the ponies. Anyway, it was funnier In
hell seem' that every day.
Ile
A., the mechanic, he runs the auto repair joint across the street
from the book. Every day he rushes in the front door of the boak ant
out the back, makint maybe a dozen bets a day. As if no one knows what
te's doint. Stick around, you'll see tim any -minute now.
FOR Y C
X
Down at Happy's place, right across the street from it, there's a
gas station. The owner runs it himself, an' he's got two attendants
with him there all the time. Happy was tellin' me about it the other
day; he's been playin' at Happy's about a year now.
This guy, he makes so many bets, he keeps the attendants runnint
back an' forth across the street all day long. He makes so many bets,
they're passin' each other up, one goin' to the book, the other comm'
back, ant the only thing he's worried about is they don't get hit by a
street car crossin' the street. Happy says, "One is camint in the door
an' the other's goin' out."
Happy sends him four scratch sheets over every morning. He don't
play no system. If he likes the name of a horse, he bets him; he don't
bet information horses. An' Happy says to me, "An' he still owns the
gas station."
XI
I was workin' in this saloon. The success of this saloon lay in
the fact that as I was workin' there a familiar voice comes out, the
e-o-leven voice; it was a book, with full racint service. (The broad
master working for the racing service pronounces "eleven" in the manner
indicated, wSth long e and long o, adding a syllable to the word.--)
There's a woman in this saloon --or book, which is right behind it--, ant
I hear her talkinl. I look in there, an' that dame, she didn't have no
class at all. I hear her talkin', about her ant her girl chums. They're
all together, philosophizin' like a bunch o' women would, ant she says,
"Let's do somethin' to keep from gamblint." So they make a date to go
FCRY C
out golfin. the next day. Just as they was about to break up, one of 'em
said, "Let's make it real early." They jibber jabber around for a while,
an' then this second dame, she says, "Oh, come on, let's make it early,
b'cause I want to T;et back in time for the first race."
XII
There was an old woman in the book one day. It was just after the
description of a race an' she was standin' there, all flustered. I walks
up to her, an' I asks very confidentially, "Do you like the ponies?"
She says, "Yes." She's just as confidential as I am. She says,
"I'm too old, you know, to have any other vices." She knocked me off my
pins with that one.
XIII
That reminds me of an old woman. She's in the book every day. She's
white-haired, an' she's about sixty, ant while she's watchin, the races
she keeps rollinl Bull Durham cigarettes. She handicaps her own horses.
lighen the description starts catmint in over the wire, the horse that's out
in front, she always says to everyone ih general, "That's my number one
horse." Then there'd another horse out in front, an' she says, "That's
my number two horse." Camin' into the stretch, maybe there's still a
third horse out in front, an' she says, "That's my number three horse."
If one ol them three win, she's a swell handicapper, only she never puts
money on nothint over them three horses, bootin' them in, an, then they
announce the winner; he aint even got a call while the race was beins
run like as not. When that happens she goes back in a corner an's quiet
as a mouse, till the next race comes up.
FORM C
XIV
You hear all kinds o' stories about systems for beatin' the races.
Some o' the systems are mathematical, ant some 0 them are handicappinl
one way or another, an' some o' them depend on numerology or astrolcgy
or followinl certain jockeys or certain ponies or certain tracks; none
ol them are any good. I got the only sure-fire system to beat the ponies.
It goes like this --only you gotta go to the track to play it.
Well, you go out to the track an' you get as close as you can get
to the rail when the race is bein, run. You've got you a pair of high-
powered binoculars, an' you train 'en on the ponies. The glasses are so
powerful it brings the ponies right up to your eyes. So you train the
glass an the pony that's carryin, your dough, bring him right up close
to your eyes -E1' zalwhip lim int
XV
C. runs around mouthint more excuses whenever he's not on a winner
than anyone I know of. He follows the scratch sheet; the scratch sheet's
his bible. He's got what he calls a rook -bound system for the ponies,
based on the scratch sheet. he has an idea if you play the first five
horses on the sheet in a race you're bound to win in the end. We know
it can't be done, but that's neither here nor there. Here're some of his
excuses. He'll says
"I didn't know he w,s in the races. If I'd known he was in the race
"You know, that horse was fourth in the scratch sheet.
"You know, that horse was the among the first five on the scratch
sheet.
"See the weight on that horse? The best horse carries the most weight.
FORM C
"You see the boy on him? He's the best boy in the coutry.
"Ya know, I sent whosis over to the barber to get a buck soIs I could
bet, an' the barber didn't have it."
XVI
I remember one hight. There was Al, Everett, Charley, Slim, Arnold
and me. We was all in Charley's room. Oh yes, there was Larry, too,
Larry the physical culture enthusiast; Larry was my helper then. 'We was
tryin' to figute the next day's races.
Slim an' me, we were checkint over same systems. Charley was layint
down in the bed; he was tired. Al was on the floor, on his elbow, an' he
had the winner finder --you know, the magnifying glass, an' he had papers
on the floor all spread out around him; he had the Racin7, Record, the
Form, the Scratch Sheet, the Daily News and the Times turf selections; the
whole floor was coveredup with all those papers. Ray an' Arnold, they
was sittin' over in the corner, figurin'. An' Larry, Larry was standing
at the bed, doing calisthenics.
Pretty soon Ray gets up to go out of the room, an' I say to him, "Be
careful where you walk, Ray, you mi ht step on an entry."
Then everythin' was quiet again; we were as studious as if it was the
Library of Congress, or somet LirF.