Harold’s Club emerged from a hole in the wall operation at 236 North Virginia Street to become the largest casino in the world and helped to put Reno on the map.

Neal Cobb is a Reno native, born at Washoe Medical Center in 1939 when the city’s population was about 32,000. Neal attended local public schools, served four years in the U.S. Navy, was involved in his family business, Modern Photo, from 1940 to 1955, and worked at Nevada’s first successful FM station KNEV from 1953 to 1980. Neal fell heir to fourteen large boxes of old Reno and Northern Nevada photos and printable film after his parents died in 1985-6 and subsequently authored two books, Reno Now and Then, Books I and II. He has worked closely representing the Nevada Historical Society, having presented over 500 programs in Reno, Sparks and Northern Nevada since 1988.

These and other fascinating stories about Reno are presented through Historic Reno Preservation Society on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, January through May.