THE MONEY SPINNER - Monte Carlo and Its Fabled Casino.

USA,BOSTON.LITTLE,BROWN & CO,1977.US,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn. FINE/NFINE.No inscrptn but price-clipped to dw/dj.Minimal rubbing to dw/dj corners and to head+foot spine/backstrip, else a very nice copy.Brown paper-covered bds,beige eps, illustrated dw/dj - Edwardian scene people inside the casino.8vo, 205pp includes 8pp b/w photographs, biblio and references, index. Over a century ago the name Monte Carlo glided into the world's imagination with fabulous tales of luck and losses and a jaunty song about the man who broke the bank.Today it still reigns as the original capital of chance. The Money Spinners chronicles the past and present of Monaco's gleaming resort and its fabled casino.Through extensive research, Xan Fielding recreates the time before 1863 when Monte Carlo - seat of the Prince of Monaco, scion of Europe's oldest ruling family, the Grimaldis - was little more than a scrubby promontory of the world's smallest independent state, Monaco, no larger than London's Hyde Park, half the size of Central Park in New York.Fielding describes how the first attempts to create a successful gambling concession faltered, the idea almost given up, until luck finally came to Monte Carlo in the persons of the brothers Blanc. Financially shrewd, rising on their bouyant flair for publicity, the brothers Blanc - already the celebrated concessionaires of Homburg's profitable casino - ushered in the glory days of the resort, as Francois Blanc ordered construction of the luxurious Hotel de Paris (furnished, someone noted, "with the taste of an intelligent millionaire"), bathing establishments to eclipse those at Baden-Baden, and completion of a railway line from Nice. The Money Spinners richly evokes Monte Carlo's heyday as the star of La Belle Epoque.Fielding recounts tantalizing stories of the adventuresses and magnates who sported there and tells what is truth and what is rumour about notorious suicides (reported with relish in the antagonistic press under the headline, "Murdered by Monte Carlo") and homicides (some of them surprisingly grisly, considering the surroundings) that occurred during those years.Fieldings pages teem with blue-blooded aristocrats and brazen poseurs facing each other across the green baize tables and wagering fortunes on a single card or spin.Among the most spectacular are Francois Blanc, whose publicity coups included draping a black cloth "in mourning" over selected tables just broken by some lucky plater;a gambler known only as the "Maltese", who always sat down to play with a million francs in ready cash;munitions titan Sir Basil Zaharoff, whose financial involvement with Monte Carlo cloaked a scheme to take over the principality and place his mistress on the throne;Charles Deville Wells, the man who very nearly did break the bank, and was the very subject of the music hall song;La Belle Otero, the celebrated courtesan;Mata Hari; Aristotle Onassis, who ruled the casino of Monte Carlo but did not reign in Monaco; and Prince Rainier of Monaco - and his Princess, nee Grace Kelly - who does.Concludes with an extensive description of the games of chance available at Monte Carlo today.An appendix provides detailed explanations of the rules, staking, table plans, refaits, gamesmanship, and probabilities of roulette, trente-et-quarante, baccara, and craps.The author also incorporates a section on the current and most famous "systems" devised by gamblers and the odds they try to beat. Please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk,because of the lighter weight of this item,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!