I Don’t Think Frank Done it this Way

For the last night of our all too brief run with Mofro we find ourselves working the room at the Crystal Palace. A gig adjacent to the world famous Cal Neva Lodge.

We’re booked overnight into the Cal Neva. Single rooms! Yee haw! The Cal Neva has survived Joseph Kennedy, Frank Sinatra and his raving ratters, Marilyn, a fire, and now Chuck Prophet and band.

Not sure what Frank would have thought of the piped in 80’s music. Although I thought Tainted Love was right on the money spilling out onto the casino floor in all it’s homo erotic glory. I also enjoyed hearing Million Miles Away by the Plimsouls. Hep-cats, all around.

Not much has changed since Frank Sinatra became owner and shelled out for the renovations back in 1960. He built the Indian Room (see Moosehead) and installed a helicopter pad on the roof. I tried to get up there to scope it out but I’m told it hasn’t been used since the Chairman pulled up stakes after some shenanigans with big name entertainers and questionable gambling brought him to the attention of “the commission”.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board revoked Sinatra’s license on October 22, 1963. On Labor Day, September 1963 Frank Sinatra closed the Cal Neva Lodge signaling the end of his colorful reign there.

Stephie tells me that there are more bodies at the bottom of the lake than any other body of water on earth. The legend is that this is where the Mafia killers dumped bodies after executions. Some fishermen even call Lake Tahoe “The Grave”. Okay, but why?

I did a little research and yeah, I guess it all makes perfect sense. Tahoe is a lake that does not give up its dead. That is because the lake is so deep, with an average depth of 989 feet, and so cold, with the temperature hovering just above freezing. You’ll need some heat to get those gassy bodies to rise up. Bullet holes in the forehead or not. I file this little bit of info away.