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William Fisk Harrah was born on September 2, 1911 in South Pasadena, California. He was the son of Amanda Fisk and John Garrett Harrah, an attorney, real estate speculator, and local politician.
His mother's mental instability culminated in her suicide.
Harrah was a student at Hollywood High School. A few years later, his father's investments suffered from the Great Depression, forcing Harrah to leave the University of California at Los Angeles.
By 1932 the Harrahs were trying to make a living from a bingo parlor on the pier in Venice, Calif. Several times local magistrates hauled father and son into court and charged them with running a gambling establishment. His father sold the operation to Harrah for $500. By 1934 he had an annual income of between $25, 000 and $50, 000, but he disliked the questionable legal status of the business. In May 1937, while traveling in Reno, Nevada, Harrah found at last a city that encouraged gambling entrepreneurs.
After an initial failure, Harrah opened a bingo parlor situated to take maximum advantage of pedestrian traffic. The place turned a modest profit and led Harrah to expand his business in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He formed partnerships with fellow businessmen, such as Virgil Smith, and courted the Raymond I. Smith family (no relation to Virgil), which owned Harolds Club, the largest casino in Nevada. When he learned that the owner of the Heart Tango Club was retiring, Harrah proved ruthless in the negotiations for the property.
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Harrah purchased the Japanese-owned Reno Club, largest of the city's bingo parlors; this was a key acquisition in Harrah's rise to prominence. In 1946, Harrah opened his first large casino, and residents and tourists alike discovered a new approach to gambling that reflected the proprietor's emphasis on high quality and attention to detail. Harrah began to earn a reputation for sparing no expense to ensure a pleasant atmosphere. Unlike Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who was developing the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas into the state's first resort, Harrah remained content to reap profits from casino games rather than diversifying into entertainment and hotel accommodations.
In 1946 he developed a daily profit and loss statement, and he started an internal surveillance system, nicknamed "Eye in the Sky, " by which management kept track of both customers and employees. At Harrah's, managers handed new employees lengthy manuals that covered every aspect of their conduct. Pleasant, expensive surroundings were designed to appeal to women customers, who tended to be fanatical devotees of the slot machines, the major source of gaming revenues.
Harrah also improved slot machine design, adding a candlestick top that lit up to show a player needed change or had won a jackpot. For keno, he developed a vacuum blower to select numbered balls and insisted that every ticket and drawing be photographed - all practices to ensure honesty. Finally, since the word "gambling" conjured up unsavory images, he pioneered the use of the euphemism "gaming. "
By the early 1950s Harrah had become the trendsetter in gambling casinos, but he had not branched out into hotels. Eyeing Lake Tahoe's beautiful south shore, in 1955 he bought a small property next to Harvey's Wagon Wheel, the largest casino at Stateline, Nevada. Harrah replicated his earlier strategic success as he gradually expanded. In December 1959, Harrah's South Shore Room opened with the largest dinner theater in northern Nevada, featuring the nation's best-known entertainers. Meanwhile, Harrah solved the problem of the negative effect of Tahoe's harsh winters on profits. Making increased use of business experts, he commissioned from Stanford Research Institute (SRI) a study of the effect of low-cost bus service from the San Francisco area to the Tahoe casino. The SRI report showed that Harrah could profit even after paying for the transportation. Soon thousands of minorities and elderly from California's cities began to ride Harrah specials.
As an unintended consequence Harrah brought casino gaming to the masses and achieved an extraordinary degree of social and racial integration. Harrah believed that if he went into the hotel business, the accommodations would have to reflect the high reputation of his casino. In 1969 his Reno hotel was completed, and he made plans for a world-class hotel at Tahoe. In 1973, Harrah's Tahoe opened and gained instant recognition.
Before its completion, Harrah achieved a major breakthrough for the gaming industry. In 1971 he sold part of his holdings to the public, and Harrah's became the first gaming company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (1973).
Harrah died in Rochester, Minnesota, from complications arising from heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic.
William Fisk Harrah went down in history as an outstanding business leader who pioneered many aspects of the modern gambling industry. At the time of his death, he controlled 83 percent of Harrah's stock, valued at $137 million, and had the largest private payroll in Nevada. Historians have called him the Henry Ford of casino gaming. Harrah was known for his relations with both his customers and employees. He was the first to invite African-American entertainers to perform in his casinos and welcome all races. He removed the color and sexual barrier by hiring women as dealers as well as other employees regardless of skin color or gender. The William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration is named after him.
Harrah was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.
Harrah's decade of achievement was amazing when one considers the turmoil in his personal life. According to his biographer, he led a "social life that would have exhausted Lothario, gagged Henry the Eighth, and left Casanova dehydrated and swearing lifelong celibacy. "
Leon Mandel described Harrah as a "pathological car lover. "
A compulsive gambler, Harrah lost heavily at the tables of neighboring casinos, but a near-fatal car accident in 1942 persuaded him to swear off high-stakes craps and to curtail his drinking.
Harrah had an extensive collection of cars. Many of his cars enjoyed "best" or "one-of-a kind" status. Some notable mentions in his collection were the two Bugatti Type 41s, a Phantom Corsair, two Ferraris among several others. In 1966 his 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Coupe de Ville won Best of Show at Pebble Beach. After his death Holiday Inn acquired Harrah's of which the car collection was part of. The bulk of the collection were sold at several auctions between 1984-1986 for more than $100 million. An outcry by the people of Reno and Sparks led to Holiday Inn donating 175 vehicles to establish the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada, a collection also referred to as The Harrah Collection. Some cars were also donated to form the Imperial Palace Auto Collection in Las Vegas.
Harrah's financial life leaped from one success to another, but his personal life was often tumultuous. He had six wives: Thelma Batchelor, Mayme Kandis Lucille "Scherry" Teague Fagg, Bobbie Gentry, Mary Burger, Roxanna Darlene Carlson, and Verna Rae Frank. He and his second wife adopted two sons.
