Beldon Katleman

Beldon Katleman (July 14, 1914 – September 28, 1988) was an American businessman. Katleman inherited partnership in El Rancho Vegas, a hotel casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, from his uncle Jake Katleman who died in 1950, and served as president of the hotel.[1] Katleman was an investor in two other Las Vegas casinos, the Frontier Hotel and the Silver Slipper.

Beldon Katleman
BornJuly 14, 1914
Iowa, U.S.
DiedSeptember 28, 1988(1988-09-28) (aged 74)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeHillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
OccupationBusinessman
SpouseLeonore Cohn
Children1

Early life

Beldon Katleman was born to an affluent Jewish family[2] on July 14, 1914, in Iowa. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.[3] His parents owned the Circle K national chain of parking lots and owned real estate in Los Angeles.[4] During World War II, Katleman served as a lieutenant in the motion picture division of the Signal Corps in the U.S. Army.[4]

Career

From the early 1950s until it was destroyed by a fire in 1960, he was stockholder and president of El Rancho Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.[1][5]

The Last Frontier Hotel and Casino.

With Guy McAfee and Jake Kozloff, Katleman acquired the Frontier Hotel from Bill Moore for US$5.5 million in 1951.[6] He succeeded Kozloff as its manager in 1955.[3]

Katleman was an investor in the Silver Slipper, another casino in Las Vegas, alongside Jack Barenfeld, Norma Friedman, Irving Leff and T.W. Richardson.[7] After leasing it to Howard Hughes since 1968, they sued Hughes over a year's unpaid rents in 1974.[7]

In April 1988, the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee Senate reviewed the "murky" settlement of taxes Katleman may have owed to the state of California in the 1960s.[8]

Personal life

In January 1941, Katleman married Leonore Cohn, whom he had met at the Hillcrest Country Club, the Jewish golf club in Los Angeles; Leonore was the niece of Columbia Pictures founder Harry Cohn.[4] In 1942,[4] They had a daughter named Diane Katleman Deshong.[9] They resided in Beverly Hills, California.[9] The couple separated in 1944 and divorced soon after;[4] she married Lewis Rosenstiel in 1946.[9]

Death

Katleman died on September 28, 1988, in Los Angeles, California. He was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

References
  1. "Las Vegas Strip: hotels, motels, casinos, race books". Retrieved July 21, 2023. Beldon Katleman is president of the hotel (RJ 2/22/51) some time after inheriting El Ranco Inc. stock from J Katleman.
  2. Burgess, Muriel (August 31, 2013). Shirley. Cornerstone Digital. ISBN 978-1448185429.
  3. Considine, Bob (January 30, 1955). "Gambling Enjoyed While Behind-Scenes Action Ignored. If Las Vegas Walks With Devil, Nobody Seems To Care". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Lubbock, Texas. p. 3. Retrieved March 5, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Ogden, Christopher (November 29, 2009). Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg. Little, Brown and Company. p. 308. ISBN 9780316092449.
  5. Ryon, Ruth (October 24, 1993). "Hunk Falls for $2M Hacienda". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 4, 2016. GARY COOPER'S Holmby Hills home when he died in 1961 has come on the market at $3.45 million. [...] The owner is the widow of Beldon Katleman, a pioneer Nevada hotel man who died in 1988. Katleman owned the El Rancho Vegas, a popular getaway for Hollywood stars until the hotel-casino, built in 1940, was razed by fire in 1960. (A hotel on another Las Vegas site later assumed the El Rancho name.)
  6. Wright, Frank (2005). Nevada Yesterdays: Short Looks at Las Vegas History. Las Vegas, Nevada: Stephens Press. p. 104. ISBN 9781932173277. OCLC 60708529.
  7. "Suit Seeks Eviction of Hughes". The Times. San Mateo, California. May 17, 1974. p. 13. Retrieved March 5, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Walters, Dan (April 4, 1988). "Murky tax case coming to light". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Santa Cruz, California. p. 11. Retrieved March 5, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Howard Cooper Deshong Jr. Is Fiance of Diane Katleman". The New York Times. December 27, 1964. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
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