Riding Bareback to Las Vegas: An Autobiography

Title: Riding Bareback to Las Vegas: An Autobiography
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Authors: Harry A. White, as told to B. J. Lawry
Publisher: Vantage Press, New York, New York
Year: 1985 (first edition)
Pages: 112
Format: Hardcover, with dust jacket.
Provenance: Price sticker from Deseret Industries on front cover. “10.75” and various notations on first page. Inscription from the author on dedication page: “To Bob, with best wishes, always, good health, and happiness with love, God Bless. Harry A. White, March 4-85, Las Vegas Nev.”
Chapter Titles: From under the Not-So-Very-Big-Top; New York City; Oscar of the Walforf; Show Biz; Alice Manning; London; The Great Depression; The Variety Club; Cold Feet; Going to War; Hollywood and Howard; Now, the Lamp Shop; Dancing Again; New Steps; Little Old Las Vegas; The Big Boom; A Royal Experience; Good-bye, Alice; A Now, Tomorrow.
Opening Sentence: “The newest branch of one of Nevada’s largest banks stayed open until long after closing on May 15, 1969, for a small man with a very big deposit.”
Random Passage: “They were happy days for Broadway—in many ways, I should say, ‘gay.’ The Schuberts had a wardrobe ‘mistress’ everybody called ‘Mother Simmons,’ a guy everybody loved and respected for his talent. No one seemed to mind his life-style. The Schuberts, you see, had about thirty shows going at one time then, with many on Broadway and many more on the road. They had a large warehouse on 9th Avenue in which were housed all the costumes they would need for all their shows, and Mother Simmons was in charge of it all—from the frills and laces and taffetas of the dance, to the damp and musty velvets of Student Prince.” (from Alice Manning)
Notes: A slim but intriguing self-published memoir by Harry A. White, child circus performer, vaudeville dancer (as half of ”White and Manning,” with wife Alice Manning), and entrepreneur in the early days of Las Vegas as gambling mecca. Despite Mr. White’s colorful life, there doesn’t appear to be much of his presence on the internet. A 1942 Billboard article described White and Manning’s act as “slapstick material which wasn’t particularly outstanding.”