George E. Smith (gambler)
George E. Smith | |
---|---|
Born | Sewickley, Pennsylvania, U.S. | July 13, 1862
Died | February 1, 1905 | (aged 42)
Resting place | Union Dale Cemetery, Pittsburgh |
Other names | Pittsburgh Phil |
Occupation(s) | Cork cutter, professional gambler |
Known for | Handicapping, Thoroughbred racehorse owner |
Signature | |
George Elsworth Smith (July 13, 1862 – February 1, 1905) was an American gambler and
Early life and initial occupation
Family
George Elsworth Smith
George Smith's sister Anne married and had a son named James Christian McGill (1880–1972). McGill was orphaned at a young age when his parents died in the mid-1880s during an unspecified epidemic and was subsequently raised, along with his infant sister Eleanor, by Mrs. Smith and George Smith.[6] Smith was a notoriously reticent and shy individual that only granted one interview during his lifetime, in which he relayed only information pertaining to racing matters.[11] Consequently, much of the published biographical information on Pittsburgh Phil's early life, his rise to fame and the reasoning behind his methods on the track comes from interviews with his nephew, James McGill, who was a close confidant in the ten years preceding George Smith's death.[12]
Cork cutting and early sporting exploits
The Smith family initially lived on a small farm in
Most of the pool halls in 1870s
"Pittsburgh Phil"
A new name
The first horse race that Smith witnessed live was the 1885 Kentucky Derby in which Joe Cotton was the favorite and won at 4:5 odds,[6] but he did not bet on the outcome. Smith decided that the best gambling prospects at the time were in Chicago and made his way to William "Silver Bill" Riley's poolroom in late 1885. Riley was a Civil War veteran from Brooklyn with prematurely gray hair[1] that owned one of the first clubs in Chicago dedicated to betting on horse racing.[15] It was Riley that saddled Smith with the nickname "Pittsburgh Phil" on their first meeting to differentiate George Smith's bets from the rest of the "room full of Smiths."[1] Riley usually named his customers based on their appearances, but by McGill's reckoning he chose the name "Pittsburgh Phil" because Smith was from Pittsburgh and Phil was short for Philadelphia.[1] Smith quickly gained a reputation as being one of the most successful "plungers", or men that bet large sums of money on races, in Chicago. Within a few years, he relocated to New York City and focused most of his betting operations out of New York tracks.[16]
King Cadmus and Parvenu
Smith also purchased and raced Thoroughbred horses under the name Pleasant Valley Stable.
Parvenu (
Professional relationship with Tod Sloan
Smith employed several jockeys on a race-to-race basis during his career as a Thoroughbred owner, including
Smith soon tired of Sloan's off-track antics, which included lavish parties and often arrogant statements that questioned Smith's judgment on the track.
Suspension
Smith kept few horses in 1902 and consequently allowed James R. Keene to employ Willie Shaw for much of the season. While his overall percentage of wins was still high, Shaw lost some races in a way that the general public thought was suspicious and he was accused of not trying to win. Shaw's poor performance was soon linked to some action on Smith's part and he was accused of paying the jockey to lose, a claim which Smith vehemently denied.
Personal life
Smith lived in moderation compared to other horsemen of the era, with the only outward display of ostentation being a diamond ring that he would wear to track engagements.[29] Smith also did not smoke and only drank an occasional glass of wine.[30] He socialized with very few women and was considered to be a confirmed bachelor by his family. He was adamant about not bringing women to racetracks, even his own mother, including a reference to their distracting influence on men in his Maxims.
- "A man who wishes to be successful cannot divide his attentions between horses and women. A man who accepts the responsibility of escorting a woman to the race track, and of seeing that she is comfortably placed and agreeably entertained, cannot keep his mind on his work before him...A sensible woman understands this and cannot feel hurt at my words."[31]
However, Smith did court Daisy Dixon, an aspiring actress and
Methods
Smith took notice of every detail in horse racing. He kept detailed notes of which horses were good runners during muddy conditions and always inspected horses at the end of a race to look for subtle signs of
- "They wanted to know everything I did and was going to do. That never made me mad because it was business on their part just as it was business for me to mislead the spies. I rarely have been able to keep the same set of betting commissioners for any length of time. A few bets and my commissioners were pointed out and watched."[4]
Smith rarely wrote down his bets and relied on his memory to serve him when he won and had to collect his money from the numerous commissioners that placed his bets with the bookmakers.[33]
Death and legacy
By the fall of 1903, Smith began curtailing his turf activities for frequent trips to the Adirondacks and Hot Springs to rest. His family assumed that his "nerves" were affected from the stress of his and Shaw's suspension from racing, but Smith had also developed a persistent cough by the early months of 1904.[26] He made his last bet, 4:1 on High Chancellor, at the Sheepshead Bay racetrack during the summer of 1904 and won $2,000.
In October 1904, Smith traveled to the Winyah Sanitarium in Asheville, North Carolina, for treatment of his worsening cough, a result of advanced tuberculosis. George E. Smith died at the sanitarium on February 1, 1905. His death was attributed to "shattering of his nerves", instead of tuberculosis, due to his habit of never showing emotion.[34] Smith was interred in Union Dale Cemetery in Pittsburgh,[35] a short distance from his childhood home in Allegheny. His funeral occurred on February 5 during a snowstorm and was attended by many people.[36] He was entombed in a stone mausoleum that reportedly cost $30,000 to build and was built to Smith's specifications seven years before his death. His mother later commissioned a statue in his likeness and placed it on top of the mausoleum. The statue depicts Smith, hatless and wearing a suit, looking toward Pittsburgh while clutching a racing form.[34]
Smith's net worth, including real estate and
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 74
- ^ a b ""Pittsburg Phil's" estate" (PDF). The New York Times. April 29, 1906. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
- ^ Friedman, S. Morgan. "The Inflation Calculator". Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ a b c Scott and Suchlicki, p. 51
- ^ The McCarthy and McGill source spells his middle name with only one "L", while later newspaper sources spell it with two "L"s.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 11
- ^ 1870 United States Census, Pennsylvania, Allegheny Ward 2, p. 199 (Accessed via Ancestry Library, June 13, 2010)
- 1900 United States Census, Pennsylvania, Allegheny Ward 2, District 16, page 1 of 27. (Accessed via Ancestry Library, June 13, 2010).
- 1880 United States Census, Pennsylvania, Allegheny, District 7, page 25 out of 61. (Accessed via Ancestry Library, June 13, 2010).
- ^ "Plunger's mother weds" (PDF). The New York Times. November 21, 1906. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
- ^ Cole. pp. 1
- ^ McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 10
- ^ a b c d McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 25
- ^ Cole, p. 9
- ^ Hermann, Charles H. "Recollections of life & doings in Chicago from the Haymarket Riot to the end of World War I". Normandie House. 1945. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 75
- ^ a b c d e Gallagher, T.J. (March 12, 1920). "Ways of Pittsburg Phil". The Daily Racing Form.
- ^ a b c McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 76
- ^ "The Belmont racers sold" (PDF). The New York Times. December 28, 1890. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 68
- ^ New York Times. "Suburban for Dwyer." June 23, 1897.
- ^ a b McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 69
- ^ a b c d e f McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 70
- ^ a b c McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 71
- ^ "The Brooklyn Handicap" (PDF). The New York Times. June 1, 1897. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
- ^ a b c McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 53
- ^ "Jockey Shaw suspended" (PDF). The New York Times. May 13, 1903. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
- ^ "Turf plunger under ban" (PDF). The New York Times. June 24, 1903. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
- ^ McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 24
- ^ Sloan and Luckman, p. 27
- ^ Cole. p. 19
- ^ "Mrs. Grannan in hospital" (PDF). New York Times. September 3, 1906. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
- ^ Sloan and Luckman, p. 165
- ^ a b McCarthy and McGill #1, p. 54
- ^ "Floral horse on grave" (PDF). The New York Times. May 31, 1908. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
- ^ ""Pittsburg Phil" buried" (PDF). The New York Times. February 6, 1905. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- ^ "New Yorker buys Indianapolis club" (PDF). The New York Times. December 23, 1913. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
Bibliography
- Edward R. Cole. Racing maxims and methods of "Pittsburg Phil" (George E. Smith) : complete system as employed by the most successful speculator in the history of the American turf; condensed wisdom of twenty years' experience on the track from the only personal interviews ever given by the famous horseman. 1908. From Kentuckiana Digital Library. (Accessed: June 12, 2010).
- Clem McCarthy and James C. McGill. (# 1) "Pittsburgh Phil: who made a killing at the races until the races killed him; as told to Clem McCarthy by James C. McGill." Saturday Evening Post. August 3, 1940. pp. 9–11, 74-76.
- Clem McCarthy and James C. McGill. (# 2) "Pittsburgh Phil: who made a killing at the races until the races killed him; as told to Clem McCarthy by James C. McGill." Saturday Evening Post. August 10, 1940. pp. 24–25, 68-71.
- Clem McCarthy and James C. McGill. (# 3) "Pittsburgh Phil: who made a killing at the races until the races killed him; as told to Clem McCarthy by James C. McGill." Saturday Evening Post. August 17, 1940. pp. 24–25, 51-54.
- Marvin B. Scott and Jaime Suchlicki. The Racing Game. Transaction Publishers. 2005.
- James Forman Sloan and Dick Luckman (ed.). Tod Sloan- by Himself. Riverside Press, Edinburgh. 1915. From Google Books. (Accessed June 20, 2010).
External links
Media related to George E. Smith (gambler) at Wikimedia Commons