CARSON CITY, Nev. – The popular exhibit Slot Machines: The Fey Collection at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City will close May 1 to make way for the upcoming Nevada Sesquicentennial exhibit, Finding Fremont: Pathfinder of the West, opening in October. While the slot machines will be off exhibit for two years, staff will conserve the collection and plan for a traveling exhibit that could go on tour.
The Fey collection highlights machines designed by Charles August Fey and features 24 historic mechanical gaming machines dating from 1895 to 1937, including two Liberty Bells, the Klondike, Little Chief, Silver Dollar and Three Cadets.
“These early slot machines are not only ingenious inventions, they are ornate works of art,” Bob Nylen, curator of history for the museum, said.
The three-reel Liberty Bell provided the basic design from which all future slot machines were based. Though completely different in the way they work, today’s slots still are recognizable as descendants of the Liberty Bell that debuted in 1899 as the first three-reeled slot machine.
Fey’s grandsons, Marshall and Frank, originally displayed the full collection at their Liberty Belle Restaurant and Saloon in Reno from 1958 until it closed in 2007.
“The brothers named the establishment in honor of their grandfather’s popular slot machine but they feminized the word ‘bell’ by adding an ‘e’ at the end, and the place became a landmark for decades,” Nylen said.
The exhibited machines represent some of the best and earliest examples from the full slot collection, considered one of the world’s finest. The exhibit was funded by a generous grant from Bally’s Technologies in celebration of its 75th anniversary 1932-2007, and The Bretzlaff Foundation.
The museum is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday at 600 N. Carson St. in Carson City. Admission is $8, free for members and those age 17 or younger. Details: 775-687-4810.
