{{Short description|American businessman}} {{Infobox person | name = Beldon Katleman | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = July 14, 1914 | birth_place = Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.<ref name=varobit/> | death_date = {{death date and age|1988|9|28|1914|7|14}} | death_place = Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, U.S.<ref name=varobit/> | death_cause = | resting_place = Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | alma_mater = University of California, Los Angeles | occupation = Businessman | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | political_party = | boards = | spouse = Leonore Cohn | children = 1 | parents = | relatives = }} '''Beldon Katleman''' (July 14, 1914 – September 28, 1988) was an American businessman. Katleman bought into a partnership in El Rancho Vegas, a hotel casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and became president of the hotel.<ref name="vintagelasvegas">{{cite web |url=https://vintagelasvegas.com/strip |title=Las Vegas Strip: hotels, motels, casinos, race books |author=<!--Not stated--> |access-date=July 21, 2023 |quote="Beldon Katleman is president of the hotel (RJ 2/22/51) some time after inheriting El Ranco Inc. stock from J Katleman."}}</ref> Katleman was an investor in two other Las Vegas casinos, the Hotel Last Frontier and the Silver Slipper.
==Early life== Beldon Katleman was born to an affluent Jewish family<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EtBe7a_WtlgC&q=beldon+katleman+jewish&pg=PT113|first=Muriel|last=Burgess|title=Shirley|publisher=Cornerstone Digital|date=August 31, 2013|isbn=978-1448185429}}</ref> on July 14, 1914, in Sioux City, Iowa. The family moved to Southern California in the 1930s and he graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.<ref name=varobit/><ref name="gamblingenjoyedlubbock">{{cite news|last1=Considine|first1=Bob|title=Gambling Enjoyed While Behind-Scenes Action Ignored. If Las Vegas Walks With Devil, Nobody Seems To Care|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/48354869/?terms=%22Jake%2BKozloff%22|access-date=March 5, 2016|work=Lubbock Avalanche-Journal|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration |page=3|date=January 30, 1955|location=Lubbock, Texas}}</ref> His parents owned the Circle K national chain of parking lots and owned real estate in Los Angeles.<ref name=Ogden>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n0SujCRdh4gC&q=Beldon+Katleman&pg=PA308|first=Christopher|last=Ogden|title=Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg|pages=308|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|date=November 29, 2009|isbn=9780316092449}}</ref> During World War II, Katleman served as a lieutenant in the motion picture division of the Signal Corps in the U.S. Army.<ref name=Ogden />
==Career== In 1949, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where his uncle Jake had an interest in the El Rancho Vegas, and he became a junior partner in the hotel. When his uncle died, Katleman bought out the other partners and became sole owner in 1953, becoming the youngest gaming entrepreneur at the time.<ref name=varobit>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|page=70|date=October 26, 1988|title=Obituaries}}</ref> <ref name="vintagelasvegas" /><ref name="latimeshunkfallsfor">{{cite news|last1=Ryon|first1=Ruth|title=Hunk Falls for $2M Hacienda|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-24-re-49340-story.html|access-date=March 4, 2016|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=October 24, 1993|quote=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.)}}</ref>
thumb|right|The Last Frontier Hotel and Casino. With Guy McAfee and Jake Kozloff, Katleman acquired the Hotel Last Frontier from Bill Moore for US$5.5 million in 1951.<ref name="nevadayesterdays">{{cite book|last1=Wright|first1=Frank|title=Nevada Yesterdays: Short Looks at Las Vegas History|date=2005|publisher=Stephens Press|location=Las Vegas, Nevada|isbn=9781932173277|oclc=60708529|page=104|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VD0e59nXb6MC&q=Jake+Kozloff&pg=PA104}}</ref> He succeeded Kozloff as its manager in 1955.<ref name="gamblingenjoyedlubbock"/> He ceased to be a co-owner in 1957.<ref name=varobit/>
In June 1960, El Rancho Vegas was destroyed by a fire and Katleman immedialtely left Las Vegas.<ref name="latimeshunkfallsfor"/><ref name=varobit/> He planned to build a highrise on the site but the plans did not materialise and Howard Hughes bought the property in 1968.<ref name=varobit/>
Katleman was an investor in the Silver Slipper, another casino in Las Vegas, alongside Jack Barenfeld, Norma Friedman, Irving Leff and T.W. Richardson.<ref name="suitseeksevictionofhughes">{{cite news|title=Suit Seeks Eviction of Hughes|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/39053100/?terms=%22Beldon%2BKatleman%22|access-date=March 5, 2016|work=The Times|date=May 17, 1974|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration |page=13|location=San Mateo, California}}</ref> After leasing it to Howard Hughes since 1968, they sued Hughes over a year's unpaid rents in 1974.<ref name="suitseeksevictionofhughes"/>
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.<ref name="murkytaxcasecomingtolight">{{cite news|last1=Walters|first1=Dan|title=Murky tax case coming to light|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/70144198/?terms=%22Beldon%2BKatleman%22|access-date=March 5, 2016|work=Santa Cruz Sentinel|date=April 4, 1988|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration |page=11|location=Santa Cruz, California}}</ref>
==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.<ref name=Ogden /> In 1942,<ref name=Ogden /> They had a daughter named Diane Katleman Deshong.<ref name="howardcooperdeshongjrisnytimes">{{cite news|title=Howard Cooper Deshong Jr. Is Fiance of Diane Katleman|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/27/howard-cooper-deshong-jr-is-fiance-of-diane-katleman.html?_r=0|access-date=March 6, 2016|work=The New York Times|date=December 27, 1964}}</ref> They resided in Beverly Hills, California.<ref name="howardcooperdeshongjrisnytimes"/> The couple separated in 1944 and divorced soon after;<ref name=Ogden /> she married Lewis Rosenstiel in 1946.<ref name="howardcooperdeshongjrisnytimes"/>
==Death== Katleman died on September 28, 1988, in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California.<ref name=varobit/> He was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Find a Grave|120222338}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katleman, Beldon}} Category:1914 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Businesspeople from Beverly Hills, California Category:Businesspeople from Las Vegas Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:American businesspeople in the casino industry Category:American hoteliers Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:Annenberg family