Geraldine McGee Rosenthal
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Geraldine (Geri) McGee Marmor-Rosenthal (May 16, 1936 - November 9, 1982) was the second wife of Las Vegas sports handicapper, Frank Rosenthal. She provided the basis for the character of "Ginger," portrayed by Sharon Stone in the 1995 movie Casino. Geri and her sister Barbara, grew up in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles and went to Van Nuys High School with Robert Redford and Don Drysdale. Geri started going out with Leonard in high school. In 1958, their daughter Robin was born and Lenny talked Geri into moving to Las Vegas.
Frank met Geraldine while at a convention in Atlantic City. When Frank met Geri, she had been hustling in Las Vegas for close to eight years. She owned her own house and was raising her eleven year old daughter Robin, who was fathered by her high school sweet heart Lenny Marmor. She supported her ailing mother Alice and her sister Barbara, who had been abandoned with two young sons after her husband left. In 1954 Geri was rewarded with a large inheritance from a late aunt. Her father's sister offered to send Geri to Woodbury Business School, but Geri wanted to go to UCLA or USC. Instead she got a job at Thirty Drugs, then as a teller for Bank of America.
Lenny would visit Geri and their daughter, usually for two or three days, often with the intention to borrow money for a "surefire" business deal. Ocassionally her father, Roy McGee, a California auto mechanic, long separated from her mother would visit. Besides Leonard and Rosenthal, she was also seeing John Hicks. Johnny Hicks was about ten years younger than Geri. She adored John Hicks and he would have married her, except he had very rich parents. They owned the Algiers Hotel and The Thunderbird Casino and didn't want them to wed. He would have lost everything. John Hicks had a 1,000-a-month trust fund and would have it taken away if he married Geri. John liked to play the tough guy and hung around down town with a crew that used to beat up prostitutes. Frank and Geri were married on May 1st 1969.
She started having an affair with Anthony Spilotro, Frank's childhood friend.
Geraldine Rosenthal died from a drug overdose in 1982. Frank Rosenthal spent $50,000 to have a private autopsy conducted.