The essence of
Atlantic City history during the pre-casino era can largely be
summed up in three words: glamour, geeks and gangsters.
The "Monopoly" City
Originally created in the 1850s as a genteel retreat for
Philadelphia's upper crust, the seaside resort soon developed a
madcap personality of its own, becoming one of America's most
fabled cities -- a distinction it has never lost. Atlantic City
is, for instance, the basis of the game MONOPOLY that has
enshrined its very street names -- "Park Place," "Atlantic
Avenue," "Marvin Gardens" -- as icons of America's
wealth-worshipping culture.
Vulgar and Magnificent
There has always been a sense of unbridled freedom and
adventure about the place, heavy as the smell of salt air. It's as
invigorating today as it was twelve decades ago when the first
hordes
of
visitors came to stroll a rickety plankway overlooking the same
pounding surf. That planked walkway (the world's first boardwalk)
and those crowds (the beginning of a tourist explosion wrought by
the new railroads) were the forces that so uniquely shaped the
city in ways vulgar and magnificent.
Legendary Hotels
Atlantic City's luxury hotels were legendary from the start.
One of the first built -- the 600-room United States Hotel -- was
the country's largest and the place where Ulysses S. Grant
vacationed during his second term as President. By the turn of the
century, the boardwalk was four miles long and lined with
glittering hotel resorts catering to the east coast's nouveau
riche industrialist set.
Lil and Diamond Jim
At the Brighton Hotel, sultry actress and singer Lillian
Russell -- the Madonna of her day -- cavorted with long-time lover
"Diamond Jim" Brady, the flamboyant railroad magnate known for
wearing only the largest jeweled stick pins. Brady was also famed
for the wads of bills he shoved at the boardwalk's rolling chair
operators who transported him and his blond diva between the
night's ballroom events.
Ultra-Glamorous
Up
until World War II, the city's skyline remained an internationally
famous symbol of glamour and architectural excess on a par with
European palaces. The Traymore, Dennis, Claridge, Ritz-Carlton,
Marlborough-Blenheim, President, Ambassador and others stretched
along the ocean front like a string of fantasy confections. That
pre-casino skyline is shown in a large mural on the front of
Atlantic City's International Airport terminal building (above).
Geek Show of a Boardwalk
In direct contrast to the grandeur of the buildings it fronted
was the geek show of a boardwalk. In a continuous carnival of
shameless stuntsmanship and wild hyperbole, hucksters competed for
paying customers with ever-weirder and outrageous attractions.
These included adult female siamese twins joined at the hip,
midget boxers, fighting kangaroos, fantastic fat people, dancing
tigers, Rex the water-skiing dog, chickens that could hit
baseballs and "sea monsters" consisting of any creature of
substantial size hauled up that day by local fisherman.
The Famous Diving Horse
Amusement piers -- some of them a half-mile long -- were built
out into the ocean, providing large, circus-like arenas for
vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, and performers like escape artist
Harry Houdini. But the most famous boardwalk act of all time ran
on Steel Pier for 49 years: the high-diving horse. Several times a
day, a horse and its scantily-clad female rider would leap from a
60-foot tower into a pool of water. The riders broke an average of
one bone a year and, amazingly, one of them -- Sonora Carver --
was blind. Her story was celebrated in the 1991 movie, "Wild
Hearts Can't Be Broken."
National Center of Music and Theater
The
dense collection of amusement piers, local theaters and hotel
concert halls evolved into one of the nation's most important
entertainment centers. By the 1920s Atlantic City was established
as a kind of Hollywood East, swarming with a glitzy assortment of
movie stars, producers, musicians, song writers, and entertainment
moguls. In the 30s, the city was THE home for "Big Band" music,
the place where a skinny kid named Frank Sinatra sang in the Harry
James band as he angled for his first big break. Up until 1960,
you could still see the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Durante,
Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka regularly limousining around town.
Gangsters by the Sea
It was just as common to catch a glimse of famous gangsters.
For half a century, Atlantic City was notorious for its mobsters,
back-alley gambling dens and speakeasies. During Prohibition, the
nearby maze of inlets, marshes and river mouths provided an ideal
avenue for waterborne smugglers landing cargoes of European
whiskey.
Meyer Lansky's Honeymoon
The city was a neutral zone where mobsters from all
jurisdictions came for rest and relaxation. For instance, Meyer
Lansky honeymooned here in the Presidential suite of the
Ritz-Carlton. There, he held court for local celebrities and
politicos; the chief political boss of Atlantic City -- "Knuckles"
Johnson -- arrived bearing French champagne and a fur coat for
Lansky's new wife.
Mobster Convention
In May of 1929,
mob
kingpins from around the country, including Lansky, Lucky Luciano,
Dutch Schultz and Al Capone, gathered for a three-day national
convention in Atlantic City's Ambassador Hotel. Earlier that year,
Capone had generating shocking headlines with his "Valentine's Day
Massacre" machine-gun killings of bootlegging rivals in Chicago.
And just days before arriving in Atlantic City, he had used a
baseball bat to cave in the skulls of three disloyal lieutentants
in a crowded banquet room in Indiana. The gangsters gathered at
Atlantic City's Ambassador sought to find ways to end their bloody
wars, coordinate their national racketeering activities and reign
in Capone, whose ferocity unnerved even them.
Capone Left Atlantic City a Lesser Man
Capone was the loser at that 1929 meeting and left Atlantic
City a lesser mobster. In an apparent attempt to protect himself
from the hit men of his fellow conventioneers, he took the train
from Atlantic City to Philadelphia, turned himself in on a minor
gun possession charge and willingly went to jail for a few months.
Lucky Luciano, on the other hand, left Atlantic City with new
stature and power as an emerging national mob boss.
End of the Heyday
By the 1960s,
well-heeled
travelers were vacationing in Miami or Bermuda instead of at the
Jersey Shore. Las Vegas had become the new entertainment capital
of the country and Atlantic City was a decaying shadow of its
former self. Even the mob had lost interest in the place. By
default, it became the farthest flung and lowest priority portion
of the territory ruled by Philadelphia mafia don, Angelo Bruno.
Nicky Scarfo's Exile
Years before, Bruno had taken young Nicodemo (Little Nicky)
Scarfo into his organization at the behest of Scarfo's uncles, who
were important underworld associates. But the Philadelphia don
detested Scarfo because of his uncontrollable temper and violent
excesses. In 1963, Scarfo infuriated Bruno when he knifed a
longshoreman to death in an argument over a seat in a South
Philadelphia diner. Unable to have Scarfo killed because of his
uncles, Bruno instead "promoted" Scarfo by making him capo of
Atlantic City, thus banishing him to rule over a grim landscape of
slums, abandoned stores and crumbling hotels edged by a
nearly-deserted boardwalk.
End of an Era
The tail end of that waning mobster era is the subject of the
classic 1980 movie, "Atlantic City." Set in 1978, just after
legalized gambling was approved, it is the story of a hapless
oyster bar waitress (Susan Sarandon) and a burned-out mob go-fer
(Burt Lancaster) who find a measure of love and redemption against
a backdrop of the explosions bringing down the old hotels to make
way for today's casinos.
