ATL ANT IC C IT Y BOA RDWALK
A ST ROLL T HR OUGH HIS TORY
Presented by
FOREWORD
The Atlantic City Boardwalk has been a constant symbol of American leisure life.
Built in 1870 to help keep sand out of the luxurious hotels and rail cars, the Boardwalk evolved from a temporary structure packed away after the summer to a permanent fixture — 60 feet wide, its hardwood planks arranged in a herringbone pattern, resting atop concrete and steel.
The stretch of wooden boards has also evolved from a simple pedestrian form of transportation to an unrivaled spectacle that has become the center of life at the shore.
Celebrities, tourists and locals have enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of a stroll by the sea. In the early days, fashionable visitors paraded down the Boardwalk or enjoyed a slow ride in a rolling chair. Today, folks still walk along, eating crab fries or saltwater taffy, while the soundtrack of waves crashing and sea gulls cawing mixes with music from the open-air restaurants and beach bars.
The original Central Pier was built in 1884, beginning a long history of seaside entertainment that included diving horses, stage shows, concerts, amusement rides and more.
In 1929, Boardwalk Hall was constructed as the country’s original convention center. Elton John, the Rolling
Stones and the Beatles have all played there.
Marilyn Monroe, Merv Griffin and Grace Kelly have all visited. And, long before he became president, Donald Trump’s casinos beckoned visitors. Miss America called the Boardwalk home for nearly 100 years, televising its competition annually. Enoch L. “Nucky” Johnson, whose reign of power was fictionalized in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” walked the boards with Al Capone and other gangsters on their way to a secret mobsters convention in 1929.
In 1978, the first casino — Resorts International — opened to much fanfare. Many more casinos appeared along the Boardwalk in the years to follow.
At just six miles long, four miles of which are in Atlantic City, the Boardwalk still defines both the idea of travel and the city. Its very structure creates a sense of order — hotels, restaurants and shops to one side, piers, the beach and the ocean to the other.
And through it all, right down the middle, moves the parade of human life.
Kris Worrell Executive EditorThe Press of Atlantic City
ON THE COVER
Entertainers have attracted their share of crowds to Atlantic City. This large crowd gathers on Easter 1934 near Steel Pier, where a performance is advertised for Sally Rand, the “Original World’s Fair Fan Dancer.”
OPPOSITE | Atlantic City Boardwalk undergoes construction. PHOTO COURTESY ATLANTIC CITY HERITAGE COLLECTIONS, ATLANTIC CITY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY THE PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED • ISBN: 978-1-59725-829-6
All photos are from The Press of Atlantic City archives unless otherwise noted.
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Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. www.pediment.com. Printed in Canada.
INTRODUCTION 3
Early Years
Disasters
Piers
Events
Casinos
Life on the Boards
Index
OPPOSITE | Workers construct the Atlantic City Boardwalk in front of the Convention Center.
INTRODUCTION 5
PHOTO COURTESY ATLANTIC CITY HERITAGE COLLECTIONS, ATLANTIC CITY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
7
17
35
57
91
115
150
1EARLY YEARS
“A man would not be a good American citizen,” President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “if he did not know of Atlantic City.”
In the late 1800s, working-class families, summer cottagers and business leaders alike flocked to the resort. With train routes from Camden and Philadelphia, visitors from all over the world came to Atlantic City, which soon became a popular summer resort and winter health spa famous for its beautiful beaches, fresh sea air, luxurious hotels, fine restaurants and alluring shops.
Once they arrived, the Boardwalk was a destination — a place to see and be seen while enjoying the fresh air and summer sun. Thousands of visitors crowded the boards on foot
and in rolling chairs, surrounded by nature’s beauty on one side and American commerce and advertising on the other.
In the early years, modest fashion was queen. Ladies wore as many as seven pieces of undergarments, dressed to the hilt. Men dressed in hats and three-piece suits, all in the sweltering heat. Bathers wore dresses of wool flannel with stockings or tank tops, canvas shoes and large straw hats.
Throughout the early part of the 20th century, the Boardwalk offered visitors a variety of attractions and treats, including amusement rides, motion pictures and saltwater taffy, an Atlantic City original.
Legend has it that saltwater taffy was created in Atlantic City by accident when a candy stand, located on the beach,
was flooded by a high tide. The salt water completely soaked the stock. When a customer came in to buy the taffy, the candy maker jokingly called it “saltwater taffy,” thus creating the name by which it is known today.
Over the years, saltwater taffy became hugely popular with Atlantic City tourists. By about 1940, visitors mailed more than 3 million pounds to friends and family in one season. This figure didn’t include the on-the-spot consumption.
Whatever drew visitors to the Boardwalk in those early years — the fresh air, the fashion, the sweets — was enough to keep them returning in droves for decades to come.
OPPOSITE | The historic Atlantic City Boardwalk bustles with activity in 1902.
EARLY YEARS | 7
RIGHT | Crowds make their way along the Boardwalk west from The Brighton Casino, circa 1895. The casino was considered the center of social life at the time, housing concerts and providing broad verandas with views of the Boardwalk, beach and ocean. PHOTO COURTESY ATLANTIC CITY HERITAGE COLLECTIONS, ATLANTIC CITY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
BELOW RIGHT | The Atlantic City Boardwalk between Arkansas and Michigan avenues looking south in 1884. The Boardwalk was originally created to allow visitors to the city to walk from their hotel onto the beach without walking on the sand. The boards were removed during the offseason. PHOTO COURTESY ATLANTIC CITY HERITAGE COLLECTIONS, ATLANTIC CITY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
BELOW | Strolling the Boardwalk was a popular pastime in 1889.
8 EARLY YEARS
ABOVE | The Atlantic City Boardwalk wholly open to the sea and backed by the great bazaars and shops. PHOTO COURTESY ATLANTIC CITY HERITAGE COLLECTIONS, ATLANTIC CITY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY LEFT | Visitors flock to the Boardwalk to enjoy a sunny afternoon, March 1897.
PHOTO COURTESY ATLANTIC CITY HERITAGE COLLECTIONS, ATLANTIC CITY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
EARLY YEARS | 9
48 | PIERS
PIERS 49
ABOVE | The Central Pier, seen here in May 1991, reopened in 1990 after an $8 million renovation. It remains an attraction at the time of publication.
OPPOSITE | Joe Mazza, of Ocean City, Ronald Poirier, of Somers Point, and Derek Hester, of Atlantic City, install new boards on the portion of Central Pier burned by a fire, May 28, 1991.
ABOVE | Miss America contestants pose on the Boardwalk in 1954, the first year the pageant was televised live. Twenty-seven million from coast to coast could watch from their homes as California’s Lee Meriwether captured the title.
LEFT | Spectators line the Boardwalk to see Miss America contestants on parade in 1947.
EVENTS 69
74 | EVENTS
ABOVE | Miss America hopefuls Candes Gentry (Miss Hawaii), Patryce King (Miss Missouri), Vanessa Ballam (Miss Utah) and Kama Boland (Miss Delaware) film a pageant-night video with an Austin Powers theme on the Boardwalk, Sept. 7, 1999.
ABOVE | Returning to the city after eight years abroad, 2013 Miss America Parade travels south down the Boardwalk, Sept. 14, 2013. The city’s emergency management director estimated the parade drew 225,000 spectators to the Boardwalk.
LEFT | Miss America 2004 Ericka Dunlap waves to the paradegoers from atop her float during the Miss America Parade, Sept. 17, 2004.
EVENTS 75
102 CASINOS
ABOVE | Celebrity female impersonators Steven Andrade (Cher), Phyl Craig (Liza Minnelli) and Gary Deeas (Joan Rivers), vamp it up with a rolling chair on the Boardwalk in front of Resorts Casino Hotel, August 2011. The performers appeared in “Believe, Divas in a Man’s World,” the summer’s long-running show at the casino.
LEFT | Martin Short presses his hands into cement on the Boardwalk in front of Resorts Casino Hotel, Aug. 31, 2002. The comedian became the 56th celebrity to be immortalized at the famous “Entrance of the Stars” at Resorts.
OPPOSITE | Actors Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi lead a group of Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders on the Boardwalk in front of the Showboat Casino-Hotel to kick off the opening of the casino’s House of Blues Music Hall, July 10, 2005. Aykroyd invited the crowd gathered on the Boardwalk into the showroom for a “sound-check” concert featuring The Blues Brothers with Buddy Guy.
CASINOS 103
ABOVE | Boardwalk visitors take in the scenery aboard rolling chairs in the 1950s.
OPPOSITE | A couple takes a break from a bicycle ride to enjoy the scenery on the Boardwalk in 1952.
126 LIFE ON THE BOARDS
ABOVE | Early birds set up on the Boardwalk in anticipation of the Rascal Flatts beach concert on Aug. 20, 2015.
LEFT | Amy Cassalia of North Carolina (left) and Reggie Cassalia of Philadelphia wait on the Boardwalk for the start of the Jimmy Buffett concert on the beach, Aug. 13, 2016.
OPPOSITE | The Korean War Memorial on Park Place and the Boardwalk, Aug. 30, 2015.
LIFE ON THE BOARDS | 143