Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

BOARDWALK

EMPIRE

BOARDWALK

EMPIRE

The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of ATLANTIC CITY

Nelson Johnson

Foreword by

Terence Winter

Plexus Publishing, Inc.

Medford, New Jersey

Copyright

First printing, HBO series tie-in edition, September 2010

Copyright © 2002 by Nelson Johnson

Cover Art and Interior Photographs © 2010 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

HBO® and Boardwalk Empire® are service marks of Home Box Office, Inc.

Published By:

Plexus Publishing, Inc.

143 Old Marlton Pike

Medford, NJ 08055

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Cover design by Lisa M. Conroy

www.boardwalkempire.com

In memory of an extraordinary person,

my mother, Jennie Johnson, from whom

I acquired my passion for the printed word.

If the people who came to town had wanted Bible readings, we’d have given ’em that. But nobody ever asked for Bible readings. They wanted booze, broads, and gambling, so that’s what we gave ’em.

— Murray Fredericks

CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright

Foreword, by Terence Winter

Prologue

Chapter 1: Jonathan Pitney’s Beach Village

Chapter 2: The Grand Illusion

Chapter 3: A Plantation by the Sea

Chapter 4: Philadelphia’s Playground

Chapter 5: The Golden Age of Nucky

HBO Series Photo Insert

Chapter 6: Hard Times for Nucky and His Town

Chapter 7: Hap

Chapter 8: The Painful Ride Down

Chapter 9: Turn Out the Lights

Chapter 10: A Second Bite at the Apple

Historical Photo Insert

Chapter 11: It’s a New Ballgame

Chapter 12: The Donald Comes to Town

Afterword

Source Notes

About the Author

Index

FOREWORD

Shortly after sunrise on a cool August morning in 1987, my friend Chris and I walked along the beach in Atlantic City, its Boardwalk and hotel-casinos looming directly to our right. With our ties undone, bellies full, and pockets empty after a night of gambling, drinking, and general debauchery, we were completely exhausted and wiped out financially; we couldn’t have been happier. As we trudged along, the waves crashing at our feet, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the last few coins I had. Twenty-three cents. I hurled them all into the Atlantic Ocean and turned to Chris. “Now we’re really wiped out.” After a good laugh, we headed up to the Boardwalk and started our long trek home, two hard-luck characters with another fun story to tell about our time in Atlantic City. What I didn’t know then was that versions of this scenario had been playing out there for over 100 years.

Ever since the railroad made it accessible to the average working person, Absecon Island—or Atlantic City, as it came to be known—was “The World’s Playground,” a kingdom of dreams built on sand, a place where, for a reasonable sum of money, any man, woman, or child could be treated like visiting royalty. With luxury hotels,