Today, Atlantic City’s glass-clad towers, glittering casinos, and sparkling lights are impressive. What many do not realize is that Atlantic City has been a tourist destination since 1870, when it unveiled its first boardwalk. During Prohibition, Atlantic City’s seaport became a popular spot for rum running. This comes to life in Atlantic City through not only the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire but with tours that feature sites from the show. Groups get a glimpse into the way Atlantic City operated during the Prohibition era under Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, a politician, businessman, and gangster.
Meeting groups are finding that this sort of tour can add an insightful and memorable element to events held at gaming destinations. A tour through a city’s past or an unexpected element of its present can enrich an attendee’s enjoyment of a destination as well as his or her meeting experience.
William Rainey, manager of Monmouth University’s bookstore and president of the Middle Atlantic College Stores Association, was given the task of planning last year’s annual meeting that included approximately 200 attendees from the East Coast. After securing a room rate of $69 a night at the Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City, he selected Atlantic City as the site of the meeting. On the Sunday before the meeting kicked off Rainey offered the group a tour that provided some local flavor. The Roaring Twenties Trolley Tour that highlights one of Atlantic City’s most provocative eras was exactly what he wanted. A group of about 30 boarded a Victorian-style trolley at the Tropicana for a two-hour tour and lunch.
“Not only did we see some of Atlantic City’s original hotels, but we visited Gardner’s Basin marina, rife with history as this was where the illegal liquor would come in during Prohibition,” says Rainey. “We were intrigued by so many rum running stories during the tour.”
For example, two original rum-runner houses that sit at the marina were used by bootleggers. Another story that intrigued Rainey was about the tourist attraction Lucy the Elephant, a six-story elephant-shaped structure built in 1881, in neighboring town Margate. Legend has it that Lucy’s owners would hang lights outside its giant eyes to let rum-runners know whether it was safe to enter Atlantic City. Green meant it was a go. Today, Lucy is a National Historic Landmark and remains a curious tourist attraction.
Another famous draw from Atlantic City’s heyday was the High Diving Horse, a famous Boardwalk show, which featured a rider plunging on horseback from a 40-foot tower into a pool on the Steel Pier. “This is iconic Atlantic City history,” says Rainey. “We used the diving horse as the logo for our meeting and the phrase, ‘Diving into our Future.’ It’s amazing to think that in the early 1900s, before interstates and before the airlines, Atlantic City was the playground of America. It was the Disneyland of its time.”
Another stop on the tour was The Ritz- Carlton Hotel-Atlantic City, where political boss Johnson conducted business.
“The group really gets to go back in time at this stop. The lobby is original from the 1920s. Plus, there are some great historical photos on display from Atlantic City in the twenties including some from the Miss America pageant,” says Stephanie Adelizzi, director of sales and marketing for The Great American Trolley Co. The Ritz is now a condominium building, but the lobby, grand staircase, and wood-paneled walls and elevator are original.
“Nucky ate here. Shouldn’t you?” advertises the Knife & Fork Inn, established in 1912 as an exclusive men’s drinking and dining club, that is also included in the tour. Groups have lunch at the Irish Pub, a speakeasy that dates back to the days of Prohibition, and still has a trap door that was used to sneak the booze in.
The Middle Atlantic College Stores Association’s tour ended with a presentation by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson, the author of the book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City," the basis of the HBO TV series.