ACConsig

Super Ferries AC to NYC?

2011-12-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

Super Ferries - an Australian - Down Under thing - were brought in to work among the Hawaiian Islands but were stopped because of environmental reasons. They are being purchased for $5 million each by the Dept. of Defense for use in Haiti.

Although these are designed to hold compact cars as well as people, they can be reconfigured to hold only walk on passengers - and can travel up to 60 or more miles per house, meaning a trip from Atlantic City inlet to Manhattan, New York City could be made in about an hour and a half.

The current state of the art models can be environmentally safe and economically efficient. They could deliver thousands of people every day to the three inlet casinos - and jitneys waiting at the dock to take them to other destinations.

HSC Alakai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the locality on Kauaʻi, see Alakai Wilderness Area.

The Alakai docked in Nawiliwili Harbor

Career

Name:Alakai

Owner:Hawaii Superferry (2007-2009)
U.S. Maritime Administration (2009-present)

Operator:Hawaii Superferry (2007-2009)
U.S. Maritime Administration (2009-present)

Port of registry:Honolulu, Hawaii, United States[1]

Builder:Austal USA

Cost: US$88M
Yard number: 615
Way number: 1
Laid down: June 3, 2004
Launched: January 18, 2007
Christened: April 14, 2007
Maiden voyage: August, 2007
In service: 2007
Status: In Service
General characteristics
Type: Ferry

Displacement: 1646 Tons
Length: 349 ft (106 m)
Beam: 78 ft (24 m)
Draft: 12 ft (3.7 m)
Decks: 4
Deck clearance: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Ramps: NO
Ice class: NO
Installed power: 4 x MTU-8000 diesel engines
Propulsion: 4 x Rolls-Royce KaMeWa 125MkII waterjets
Speed: 35 kn (65 km/h; 40 mph)

Capacity: 866 passengers, 282 cars
Crew: 21
The Alakai is a vessel currently owned by the U.S. Maritime Administration. It was originally the Hawaii Superferry's first high-speed ferry. In the Hawaiian language, alakai means "sea path." It should not be confused with the similar word alakaʻi, which means "leader."

Alakai is a 349-foot (106 m) long high-speed roll-on / roll-off (Ro/Ro) passenger and vehicle ferry formerly operated by Hawaii Superferry. It used to operate a daily service at a speed of 35 knots (65 km/h) between the islands of Oahu and Maui. Alakai has a capacity of 866 passengers and up to 282 subcompact cars . Alternately, its vehicle decks can be reconfigured in 5 minutes to carry up to 20 large trucks and 90 cars.

Like its sistership Huakai, the vessel features environmentally friendly technologies including non-toxic bottom paint, zero wastewater discharge and clean diesel engines.

Hawaii Superferry’s vessels are designed and built by Austal USA, a subsidiary of Austal, an Australian company that is the world's largest builder of fast ferries. Construction on the Alakai began in June 2004 in Mobile, Alabama. The ship was launched in January 2007, christened in April 2007 and sea trials went smoothly.

The Alakai during sea trials in 2007

The Alakai arrived in Honolulu on June 30, 2007 with a celebration,after a smooth 17 day delivery voyage.[5] The ship's maiden voyage was on August 26, 2007 and the trip to Maui was smooth. The voyage to Kauai was rougher and the Alakai was met by about a dozen protestors on surfboards blockading the entrance to Nawiliwili Harbor. The protestors were peacefully cleared by the Coast Guard.

On February 13, 2008 the Alakai went into dry dock in early 2008 to make repairs to its auxiliary rudders that were damaged in late January. The dry docking was extended due to hull damage caused when a tugboat moving the Alakai into dry dock lost power. Alakai returned to service in early April 2008 shortly after Aloha Airlines ended service.Before resuming service the ship went through sea trials and was re-certified by the Coast Guard.

On March 17, 2009 after about 11 months in service, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the legislation permitting Alakai to operate without an environmental review was unconstitutional. Hawaii Superferry made one last round trip to allow an orderly return of passengers who are not on their home island. They canceled existing reservations and did not take new reservations. The Superferry company intends to look for other work for the Alakai; it also left open the possibility of bringing the ferry back into service if and when Hawaii completes an environmental review, but the company decided to abandon the vessel ending all possibilities of returning to Hawaii.

In January 2010, the U.S. Maritime Administration announced that Huakai, and Alakai would be used to assist with relief in the 2010 Haiti earthquake...

On September 13 2010, the Huakai and Alakai were auctioned off, for $25 million each, by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and they were reportedly purchased by the United States Maritime Administration.

As of December 12 2011, the Huakai and Alakai are being considered for purchase by the United States Department of Defense.

Princeton Antique Books Atlantic City NJ

2011-11-12T15:46:00.003-08:00

Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Organ

2011-11-10T09:35:00.001-08:00

Abandoned Atlantic City Masonic Temple

2011-11-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Masonic temple, facing the beautiful Albany Avenue Park, is the home of the three Masonic Lodges of Atlantic City together with their affiliated bodies. It was erected in 1926 and is unique in that its cornerstone was transported from the ancient quarry of King Solomon to become a part of this stately edifice.

Masonic-Temple

May 2010 - Atlantic City, NJ

An old Masonic Temple on the corner of Hartford and Ventnor Aves in Atlantic City that was converted into the Old ACPD and then abandoned.

Las Vegas Mob Museum

2011-11-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

The Las Vegas Mob Museum will open in the old Post Office and Court House on Valentine's Day 2012

The Mob Museum
300 Stewart Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89101

Mob Museum leads downtown development in Vegas

A museum dedicated to the history of organised crime is to open in Las Vegas as the city continues to develop its downtown area.

The Mob Museum will open on Valentine’s Day – February 14, 2012 - and will join other new downtown attractions including the Smith Centre for the Performing Arts.

Other new openings in the pipeline include the Link Project – an observation wheel which will be 100ft taller than the London Eye and is due to open in 2013.

The developments come as Las Vegas reported a 5% year-on-year increase in visitors in the first nine months of 2011, including a 16.2% increase from the UK to 385,000 on the back of the recently introduced twice-weekly Virgin Atlantic flights from Manchester.

Rossi Ralenkotter, chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said: “We are making improvements to infrastructure, including a new terminal at McCarran International Airport, and with increases in visitor counts over the past 18 months we are leading the Las Vegas economy out of recession.”

Carolyn Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas, added: “We are continually re-inventing ourselves as a destination and giving visitors a reason to come to Las Vegas. We are seeing direct flights from the UK arriving full, which shows that there is a real appetite to visit.”

Las Vegas to get two new Mob museums
By Kitty Bean Yancey, USA TODAY

http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/02/las-vegas-to-get-two-new-mob-museums/144127/1

Las Vegas hopes to turn its mobster-filled history into a tourism jackpot.
Two museums dedicated to "made" men, their stories and artifacts are due to open this year.

First up is the Las Vegas Mob Experience, an interactive exhibit using technology from former Disney "Imagineers" to draw visitors into gangland. It's due March 1 in the revamped Tropicana Las Vegas resort and casino, which used to be a hangout for organized crime figures.

The exhibit will house "the largest collection of artifacts related to the Mob in the world," says Jay Bloom, Mob Experience managing partner. Among the more than 1,000: Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's 1933 Packard, Meyer Lansky's diary, Tony Spilotro's gun (Spilotro was played by Joe Pesci in Casino), Giancana family photos, home movies and more.

Families sold or leased them to the museum, in part because they are tired of portrayals of mobsters in books and films and to show the world there was another side. They often were devoted family men, Bloom says, and insulated family members from what they did for a living.

Many Mob Experience visitors may not know that Meyer Lansky was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Harry Truman for helping protect ships in port in New York City and working with "Lucky" Luciano to solicit intelligence in Italy that helped topple Mussolini. The medal is part of the exhibit. "But we're not painting them as heroes," Bloom says. It's just that many don't have a full picture of mobsters, he says.

He tells a story gleaned from Sam Giancana's family. Giancana used to say, "If I'm looking out the back window, I'm daydreaming. If I'm looking out the front, I'm looking for the FBI,' " Bloom says.

The Mob Experience will use theme-park technologies such as life-size holograms of gangsters who talk to visitors and radio-frequency transmitters containing visitors' names and the languages they speak. Visitors will be addressed by name and can masquerade as mobsters, making decisions about whether to kill or cooperate with police. Depending on a visitor's nationality, Mob Experience signage will change to the appropriate language. Bloom says there will be more than a half-dozen languages, from French to Mandarin Chinese. In addition, actors including James Caan (Sonny in The Godfather) and Mickey Rourke have taped commentary.

Visitors " could order someone whacked or let them off the hook, decide to talk or not to talk to the police, steal or not steal from the Mob," says Experience spokesman Spence Johnston. "At the end, their final fate is determined. Guests can be whacked, made, arrested, go into witness protection, etc."

The Experience is what it would be like "if Disney took over the Smithsonian," Bloom sums up.

Meanwhile, away from The Strip, the downtown Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement -- also called "The Mob Museum" -- is under construction in a former post office and courthouse where 1950 hearings about Mob activity were held. It is a pet project of flamboyant Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, a lawyer who used to defend mobsters including Giancana and who hopes the museum will draw more visitors downtown. It was expected to open earlier, but now is aiming for a December opening date, says museum chief administrative officer Jonathan Ullman. "It's a complicated project" because it involves historical restoration of a landmark building and building interactive exhibits, he says.

It is larger than the Mob Experience and also has some interactive tricks up its sleeve. Its creative director is Dennis Barrie, who has worked with Washington, D.C.'s popular Spy Museum and with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. It has the wall from Chicago's St. Valentine's Day massacre, the only gun found at the scene of that bloodbath and the barber chair that hitman Albert Anastasia was murdered in at a hotel in New York. "We have these artifacts that are significant, but this is very much a museum in which visitors will be engaged in experiences," he says, such as trying their hand at law-enforcement techniques, a tommy gun simulator and a police lineup.

Do the two museums have a beef with each other?

"I'd be lying if I weren't concerned about any brand confusion," Ullman says. "That's certainly a challenge."

"My sense is we're going to be good for each other," says Bloom, turning Vegas into a mecca for those interested in knowing more about Mob history.

Readers, what do you think? Are you likely to visit one or both of these attractions?

http://themobmuseum.org/contact/

National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement TM

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Group Sales & Special Events

The Mob Museum will be a three-dimensional history book ideal for captivating groups of all sizes, as well as a fun and unique setting for special events. Every detail of The Mob Museum is being developed with our visitors in mind.

As we prepare for our February 2012 opening, we’re taking steps to create a dynamic space that is ideal for special and private events. Once completed, the museum will serve as one of Las Vegas’ most exciting destinations for any occasion.

More information will be available online soon. In the meantime, please contactsales@themobmuseum.org for more details on our exciting venue.

Donations of Artifacts
It’s the nature of evidence, sometimes it’s found in unlikely places. As the museum looks for artifacts for its permanent collection, we’re calling out to anyone in Las Vegas and beyond for relics, documents and recordings of organized crime as well as law enforcement’s efforts to bring them down. If you believe you are in possession of a possible artifact, or if you’re interested in making a financial contribution, please contact: 702-229-6581 or contributions@themobmuseum.org.

Human Resources Info
To inquire about jobs at The Mob Museum, please check the list of open positions on our Jobs page. For other Human Resources inquiries, please contact us at HR@themobmuseum.org.

General Contact Info
For all other inquiries regarding The Mob Museum, including reservations and donations, please contact us at 702-229-2734 or info@themobmuseum.org.

OPENING FEBRUARY 14, 2012

The Mob Museum, a 501-c-3 nonprofit, is an interactive Museum dedicated to the history of organized crime and law enforcement. The Museum presents a bold and authentic view of organized crime’s impact on Las Vegas history, as well as, its unique imprint on America and the world. The Museum presents the real stories and actual events of mob history via interactive and engaging exhibits that reveal all sides of the story about the role of organized crime in the U.S. The Mob Museum offers multiple perspectives and provides a contemporary, engaging, challenging and educational experience.

LOCATION

The Mob Museum is located at 300 Stewart Avenue in the heart of the downtown Las Vegas. It is under construction inside an historic former federal courthouse and United States Post Office. This building is one of the last remaining historically significant buildings in Las Vegas and is included on both the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places. It is the city’s only historic building designated as significant at a national level. In 1950-51, the Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime were held in 14 cities. In Las Vegas, the hearings were held in a courtroom in this very building. The courtroom is being recreated to appear as it did in 1950. The building is an important remaining example of the Depression-era neoclassical architecture built by the federal government during the 1920s and 1930s.

HOURS
Sundays through Thursdays: 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m
Fridays and Saturdays 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
TICKET PRICES
General Admission: $18
Seniors, Military, Law Enforcement & Teachers: $14
Children (5-17), Students (18-23): $12
Nevada Residents: $10

WHY LAS VEGAS?

Las Vegas is a particularly fitting location for The Mob Museum given the city’s unique and colorful history. The vision of a glitzy destination with luxury hotels, restaurants, shows and adult indulgences was realized early by such noted mob figures as Bugsy Siegel, whose hotel and hospitality helped to set the tone for modern-day Vegas. The mob’s influence continued to shape the city for decades and played a role in its ultimate evolution as the Entertainment Capital of the World. While there are many U.S. cities where the mob had a higher profile, Las Vegas is an ideal choice for the Museum given the city’s annual visitation of 37 million tourists seeking interesting attractions and experiences.

DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION

The Mob Museum is an important component of the city’s downtown redevelopment now underway. Once complete, the Museum is expected to generate annual visitation of hundreds of thousands to the Museum and downtown Las Vegas. The redevelopment area includes the Museum and such significant projects as the new City Hall; a five-block office complex; a new transportation center; a proposed 12-acre entertainment, arena and gaming site to be developed as Las Vegas Live by The Cordish Company; the Lady Luck renovation by the CIM Group; and proposed hotel-casino projects at Symphony Park, a mixed-use downtown neighborhood now under active development and anchored by the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Within this area, more than 13,000 jobs within the city’s core are expected to be created from these new projects.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The 41,000-square-foot Mob Museum includes approximately 16,800 square feet of exhibition space on three floors within the historic United States Post Office and Federal Courthouse at 300 Stewart Avenue in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to exhibition space, it includes a specialty retail store, special event areas, educational areas and office space.

WORLD-CLASS ATTRACTION

The Mob Museum is being designed by a world-class team known for other successful Museums that serve to reinvigorate communities and neighborhoods, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Given the intrigue and world-wide interest in the mob, the Museum will become one of the city’s major attractions – a must-see for millions of tourists and locals alike.

OWNERSHIP/OPERATION

The city of Las Vegas, which is currently overseeing the Museum’s early development, owns the building and the land on which it sits. A non-profit organization, 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation, was formed to oversee the Museum’s development and operations and is scheduled to assume management of the Museum in spring 2010. Currently, representatives from the city’s Office of Business and Economic Development and Department of Cultural Affairs are working with the non-profit’s board of directors to develop the Museum as an important historic destination and tourist attraction.

LEADERSHIP

300 Stewart Avenue Corporation is headed by President Ellen Knowlton, former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, and a 24-year FBI veteran. Members of the board of directors include highly respected professionals from local and state government, law enforcement, the judicial system, media and the Southern Nevada business community. Many of these individuals have first-hand knowledge of organized crime and its impact on Las Vegas.

FUNDING

The Mob Museum is expected to cost approximately $42 million to construct and is being funded through local, state and federal grants. Of the total amount, approximately $12.4 million is from general fund sources and $8.3 million is from matching local, state and federal grants that were awarded following the city’s financial commitment from its general fund, as well as a Redevelopment Agency funding source that can only be spent on projects located in the city’s redevelopment area. General funds were allocated for the Museum in 2004. Grants of note include a Save America’s Treasures grant from the National Park Service, multi-year grants from the Nevada Commission for Cultural Affairs and local grants from the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

THE INSIDE STORY

The Museum features a variety of interactive exhibits, films and high-tech audio visual displays that will be updated to reflect new information and acquisitions. Exhibits incorporate the following topics:

THE LEGACY OF THE MOB

How the mob persists today despite high profile victories by law enforcement.

BRINGING DOWN THE MOB

How the battle against the mob was won with focus on important historic and law enforcement victories, including hearings, raids, arrests, and indictments for such illicit activities as money laundering, human trafficking, drug cartels, kidnappings, wiretapping, murder and more.

NOTABLE NAMES IN MOB HISTORY
Al Capone, Anthony Spilotro, Sam Giancana, Carlo Gambino, Bugsy Siegel, Joseph Bonanno, Joe Pistone, Moe Dalitz, John Gotti, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and others.

MOB BUSTERS
J. Edgar Hoover, Estes Kefauver, Eliot Ness, Harry Anslinger and others.

ORGANIZED CRIME AROUND THE WORLD
A look at current local and global mob activities and discussion on its future.

MEMORIES OF THE MOB
A look at “old” mobsters when they retire, go into exile, enter the witness protection
program or die.

MYTH OF THE MOB
How the Mob has been portrayed in movies, books and pop culture and discussion on its accuracy.

SIN CITY

An in-depth look at Las Vegas as the ultimate “open city” that attracted mobsters following the Kefauver Hearings; a tough little town that became haven and playground for American organized crime in the 1950s.

THE GAME CONTINUES

Las Vegas from the 1950s to the present with focus on the Black Book, scamming and skimming, Gaming Control Board activities and Howard Hughes.

WEB OF DECEIT

A fascinating look at mob violence, corruption, conspiracy and murder.

THE MOB THROUGH HISTORY

A timeline that includes the birth of the mob, its geographic “families” around the globe, the impact of prohibition, drugs and prostitution on the mob’s bottom line; how organized crime is evolving.

AMERICA FIGHTS BACK

A key feature of the Museum is a recreation of the very courtroom where the proceedings of the Kefauver Committee hearings occurred. The hearings, led by U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, were held in 14 cities in 1950-51 and sought to expose and control organized crime.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

The Mob Museum preserves a fascinating chapter of Las Vegas and American history and reflects actual events as they occurred. It is located in an historic building that is being restored and preserved; the building is home to the courtroom where, in 1950, the Kefauver Hearings on Organized Crime were held.

The Museum is significant for Las Vegas where older buildings are generally destroyed to make room for new development – not preserved. The Museum will accurately depict mob history, dispel the legendary “myth of the mob,” and provide detail on the significant role of law enforcement in ending the mob’s reign in Las Vegas and elsewhere in America. The Museum’s intent is to accurately recount and share the history of organized crime. Considerable focus is on those in law enforcement who played major roles in defeating the mob. Museum exhibits will be updated to reflect new findings, information and acquisitions.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

According to findings In a November 2009 study by Applied Analysis of Las Vegas, The Mob Museum is expected to:

Generate a combined economic output of more than $62.3 million during construction
Employ approximately 227 direct and indirect workers during construction
Generate annual revenues ranging from $8.5 million to $13.9 million during a ten-year study period

Generate a total economic output of approximately $20.2 million during the same ten-year study period. Stated otherwise, for every dollar generated by the Museum, a total of $1.95 will be generated throughout the regional economy.

Permanently employ approximately 92 people; 52 jobs are directly attributable to its operations and 40 additional jobs throughout the local economy.

Generate public revenues from two primary sources once completed: sales and use taxes and modified business taxes. Over a ten-year period, these taxes are expected to total more than $2.6 million.

Generate annual visitation of hundreds of thousands to the Museum and downtown Las Vegas.

Serve as a key component to the $4 billion downtown redevelopment that is expected to create more than 13,000 jobs in the area.

THE MOB MUSEUM SETS HOURS AND TICKET PRICES

National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement to open in Las Vegas February 14, 2012

LAS VEGAS, NV — There are two sides to every story — and then there’s the truth. Uncover the real life battle between organized crime and law enforcement when The Mob Museum opens to the public on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2012. The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is a world-class destination in downtown Las Vegas. It presents an exciting and authentic view of the mob’s impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on the world.

The Museum, which has already acquired one of the most iconic artifacts in mob history – the brick wall from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, will open on the 83rd anniversary of the infamous Massacre, considered one of the most significant days in Mob history. Admission is $18 plus tax for adults ages 18-plus; $12 plus tax for children ages 5 to 17 and students ages 18 to 23 with ID; $14 plus tax for seniors, military, law enforcement and teachers; and $10 plus tax for Nevada residents of all ages. Museum hours will be Sundays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.

With tales so intriguing they need no embellishment, The Mob Museum reveals an insider’s look at the events and people on both sides of this continuing battle between organized crime and law enforcement. True stories of mob history are brought to life in a bold and contemporary style via engaging exhibits and multi-sensory experiences. The Mob Museum puts the visitor in the middle of the action through high-tech theater presentations, iconic one-of-a-kind artifacts and interactive, themed environments.

The Museum’s board of directors is headed by Ellen Knowlton, former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, and a 24-year FBI veteran. The Mob Museum boasts a highly respected board including professionals from local and state government, law enforcement, the judicial system, media and the business community. A key visionary for the project and current board member is former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman, a previous go-to defense attorney who made a name for himself representing such reputed mobsters as Meyer Lansky, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and Anthony Spilotro, among others.

Artifacts to be integrated throughout the Museum’s interactive exhibits provide an insider’s look into many of organized crime’s biggest names, including, Alphonse Capone, Dion O’Bannion, George Moran, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Ben Siegel, Sam Giancana, Joe Bonanno, Frank Rosenthal, Mickey Cohen, Tony Cornero and Tony Spilotro to name just a few. The Museum is located in what many consider the ultimate artifact, the former federal courthouse and United States Post Office. Completed in 1933 and listed on the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places, it housed the very courtroom where, in 1950, one of 14 national Kefauver hearings was held to expose and control organized crime in America. Meticulously rehabilitated for The Mob Museum, the building is significant not only for its neo-classical architecture reminiscent of the period in which it was built, but also for the historic events that unfolded inside of it.

The Museum is also working with the FBI and many famous undercover agents who made a career of fighting the Mob, including legendary agents Joe Pistone who infiltrated the Mob posing as a small time jewel thief, Donnie Brasco; and Cuban-bornJack Garcia who successfully ingrained himself into the Gambino family.

In addition, many items relating to historic eras and specific industries, such as prohibition, money laundering and gaming, will help to tell the story of the mob’s influence on these areas. Items and artifacts relating to law enforcement’s role in helping to eradicate and control the Mob, such as weapons, wiretapping tools and tactics and crime scene photos, will also be part of The Museum experience.

Three major exhibits in The Museum include Mob Mayhem, The Skim and Bringing Down the Mob. Mob Mayhem furthers the understanding of violence as a way of life within the world of organized crime. This exhibit is the setting for the Museum’s iconic artifact—the wall from Chicago’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre – and sets the stage for law enforcement strategies that will combat it.

The Skim, yet another exhibit within The Museum, dissects the illegal skimming of profits off the top of a casino’s earnings, which was commonplace in Las Vegas for decades and supplied money to the hidden ownership of some casinos – ownership that was most often hidden from regulators.

Bringing Down the Mob is a highly interactive exhibit that focuses on wiretapping – one of the most important tools used to effectively investigate and prosecute organized crime cases beginning in the late 1960s. Visitors will learn about the technology, listen in on the mob, learn to interpret coded conversations, examine photos and surveillance footage, take part in a weapons training exercise and learn about living a new life in witness protections programs.

The Mob Museum, a $42 million construction project funded by the city of Las Vegas and nearly $9 million in historic preservation grants – including federal, state and local – is under construction at 300 Stewart Avenue in downtown Las Vegas. The building was dedicated on November 27, 1933 as the City’s first federal building. As part of the construction and rehabilitation of the building, the courtroom is being restored to appear as it did in 1950 during the famed Kefauver hearings, named for Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver.

The 41,000-square-foot Mob Museum includes approximately 16,800 square feet of exhibition space on three floors in addition to a specialty retail store, special event areas, educational areas and office space. It is being designed by a world-class team known for other successful museums that serve to reinvigorate communities and neighborhoods, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. This highly experienced team of staff, board members and consultants are working together to create one of the city’s major attractions and a must-see for millions of tourists and locals alike.
About The Mob Museum

The Mob Museum is a world-class destination in downtown Las Vegas dedicated to the thrilling story of organized crime and law enforcement. It presents an exciting and authentic view of the mob’s impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on the world. With tales so intriguing they need no embellishment, The Museum reveals an insider’s look at the events and people on both sides of this continuing battle. True stories of mob history are brought to life in a bold and contemporary style via engaging exhibits and multi-sensory experiences. The Mob Museum puts the visitor in the middle of the action through high-tech theater presentations, iconic one-of-a-kind artifacts and interactive, themed environments. For more information and photos, visit www.themobmuseum.org.

Connect with us on Facebook:www.facebook.com/themobmuseum and on Twitter: @TheMobMuseum.

LEGENDARY UNDERCOVER AGENT JOE PISTONE TO BE FEATURED IN THE MOB MUSEU

Interactive Museum Will Present Original Content from the Battle Between Organized Crime and Law Enforcement

LAS VEGAS, NV — He spent six years undercover and surrounded himself with rough characters and dangerous criminals instead of his family. Joe Pistone was considered one of the most legendary undercover agents of all time and lived a double life as Donnie Brasco amidst members of the Italian mafia in New Jersey from 1976 to 1981. Pistone’s better than fiction, true life story is one of the many accounts of law enforcement and organized crime that will be featured in The Mob Museum when it opens to the public on February 2012, in downtown Las Vegas.

INSIDE THE MOB MUSEUM

Topics covered by the The Mob Museum to reveal full story of organized crime and law enforcement

LAS VEGAS, NV — The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, will open to the public on February 14, 2012. The Mob Museum is a world-class destination in downtown Las Vegas dedicated to the thrilling story of organized crime and law enforcement. It presents an exciting and authentic view of the mob’s impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on the world.

THE MOB MUSEUM FACTS AT-A-GLANCE

National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement housed in one of Las Vegas’ most historic buildings

LAS VEGAS, NV — The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, will open to the public on February 14, 2012. The Mob Museum is a world-class destination in downtown Las Vegas dedicated to the thrilling story of organized crime and law enforcement. It presents an exciting and authentic view of the mob’s impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on the world.

HISTORIC COURTROOM THE CENTERPIECE OF NEW MOB MUSEUM

Courtroom the location of the famed Kefauver hearings (1950-51) that exposed organized crime

LAS VEGAS, NV — The most historic courtroom in Las Vegas is the centerpiece of The Mob Museum that will open on February 14, 2012. Located within the city’s first federal building, a courthouse and post office built by the Hoover Administration in 1933, the courtroom made history on Nov. 15, 1950 when the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, led by U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver (Democrat-Tennessee), held the seventh in a series of 14 nationwide hearings there.

THE MOB MUSEUM ACQUIRES HISTORICAL “ST. VALENTINE’S DAY” COLT DETECTIVE SPECIAL REVOLVER

Las Vegas, NV – The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, announces the acquisition of an historic 38 caliber Colt Detective special revolver that was recovered February 14, 1929 in the garage at 2122 North Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois – the scene of the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The historic event involved two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago – the South Side Italian gang led by Al Capone and the North Side Irish gang led by Bugs Moran. During the prohibition-era massacre, seven men affiliated with the Moran gang were murdered.

THE MOB MUSEUM MARKS REPEAL DAY WITH PROHIBITION-ERA ARTIFACT

(LAS VEGAS, NV) — Creators of The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, today announced a special prohibition-era artifact in honor of the 77th anniversary of Repeal Day – Dec. 5, 1933 – the day the day the 21stamendment was ratified, repealing Prohibition and restoring the American right to celebratory drink.

Abercrombie & Fitch leather valise that dates to the 1920s and features a false bottom in which flasks of liquor are cleverly hidden.

THE MOB MUSEUM UNVEILS STARTING LINE-UP OF NAMES AND ARTIFACTS

(LAS VEGAS, NV) — The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, features a strong starting line-up of the names associated with artifacts that will be displayed within The Museum when it opens on February 14. 2012, according to Dr. Dennis Barrie, creative director of The Mob Museum, and Kathleen Hickey Barrie, Museum curator.

The Mob Museum

SEVERAL MOB MUSEUM EXHIBIT DESIGNS UNVEILED

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ORGANIZED CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT TAKING SHAPE INSIDE HISTORIC DOWNTOWN POST OFFICE AND FEDERAL COURTHOUSE

(LAS VEGAS, NV) — Construction on The Mob Museum – the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is progressing toward a 2012 opening, and for the first time, project leaders unveiled the design of a few key exhibits. Three exhibits within the museum include Mob Mayhem, The Skim and Bringing Down the Mob.

The Mob Museum
MOB MUSEUM UNVEILS HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT ARTIFACT, ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH MAJOR COLLECTOR

LAS VEGAS, NV — The Mob Museum – the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – today unveils one of the most historically significant and fascinating artifacts in its growing repository: the barber chair, where on October 25, 1957, Albert Anastasia – aka “Lord High Executioner” – was murdered in New York City at the Park Sheraton Hotel (now Park Central Hotel).

Anastasia, then boss of the Gambino crime family, was known for running a gang of hit men, contract killers known as Murder, Inc. Estimates of those killed during the time period in which Murder, Inc. operated are between 400-700 people, and most of the cases were never solved, just like the murder of Anastasia.

Former Las Vegas Mayor, Oscar Goodman, shows the Barber Shop Chair where Albert Anastasia was shot to death in Manhattan in 1957. The chair will be exhibited in The Mob Museum early 2012.

THE MOB MUSEUM FACTS AT-A-GLANCE
Posted on September 1, 2011

National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement housed in one of Las Vegas’ most historic buildings

LAS VEGAS, NV — The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, will open to the public on February 14, 2012. The Mob Museum is a world-class destination in downtown Las Vegas dedicated to the thrilling story of organized crime and law enforcement. It presents an exciting and authentic view of the mob’s impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on the world.

With tales so intriguing they need no embellishment, The Museum reveals an insider’s look at the events and people on both sides of this continuing battle. True stories of mob history are brought to life in a bold and contemporary style via engaging exhibits and multi-sensory experiences. The Mob Museum puts the visitor in the middle of the action through high-tech theater presentations, iconic one-of-a-kind artifacts and interactive, themed environments.

Here are some fun and unique facts about The Mob Museum, among the most anticipated new museums in the country:

The Mob Museum is being designed by a world-class creative team: the same people that created the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and theInternational Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

The Mob Museum is housed within the historic United States Post Office and Federal Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas – the same building where, in 1950, federal hearings on organized crime were held. And, it’s the same courtroom, where in the 1960’s, former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who was then the mob’s go-to defense attorney, defended the likes of Meyer Lansky, Anthony “Tony The Ant” Spilotro and Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal

This building is one of the last remaining historically significant buildings in Las Vegas and is included on both the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places.

The Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime were held in 14 U.S. cities from 1950 to 1951. In Las Vegas, the hearing was held on November 15, 1950. The courtroom is being restored to appear exactly as it did in then.

The building is an important remaining example of the Depression-era neoclassical architecture, built by the federal government during the Hoover administration. It was completed in 1933.
Building features:

A hanging light fixture in the courtroom was carefully recreated by St. Louis Antique Lighting Company using extant examples from a courthouse in Duluth, MN. These fixtures were used in several federal buildings across the country in the 1930s, including Las Vegas.

The painted imitation travertine used in the Lobby and Courtroom was rejected during initial construction in the 1930s because of its poor quality.

Contractors working on the building in the 1930s promised to use at least 75 percent local labor from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce unemployment list. This rarely happened, as evidenced by numerous written complaints about out-of-state labor during construction.

The original post office boxes, more than 1,000 in total, cost $5,074 to install in 1933.
Used throughout the building, Mt. Nebo Gold marble from a Utah quarry in the Wasatch Mountains was supplied and finished by the Long Beach Marble & Tile Company of Long Beach, CA.

Delivery of the marble to the construction site was delayed due to the Long Beach earthquake on March 10, 1933, which damaged the stone as it was being cut. This marble is no longer available because a 1983 landslide, caused by heavy rainfall, buried the quarry under hundreds of feet of debris.

In the courtroom, original paint in red and blue colors was uncovered on two decorative column capitals. These colors were also noted in the original interior elevation drawings.
The Otis elevator retains all of its original parts, although the interior has been altered. In the days before electronics, each elevator car required an operator, whose job was to open and close the doors, control the direction and speed of movement, take requests from elevator passengers, and announce what might be found at each stop. This elevator probably had a hand operator through the 1930s and 40s until it was replaced by an automated system in the 1950s.

Factoids About Organized Crime:

The first special police task forces to combat organized crime were formed over 100 years ago. One of the earliest was the NYPD squad established in 1908 and headed by Joseph Petrosino. Petrosino was murdered a year later while investigating organized crime links in Sicily. More than 250,000 people attended his funeral.

While the mob is best known for violent internal struggles over territory, organized crime syndicates have been known to cooperate together. In 1931 the mob’s most prominent families formed a union called the Commission, in which they held meetings to determine boundaries and to establish rules.

Prohibition, a national ban on the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol enacted by constitutional amendment in 1920, actually helped to legitimize organize crime during the 1920s. Mob groups moved quickly to seize control of alcohol smuggling, and many mainstream Americans found themselves socializing with gangsters every time they had a drink.

Prohibition agents Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith arrested almost 5,000 bartenders, bootleggers and speakeasy owners and seized over 5 million bottles of illicit booze. To infiltrate bootlegging operations they often used elaborate disguises, including posing as streetcar conductors, fishermen, icemen, ivy league college boys, opera singers, and even gravediggers.

Being a gangster doesn’t always run in the family. James Vincenzo Capone, the brother of celebrated public enemy Al Capone, ran away from home in Brooklyn and joined a circus. He traveled all over the United States and Central America before settling in Homer, Nebraska, serving as town marshal for two years and a state sheriff for a year before eventually becoming a prohibition enforcement officer.

In the late 1950s, the 5 New York mob families and their satellite associates imported and supplied more than 90% of the heroin in the United States.

The June 17, 1933, ambush of an FBI agent and three police officers who were escorting bank robber Frank “Jelly” Nash to prison, was nicknamed the “Kansas City Massacre.” It prompted Congress to allow FBI agents to carry weapons and make arrests.

J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime head of the FBI, maintained that there was no such thing as organized crime and that the idea of a national crime syndicate was “baloney.” It was not until 1961, with the arrival of Robert Kennedy as attorney general, that the FBI began paying serious attention to the threat of organized crime.

Roy Olmstead – Seattle’s ex-police lieutenant and top bootlegger - owned a radio station and one of KFOX’s most popular programs featured his wife reading children’s stories at bedtime. Local lawmen believed the reading contained messages to her husband’s bootlegging employees.

Since its founding in 1970, the US Marshals Witness Program has sheltered more than 18,000 witnesses and their family members. It is one of law enforcement’s most powerful tools in the fight against organized crime.

About The Mob Museum

A World class destination in downtown Las Vegas dedicated to the thrilling story of organized crime and law enforcement. It presents an exciting and authentic view of the mob’s impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on the world. With tales so intriguing they need no embellishment, The Museum reveals an insider’s look at the events and people on both sides of this continuing battle. True stories of mob history are brought to life in a bold and contemporary style via engaging exhibits and multi-sensory experiences. The Mob Museum puts the visitor in the middle of the action through high-tech theater presentations, iconic one-of-a-kind artifacts and interactive, themed environments. For more information, visit www.themobmuseum.org. Connect with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/themobmuseum and on Twitter

OPEN POSITIONS

DIRECTOR OF GUEST RELATIONS

The Director of Guest Relations is responsible for the cross-departmental collaboration that ensures continuous improvements in all aspects of the guest experience. The Director is charged with the direct oversight of staff who operate the public spaces, including the Box Office and Exhibit Floors. In addition, this individual leads the Director-on-Duty rotation and other efforts that position the Museum as an accessible, inclusive venue, with a reputation for exceptional service. Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director of Guest Relations is a key member of the senior executive team, providing strong leadership in support of the mission, vision
and values of the organization.

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION
The Director of Education is charged with the oversight of all educational activities and programs at the Museum, including the creation and implementation of such initiatives. This individual will lead a dynamic programming effort that will enrich and supplement the onsite visitor experience. S/he will serve as the primary liaison for schools and oversee other forms of educational outreach. Additionally, the Director of Education is responsible for increasing interest in the Museum’s offerings by developing partnerships that positively impact the Museum’s credibility and prominence as an educational institution. Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director of Education is a key member of the senior executive team, providing strong leadership in support of the mission, vision and values of the organization.

ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR

The Mob Museum is seeking an Accounting Coordinator to harmonize the financial record-keeping of the organization by overseeing and updating accounting records, maintaining budgets, coordinating the accounts payable/ receivable process, and entering data into financial systems. The Accounting Coordinator will also aid in maintaining the internal controls and fiscal policies and procedures within the organization. Reporting to the Director of HR & Finance, the Accounting Coordinator will help the organization maintain financial integrity and play a pivotal role in advancing the mission, vision, and values of the organization.

TEAM

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jonathan D. Ullman, Executive Director
JONATHAN D. ULLMAN
Executive Director, The Mob Museum

Jonathan Ullman is Executive Director of the The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. The Mob Museum will present the thrilling history and ongoing struggle between organized crime and law enforcement, putting the visitor in the middle of the action through high-tech theater presentations, iconic and one-of-a-kind artifacts, and interactive, themed environments. Reporting to a 20-member Board of Directors, Jonathan is responsible for leading the organization that will operate and grow this world class museum, opening in early 2012.

Prior to joining The Mob Museum, Jonathan spent over 17 years in a variety of management and leadership roles within the nonprofit museum industry. Most recently, Jonathan was the president and COO at the National Soccer Hall of Fame, a private institution sanctioned by the US Soccer Federation that included a 30,000 sq. ft. museum, four world class soccer fields, and multiple retail, concession, and meeting facilities. During his tenure, Jonathan facilitated a strategic plan that ensured the financial sustainability of the organization through a dramatic change to the operating model and relocation of the collections. This institutional “reinvention” was widely embraced by board members, donors, and key community and governmental stakeholders.

Jonathan’s museum career began at Liberty Science Center, where he was intimately involved in operationalizing the Center upon its opening in 1993. Over the years, Jonathan served in numerous capacities, with responsibilities ranging from intensive staff and program oversight to strategic planning and external relations. His purview included the comprehensive management of the public operation, as well as the implementation of educational programming through learning experiences that occurred onsite, offsite, and online. As a member of the eight-person Steering Committee, Jonathan’s contributions helped Liberty Science Center achieve the status of the most visited museum in the state of New Jersey, surpassing more than 9 million guests in a twelve-year period. Jonathan’s efforts also included extensive capital planning and business development. This culminated in 2007 with his coordination of reopening preparations following a $109MM renovation and expansion.

Jonathan earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Rutgers College and his Masters of Business Administration from Rutgers Business School. A believer in the importance of community, Jonathan has also served on a number of nonprofit boards. He currently resides in Las Vegas with his wife and three children.

DEVELOPMENT TEAM

DENNIS BARRIE, PHD
DIRECTOR OF CULTURAL AND INTERPRETIVE PLANNING, WESTLAKE REE LESKOSKY ARCHITECTS

Dr. Barrie is an internationally distinguished museum director, historian and expert in the development of cultural projects. Since 1993, he has focused much of his work on conceptualizing and developing projects, both non-profit and for-profit, that are designed to have a positive transformative impact on their surroundings. His museum career includes 11 years with the Smithsonian Institution as midwest director of the Archives of American Art. For eight years he served as director of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, the second oldest museum of contemporary art in the United States. As the opening executive director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Dr. Barrie directed the project during its key phase. Today, The Rock Hall is recognized as one of the nation’s most innovative museums.

In 1996 Dr. Barrie formed Barrie Consulting, a firm that focused on the development of new museum and cultural projects for clients such as the Walt Disney Company, The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville and the Experience Music Project in Seattle. As president of The Malrite Company, which he joined in 1998, Dr. Barrie worked to develop new and creative concepts for cultural projects including the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This pioneering integration of popular culture, new technology and serious history has won numerous awards, has been visited by over 5 million people during its first 7 years of operation and has played a critical role in the revitalization of downtown Washington.

In 2005, Dr Barrie left The Malrite Company to become director of cultural and interpretive planning for the architectural firm of Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL), designers of cultural facilities across the country. At the same time, Barrie formed Barrie Projects with his wife and partner, Kathleen Barrie, to provide development services to museums,planning for cultural facilities and neighborhoods and the implementation of cultural projects designed to promote economic growth and development. Dr. Barrie leads the WRL team that is spearheading the creation of The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (The Mob Museum), a $42 million project that is part of the city’s current downtown redevelopment plan.
For more information, visit www.wrldesign.com or call 202.296.4344.

KATHLEEN HICKEY BARRIE

MUSEUM SPECIALIST, BARRIE PROJECTS
Kathleen Hickey Barrie, museum specialist, has a 30-year history of museum, civic, arts and cultural experiences in both for-profit and not-for-profit businesses. Since the creation of Barrie Projects in 2005, she has served as principal of the consulting firm which specializes in museum and cultural planning projects and their implementation.

Barrie previously served as vice president of exhibition development and design at The Malrite Company in Cleveland. Its major project was the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, which opened in 2002. Barrie led a talented team of diverse professionals and was responsible for research and content developed with a blue-ribbon committee of international intelligence experts, as well as acquisition of artifacts, text-writing, overall design integration of the Museum’s permanent exhibitions. She supervised design concepts and thematic integration of the Spy Museum retail components including the award-winning restaurant, Zola and Spy City Cafe. For the Museum Store, Barrie directed the merchandise line from existing products to new ones developed directly from museum content and ideas.

Barrie is the founding executive director of Cleveland Public Art (CPA) and served for 15 years there while the organization carried out its mission to convene artists and designers, civic leaders, decision-makers and interested citizens to plan and realize projects important to the livability of Northeast Ohio. This was a natural progression in Barrie’s career which began at the Cleveland Museum of Art where she worked for 15 years in museum education and exhibition development. Barrie is a recipient of a Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Design at Harvard University and numerous awards including the Cleveland Arts Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Alumni Award of Excellence for the Arts and Humanities, Boston College.
For more information, visit www.barrieprojects.com or call 216.421.9750.

ROBERT J. CHATTEL, AIA
PRESIDENT, CHATTEL ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING & PRESERVATION, INC.

Robert Chattel has more than 25 years of experience in planning, design and construction with a focus in historic preservation. He is uniquely qualified to serve as consulting preservation architect on the project given his expertise in interpreting federal, state and local historic preservation law and regulations. For The Mob Museum, he co-authored the 2004 feasibility and adaptive use study, is responsible for ensuring conformance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and coordinating historic review with all governmental agencies.
For more information, visit www.chattel.us or call 818.788.7954.

MICHAEL S. DEVINE
PARTNER, ALGONQUIN ADVISORS, LLC
A partner at Algonquin Advisors, LLC, Devine is responsible for oversight of the museum program and implementation activities prior to opening. Algonquin Advisors, a highly specialized investment firm headquartered in Greenwich, CT, provides non-profit advisory services to museums and non-profit organizations throughout the country. The firm is serving as an independent financial advisor to 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation on the development of The Mob Museum. Devine’s role includes macro-economic insights, asset allocation, portfolio construction and manager selection. Previous projects include the International Spy Museum in Washginton, D.C., The Maltz Jupiter Theater in Jupiter, Florida and The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohio.
For more information, visit www.algonquinadvisors.com or call 203.629.211

PATRICK GALLAGHER
Principal, Gallagher & Associates

An interdisciplinary design firm that creates visitor experiences and graphic packages for public and private museums, Gallagher & Associates is headed by principal, Patrick Gallagher. The Bethesda, Maryland-based firm has created exhibits for the new Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History in Far Hills, New Jersey; the Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg, Virginia; and Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center in Normandy, France; among others. The firm prepared master plans for the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Part, New York and the National Postal Museum in Washington, D. C. Sports programmed facilities include the Carolina Basketball Museum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the Oklahoma University Football Hall of Fame in Norman, Oklahoma.
Gallagher & Associates specializes in the planning, design, and management for

PAUL E. WESTLAKE, JR., FAIA
Managing Principal & Lead Designer, Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL)

Paul Westlake is managing principal and lead designer in the firm of Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL), a nationally recognized integrated design and engineering firm headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, with a portfolio of more than 200 properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The firm is providing content planning, architecture, engineering, LEED/sustainable design consultation, museum operations and planning services, exhibit procurement and design for The Mob Museum. For more information, visit www.wrldesign.com or call 216.522.1350.

DIRECTORS

The Mob Museum, a 501-c-3 nonprofit, is an interactive Museum dedicated to the history of organized crime and law enforcement. The Museum presents a bold and authentic view of organized crime’s impact on Las Vegas history, as well as, its unique imprint on America and the world. The Museum presents the real stories and actual events of mob history via interactive and engaging exhibits that reveal all sides of the story about the role of organized crime in the U.S. The Mob Museum offers multiple perspectives and provides a contemporary, engaging, challenging and educational experience.

OFFICERS
Ellen B. Knowlton, President
Robert A. Stoldal, Vice President
James F. (Jim) Germain, Secretary
Jeffrey A. Silver, Esq., Treasurer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Amy Ayoub
Honorable Richard H. Bryan
Keith Copher
Michael Cornthwaite
Kyle L. Edwards
Jerry Epstein
Alan M. Feldman
Sheriff Douglas Gillespie
Carolyn Goodman
Oscar B. Goodman
Christopher L. Kaempfer, Esq.
Kara J. Kelley
John H. Mowbray, Esq.
Edward J. (Ted) Quirk, Esq.
Thomas M. Roche
Danny L. Thompson

Las Vegas Mob Experience:

http://www.troplv.com/entertainment/las-vegas-mob-experience

The Museum at the Las Vegas Mob Experience
Hours: Open Daily | 10am - 6pm
Admission: GA - $15 per person
Contact: 702.739.2662 (2MOB)
Tickets: Call 702.739.2662 (2MOB)

While the Las Vegas Mob Experience is making upgrades to the attraction, guests are invited to visit the museum inside. The museum at the Las Vegas Mob Experience features a world-class collection of over 1,000 mob artifacts and memorabilia including personal items belonging to many famous mobsters such as Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Sam Giancana, Tony Spilotro, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Mickey Cohen, and many others who help shape the Las Vegas of today. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Admission is only $15.

Mob Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mob Museum
Established February 2012
Location Las Vegas, Nevada
Director Dennis Barrie
President Ellen Knowlton
Website themobmuseum.org

The Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, home of the Mob Museum
The Mob Museum, officially called the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is an under-construction museum in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, planned to open in February 2012. It is housed in the historic Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse.

Under the creative direction of Dennis Barrie, co-creator of the International Spy Museumin Washington D.C., and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the museum is further being developed by a non-profit board, known as the "300 Stewart Avenue Corporation," in partnership with the City of Las Vegas. The museum will be dedicated to the contentious relationship between organized crime and law enforcement within the historical context of Las Vegas and the entire United States.

Featured in the museum will be the restored courtroom where the Kefauver Committeeon organized crime held one of its hearings in 1950, and the blood-stained wall in front of which the St. Valentine's Day massacre took place.[1] Other exhibits will focus on mob violence, casino money skimming operations, and wiretapping by law enforcement.[2]

History
In 2000, the federal government sold the former Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse to the city for $1, with the stipulation that it be used for cultural purposes. Mayor Oscar Goodman, himself a former attorney for Mafia figures, had the idea for a mob museum in 2002. The idea faced early opposition from Italian-American groups, while being supported by the FBI, including the former head agent in Las Vegas, Ellen Knowlton, who joined as president of the museum's board.The project budget was estimated at $50 million, including $26 million for restoring the building. Funding included federal, state, and local grants. Goodman generated controversy by suggesting that federal stimulus money could be used for the museum.

Notes

Morrison, Jane Ann (27 March 2010). "What will be on Mob Museum's cutting room floor?". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
Friess, Steve (9 January 2009). "Stimulus Money for a Mob Museum. Got a Problem?". New York Times. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
Ayres, Chris (17 January 2009). "Mayor of Las Vegas Oscar Goodman plans museum to the Mob". The Times. Retrieved 22 September 2011.

Rackl, Lori (2 March 2011). "Vegas mayor bets new museum will be a hit". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/travel/3735909-502/vegas-mayor-bets-new-museum-will-be-a-hit.html

The Mafia is alive and well in Vegas. This week saw the opening of the new Mob Experience, and the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement — a k a the Mob Museum — is scheduled to debut in late 2011.

The latter is the $42 million pet project of the flamboyant Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

“When I was first elected, I looked out my window at city hall and saw this old courthouse where I tried my first case,” said Goodman, a former high-profile mob lawyer who played himself in the movie “Casino.”

Goodman wanted to preserve the historic building — an unusual concept in Vegas — and turn it into a museum. Maybe one devoted to art ... watercolors, perhaps.

“And then a light went on,” Goodman said. “I thought, ‘What distinguishes us from other places? How about a mob museum?’ ”

The setting makes sense. In 1950, the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime held the seventh of 14 nationwide hearings in the building’s second-floor courtroom. Led by U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, the televised hearings had slack-jawed Americans glued to their TVs as they watched bookies, pimps, crime bosses and hit men get grilled by the government.

The ensuing crackdown on illegal gambling drove operators to Nevada, the only state where the practice was legal. Las Vegas cemented its reputation as the gaming capital of the country, and the town evolved into a haven and playground for organized crime.
The Mob Museum will re-create the Kefauver hearings courtroom so it appears as it did in 1950. Museum visitors will be able to see and hear testimony from the investigation and famous mob trials, as well as listen to authentic FBI wiretaps.

A high-tech display will show how mobsters used “the skim” to distribute money from the casinos to the national syndicate. Another exhibit identifies organized crime’s hot spots around the globe, while “Myth of the Mob” looks at inaccuracies surrounding the Mafia in entertainment.

“And we have a piece of Chicago out here: the wall of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre,” Goodman said. “You’ll see the bullet holes.”

You’ll also see Goodman’s meatball recipe in the museum. Actually, it’s reputed Chicago mob boss John “No Nose” DiFronzo’s recipe. Goodman says he jotted it down after DiFronzo, a former client, cooked them for him one night.

“Whenever we have a party in our home … my wife makes the ‘Mob Meatballs,’ ” Goodman said. “Now we call them the ‘Mayor’s Meatballs.’ ”

And we soon may be calling Goodman’s wife “mayor.” Carolyn Goodman is running for the city’s top post, which her husband has to vacate this summer because of term limits.
Goodman was hoping the Mob Museum would open before he left office. He blames the delays on the bureaucratic hoops that go along with renovating historic buildings.

Once the museum finally launches, Goodman expects it to attract between 600,000 and 800,000 visitors annually. Admission likely will cost $10 to $15.

As for competition from the new Mob Experience across town, fuggedaboudit.

“We have a real museum with a real connection to history,” Goodman said. “We’re treating ours very seriously.”

Las Vegas hits Mob Museum contractor with suit over missing grilles

http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2011/nov/04/las-vegas-hits-mob-museum-contractor-suit-over-mis/

The City of Las Vegas has sued a local contractor it says is "holding hostage’’ certain architectural elements for the Mob Museum under construction downtown.

In a suit filed in Clark County District Court on Wednesday, the city said J.L. Wallco Inc. dba Wallternatives, and an official there, Richard Nieto, because of a payment dispute with another contractor, refuse to return 14 city-owned steel window grilles that Wallternatives has been refurbishing.

The suit says that as part of the process of renovating the old downtown post office into the Mob Museum, the grilles valued at $22,000 were removed in December 2009.
Mob Museum contractor APCO Construction hired Wallternatives to remove lead paint from the grilles, prime them for painting and then return them to the museum, the suit says.

A dispute then arose between APCO and Wallternatives regarding the work and payment for it, the suit says.

"Defendants have wrongly retained the grilles since the dispute between APCO and Wallternatives arose," the suit says. "Wallternatives and/or Nieto are now holding the grilles hostage. Neither Wallternatives nor Nieto have any ownership interest in the grilles and they are improperly retaining the grilles."

The defendants couldn’t immediately be located for comment on the lawsuit.

Records show J.L. Wallco’s license with the State Contractors Board expired on Jan. 31, 2010, and has not been renewed. The phone number listed on that license was not in service on Friday.

Officials at the city couldn’t immediately be reached for comment for more information about the grilles such as where in the museum they will be installed.
A Mob Museum spokeswoman said Friday she didn’t have any information about the grilles, but said the museum is on track for its Feb. 14 opening.

The Mob Museum is not related to the bankrupt but still-operating Las Vegas Mob Experience at the Tropicana resort.

Chris Columbo at AC Jazz Fest

2011-10-31T21:26:00.001-07:00

Chris Columbo, in the audience at the last Atlantic City Jazz Festival at Gardners Basin.

Club Harlem - Kentucky Avenue Atlantic City

2011-09-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Live at the Five - The 500 Club Atlantic City

2011-09-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

Babbets

2011-09-11T09:07:00.001-07:00

Don King and Mike Tyson in Atlantic City

2011-09-06T06:52:00.001-07:00

Chris Columbo on Drums Club Harlem AC

2011-08-23T02:16:00.000-07:00

Steel Pier

2011-08-23T02:09:00.000-07:00

Louie Telegraphs Skinny for work

2011-08-23T01:01:00.000-07:00

JFK Bust at Boardwalk Hall Atlantic City

2011-08-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

AC Boardwalk Hall from Pacific Avenue

2011-08-17T21:25:00.001-07:00

Atlantic City Convention Hall at Fight Time

2011-08-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

Mike Shepherd and Ron Jaworski

2011-08-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Larry King & Jessie Jackson

2011-08-17T21:20:00.002-07:00

Pinky Kravitz & Larry King in AC in 1980s

2011-08-17T21:20:00.001-07:00

The President Hotel on the AC Boardwalk

2011-08-17T21:18:00.002-07:00

The President Hotel on the AC Boardwalk shortly before it was demolished.

The Knife & Fork restaurant in front.

Wicker Walkers on the AC Boardwalk

2011-08-17T21:18:00.001-07:00

Ed Sabol Inducted into NFL Hall of Fame

2011-08-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ed Sabol, who started NFL Films, is inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame

Dean & Jerry on the AC beach

2011-08-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Dean and Jerry on the beach in Atlantic City - (circa 1948)

Or rather that's Jerry and Dean on the beach in AC - eating hot dogs and drinking cokes.
I wonder who the baby is in the middle? Paula Jane?

Moon Over Margate

2011-07-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

AC from OC at Night

2011-07-30T11:07:00.003-07:00

Atlantic City Jazz Fest at Garners Basin

2011-07-30T09:52:00.001-07:00

John Dean and Carol Collins wait for the show to begin.

Jazz organists Dan Fogel & Khan Jamal

2011-07-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

Dan Fogel and Khan Jamal in front of Dan's family home in Margate

Wilber "Hi Fi" White

2011-07-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

Wilber "Hi Fi" White - The House Comedian at the Club Harlem, Atlantic City

Atlantic City, Wyoming - The Almost Ghost Town

2011-07-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Atlantic City, Wyoming - How it got its name

2011-07-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

Where the Bands are this Week July 8 - 14

2011-07-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

Where the Bands are this Week July 8 - 14
Week of July 8 – 14

Friday July 8

Jim Morris & The Big Bamboo Band: Caribbean Key West Melodies Radio Margaritaville Somers Point Beach

Edgardo Cintron : Tribute to Santana at Boiler Room, Congress Hall Cape May 9pm

Local legends Lew London and Chris Sooy play in the Piano Room at Steve & Cookies in Margate, where Tony Pontari also fills in on guitar.

George Mesterhazy the master at the piano at the Merion Inn in Cape May.

The Cheaters at Cabana’s in Cape May.

Carl Brehrens, Tru Bruddahs at The Rusty Nail in Cape May.

Twelve down in the Boiler Room at Congress Hall in Cap e May.

Third Watch at Harbor View in Cape May

Laura Lea & Tripp Fabulous at Avalon Jack’s. 8pm

Emily’s Toy Box at the Princeton in Avalon

Pickles @ Rocking Chair in Avalon.

Love Seed Mama Jump, 52 Pickup and Darin MacDonald at Windrift in Avalon.

Cailin Callahan at Busch’s in Sea Isle City.

Jammer, The Loop and Juliano Brothers, Matt Sandry Band & Please Please Me at Springfield Inn Sea Isle City

Stellar Mojo 5 and Mr. Greengenes at Ocean Drive SIC

Saturday July 9

Blues and scat man Frank Bey down in the Boiler Room in Congress Hall, Cape May.

Ravioli Shanker at Cabana’s in Cape may.
Jerry Blavat, the Boss w/ Hot Sauce, spins the Oldies but Goodies at Memories in Margate.

Gregg Carpenterat the Rusty Nail 4:30, Guy Peterson 9.

Dane Anthony Band in the Boiler Room at Congress Hall in Cape May. 9pm

Star 69 at Cabana’s in Cape May.

Stage Pass at Harbor View in Cape May.

Second Majesty at Jack’s in Avaon

Wailing Waters w/Tyler Grady at the Princeton in Avalon

Road 2 Ruin at Rocking Chair Avalon, Tip n Bones upstairs.

Larry McKenna’s dance party at Busch’s SIC

Patrick Stoner, The Crew Duo and Joe Bachman & the Crew at Windrift in Avalon.

Sunday July 10

Joe Mancini & Paula Johns http://paulajohns.com/ perform in the Piano Room at Steve & Cookies in Margate, where The Potts (Jim Maher, tamara dement) also play their classic harmonic compositions. http://www.myspace.com/thepottsnj

Reggae Sunday at Rusty Nail in Cape May. Cort Farris & Steel Drums

Secret Service 4; Lost in Paris at Ocean Drive in SIC

Love Seed Moma Jump at Cabana’s in Cape May.

It’s a Sinatra Thing – Harbor View Cape May.

Long Miles at Avalon Jacks. 8pm

Crystal Roxx at the Princeton in Avalon 10pm

Vince at the Rocking Chair in Avalon

BLT, Soul Cruisers and Darin MacDonald at Windrift

She’s Trouble, Juliano Bros, and LeCompt at Springfiled in SIC

Chris Huff at O’Donnells Pour House Sea Isle City

Monday July 11

The Fabulous Thunderbirds featuring Kim Wilson. Kennedy Plaza, AC Boardwalk.

The Blue Moon Brewery Summer Jazz Series featuring Romp
Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar, 900 Shore Rd., Somers Point, NJ 08244
609-927-6665 Somers Point Jazz Society members, high school & college students with valid ID are admitted free. All others will be charged $5 at the door.

Jazz Saxman Mike Pedicin, Jr. in the Loft at Sandi Point, Shore Road, Somers Point.
Madeline Sandman sings while Bill McGrady tinkles the keys in the Piano Room at Steve & Cookies in Margate.

Big Band Jazz at Sandi Point Coastal Bistro (formerly Mac’s) in Somers Point . 7 pm. $5

Nate Cwik at the Rusty Nail in Cape May 4:30

Third Degree in the Boiler Room at Congress Hall in Cape May 9pm

Chatter Babd at Harbor View Cape May

Rob Lipkin at the Rocking Chair in Avalon

Dan Brown 4; Darin MacDonald 6 and Drop Dead Sexy 9 at Windrift.

Mike LeCompt 4; Table Ten at Springfield Inn SIC

Secret Service at the Ocean Drive in SIC

Tuesday July 12

Lew London and Chris Sooy in the Piano Room at Steve & Cookies, Margate
Jazz piano 5:30 pm and Jazz Trio 8:30 pm at the Merion Inn http://www.merioninn.com/, Decatur St., Cape May. 8

Joe Kosak at the Rusty Nail in Cape May. 4:30

Justin Steere 4; Darin MacDonald 6 and Gypsy Wisdom at Windrift in Avalon.

Dennis Holmes 4; Juliano Bros at Springfield Inn SIC

Cletus McBride at O’Donnells Pour House Sea Isle City

Go Go Gadjet at Ocean Drive Sea Isle

Justin Stter, Gypsy Wisdom and Darin Macdonald at Windrift in Avalon.

Goodman Fiske at Jack’s in Avalon.

Dennis Holmes, Juliano Bros. at Springfield in Sea Isle City

Wednesday July 13

Chinese Theater Works. Chinese music and dance. Kennedy Plaza, AC Boardwalk

Carl Behrens at the Rusty Nail in Cape May, NJ’s southernmost bar. 4:30.

Secret Service at the Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City

Cletus McBride plays Irish music at Kix in Sea Isle City

Larry McKenna’s Dance Party at Busch’s in Sea Isle City.

Thursday July 14

Dave Valentin ZAMAR featuring Keith Hollis – Chicken Bone Beach. Kennedy Plaza AC

Joe and Friends Jam in the Piano Room at Steve & Cookies in Margate.

D.J. Daddy O at Boiler Room in Congress Hall, Cape May.

Jerry Blavat at Lighthouse Point, Wildwood. 8pm

Tony & Melanie at Busch’s in Sea Isle City

20 Ideas for a Better Atlantic City

2011-07-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

Twenty Ideas for Atlantic City – By Bill Kelly billkelly3@gmail.com (609) 425-6297

1) They started a Mob-Museum in Las Vegas with help of the FBI, but without community support, it faltered. Vegas didn’t get started until after World War II, while organized crime got organized right here in Atlantic City. That museum belongs here, in Atlantic City, where the 1929 convention of mobsters was held by the same people who decided, at the AC meeting, that gambling should replace booze as the mob’s primary source of income after prohibition ended. The old Masonic Hall would be a good place for it.

2) Fix the Boardwalk Hall organ – the largest in the world, and make it a major attraction again, and let it be used for benefit concerts for non-profit organizations.

3) Do whatever it takes to bring back the Miss America pageant back to the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

4) The PGA Senior’s Tour began at the Atlantic City Country Club and there should be a PGA Champion’s Tour event at the Jersey Shore, to compliment the LPGA event, as well as a major amateur tournament similar to the Sonny Fraser invitational that was discontinued when ACCC was purchased by the casinos.

5) Golf at the Jersey Shore is totally under rated, and the figures are easy to see where Ocean City, Maryland spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote their two dozen golf courses, and earns nearly $50 million a year income, while the Jersey Shore clubs spend less than one hundred thousand on golf marketing, and earn less than $5 million a year. It’s not a matter of throwing money at advertising, it is a matter of proper promotion, and the use of the fabulous history of the Jersey Shore clubs to attract golfers from out of town and compete with the other markets. Atlantic City has what other golf markets don’t – a great history.

6) While the beach and boardwalk are important, the back bays of Atlantic City are not utilized as they should be by boaters, fishermen, sailors and canoe/kayaks. While the local boat construction industry has concentrated on large yachts, they also should be building smaller boats that more people can afford and use locally. Among the boats that should be concentrated on are sculling and row boats, Olympic class sailboats, and Americas Cup Class sailboats.

7) There is a new, international circuit of America’s Cup Class catamarans that are really fast and exciting to watch, and they are looking for places to race – and Atlantic City should be considered as a possible venue. While the America’s Cup is now in San Francisco, it might be raced again in Newport, and Atlantic City could be considered for the World Cup event of America’s Cup Class boats, which would be like hosting the Super Bowl of boats.

8) The America’s Cup is now back in America, in San Francisco, but they can’t seem to agree on having a regatta there, so Atlantic City should put an offer on the table that can better Newport for the defense of the next Cup or contest for getting the World Cup race, which is held the year before and after the America’s Cup and is a fleet race that includes all of the major competitors.

9) In order to attract foreign visitors, the Atlantic City Airport should make it easy for private planes to land there from Europe, and the Atlantic City Yacht basin should make it easy and encourage more visits by wealthy yachters to visit.

10) There should be easy train and/or trolley connections between downtown Atlantic City and the Atlantic City International Airport, the FAA Tech Center and Stockton College, though there is no mass transit connection between these three key points that are core attributes to the Jersey Shore.

11) Atlantic City should offer more concerts and shows, bring back the Atlantic City Pop Festival (1969) and Atlantic City Jazz Festival, start a folk festival and make them city-wide events, both in and outside of the casinos.

12) The casino showrooms should make it easy for the acts to film and record their shows and sold-out shows can be presented live over the internet – or archived and viewed later, or the music downloaded and listened to shortly after the show is over – Live From Atlantic City.

13) With all of the acts that come to Atlantic City there should be full service recording studios for them to record new albums and videos.

14) There used to be over 200 liquor licenses in Atlantic City, and they should be reissued so new bars and restaurants can be opened outside of the casinos, and operated 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. Atlantic City used to be known as an “Open City” open for business all the time - AC 24-7.

15) Atlantic City should be promoted as it has always been known as an “Open City,” open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for business, for meetings, for pleasure, and try to attract those international jet setters, New York and Philadelphia pleasure seekers, and just ordinary people who want to have a good time.

16) There should be a high-speed, giant catamaran pedestrian-only ferries that run between Atlantic City Inlet, Philadelphia, Cape May and New York City, similar to the Australian ferries used during the America’s Cup and in Hawaii.

17) The HBO production of “Boardwalk Empire” is popular in the UK, Ireland and Australia, and those fans should be encouraged to visit Atlantic City, fly directly to Atlantic City Airport in junkets and visit the real Boardwalk Empire.

18) The State of New Jersey and Atlantic City should make it easier for movie and TV production crews to film in town, as Canada encourages such productions, but local and state taxes penalize these companies. The Boardwalk Empire boardwalk studio is in a Brooklyn, New York lot, when it could have been built right in Atlantic City, and used as a tourist attraction when not in use.

19) While the former planning policy of keeping visitors inside the casinos is now out the window, most of old Atlantic City – Nucky Johnson’s town, is gone, though what is left should be preserved and maintained, and tours of the historic town should be given.

20) Atlantic City has a history, a great history and many fine traditions that are still maintained, and that history should be used as the basis for any marketing campaign attempting to bring more tourists to town. Atlantic City was and can be once again, the Showplace of the World, if only the attempt is made to make it so.

The Day the Governor Closed Atlantic City

2011-06-30T02:54:00.000-07:00

Governor Chris Christie signs legislation on state takeover of Atlantic City tourist district. (above)

Governor Frankly Fort

THE DAY THE GOVERNOR CLOSED ATLANTIC CITY
By William Kelly (billkelly3@gmail.com)

When Governor Chris Christie signed legislation that gives the State of New Jersey unprecedented powers in Atlantic City, virtually taking over parts of the town, it wasn’t the first time a governor was at odds with the way the city operated.

In 1908 Governor Franklin Fort sent the Attorney General to town to see that the Sunday blue laws were enforced, and when he couldn’t do it, Fort threatened to in send the state militia to straighten things out.

Atlantic City was always known as a wide open town, not only for free enterprise to anyone who wanted to do business, but for anyone who wanted a drink, to gamble or get a call girl, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It was a barrier island unto itself, ruled by the political bosses who lived there.

In his book Boardwalk Empire, Judge Nelson Johnson writes, “The prevalence of gambling, prostitution, and unlawful sales of liquor were admitted to openly by local officials. Hundreds of local families relied on illegal sources of income and as long as the visitors were happy, no one interfered. This brazen violation of the law created a furor in the newspapers nearly every summer. In time, resort businessmen and politicians built up immunity to the newspaper criticisms. They learned that being so remote geographically had its advantages. Resort politicians knew best how to deal with such complaints – ignore them.”

Atlantic City even carried on business as usual on Sundays, in contrivance of New Jersey State law, and much to the chagrin of the governor John Franklin Fort, who won election in 1807 based in part on a platform promising to clean up Atlantic City. As Nelson Johnson writes, “Governor Fort declared war on Atlantic City. In July, 1908 he vowed to clean up the town, appointed a special commission to investigate the resort’s illegal activities and demanded to know why the prosecutor refused to file complaints against the saloon keepers, gambling room operators, and madams.”

Fort read the newspaper reports of the debauchery in Atlantic City, and promised to put an end to it, but once he got into office found that he could do little about it. When the Attorney General got to Atlantic City to enforce the laws, he found that when violators were brought before a grand jury, the juries refused to indict.

The grand juries, it turned out, were handpicked by the county sheriff, Smith Johnson, Enoch “Nucky” Johnson’s father. “Sheriff Johnson understood the legal system and knew how to protect Atlantic City’s businessmen,” explains Nelson Johnson. “He controlled the selection of the grand jury and saw to it that everyone chosen to serve was ‘safe.’ He even chose jurors who were tavern owners themselves or local businessmen who benefited from vice.”

When asked why he made no arrests, Sheriff Johnson told Governor Fort that he had enough to do already and wasn’t going to “go looking for trouble.”

While Fort couldn’t change the morals and manners of the city, he could enforce state law, and was hell bent on enforcing the law that forbade the sale of liquor on Sunday. It was quite clear that the hotels, bars and restaurants in Atlantic City flagrantly ignored the state law that banned the sale of alcohol on Sunday, and Fort was determined to see that the law was enforced. After he issued an official proclamation that was ignored, Fort threatened to call out the National Guard, invade Atlantic City and shut down the illegal operations.

“Threat of Militia for Atlantic City” read the headline in the New York Times on Aug. 28, 1908, “ Gov. Fort makes Sensational Attack on Sunday Law Violators at That Resort. Officials Are Traitors.” The Times ran sensational stories written without a byline, apparently to protect the reporters from retribution. One such article explained, “Gov. Fort of New Jersey issued a proclamation to the people of the State on the non-enforcement in Atlantic City of the Bishops’ law for-bidding the sale of liquor on Sunday. In it he declares that if the resort is open on Sunday next he will authorize the courts to remove all officials who willfully refuse to do their duty.”

Simultaneously with “this sensational declaration of the Governor, the Grand Jury was discharged after reporting that they had found no indictments for violations of the excise law.”

While he was on vacation at Sea Girt, Fort issued a statement that built up suspense, saying, “No one questioned the fact that street walking, gambling, houses of ill-fame, people of ill-repute, obscene pictures, and open violations of the excise laws exist in Atlantic City. The Police know it or could find out if they wanted to, but they refused to do anything to better conditions. In fact, in respect to the Sunday law enforcement, they not only refused, but have admitted that they were aiding the nullification of these laws.”

“The conditions amount to a combination of officials and influential citizens to subvert the State laws – in a word, treason against the State,” said Fort, who wrote a letter to the Sheriff Smith E. Johnson to say: “Your ideas of the duties of the Sheriff of a county are most surprising. The Sheriff not only has the power to detect and suppress vice, but it is his duty to do so. He should not wait until some one tells of a criminal act and of a violation of the law, but he should seek out offenders and suppress their practices. You seem to think that all you need to do is to hide behind the fact that no one makes a complaint. If this satisfies your conscience it does not satisfy the law. You are entitled to the support of the State giving you its entire citizen soldiery to assist you.”

To Mayor F. P. Story, Fort wrote: “It is quiet apparent you know all about conditions in your city, not only with regard to Sunday violations, but the much worse violations of the law in the form of gambling and vice and crimes of an unmentionable character. If you do not know, then you do not care to know. You admit that the police are under your control; that they would, if you gave the order, close these places, and yet you do not give that order. It cannot be that you are not interested in Atlantic City. It is the great ocean resort of our state, attractive in every way. Its future is promising in a remarkable degree, and if present conditions are allowed to continue and the character of vice and crime that are exists is permitted to flourish, people of repute will refuse to go there.”

“If you cannot enforce all laws in Atlantic City, I will enforce the laws in Atlantic City as the Governor of the State. There will be no difficulty to do it. The criminal will run away from the law every time when he understands that the law is to be enforced. You have occupied the office of Mayor for many years. You owe the people of that city something, and I appeal to you to enforce the law or request that the State shall do it.”

Somers Point was also found to be open. This was the home of Judge Enoch Higbee, the Judge of the County Court, who said he stood ready to enforce the law.

The Governor said, “Two methods suggest themselves as a remedy when the officials refuse and the courts of law are powerless to punish the wrongdoers. First – Call out the militia and police the city with soldiers and close up the illegal places by the military arm of the State. This amounts to declaring martial law. Second – call the Legislature to enact legislation to place the drawing of all juries in the hands of an independent commission, that fair men may be selected for this duty; and to authorize the courts to remove officials who willfully and perversely refuse to do their duty.”

The local officials were under the direction of “Commodore” Louis Kuehnle, Atlantic City’s first political boss, and Kuehnle, Sheriff Johnson and Judge Higbee decided to give in and enforce the State Sunday blue law.

The Times reported, “Gov. Fort has won his fight for Sunday closings in Atlantic City without resorting to the troops. Atlantic City will be closed as tight as a drum on Sunday next. Instead of State guardsmen behind the bars of every licensed establishment, policemen, who for years have winked at open side doors, will arrest every license holder who dares to defy the Bishops’ law. The decision was reached late this afternoon when County Judge Enoch A. Higbee, long reported as a component part of the country political machine, issued a friendly warning to his friends – the hotel men of Atlantic City.”

Unlike today, where Republican Governor Christie is seen as a foreign interloper by the Democrats in the mayor’s office, they were all Republicans then. Both Governor Forte and the local political machine were Republicans, and the issue was seen as possibly hurting the image of the party. As they speculated in the newspapers, “That the effect of Gov. Fort’s threat to call out the militia to subdue the defiant saloonkeepers of Atlantic County will probably be to make some thousands of indifferent men of New Jersey vote the Democratic ticket in November. The experience of many years has shown that when the liquor issue came before the people at election the liquor men have won.”

The day finally arrived, and Atlantic City survived. A bulletin posted to-day in Police Headquarters read: “Bulletin – Saloons all closed. No troops in town.” The Chief of Police was quoted as saying, “I don’t believe any town ever was or ever will be more completely closed so far as the enforcement of the Sunday selling law is concerned.”

Bartenders had a complete holiday. As the Times reported, it was, “the first Sunday off for many a moon, and some of them said it was the first time they had been able to see what the Boardwalk crowds really looked like on the day of rest.” Some thought the closings would keep many persons away form the resort, but they were mistaken, as the crowds were unusually large. But with Atlantic City closed, some were thirsty enough to jump on the trolley to Ocean City and got off in Somers Point, where they expected the bars to be open, as they always were in Judge Higbee’s hometown.

Two years earlier when Atlantic City closed Somers Point did a big business. Trolleys carried thousands there for a dime, and the taverns in the town took in profits enough in twelve hours to pay rent and other expenses for a year. This time however, as Times noted, “Hundreds of thirsty tourist, who, failing to obtain the refreshments, hastened to Somers Point by trolley with the assurance that there would be no difficulty in getting anything a dry palate might crave in the bay resort, fourteen miles from the city. They returned in dejection with the tidings that Somers Point was also dry.”

At the end of the day, they tabulated up the money not earned and it was reported, “A spokesman for the affected liquor interests, and one of the local political leaders, declared that the loss of to-day’s closings would amount approximately to $150,000.”

The closing of the city on Sundays brought many citizens up at arms, and they called for an emergency meeting to determine who was going to lead the city. One report said, “Citizens of all parties and all factions will meet to voice a demand for a new rule for the city. The saloon and hotel interests believe the policy of the Kuehnle administration is to blame for the emergency.”

Despite all the rhetoric and mass meetings demanding change and new leadership, Commodore Kuehnle maintained his power until 1911 when justice finally caught up with him, and his mentor, Enoch “Nucky’ Johnson, the son of Sheriff Sam Johnson took over. Nucky would maintain his reign for thirty years, until he too went to jail in August, 1941. The day before he surrendered to serve his sentence, Nucky threw a party and married his long time girlfriend, showgirl Florence “Flossie” Osbeck.

When he got out of jail four years later, Nucky Johnson became just an ordinary citizen of Atlantic City, the guy who once owned the town, was just another guy walking down the boardwalk. The new boss, Francis Sherman “Hap” Farley inherited the political machine that Commodore Kuehnle and Nucky Johnson had assembled and he enhanced it further, maintaining his rule until 1971 when he finally lost an election.

So for the better part of a century, Atlantic City was run by three men – Commodore K, Nucky Johnson and Hap Farley, and in some ways, they were more powerful than the governor, as the city remained open for business on Sundays.

The Wild Bunch at Fort Worth, Texas

2011-06-29T06:56:00.002-07:00

Harry Longabaugh - aka the Sundance Kid (far left) & Robert Leroy Parker - aka Butch Cassidy (far right) and the remnants of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang at Fort Worth, Texas, at their fairwell party before breaking up.

The Hollywood Wild Bunch at Hole in the Wall

2011-06-29T06:56:00.001-07:00

Portraits of Burch & Sundance

2011-06-29T06:53:00.001-07:00

Butch Cassidy - left, and three photos of the Sundance Kid below.

Butch & Sundance - The Men & The Myth

2011-06-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

Actually it's Harry Lonabaugh - aka the Sundance Kid (Left) and Robert Leroy Parker - aka Butch Cassidy (right)

The Sundance Kid's AC Connection

2011-06-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

Harry Longabaugh, Will Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, Harvey Logan, Butch Cassidy.Photo Courtesy of Union Pacific Railroad Museum

The Sundance Kid & the Sting’s Atlantic City Connections

Robert Redford and Paul Newman made two memorial movies together – Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and the Sting.

Redford played Butch Cassidy’s sidekick the Sundance Kid while Newman was Charlie Gondorf in The Sting, both historical characters with Atlantic City connections.

Gondorf, the King of the Big Con confidence men of the early part of the last century, was an Atlantic City bartender when he wasn’t playing the inside man in big time swindles as portrayed in the movie The Sting.

Then there’s the legend that Harry Longabaugh – the Sundance Kid, was from Atlantic City, which turns out to be partially true.

In the movie Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid, there’s a scene where they get off a train in a desolate place in South America, and Butch Cassidy, whose idea it was to go there, says, “It could be worse. You get a lot more for your money in Bolivia, I know, I checked it out.”

The Sundance Kid then responds, “This might be the garden spot of the whole country. People may travel hundreds of miles just to get to this spot where we’re standing now. This might be the Atlantic City of all Bolivia for all we know.”

Cassidy says, “Look, now I know a lot more about Bolivia than you know about Atlantic City, New Jersey, I can tell you that.”

“Ah, ha! you do, huh?” says the Kid. “I was born there. I was born in New Jersey. Brought up there.”

Incredulously, Butch Cassidy looks up, “You’re from the east? I didn’t know that.”

Donna and Paul Ernst, who lived in Ocean City, NJ, saw the movie and didn’t think anything about it, but were startled when they read a National Geographic Magazine article “The Outlaw Trail,” by Robert Redford, in which he mentions that the Sundance Kid’s real name was Harry Alonzo Longabaugh. And there is a town in Wyoming near the Hole in the Wall canyon where they hung out called Atlantic City.

“Well, Longabaugh isn’t exactly Smith,” said Donna Ernest, who wrote to the magazine, whose historian sent her a detailed Longabaugh family history that showed that the Sundance Kid was the brother of Paul Ernst’s great-grandfather.

Paul then remembered his “grandpop” at a holiday dinner if the family was interested in hearing the story of his “uncle Harry, who had a sidekick, and were like Jesse James. They robbed banks and gave it to poor people, and died in South America.”

But then he said, “Na, isn’t anyone’s business, forget it.”

His grandfather repeated the story a number of times over the years, but the family just thought he was out of his head, and he was senile when he died in March, 1976.

Unfortunately, Grandpop went to his grave with the details of the story of his “Uncle Henry,” the Sundance Kid. “He never told anyone all he knew,” said Donna, “and he died in silence, taking his memories with him.”

Once intrigued however, Paul and Donna took up the trail of the outlaws and learned a lot over the following twenty years.
Harry Alonzo Longabaugh – aka the Sundance Kid, was not actually born in Atlantic City, as the movie attests, but rather in Mont Clare, on the Schuylkill Canal in Pennsylvania.

According to Donna Ernst, “Because Mont Clare, Pennsylvania is extremely small, historians thought it was actually Mont Clare, New Jersey, and that assumption eventually caused the line in the movie where Redford, as the Sundance Kid, claims he was born in Atlantic City.”

Harry – the Sundance Kid, had a brother Harvey, who did live in Atlantic City, and is credited with helping to build the first boardwalk. Since his brother had a place at the Shore, Harry frequently visited him, and thus the Atlantic City connection was firmly established.

Becoming entranced with the subject, Donna and Paul began an intense search of family history in order to learn as much about Harry Longabaugh as they could, digging through old family and official records. According to Donna, “We discovered a Conrad Longabaugh had immigrated to Philadelphia on December 24, 1772, aboard the brig Morning Star. He fought in the Revolutionary War and then raised his family in Eastern Pennsylvania. His descendants eventually settled in Mont Clare, where during the spring of 1867, Harry Alongzo Longabaugh was born.”

On August 30, 1882 the restless fourteen year old Harry left to go West with some cousins in a covered wagon, eventually settling in Cortez, Colorado, where they lived for four years. After working a cattle drive to Montana in 1886, he went to the Black Hills area, where at Sundance, Wyoming, on February 27, 1887, he allegedly stole a light grey horse, a gun and a saddle form an employee of the VVV Ranch. After being caught, the 20 year old attempted to escape by jumping off a train, but was recaptured. The local Yellowstone Journal newspaper compared him to Jesse James and attributed some other local crimes to him. In response, from the Sundance jail, he wrote a letter to the editor.

“In your issue of the 7t, I read a very sensational and partly untrue article, which places me before the public not even second to the notorious Jesse James. Admitting that I have done nothing wrong and expecting to be dealt with according to the law and not by false reports from parties who should blush with shame to make them, I ask a little of your space to set my case before the public in a true light. In the first place, I have always worked for an honest living…and was arrested…and charged with having stolen a horse at Sundance, where I was being taken by Sheriff Ryan, whom I escaped from by jumping from the cars, which I judged were running at the rate of 100 miles an hour. After this my course of outlawry commenced, and I suffered terribly for the want of food in the hope of getting back south without being detected, where I would be looked upon as I always have been, and not as a criminal. Contrary to the statement in the Journal, I deny having stolen any horses in Canada, or anyplace else, up to the time I was captured, at which time I was riding a horse which I bought and paid for. Nor had I the slightest idea of stealing any horses. I am aware that some of your readers will say my statement should be taken or what it is worth, on account of the hard name which has been forced upon me, nevertheless it is true. As for my recapture by Deputy Sheriff Davis, all I can say is that he did his work well and were it not for him ‘playing possum’ I would now be on my way south, where I had hoped to go and live a better life.” Signed Harry Lonabaugh.

When Harry Lonabaugh got out of jail the newspaper reported, “the kid has been released from Sundance,” and the Sundance Kid was born.

As Donna Ernst relates, “Stealing horses soon became robbing banks and holding up trains. Sundance and his pal Butch Cassidy were the leaders of a loose-knit group of thieves better known as the Wild Bunch. And together these men were so skilled at escaping the law that the American Bankers Association and the Union Pacific Railroad hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to capture them – at any cost.”

In the course of their two decades long quest to learn as much as possible about their renegade relation, Donna and Paul spent their summer vacations traveling the West’s “Outlaw Trails,” where they visited banks their great-uncle once robbed and the cabins in the mountains where they hid out from the law.

They also found another Atlantic City connection – Atlantic City, Wyoming, one of the ghost towns near Hole-in-the-Wall Wyoming.

They trailed the Wild Bunch to Fort Worth, Texas, where the gang regrouped and had the famous photograph taken. “Sundance and Butch saw their way of life changing before their eyes,” Donna relates. “Their fellow outlaws were all being killed or caught and jailed. It was time to move on, to take a trip to South America, and to start a new life. So the Wild Bunch met in Fort Worth for a good-bye celebration. One of the things they did was have their picture taken together, but unknown to them, the photographer placed the picture on display in his window, where it was seen by a Wells Fargo detective who recognized one of the men.”

With the heat hot on their tail, says Donna, “the Sundance Kid returned home with his wife, Ethel Place, to see his family, brother Harvey and his sisters Samanna and Emma, and meet his nieces and nephews, some born in his absence. Then he explained his decision to move to South America and told his family he was going to settle down, buy a ranch and go straight.”

According to the reports of the Pinkerton Detectives who were after him, Sundance and Ethel were seen “frolicking” at the beach in Atlantic City, where the Sundance Kid’s brother Harvey lived at the time. “We suspect they visited Harvey’s family at the beach,” says Donna, “and at that time Grandpop was about eleven years old.”

According to the legend, and the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to South America and were the two American bandits killed in a shootout in San Vicente, Bolivia on November 8, 1908.

But Lula Parker Betenson, Butch Cassidy’s sister, wrote a book Butch Cassidy, My Brother (Bringham Young Press, 1975) in which she claims her brother returned home years after he was reported killed in South America, and told the family that he last saw the Sundance Kid and Ethel Place at a bullfight in Mexico City.

In 1991, research historian Dan Buck and Anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow exhumed the bodies of the “bandito Yankees,” killed an buried in San Vicente, Bolivia, and conducted DNA tests to match genetic material with descendants of Cassidy and Longabaugh. The negative results left the case open to historical debate as to whether Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed in South America or merely encouraged the rumors of their death in order to get the Pinkertons off their trail and to start a new life outside of crime.

As a result of their research and travels, Donna Ernst wrote a book, Sundance – My Uncle (Creative Publishing Co, Box 9292, College Station, Tx., 77842, 1992), which chronicles the full story of Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, at least what could be learned today.

At a meeting of Western Outlaw-Lawmen History Association, Donna Ernst said, “While I am not a professional writer, I don’t mind doing a lot of research. I have mixed my desire for accuracy and my access to private family information together with the historical details of Sundance’s life. In the process I have found some new information, and have tried to correct a few inaccuracies.”

Next: CHARLIE GONDORF – THE STING’S ATLANTIC CITY CONNCTION

The Day the Governor Closed Atlantic City

2011-06-29T03:56:00.000-07:00

THE DAY THE GOVERNOR CLOSED ATLANTIC CITY

By William Kelly (billkelly3@gmail.com)

When Governor Chris Christie signed legislation that gives the State of New Jersey unprecedented powers in Atlantic City, virtually taking over parts of the town, it wasn’t the first time a governor was at odds with the way the city operated.

In 1908 Governor Franklin Fort sent the Attorney General to town to see that the Sunday blue laws were enforced, and when he couldn’t do it, Fort threatened to in send the state militia to straighten things out.

Atlantic City was always known as a wide open town, not only for free enterprise to anyone who wanted to do business, but for anyone who wanted a drink, to gamble or get a call girl, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It was a barrier island unto itself, ruled by the political bosses who lived there.

In his book Boardwalk Empire, Judge Nelson Johnson writes, “The prevalence of gambling, prostitution, and unlawful sales of liquor were admitted to openly by local officials. Hundreds of local families relied on illegal sources of income and as long as the visitors were happy, no one interfered. This brazen violation of the law created a furor in the newspapers nearly every summer. In time, resort businessmen and politicians built up immunity to the newspaper criticisms. They learned that being so remote geographically had its advantages. Resort politicians knew best how to deal with such complaints – ignore them.”

Atlantic City even carried on business as usual on Sundays, in contrivance of New Jersey State law, and much to the chagrin of the governor John Franklin Fort, who won election in 1807 based in part on a platform promising to clean up Atlantic City. As Nelson Johnson writes, “Governor Fort declared war on Atlantic City. In July, 1908 he vowed to clean up the town, appointed a special commission to investigate the resort’s illegal activities and demanded to know why the prosecutor refused to file complaints against the saloon keepers, gambling room operators, and madams.”

Fort read the newspaper reports of the debauchery in Atlantic City, and promised to put an end to it, but once he got into office found that he could do little about it. When the Attorney General got to Atlantic City to enforce the laws, he found that when violators were brought before a grand jury, the juries refused to indict.

The grand juries, it turned out, were handpicked by the county sheriff, Smith Johnson, Enoch “Nucky” Johnson’s father. “Sheriff Johnson understood the legal system and knew how to protect Atlantic City’s businessmen,” explains Nelson Johnson. “He controlled the selection of the grand jury and saw to it that everyone chosen to serve was ‘safe.’ He even chose jurors who were tavern owners themselves or local businessmen who benefited from vice.”

When asked why he made no arrests, Sheriff Johnson told Governor Fort that he had enough to do already and wasn’t going to “go looking for trouble.”

While Fort couldn’t change the morals and manners of the city, he could enforce state law, and was hell bent on enforcing the law that forbade the sale of liquor on Sunday. It was quite clear that the hotels, bars and restaurants in Atlantic City flagrantly ignored the state law that banned the sale of alcohol on Sunday, and Fort was determined to see that the law was enforced. After he issued an official proclamation that was ignored, Fort threatened to call out the National Guard, invade Atlantic City and shut down the illegal operations.

“Threat of Militia for Atlantic City” read the headline in the New York Times on Aug. 28, 1908, “ Gov. Fort makes Sensational Attack on Sunday Law Violators at That Resort. Officials Are Traitors.” The Times ran sensational stories written without a byline, apparently to protect the reporters from retribution. One such article explained, “Gov. Fort of New Jersey issued a proclamation to the people of the State on the non-enforcement in Atlantic City of the Bishops’ law for-bidding the sale of liquor on Sunday. In it he declares that if the resort is open on Sunday next he will authorize the courts to remove all officials who willfully refuse to do their duty.”

Simultaneously with “this sensational declaration of the Governor, the Grand Jury was discharged after reporting that they had found no indictments for violations of the excise law.”

While he was on vacation at Sea Girt, Fort issued a statement that built up suspense, saying, “No one questioned the fact that street walking, gambling, houses of ill-fame, people of ill-repute, obscene pictures, and open violations of the excise laws exist in Atlantic City. The Police know it or could find out if they wanted to, but they refused to do anything to better conditions. In fact, in respect to the Sunday law enforcement, they not only refused, but have admitted that they were aiding the nullification of these laws.”

“The conditions amount to a combination of officials and influential citizens to subvert the State laws – in a word, treason against the State,” said Fort, who wrote a letter to the Sheriff Smith E. Johnson to say: “Your ideas of the duties of the Sheriff of a county are most surprising. The Sheriff not only has the power to detect and suppress vice, but it is his duty to do so. He should not wait until some one tells of a criminal act and of a violation of the law, but he should seek out offenders and suppress their practices. You seem to think that all you need to do is to hide behind the fact that no one makes a complaint. If this satisfies your conscience it does not satisfy the law. You are entitled to the support of the State giving you its entire citizen soldiery to assist you.”

To Mayor F. P. Story, Fort wrote: “It is quiet apparent you know all about conditions in your city, not only with regard to Sunday violations, but the much worse violations of the law in the form of gambling and vice and crimes of an unmentionable character. If you do not know, then you do not care to know. You admit that the police are under your control; that they would, if you gave the order, close these places, and yet you do not give that order. It cannot be that you are not interested in Atlantic City. It is the great ocean resort of our state, attractive in every way. Its future is promising in a remarkable degree, and if present conditions are allowed to continue and the character of vice and crime that are exists is permitted to flourish, people of repute will refuse to go there.”

“If you cannot enforce all laws in Atlantic City, I will enforce the laws in Atlantic City as the Governor of the State. There will be no difficulty to do it. The criminal will run away from the law every time when he understands that the law is to be enforced. You have occupied the office of Mayor for many years. You owe the people of that city something, and I appeal to you to enforce the law or request that the State shall do it.”

Somers Point was also found to be open. This was the home of Judge Enoch Higbee, the Judge of the County Court, who said he stood ready to enforce the law.

The Governor said, “Two methods suggest themselves as a remedy when the officials refuse and the courts of law are powerless to punish the wrongdoers. First – Call out the militia and police the city with soldiers and close up the illegal places by the military arm of the State. This amounts to declaring martial law. Second – call the Legislature to enact legislation to place the drawing of all juries in the hands of an independent commission, that fair men may be selected for this duty; and to authorize the courts to remove officials who willfully and perversely refuse to do their duty.”

The local officials were under the direction of “Commodore” Louis Kuehnle, Atlantic City’s first political boss, and Kuehnle, Sheriff Johnson and Judge Higbee decided to give in and enforce the State Sunday blue law.

The Times reported, “Gov. Fort has won his fight for Sunday closings in Atlantic City without resorting to the troops. Atlantic City will be closed as tight as a drum on Sunday next. Instead of State guardsmen behind the bars of every licensed establishment, policemen, who for years have winked at open side doors, will arrest every license holder who dares to defy the Bishops’ law. The decision was reached late this afternoon when County Judge Enoch A. Higbee, long reported as a component part of the country political machine, issued a friendly warning to his friends – the hotel men of Atlantic City.”

Unlike today, where Republican Governor Christie is seen as a foreign interloper by the Democrats in the mayor’s office, they were all Republicans then. Both Governor Forte and the local political machine were Republicans, and the issue was seen as possibly hurting the image of the party. As they speculated in the newspapers, “That the effect of Gov. Fort’s threat to call out the militia to subdue the defiant saloonkeepers of Atlantic County will probably be to make some thousands of indifferent men of New Jersey vote the Democratic ticket in November. The experience of many years has shown that when the liquor issue came before the people at election the liquor men have won.”

The day finally arrived, and Atlantic City survived. A bulletin posted to-day in Police Headquarters read: “Bulletin – Saloons all closed. No troops in town.” The Chief of Police was quoted as saying, “I don’t believe any town ever was or ever will be more completely closed so far as the enforcement of the Sunday selling law is concerned.”

Bartenders had a complete holiday. As the Times reported, it was, “the first Sunday off for many a moon, and some of them said it was the first time they had been able to see what the Boardwalk crowds really looked like on the day of rest.” Some thought the closings would keep many persons away form the resort, but they were mistaken, as the crowds were unusually large. But with Atlantic City closed, some were thirsty enough to jump on the trolley to Ocean City and got off in Somers Point, where they expected the bars to be open, as they always were in Judge Higbee’s hometown.

Two years earlier when Atlantic City closed Somers Point did a big business. Trolleys carried thousands there for a dime, and the taverns in the town took in profits enough in twelve hours to pay rent and other expenses for a year. This time however, as Times noted, “Hundreds of thirsty tourist, who, failing to obtain the refreshments, hastened to Somers Point by trolley with the assurance that there would be no difficulty in getting anything a dry palate might crave in the bay resort, fourteen miles from the city. They returned in dejection with the tidings that Somers Point was also dry.”

At the end of the day, they tabulated up the money not earned and it was reported, “A spokesman for the affected liquor interests, and one of the local political leaders, declared that the loss of to-day’s closings would amount approximately to $150,000.”

The closing of the city on Sundays brought many citizens up at arms, and they called for an emergency meeting to determine who was going to lead the city. One report said, “Citizens of all parties and all factions will meet to voice a demand for a new rule for the city. The saloon and hotel interests believe the policy of the Kuehnle administration is to blame for the emergency.”

Despite all the rhetoric and mass meetings demanding change and new leadership, Commodore Kuehnle maintained his power until 1911 when justice finally caught up with him, and his mentor, Enoch “Nucky’ Johnson, the son of Sheriff Sam Johnson took over. Nucky would maintain his reign for thirty years, until he too went to jail in August, 1941. The day before he surrendered to serve his sentence, Nucky threw a party and married his long time girlfriend, showgirl Florence “Flossie” Osbeck.

When he got out of jail four years later, Nucky Johnson became just an ordinary citizen of Atlantic City, the guy who once owned the town, was just another guy walking down the boardwalk. The new boss, Francis Sherman “Hap” Farley inherited the political machine that Commodore Kuehnle and Nucky Johnson had assembled and he enhanced it further, maintaining his rule until 1971 when he finally lost an election.

So for the better part of a century, Atlantic City was run by three men – Commodore K, Nucky Johnson and Hap Farley, and in some ways, they were more powerful than the governor, as the city remained open for business on Sundays.

The Sundance Kid's AC Connections

2011-06-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

The Sundance Kid & the Sting’s Atlantic City Connections

Robert Redford and Paul Newman made two memorial movies together – Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and the Sting.

Redford played Butch Cassidy’s sidekick the Sundance Kid while Newman was Charlie Gondorf in The Sting, both historical characters with Atlantic City connections.

Gondorf, the King of the Big Con confidence men of the early part of the last century, was an Atlantic City bartender when he wasn’t playing the inside man in big time swindles as portrayed in the movie The Sting.

Then there’s the legend that Harry Longabaugh – the Sundance Kid, was from Atlantic City, which turns out to be partially true.

In the movie Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid, there’s a scene where they get off a train in a desolate place in South America, and Butch Cassidy, whose idea it was to go there, says, “It could be worse. You get a lot more for your money in Bolivia, I know, I checked it out.”

The Sundance Kid then responds, “This might be the garden spot of the whole country. People may travel hundreds of miles just to get to this spot where we’re standing now. This might be the Atlantic City of all Bolivia for all we know.”

Cassidy says, “Look, now I know a lot more about Bolivia than you know about Atlantic City, New Jersey, I can tell you that.”

“Ah, ha! you do, huh?” says the Kid. “I was born there. I was born in New Jersey. Brought up there.”

Incredulously, Butch Cassidy looks up, “You’re from the east? I didn’t know that.”

Donna and Paul Ernst, who lived in Ocean City, NJ, saw the movie and didn’t think anything about it, but were startled when they read a National Geographic Magazine article “The Outlaw Trail,” by Robert Redford, in which he mentions that the Sundance Kid’s real name was Harry Alonzo Longabaugh. And there is a town in Wyoming near the Hole in the Wall canyon where they hung out called Atlantic City.

“Well, Longabaugh isn’t exactly Smith,” said Donna Ernest, who wrote to the magazine, whose historian sent her a detailed Longabaugh family history that showed that the Sundance Kid was the brother of Paul Ernst’s great-grandfather.

Paul then remembered his “grandpop” at a holiday dinner if the family was interested in hearing the story of his “uncle Harry, who had a sidekick, and were like Jesse James. They robbed banks and gave it to poor people, and died in South America.”

But then he said, “Na, isn’t anyone’s business, forget it.”

His grandfather repeated the story a number of times over the years, but the family just thought he was out of his head, and he was senile when he died in March, 1976.

Unfortunately, Grandpop went to his grave with the details of the story of his “Uncle Henry,” the Sundance Kid. “He never told anyone all he knew,” said Donna, “and he died in silence, taking his memories with him.”

Once intrigued however, Paul and Donna took up the trail of the outlaws and learned a lot over the following twenty years.
Harry Alonzo Longabaugh – aka the Sundance Kid, was not actually born in Atlantic City, as the movie attests, but rather in Mont Clare, on the Schuylkill Canal in Pennsylvania.

According to Donna Ernst, “Because Mont Clare, Pennsylvania is extremely small, historians thought it was actually Mont Clare, New Jersey, and that assumption eventually caused the line in the movie where Redford, as the Sundance Kid, claims he was born in Atlantic City.”

Harry – the Sundance Kid, had a brother Harvey, who did live in Atlantic City, and is credited with helping to build the first boardwalk. Since his brother had a place at the Shore, Harry frequently visited him, and thus the Atlantic City connection was firmly established.

Becoming entranced with the subject, Donna and Paul began an intense search of family history in order to learn as much about Harry Longabaugh as they could, digging through old family and official records. According to Donna, “We discovered a Conrad Longabaugh had immigrated to Philadelphia on December 24, 1772, aboard the brig Morning Star. He fought in the Revolutionary War and then raised his family in Eastern Pennsylvania. His descendants eventually settled in Mont Clare, where during the spring of 1867, Harry Alongzo Longabaugh was born.”

On August 30, 1882 the restless fourteen year old Harry left to go West with some cousins in a covered wagon, eventually settling in Cortez, Colorado, where they lived for four years. After working a cattle drive to Montana in 1886, he went to the Black Hills area, where at Sundance, Wyoming, on February 27, 1887, he allegedly stole a light grey horse, a gun and a saddle form an employee of the VVV Ranch. After being caught, the 20 year old attempted to escape by jumping off a train, but was recaptured. The local Yellowstone Journal newspaper compared him to Jesse James and attributed some other local crimes to him. In response, from the Sundance jail, he wrote a letter to the editor.

“In your issue of the 7th, I read a very sensational and partly untrue article, which places me before the public not even second to the notorious Jesse James. Admitting that I have done nothing wrong and expecting to be dealt with according to the law and not by false reports from parties who should blush with shame to make them, I ask a little of your space to set my case before the public in a true light. In the first place, I have always worked for an honest living…and was arrested…and charged with having stolen a horse at Sundance, where I was being taken by Sheriff Ryan, whom I escaped from by jumping from the cars, which I judged were running at the rate of 100 miles an hour. After this my course of outlawry commenced, and I suffered terribly for the want of food in the hope of getting back south without being detected, where I would be looked upon as I always have been, and not as a criminal. Contrary to the statement in the Journal, I deny having stolen any horses in Canada, or anyplace else, up to the time I was captured, at which time I was riding a horse which I bought and paid for. Nor had I the slightest idea of stealing any horses. I am aware that some of your readers will say my statement should be taken or what it is worth, on account of the hard name which has been forced upon me, nevertheless it is true. As for my recapture by Deputy Sheriff Davis, all I can say is that he did his work well and were it not for him ‘playing possum’ I would now be on my way south, where I had hoped to go and live a better life.” Signed Harry Lonabaugh.

When Harry Lonabaugh got out of jail the newspaper reported, “the kid has been released from Sundance,” and the Sundance Kid was born.

As Donna Ernst relates, “Stealing horses soon became robbing banks and holding up trains. Sundance and his pal Butch Cassidy were the leaders of a loose-knit group of thieves better known as the Wild Bunch. And together these men were so skilled at escaping the law that the American Bankers Association and the Union Pacific Railroad hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to capture them – at any cost.”

There's no evidence, despite his reputation as a gunfighter, that the Sundance Kid ever shot or killed anyone.

In the course of their two decades long quest to learn as much as possible about their renegade relation, Donna and Paul spent their summer vacations traveling the West’s “Outlaw Trails,” where they visited banks their great-uncle once robbed and the cabins in the mountains where they hid out from the law.

They also found another Atlantic City connection – Atlantic City, Wyoming, one of the ghost towns near Hole-in-the-Wall Wyoming.

They trailed the Wild Bunch to Fort Worth, Texas, where the gang regrouped and had the famous photograph taken. “Sundance and Butch saw their way of life changing before their eyes,” Donna relates. “Their fellow outlaws were all being killed or caught and jailed. It was time to move on, to take a trip to South America, and to start a new life. So the Wild Bunch met in Fort Worth for a good-bye celebration. One of the things they did was have their picture taken together, but unknown to them, the photographer placed the picture on display in his window, where it was seen by a Wells Fargo detective who recognized one of the men.”

With the heat hot on their tail, says Donna, “the Sundance Kid returned home with his wife, Ethel Place, to see his family, brother Harvey and his sisters Samanna and Emma, and meet his nieces and nephews, some born in his absence. Then he explained his decision to move to South America and told his family he was going to settle down, buy a ranch and go straight.”

According to the reports of the Pinkerton Detectives who were after him, Sundance and Ethel were seen “frolicking” at the beach in Atlantic City, where the Sundance Kid’s brother Harvey lived at the time. “We suspect they visited Harvey’s family at the beach,” says Donna, “and at that time Grandpop was about eleven years old.”

According to the legend, and the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to South America and were the two American bandits killed in a shootout in San Vicente, Bolivia on November 8, 1908.

But Lula Parker Betenson, Butch Cassidy’s sister, wrote a book Butch Cassidy, My Brother (Bringham Young Press, 1975) in which she claims her brother returned home years after he was reported killed in South America, and told the family that he last saw the Sundance Kid and Ethel Place at a bullfight in Mexico City.

In 1991, research historian Dan Buck and Anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow exhumed the bodies of the “bandito Yankees,” killed an buried in San Vicente, Bolivia, and conducted DNA tests to match genetic material with descendants of Cassidy and Longabaugh. The negative results left the case open to historical debate as to whether Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed in South America or merely encouraged the rumors of their death in order to get the Pinkertons off their trail and to start a new life outside of crime.

As a result of their research and travels, Donna Ernst wrote a book, Sundance – My Uncle (Creative Publishing Co, Box 9292, College Station, Tx., 77842, 1992), which chronicles the full story of Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, at least what could be learned today.

At a meeting of Western Outlaw-Lawmen History Association, Donna Ernst said, “While I am not a professional writer, I don’t mind doing a lot of research. I have mixed my desire for accuracy and my access to private family information together with the historical details of Sundance’s life. In the process I have found some new information, and have tried to correct a few inaccuracies.”

Harry Longabaugh, Will Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, Harvey Logan, Butch Cassidy.
Photo Courtesy of Union Pacific Railroad Museum

Next: CHARLIE GONDORF – THE STING’S ATLANTIC CITY CONNCTION

The Sing's Charlie Gondorff in Atlantic City

2011-06-29T03:46:00.001-07:00

"Lady" Sings with the Piano Man

2011-06-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

Print by Pontella, artafact1@hotmal.com

Legendary Somers Point Bartender Charles Carney

2011-06-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

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Carney, Charles F. 77 of Somers Point, died peacefully on February 18, 2006. His daughter Colleen, a son-in-law David, Carole and his pal Andrew were at his side.

Charles was a legendary bartender in the Somers Point area. He began his career at Steel's Ship Bar, went on to Mac's, Gregory', Mothers's, The Med., The Shangra-Laa, Crab Trap and the world famous Anchorage.

Chrales is the brother of the late Frank. He is survived by his brother George (Violet)of Collingswood, NJ; his childrean Charles and Sean of Miami Beach, Fl. Colleen (David) McIlroy of Sunset Beach, CA and his partner and soul mate Carole Rubino of Somers Point. Relatives and friends are invited to his viewing Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006 from 9:30 to 11 Am,m St. Joseph Church, 612 Shore Raod, Somers Point. Followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11AM. Interment Seaside Chemetery. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial contributions to the DOn MacBeth Memorial Jocky Fund, P.O. Box 18470. Encino, CA 91419. Arrangements by Terranova Funeral Home Inc. www.terranovafunderalhome.com

POSTED BY BILL KELLY AT 11:55 PM
LABELS: AND CARLTON DRINKARD AND CHARLES CARNEY

On Tour w/ "Lady Day" Billie Holiday

2011-06-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

Above with Louie Armstrong in New Orleans (Popsie Randolph Collection)

Below with Claude Hopkins on piano.

On Tour With Billie Holiday, Carlton Drinkard and Charles Carney

For one night I got a brief glimpse of what it might have been like to be on tour with Billie Holiday. At least it was as close to being on tour with her as you can get without resurrecting the lady herself.

It’s quite fitting that she is still making waves in Philadelphia, where she caused so much controversy so long ago.

Today all the fuss is being kicked up by Ann Duquesnay, an actress who can sing while portraying the first lady of jazz at the newly renovated Theater of the Living Arts on Philadelphia’s South Street.

A review of opening night was discarded in favor of an off-night show accompanied by Carlton Drinkard, the Atlantic City piano player and casino host who fingered Holiday’s ivory keys for over a decade. Drinkard, I thought, would be the ultimate judge of the show’s veracity.

Carlton doesn’t play piano anymore. He’s been working as a casino host at Harrah’s Marina casino in Atlantic City. I met him through John Colianni, a local piano player who once took lessons from Drinkard, so I knew that Carlton kept his hands in the music even though he didn’t play much anymore.

I met Colianni playing piano at the Bay Club, now Steve & Cookies, the former Strotbeck’s private club in Margate. My friend and bartender and Holiday affectionato Charles Carney told me about Colianni, and how great he was, but I had to see for myself, and after listening to him play for awhile, we talked and I asked him about his connection to Drinkard. Why he would introduce me to him, and shortly thereafter I met Carlton Drinkard himself.

Short, thin and well dressed in suit and tie, Drinkard shook hands with an acquard twist of his arm, that also made him take a drink with his elbo in the air.

Drinkard, in a deep rapsey voice, said to ignore everything that’s in the autobiography she wrote, and the movie based on the book, as they are fiction. As Carlton explained, the piano man in the movie, a character partially based on him, is murdered. “I ain’t dead,” Drinkard said, but did explain that mobsters broke his arm, an injury that prevents him from playing professionally anymore.

The revival of interest in Billie Holiday and her music has been smoldering for years, first with the popular movie staring Diana Ross, “Lady Sings the Blues,” and then there’s the release of two major theatrical productions based on Holiday’s music, including the off-broadway show, ‘Billie Holiday at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” and “Lady Day.”

Both shows were written by Philadelphians, and Emerson’s Bar & Grill is where Holiday performed in Philadelphia when she was arrested.

While “Lady Day” was the rage of the Paris and London theater season last year, a British company produced a documentary on her life that was shown on public television, generating even more interest in her life and music.

“Round Midnight,” a great artsy film about expatriate American jazz musicians living in Paris also features a character based on Holiday, continuing the revival.

So when “Lady Day” finally returned to Philadelphia, I figured it would be appropriate to see it with Carlton Drinkard, along with his prize student John Colianni and Charles Carney, the distinguished Somers Point bartender and Holiday affectionate who introduced me to them.

I got tickets for all of us, and we were going to go first class and take a limo, but when Colianni had to work that night, we were left with two extra tickets and I drove. I picked up Charles and Carlton, and at their instruction, we stopped at the High Point Inn on the White Horse Pike in Absecon for a short bottle of whiskey they shared on the ride to Philly.

On the way, I asked drunkard his opinion of the book, the movie, the plays and the British TV documentary, and he said that they were all flawed, mixing myths, lies, legends and factual mistakes, and in some cases intentional misrepresentations.

The popular myths of Billie Holiday are so distanced from reality that Drinkard said he once considered a libel suit to set the record straight. Only the music, he said, especially her voice, on the old, classic recordings, maintains the truth.

The libel suit, Drinkard said, involved the movie, “Lady Sings the Blues,” in which Richard Pryor plays the piano man, a character based in part on Drinkard. At least the part in which he is killed is related to Drinkard’s experience, but he balks, “I ain’t dead,” he protests, like a later day Mark Twain, who said the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.

The British documentary, Drinkard said, was soft on music and hard on her problems, dwelling too much on the negative aspects of her life. “But that’s what sells shows,” he shrugged.

As for the off-Broadway production of “Billie Holiday at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” well Colianni had seen it and didn’t like it so he never bothered to go to New York to catch it.

“Lady Day” was something else however, and he had heard some good things about it, so the expedition was a night on the town that he was looking forward to.

From the back seat of my car, Carlton Drinkard regaled us with colorful first-person accounts of his life with Billie Holiday, explaining that he first met her in 1949 in Washington D.C. where he was playing piano in a small club to pay his way through Howard University.

“I was going to go on to medical school, and be a doctor,” Drinkard explained, “until I met Lady. She changed my whole life around.”

“I was only 19 at the time,” he said, “but she was already a big, big star. She had apparently heard me play before, and called the club I was working and asked me to play for her while she was in town.”

“I told her no at first, although it was a great honor to be asked,” he said, noting that he was afraid that if it didn’t work out he would have been out of his regular job as well.

“A short while later a big limo pulled up out front and Lady gets out and come up to me and says, ‘Carl, I need you tonight. I’ll buy out your contract, what is it? $5,000?’ But I didn’t have a contract, so I went with her.”

Drinkard said that when he got to the theater where Holiday was performing, he just winged it, and when it was over, she came out of her dressing room and said, “I want you to be my piano player,” and they never looked back.

Born in Baltimore on April 7, 1915, Eleanora “Billie” Holiday was the daughter of a maid and an itinerant banjo-guitarist Clarence Holiday, who was forever on the road with big bands like Fletcher Henderson and McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. As a child she ran messages for Alice Dean, a madam whose gramophone introduced Billlie to Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and singers her father performed with.

After moving to New York with her mother in 1929 she began singing in obscure Harlem clubs where she was discovered by John Hammond, an A & R (Artist & Repertoire) scout for Columbia Records who also “discovered” other talents like Bob Dylan and Bruce Sprinsteen. Hammond had an ear for good music, recognized Holiday’s voice was totally unique, and took her to his brother-in-law, Benny Goodman, who recorded with her in 1933.

Among the musicians she met through Hammond were Goodman’s pianist Teddy Wilson, and saxophonist Lester Young, of the Count Basie band, who dubbed her “Lady Day” because she refused to take tips from customer’s tables. She went off with the refined gentleman who handed her the most, Lewis McKay, a character portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in the movie, “Lady Sings the Blues.”

McKay later lived with his second wife in Camden, New Jersey, and died in Ventnor a few years ago. Both Wilson, who also played with his family jazz band in Atlantic City, and Hammond died recently.

After becoming a sensation on her own, Holiday was arrested for heroin possession, served time in jail, and died while being hospitalized, and awaiting charges of drug possession when narcotics were found under her pillow by a nurse.

Carlton Drinkard believes that the social service system failed her, and that if it happened today, she would have survived because her addiction would have been treated as a medical problem, rather than a legal one. “Today, a nurse would go to the doctor, not the police, and the doctor would have prescribed methadone or something,” Carlton said.

Shortly before she died, Drinkard said that he called her in New York from Atlantic City and she asked him to go with her on one more tour to London and Paris, where she felt more appreciated. “I said, okay, Lady, I’ll go on one more tour if you insist, but that was the last I heard from her.”

By the time we pulled into center city Philadelphia it was raining, so I dropped them off at this Mexican place next to the theater and drove around to park the car. I did find a parking spot close to the theater, which had previously shown classic films but had been recently converted into the Theater of the Living Arts by local promoters Allen and Herb Spivak and Larry Magid, who also ran the Electric Factory concerts company.

To them this small, 400 seat theater is an attempt to revive live, legitimate theater, to enhance the arts as a public service and give those who can appreciate real culture a place to go. And “Lady Day” is the first trail product of the new order of things.

Since Colianni and his wife couldn’t make it, I gave the tickets to a young couple who were walking down South street in the rain. They later wrote me a note saying what a wonderful time they had.

The production’s Philadelphia based writer and director Stephen Stahl met us at the door, noting that the star, Ann Duquesnay would like to meet Carlton Drinkard after the show. Our seats were prime, front and center, but Charles was absent, and we didn’t know where he went until the show was about to begin and Carney waltzed in, a bouquet of flowers in his hand and walked up and placed them on stage for the star of the show.

On stage the set included the band’s instruments and some packing crates, stenciled with the words: BILIE HOLIDAY ON TOUR.

After the band came out and started to warm up a bit, as if to practice, Ann Duquesnay entered the scene in a rain coat and folding an umbrella, as if the had just came in out of the rain.

Set in London near the end of her life, “Lady Day,” as written by Stahl, has Holiday arriving late for rehearsal on the day of her last London performance. While the early monologue weaves the strands of her tragic personal drama, its where the supporting actors are most vulnerable to tripping.

There’s Andrew Boyer, her manager-producer who is trying to yell at her for being late for rehearsal, but how to you yell at Billie Holiday?

Boyer’s real life counterpart, John Hammond, I think, would have been soft spoken and coaxed her.

The childhood retros are necessary to et across the background of her life, and the adolescent fantasies give literal meaning to the cliché “you have to live the blues to sing the blues,” but after awhile you just want to hear her sing.

Through “A Foggy Day in London Town,” “Swing Brother Swing,” “Miss Brown to You,” “Give Me a Pigfoot,” “All of Me” and “Them There Eyes,” you have a selection of Holiday numbers that should satisfy the Holiday buff as well as well as those who thought Billie was a guy.

The retrospection about her life between songs in the first act brings out the strong dramatic background that Duquesnay brings to the show, and for the uninitiated, introduces Holiday’s own background without being too overbearing.

After singing, “Lady Sings the Blues,” “Lover Man,” “You’re Mother’s Son-In-Law,” there’s her signature song, “Strange Fruit,” Holiday’s anti-segregationist anthem which Drinkard says she always sang at the end of the set, and which appropriately concludes Act One.

After the intermission lights went on, Charles introduced Carlton to the young couple who used John Colianni’s seats, and after a few seconds of muffled small talk, Charles grabbed Drinkard by the arm and escorted him to the front door, talking and shaking a cigarette in his hand.

“Did he really know Billie Holiday?” the girl asked, while her boyfriend wanted to know, “Did they really go next door for a drink?”

When Carlton Drinkard returned, before I could ask him his opinion of the show so far, the curtain went up and Holiday was decked out in her gown, white gloves and guardenias in her hair, ready to sing. Her voice is all that we have left of the real Lady Day, that’s what made her famous, and that’s the vehicle that this whole production is riding on.

“My Man,” “God Bless the Child,” “Good Morning Heartache,” “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone,” “Ain’t No Body’s Business But My Own,” “Billie’s Blues,” “When You’re Smiling,” and “What A Little Moonlight Can Do,” all showed us tht Duquesnay is a fine singer who does justice to Lady Day.

Although she did break up some of the concert songs with some ramblings about her bust in Philadelphia, it’s the songs and the singing that give Act Two its magic, with such tunes as “Mean To Me,” “You’ve Changed,” Don’t Explain,” “I Can’t Get Started Without You,” “Violents For My Furs,” and “I’m Pulling Through.”

From an audience of applause I could distinguish Charlie’s cheers, and regardless of what Carlton’s opinion was, I really liked the show.

The college kids stuck around after the shown and quizzed Carlton, and I could overhear him setting them straight, “She wasn’t really a blues singer, only had about two real blues songs in her entire repertoire. She was a jazz singer, and she didn’t play around. She was faithful to her husbands,” he said, stretching the plural.

Then when the band came out, their eyes lit up when they heard Carlton Drinkard was there, and that he worked with Holiday and knew the songs, and wanted to know how they were arranged and if they were doing them right.

The musical director and pianist William D. Jolly shook Drinkard’s hand as Carlton said, “You boys were great. I don’t believe how much I really liked the show.”

As Jolly’s brother, bass player Elton Brett, and drummer Johnnie Croom crowed around to hear Drinkard talk, he answered Jolly’s question, “You know that one song where you drop a beat? Well that’s supposed to be a faster tempo,” and “I know you can do it, because I heard you do it, you guys are good.”

I thought they could have been given more play, taking some of the burdon off Duquesnay and putting the spotlight on each musician for a solo, but that was just my thoughts.

Not wanting to be too critical, Drinkard said, “but you guys don’t want to hear that.”

“Yes we do,” Jolly replied, “we want to know the way you did it. We weren’t there, so it’s up to you to tell us.”

When Duquesnay came out, dressed as a pedestrian, holding Carney’s flowers, she came up to Drinkard and hugged him saying, “Thank you for the flowers, they’re wonderful.”

Carlton looked at Carney as if to say, “Flowers, what flowers,” as Charles had put Drinkard’s name on the tag, giving him credit.

“You are what’s wonderful,” Drinkard told the talented singer and actress from North Carolina. “Every once in awhile I caught a glimpse of Lady that sent a shiver up my spine.”

After a photo was taken of Drinkard with Duquesnay and the band, she was introduced to Charles Carney, who has a fascination for Billie Holiday’s music, and Charles held open the door for her as she opened her umbrella and walked out into the South Street rain.

Carlton, I asked, cutting through the myth, the lies and wrong beats, does she have the flavor, the spirit of Lady Day?

“Yes,” he said, smiling, “she’s got it.”

Just as I thought the night was over, and Carlton was saying to Charles, “why didn’t you tell me you sent her flowers in my name?,” Carney said, “Let’s go back to Atlantic City where I know where there’s a young girl who sings in a casino lounge who will make you cry.”

Billkelly3@gmail.com

Carney, Charles F. 77 of Somers Point, died peacefully on February 18, 2006. His daughter Colleen, a son-in-law David, Carole and his pal Andrew were at his side.

Charles was a legendary bartender in the Somers Point area. He began his career at Steel's Ship Bar, went on to Mac's, Gregory', Mothers's, The Med., The Shangra-Laa, Crab Trap and the world famous Anchorage.

Chrales is the brother of the late Frank. He is survived by his brother George (Violet) of Collingswood, NJ; his childrean Charles and Sean of Miami Beach, Fl. Colleen (David) McIlroy of Sunset Beach, CA and his partner and soul mate Carole Rubino of Somers Point. Relatives and friends are invited to his viewing Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006 from 9:30 to 11 Am,m St. Joseph Church, 612 Shore Raod, Somers Point. Followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11AM. Interment Seaside Chemetery. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial contributions to the DOn MacBeth Memorial Jocky Fund, P.O. Box 18470. Encino, CA 91419. Arrangements by Terranova Funeral Home Inc. www.terranovafunderalhome.com

John Colianni

2011-06-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

John Colianni http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5824

Born: January 7, 1963 Instrument: Piano

John Colianni grew up in the Washington, D.C. metro area and first heard Jazz on swing-era LP re-issues (Ellington, Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Armstrong, etc.) in his parents' home. A performance by Teddy Wilson in Washington attended by John when he was about 12 years old also left a strong impression, as did a Duke Ellington performance.

THE QUINTET

In 2006, looking for an outlet for his high velocity piano improvisations, John formed the John Colianni Quintet. In July 2007, the group recorded its first CD, Johnny Chops (Patuxent Records), which was released this year.

LES PAUL

Les Paul offered the piano spot in his group to John in August 2003. Les had not used a pianist in his combo since the 1950s and, in looking for suitable candidates, sought the advice of guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, who recommended John. In Les Paul's recent autobiography, “Les Paul: In His Own Words,” Les writes an appreciative description of John's playing style and musical contributions to the re-vamped Les Paul Quartet. John is also seen and heard on the PBS documentary, “Les Paul: Chasing Sound.”

PIANO INSTRUCTION

Showing keyboard aptitude, a suitable teacher for John was sought by his parents. Local musicians recommended Les Karr, who, in addition to teaching, was well known as an outstanding pianist. Weekly lessons began in the eighth grade, when John was 14. Les Karr himself studied under Teddy Wilson at Juilliard in New York. Les was also the first cousin of pianist Dick Hyman. For John's lessons, Les emphasized technique and introduced studies of the Mathe' System, a method that advances digital dexterity and maximizes the capacity for speedy, high-velocity piano playing. John, noted for fleet “chops,” often cites the important role these exercises play.

AROUND WASHINGTON

Still in high school, John began playing piano professionally on the Washington, D.C. jazz scene, which, during that period, included a number of colorful jazz clubs such as The Pigfoot, Mr. Y's Gold Room, One Step Down, Blues Alley, The Bayou, The Famous Ballroom (Baltimore), Frankie Condon's (Rockville), and other establishments.

These were John's first performance venues, and he played among veteran D.C. musicians including Ella Fitzgerald's bassist, Keter Betts, who recruited 16-year-old John for the revue “Jazz Stars Of The Future.” Jazz Studies Director George Ross recruited John, still in tenth grade, to play regularly with the University of Maryland Jazz Ensemble.

THE DUKE

An event years earlier set the stage for John's interest in music. Duke Ellington, the most celebrated musician from Washington D.C. passed through town with his orchestra. A very young John was mesmerized and afterward presented Duke with the Ellington autobiography “Music Is My Mistress,” which Duke signed with a personalized message.
(Ellington is high on the list of pianists who have influenced John. Others include Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, George Shearing, Count Basie and Teddy Wilson.)

TOURING WITH LIONEL HAMPTON

The Coliannis relocated to the Jersey Shore during John's senior year in high school. It was there that John caught the attention of Carlton Drinkard, former accompanist to the one and only “Lady Day” Billie Holiday. Drinkard assembled John's trio, and coached him in creating new arrangements and performing before live audiences.

Soon afterward, when he was 19, John visited Lionel Hampton backstage at an Atlantic City casino. He landed a spot in Hampton's orchestra and traveled and recorded for three years with Hampton and band members that included tenor sax great Arnett Cobb, saxists Paul Jeffrey and Tom Chapin, drummers Frankie Dunlop, Oliver Jackson and Duffy Jackson, bassists George Duvivier and Arvell Shaw, and others.

THELONIUS MONK PIANO COMPETITION

Not too long after the Hampton gig, John entered and won a cash prize in the first annual Thelonius Monk Piano Competition in 1987.

WITH MEL TORME

In the 1980s, John played a variety of gigs, including a stint with the New Orleans-inspired band of movie director/clarinetist Woody Allen. Allen's band played steadily at Michael's Pub in New York, and it was there that John came to the attention of Mel Torme, who was appearing at the same club. Hearing one of John's recordings through the venue's sound system, Torme' promptly hired John as his pianist--without an audition. John worked for Torme from early 1991 to mid 1995, touring and recording six albums.

Press Quotes:

Read what the jazz world has to say about John…
“Tremendous piano jazz … a phenomenal show stopper … technical skill, warmth, application and understanding.”

Jazz Journal International (London)
“He has a smooth, light-touch style. He flies easily through intricate right-hand melodic lines, and improvises on them, and roams the bass clef with his left hand, combining basic and offbeat rhythms with rich, melodic chord patterns. His left hand harmonic structures are most impressive.”

San Francisco Examiner
“Consummate piano virtuoso … truly individual voice … unerring sense of sophisticated swing.”

Jazz Times
“Colianni's sound and conception is American to the bone; from New Orleans boogie through to jump blues, stride and Basie swing, he not only knew them all but frequently sounded like he was playing all of them at once.”

The Guardian (England)
“He is the essence of a swinging pianist … a sudden flurry of complex runs can be finished before the listener is fully aware of what is happening.”

The New York Times
“Impeccably disciplined, a limitless cauldron full of ideas … eye-opening intensity … effortless swing - Tatumesque.”

Toronto Star
“The best you'll ever hear.”

Mel Torme
“The essence of a swinging pianist … a sudden flurry of complex runs can be finished before the listener is fully aware of what is happening.”

The New York Times
“Acoustic modernist absorbing the pianism of Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson.”

Jazziz
“A brilliant pianist, composer, arranger with exquisite taste, great technique, charming, witty, he has much to bring to the table” and he's got rhythm. Who could ask for anything more?”

Jimmy Woode, bassist with Duke Ellington
“Just dig it”

Lionel Hampton
“Intriguing, eclectic”

Billboard
ENGLISH ARTICLE TRANSLATION FROM GERMAN Neue Luzerner Zeitung November 11, 2008 By David Koch

Eleven pianists brilliantly open the “Piano Off-Stage.” They all played good, stylish jazz, but one swung above the others.

. . . “Piano Off-Stage” the piano festival in a festival. Eleven pianists . . . took part this year, and as an opener, each artist presented a short sample of his/her ability. . .
A Superb John Colianni . . . In the case of one of the artists, the crowd was appropriately great: John Colianni. This lion of the keyboard from America is the year’s big draw” a pianist equally at home in the concert hall. Followers of the jazz legends Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum have to be proficient. John Colianni certainly is” such harmonic and rhythmic finesse, paired with astounding technique. Superb! So equipped, his improvisation in the first teaser appearance through stride and swing was exemplary and nicely cool.”

AC Boardwalk Marti Gras at Kennedy Plaza

2011-06-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Kennedy Plaza, outside Boardwalk Hall (old Convention Hall), between Mississippi and Georgia Avenues, is the scene of the local Mardi Gras and Chicken Bone Beach concert series this summer.

While the Chicken Bone Beach shows have been going on for a few years, the Mardi Gras is relatively new and successful because of the exceptional talent brought in by Carmen and Nancy Marotta.

Carmen literally grew up in the music business since his father was the legendary Tony Mart - Anthony Marotta, who took a small Somers Point rathskeller and made it into the "Showplace of the World."

At the same time the best acts played Steel Pier, Tony Marts nightclub in Somers Point featured top flight hit acts in a much more intimate setting.

After Tony Marts was sold, Carmen dabbled in politics for awhile, but kept his fingers in the music business by helping to book good shows for the annual Good Old Days Picnic and friday night beach concerts at the Point's municipal beach.

Although there's still some bars, clubs and cabarets that feature live bands, most of the best action is taking place out doors, in public, and they're also great places to take the family. Plus they're free, thanks to the local institutions (Like the Somers Point Recreation Dept. and Atlantic County freeholders, and sponsors), who picked up the slack to make these shows happen.

Carmen and Nancy aren't new to Atlantic City either. Actually they are coming back to the old hood, since Tony Mart got his start selling hot dogs and hoagies on the boardwalk, and his wife's family started the famous White House sub shop.

"Some of the hottest, new cutting edge music in these genres is coming out of New Orleans," says Carmen. "You have these big jam bands, like Dave Matthews and some of the other bands that are playing at the Dave Matthews Caravan, and they are influenced by and their mentors are people like the Neville Brothers and George Porter Jr."

"We're starting earlier, and we were able to build on the success of last year's shows. Last year was our first season, and we were only able to do eight, but this year, we felt confident enough to plan 13."

There's a good mixture of classic bands, like Commander Cody, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Otis Clay and Roomfull of Blues, really good local acts - (ie. Danny Eyer and Billy Walton) and some real Louisiana Legends like Cyril Neville and Terrance Simien & his Zydeco Experience.

■ June 27: Commander Cody Band.
■ July 3: Battle of the Guitar Heroes — Jersey Shore Champ Billy Walton versus Mississippi Challenger Vasti Jackson.
■ July 11: The Fabulous Thunderbirds featuring Kim Wilson.
■ July 18: The Music That Made Tony Mart’s Famous performed by the Tony Mart Allstar Band including Danny Eyer and others.
■ July 25: Cyril Neville and Tribe 13.
■ Aug. 1: The Otis Clay Band.
■ Aug. 8: Jumpin’ Johnny Sansone and his band, with special guest Susan Cowsill.
■ Aug. 15: The Soul Rebels Brass Band, The Billy Walton Band.
■ Aug. 16: Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers, The Soul Rebels Brass Band.
■ Aug. 17: Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience, Lil’ Martha.
■ Aug, 22: Bonerama.
■ Aug. 29: The Curtis Salgado Band.
■ Sept. 4: Roomful of Blues, Honey Island Swamp Band.

Then there's the Chicken Bone Beach jazz shows, that pick up where Kentucky Avenue left off. While Carmen tends to bring in the New Orleans style jazz, the kind that were featured at Tony Marts back in the heydey, the Chicken Bone Beach shows are more of a Big City jazz.

Chicken Bone Beach is what the locals affectionately called the beach patronized by blacks during segregation, and was popularized primarily by the bar tenders, waitresses, cooks and musicians from the Kentucky Avenue Clubs who had been up all night. Sammy Davis Jr., his mom, Dizzy and Duke were all there, and the chicken came primarily from Jimmy's Joint, just across the street from the legendary Club Harlem, now a parking lot.

Date / Time HEADLINERS 8:30 to 10 PM ARTIST 7 to 8 PM

July 7 Bootsie Barnes & Friends Dahi Divine Legacy Quintet
July 14 Dave Valentin ZAMAR featuring Keith Hollis
July 21 Barbara Walker Eddie Morgan REK'D 4 Jazz
July 28 Monnette Sudler Tony Day Quartet
August 4 Dominick Farinacci CBB Youth Jazz Ensemble
August 11 Tia Fuller Budesa Brothers Trio
August 18 Helen Sung Dwain Davis Quartet

Concert funded in part by the NJ State Council of the Arts/Department of State through the Atlantic County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Comcast, Harrah's Entertainment, PNC Bank, Kinematica Inc, Kramer Beverage Co. COORS, Atlantic City Electric, Just 4 Wheels, Atlantic City Convention Center, City of Atlantic City and ZEO Brothers - Tune in to Stockton College Radio Station WLFR – 91.7 Wednesdays Chicken Bone Beach hour 7 to 8 PM Phone: 609) 441-9064 or (609) 841-6897 Email: chickenbonebeach@juno.com Visit our websites: www.chickenbonebeach.org Atlantic City Free Public Library or www.acfpl.org 609-345-2269 http://www.chickenbonebeach.org/schedule-summer.html

Then there's the Somers Point Beach concerts, which start at 7pm every Friday night all summer long. Don Kinsey and the Kinsey Report kicked things off last Friday. Just bring a beach chair and sit back and enjoy.

19th Annual Somers Point Beach Concert Series

June 24 The Eric Lindell Band:
National recording Artist Singer Songwriter, Guitarist Hot from New Orleans!

July 1 The Jeremiah Hunter Band:
Premiere Rock ‘n Roll Party Dance Band featuring members from The Soul Survivors and Fullhouse

July 4 (Monday) The Bob Campanell Band with Danny Eyer:
Our own Jersey Shore Rock ‘n Roll Pop Icon with his favorite lead guitarist

July 8 Jim Morris & The Big Bamboo Band:
Caribbean Key West Melodies from Radio Margaritaville

July 15 The Billy Walton Band:
Searing Rock Guitarist from South Side Johnny’s Asbury Jukes

July 22 Edgardo Cintron Band with Dane Anthony
Latin Sounds with a Tribute to Santana

July 29 Dr Bobby Fingers with “Ernie T” Trionfo:
Popular Music Sing a Long Party with sizzling lead guitar

August 5 Jumpin’ Johnny Sansone with Special Guest Susan Cowsill:
New Orleans Rhythm & Blues & Louisiana Rock 'n Roll

August 12 Kenny Neal and His Band:
World Renown Award Winning Blues & Roots Recording Artist

August 19 Curtis Salgado Soul Band:
The Man who taught the Blues to the Blues Brothers with his World Class 9 Piece Big Band

August 26 The Reba Russell Band:
Tennessee Country Blues Diva from Beale Street

September 2 The Terry Hanck Band:
World Class Honky Tonkin’ Roots Rock Saxophonist/Lead Singer

September 9 Ed Vezinho/Jim Ward Big Band with Rosemary Benson:
16 Piece Contemporary Big Band with Sensational Vocal Styling

Begins June 17th At The William Morrow Beach / Municipal Beach Park, Located Between Higbee And New Jersey Aves On Bay Ave in Somers Point. Free shows Fridays Start At 7PM, From The Third Friday In June Until The Second Friday in September. Hosted By: The Somers Point Recreation Department.

Visit www.somerspointbeachconcerts.com for photos, video clips & more.

A Night on the Town w/ The Lizard King

2011-06-21T01:02:00.000-07:00

A Night On The Town With The Lizard King –
Atlantic City’s Paparazzi Queen’s First Celebrity Affair – By Bill Kelly

Until she saw Oliver Stone movie “The Doors,” Miss L - the Paparazzi Queen believed Jim Morrison was still alive and living out his true ambition as an anonymous poet.

Now she thinks he’s dead.

As she left the theater after seeing the film she said, ‘The Jim Morrison I knew was quiet and reserved, only drank beer, smoked cigarettes and was a bad dancer.”

Although she only knew him for one day and night, she thought she had a unique insight into the man. Now she says, “I must have caught him on an off night.”

Miss L., who worked at an Atlantic City casino when I first met her, takes pictures of celebrities as a hobby. She prefers to remain anonymous herself because of the sensitivity of her job and a penchant for crashing casino VIP parties.

That’s where I met her, at an “invitation only” VIP party at the Trump Plaza casino shortly before the Tyson-Spinks fight. I had seen her before at other events, and thought she was either a gossip reporter or a hanger on. On this night she was standing by the flood light lit door next to Bill McCullough, the Dean of Atlantic City Paparazzi. I took a picture of them both, then introduced them, not really appreciating the significance of the moment at the time.

All the locals in Atlantic City know Bill McCullough, son of Marie McCullough, whose modeling school has produced beauty queens and fashion models, and his photos of celebrities are well published in local and national newspapers and magazines. http://www.flickr.com/photos/masterpieceadvertising/5283545299/in/photostream

But nobody knows the Paparazzi Queen, although she has photos of herself with Rod Stewart, Don Johnson, Mike Tyson and every other celebrity who has visited Atlantic City. They don’t know here, and her employers don’t know she does this, and she prefers it that way.

She doesn’t even have a professional camera, but a simple Instamatic, aim and shoot.

“I’m not a groupie,” she says emphatically, “or somebody who sleeps with rock stars. There’s nothing sexual about it.”

She’s just a paparazzi – someone who takes pictures of celebrities, but she does it for herself, not to make money as a professional.

“I just get close to them and snap their picture, or sometimes get someone to take a picture of me with someone famous.”

Jumping quickly to the chase, she says emphatically, ‘I didn’t have sex with Jim Morrison. ” Then after a pause and a smile, “but I wish I did.”

She denies an intimate relationship with the rock star, the self-proclaimed Lizard King, despite the fact that one of the two photos she has of them together shows them on a bed in her Miami, Florida hotel room.

She met Morrison during the summer before his death, and the photos she has of him were taken with an old, early model, black and white Polaroid Land camera, prints of which have held up remarkably well. More recently she used a 35 mm automatic camera to take pictures of Rod Stewart, Axl Rose and the Rolling Stones.

She once got a job as an extra on the set of a Miami Vice shoot just to get close to Don Johnson, and she moved to Atlantic City in order to rub elbows with the rich and famous, and take their pictures for her private collection.

Rummaging through her pocket book she comes out with a booklet of photos featuring starts she’s met in Atlantic City. There’s her and Mike, her and the Donald, her and Don Johnson. “I have a chest full of photos,” she says, flipping through the booklet, “but these are the best, my favorites.”

And Jim was the first. “I’ll never forget him. He changed my life.”

She said that they met late in the summer of 1970 at the bar of the Carillon Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, where Morrison was on trial for obscenity stemming from a concert that got out of hand a year before.
http://www.miamibeachrealestateblog.us/2009/03/24/canyon-ranch-miami-beach-north-tower-release review/http://www.flickr.com/photos/masterpieceadvertising/5283545299/in/photostream

The general scene was portrayed vividly by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman in their biography of Morrison, “Nobody Gets Out Alive,” when they wrote, “The temperature and humidity were both close to the 100 mark, and without the rich winter tourists Miami rattled with emptiness and the big hotels on the beach looked like tombstones. Jim was standing in front of the Carillon Hotel, a medium-priced tombstone with a beige marble lobby, crystal chandeliers, and an activity board by the swimming pool. So far his stay in Florida had been uneventful. Sunday he had wanted to see a jai alai game, but was told the courts were closed for the summer, so he went to the dog races instead. The rest of the time he stayed close to the hotel, lying by the pool and drinking in the air-conditioned bar…” http://www.amazon.com/Doors-Here-Alive-Tribute-Morrison/dp/B00005V9HB

As Miss L, the Paparazzi Queen remembers, she went to the Carillon Hotel to apply for a job. She was staying in an apartment around the corner, but because it was off-season, there weren’t many people around, and jobs were scarce.

The hotel lobby was practically empty, except for some old people lounging around and one young guy who struck up a conversation with her, as there was no one else around.

“We started talking about the Doors because the trial was in the news and everybody was talking about it.” http://www.beachedmiami.com/2010/09/20/day-jim-morrison-convicted-indecent-exposure-sept-20-1970/

“And he tells me that Morrison is staying at the hotel. He said he was a friend of Morrison, and in fact, Jim was sitting at the hotel bar at the moment. Did I want to meet him?”

“I was 18 years old at the time, and he asked me if I wanted to meet Jim Morrison, the most famous rock star in the world. Of course I wanted to meet him, so I said yes, and we went into the bar where he was the only customer. The guy introduced us and we sat there at the bar and just talked for awhile.”

Jim said:
What are you doing here?
What do you want?
Is it music?
We can play music.
But you want more.
You want something & someone new.
Am I right?
Of course I am.
You want ecstasy
Desire & dreams.
Things not exactly what they seem.
I lead you this way, he pulls that way.
I'm not singing to an imaginary girl.
I'm talking to you, my self.
Let's recreate the world…

She said Morrison didn’t spruce up or trim up, or put on a special suit for the trial. He wore his hair long and had a scruffy beard – his ‘Jesus Christ’ look, perfect for the trial.

“He had on a white cotton shirt, open at the collar, black leather pants and vest, and boots,” the outfit he usually war, on and off stage. http://www.washingtonsquares.com/jim.html

“I told him I had seen him perform at the Spectum in Philly a few weeks before,” she continues, “but he wasn’t impressed. He said he’d never go to a rock concert if he didn’t have to. He wouldn’t like being around all those people, pushing and shoving. And then he looked at the other guy and asked him if he would ever go to a rock concert? The other guy nodded in agreement, and I still don’t know who the other guy was or his name, but he wasn’t a member of the band.”

See: Doors at the Spectrum , May 1970 http://www.doorshistory.com/doors1970.html

“It was in the afternoon, and we were just talking, and after awhile Jim says he wanted to take a walk. So the three of us went outside and went for a walk around the neighborhood, down Collins Avenue.”

“I was in ecstasy. Here I was walking down the street with Jim Morrison, the most famous rock star in the world, the guy on trial and on ever newspaper, radio and TV in America and probably the world, and I was walking down the street with him. I tried to be cool, and not treat him with awe, and it was hard, but no one on the street even recognized him.

Jim said:
The day I left the beach…
Now I can't walk thru a city
street w/out eying each
single pedestrian. I feel
their vibes thru my
skin, the hair on my neck
-it rises.

“Eventually we walked past my apartment, actually a dumpy rooming house, and I invited them up to my place, where we just sat around and talked. Jim smoked cigarettes, finished the pack and put it in an ashtray on my dresser. A neighbor came buy, a young guy who lived there, and I introduced them saying, “This is my new friend, Jim Morrison.”

“Jim Morrison, hea?,” he said, and the four of us just sat around and talked for awhile. I didn’t even ask him for an autograph or anything. But eventually I asked Jim if I could take his picture, and took out my camera. I took two pictures of Jim sitting on the bed, and then one of the other guys took one of me and Jim together. Jim then personally inscribed one.”

“Jim smoked the whole time, but he was actually very quiet and reserved, very polite and he didn’t put any moves on me. He was a gentleman the entire time I was with him.”

“Then before they left they asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with them that night.”

“Once they were gone, I picked up the empty Marlboro pack off the dresser and kept it, you know, as a keepsake. I still have it. My family kids me about it, but to me, you know, it’s a rock and roll relic. It’s meaningful to me and a link to him somehow.”

Later on in the afternoon, after sprucing up, she went over to their hotel. “Then we walked to this fancy French restaurant, where we sat outdoors on a terrace overlooking the ocean.”

“After dinner we all piled into this rented car, six of us, four guys and two girls. It was pretty tight, but I felt comfortable with them sitting in the back seat with the other girl, a blonde.”

As she explained it, “Jim insisted on driving, even though the others protested slightly, saying something about his license, and I quickly understood why. He drove like a wild maniac down Collins Avenue and thru the streets of Miami Beach. We kept asking him to slow down, and I was scarred, even though I was in the back seat, but he made it an exciting day.”

“Eventually we ended up at this famous bar, not a disco, but a Go-Go bar called the Castaways, that isn’t there anymore. We parked and went to the door where they asked us for IDs and charged and admission. I showed them my ID and then the guy recognizes Jim and said something like, ‘You’re Jim Morrison of the Doors!, right?’”

Castaways:http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=31947&forum=2&start=15&38&PHPSESSID=f11e575a825ce6e81bdab483b2a964fc

“But once we got into the club, even though it was crowded, nobody recognized Jim or bothered us.”

“We got a table and Jim had a beer. That’s all he drank all night, although he drank quite a lot of it. But he didn’t have any hard liquor and he didn’t do any drugs, at least not in my presence.”

“Since there was just me and this other girl, the blonde, we took turns dancing with the guys. I danced with Jim, and he was just crazy and wild on the dance floor. He’d just flop around, didn’t have any rhythm, and wasn’t a very good dancer, but he seemed to have a good time. And I was thrilled! But he never did smile or laugh.”

Jim said: Moment of inner freedom
when the mind is opened and the
infinite universe revealed
& the soul is left to wander
dazed & confus'd searching
here & there for teachers & friends.

“He told me he wrote a book of poetry, and although I can’t remember exactly at what point during the evening he gave it to me – I think it was over dinner, I have a copy of his poems, “An American Prayer,” which is personally inscribed to me from him.”

According to the appendix of Morrison’s biography by Hopkins and Sugerman, Morrison had 500 copies of “An American Prayer” published by Western Lithographers of Los Angeles in the summer of 1970. http://www.huddersfield1.co.uk/poetry/morrisonpoetry.htm

Near the end of Oliver Stone’s movie, Morison is shown giving out copies of the book to other members of the band. Val Kilmer, who plays Morrision in the film, reportedly paid thousands of dollars for a copy of “An American Prayer,” which he claimed is only one of fifty still known to be in circulation.

Two other books of poetry, “The Lords and the New Creatures,” were privately published by Morrison in limited editions of 100, by Western Litholgraphers, and then republished in both hardcover and paperback by Simon & Schuster.

Jim said:
An American Prayer

Do you know the warm progress under the stars?
Do you know we exist?
Have you forgotten the keys to the Kingdom?
Have you been borne yet & are you alive?
Let's reinvent the gods, all the myths of the ages
Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests
[Have you forgotten the lessons of the ancient war]
We need great golden copulations
The fathers are cackling in trees of the forest
Our mother is dead in the sea
Do you know we are being led to slaughters by placid admirals
& that fat slow generals are getting obscene on young blood
Do you know we are ruled by T.V.
The moon is a dry blood beast
Guerilla bands are rolling numbers in the next block of green vine
amassing for warfare on innocent herdsmen who are just dying
O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art & perfect our lives
The moths & atheists are doubly divine & dying
We live, we die & death not ends it
Journey we more into the Nightmare
Cling to life our passion'd flower
Cling to cunts & cocks of despair
We got our final vision by clap
Columbus' groin got filled w/ green death
(I touched her thigh & death smiled)
We have assembled inside this ancient & insane theatre
To propagate our lust for life & flee the swarming wisdom of the streets
The barns are stormed
The windows kept & only one of all the rest
To dance & save us
W/ the divine mockery of words
Music inflames temperament
(When the true King's murderers are allowed to roam free a 1000 magicians arise in the land)
Where are the feasts
we were promised
Where is the wine
The New Wine
(dying on the vine)

http://www.justsomelyrics.com/180668/Jim-Morrison-An-American-Prayer-Lyrics

So Miss L, the Paparazzi Queen, has more than just an old, rumpled empty pack of Marlboros as a memento of her night on the town with the Lizard King. She has a rare, signed, first edition book of his “American Prayer” poetry and three, never before published photos of Morrison in his “Jesus Christ” mode. http://www.bookride.com/2007/04/american-prayer-jim-morrison-1970.html

But she doesn’t care too much for the poetry, and prefers the Doors’ songs he didn’t write, like “Light My Fire,” which he sang with a passion. http://www.lyrics007.com/The Doors Lyrics/Light My Fire Lyrics.html / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPPh6dci_vs

“Jim was a sensational singer, and he had charisma,” she says, “but I just didn’t like his poetry. Maybe I just don’t understand it. I like Rod McKuen.” http://www.oocities.org/soho/workshop/4296/mckuen.html

“I know he wanted to be remembered as a poet, and didn’t make it as one. So other people must think the same as I do. But I realize, as he said to one critic, maybe I just don’t understand it.”

“In the move it seemed that he wanted to die. But that wasn’t the guy I knew, even if it was for only one day. The Jim Morrison I met came across as a nice guy, not the wild animal he’s portrayed to be in the movie. I thought he was too young to die of a heart attack. Nobody saw the body, except Pam, his girl friend and common-law wife.”

“There was no funeral,” she continues with her Conspiracy Theory, “and Pam supposedly died a few years later. If anyone could have pulled off a stunt like that, wanting to start a new life as a writer and poet instead of a rock star, it was Jim.”

Jim said:
Death is a good disguise
for late at night

She was a first-hand witness to Morrison’s camelion capabilities and ability to go about in public without being recognized.

According to Hopkins and Sugerman, the idea for such a stunt had been in the works for awhile. “The seeds were planted even earlier in his life. When Jim was studying the life and poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, he was gripped by the fact that Rimbaud had written all of his poetry by the age of 19 and then disappeared into North Africa to become a gun runner and slave trader.”

Of course this is also the story of “Eddie and the Cruisers,” whose superstar singer and composer evokes Rimbaud and fakes his own death – driving a 57 Chevy off the Ocean City – Somers Point Causeway bridge. After working as building contractor in Canada for a few years, Eddie Wilson returns in the follow up movie, a story line that is apparently based on Morrison’s desire to forsake being a rock star. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_and_the_Cruisers
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085475/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097262/

According to Hopkins and Sugarman, “Morrison had previously commented that he would use the name Mr. Mojo Risin, an anagram remix of the letters of his own name, to contact the office after he split for Africa.”

The Paparazzi Queen often expected to see him again someday. “I thought he was alive for a long time,” she said. “But if he was really, really that wild, maybe he was just going straight for the trial. I just don’t know. Maybe I caught him at a slow period. I thought he was alive for a long time, but now I’m not so sure. Now I think he’s dead, like Elvis, Jimmy and Janis.”

“Nor do I believe all that Indian shaman stuff in the movie. That’s just Oliver Stone trying to give Jim more depth than was really there. If he is dead, he was just another drunk, dried up rock star. If not, he would have surfaced by now.”

But there’s no Mister Mo Joe Risin’

LA Women

Well, I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows
Are you a lucky little lady in the city of light
Or just another lost angel...city of night
City of night, city of night, city of night, woo, cmon…
Drive through your suburbs
Into your blues, into your blues, yeah…
Drivin’ down your freeways
Midnight alleys roam
Cops in cars, the topless bars
Never saw a woman...
So alone, so alone
Motel money murder madness
Lets change the mood from glad to sadness
Mr. mojo risin, mr. mojo risin
Got to keep on risin
Mr. mojo risin, mr. mojo risin
Mojo risin, gotta mojo risin
Mr. mojo risin, gotta keep on risin
Risin, risin
Gone risin, risin
Im gone risin, risin
I gotta risin, risin….

NEWS REPORT – Dec. 2010

JIM MORRISON PARDONED

Tallahassee - Rock and roll icon Jim Morrison was pardoned on Thursday by the Florida clemency board for exposing himself at a raucous concert in 1969, an act the late singer and many concert-goers denied ever took place.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/back-page/jim-morrison-pardoned-1.999762

Fifteen Ideas for Atlantic City

2011-06-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

Fifteen Ideas for Atlantic City – By Bill Kelly billkelly3@gmail.com (609) 425-6297

1) They started a Mob-Museum in Las Vegas with support of the FBI, but without too much community support. That museum belongs in Atlantic City, where organized crime got organized at the 1929 convention of mobsters, while Vegas didn’t get started until after WWII, by the same people who decided, at the AC meeting, that gambling should replace booze as the mob’s primary source of income after prohibition ended. The old Masonic Hall would be a good place.

2) Fix the Boardwalk Hall organ – the largest in the world, and make it a major attraction again, and let it be used for benefit concerts for non-profit organizations. http://www.acchos.org/

3) Do whatever it takes to bring back the Miss America pageant back to the Boardwalk.

4) The PGA Senior’s Tour began at the Atlantic City Country Club and there should be a PGA Champion’s Tour event at the Jersey Shore, as well as a major amateur event similar to the Sonny Fraser Tournament that was discontinued when ACCC was purchased by the casinos.

5) While the beach and boardwalk are important, the back bays of Atlantic City are not utilized as they should be by boaters, fishermen, sailors and canoe/kayaks, and the local boat construction industry has for too long concentrated on large yachts, while they also should be building smaller boats that more people can afford and use. Among the boats that should be concentrated on are Olympic class sailboats, row boats and Americas Cup Class sailboats.

6) There is a new, international circuit of America’s Cup Class catamarans that are really fast and exciting to watch, who are looking for places to race – and Atlantic City should be considered as a possible venue. While the America’s Cup is now in San Francisco, it might be raced again in Newport, and Atlantic City could be considered for the World Cup event of America’s Cup Class boats, which would be like hosting the Super Bowl of boats.

7) The America’s Cup is now back in America, in San Francisco, but they can’t seem to agree on having a regatta there, so Atlantic City should put an offer on the table that can better Newport for the defense of the next Cup or contest for getting the World Cup race, that is held the year before and after America’s Cup and is a fleet race that includes all of the major competitors.

8) In order to attract foreign visitors, the Atlantic City Airport should make it easy for private planes to land there from Europe, and the Atlantic City Yacht basin should make it easy and encourage more visits by wealthy yachters to visit.

9) Among the attractions Atlantic City should offer is more concerts and shows, bringing back the Atlantic City Pop Festival (1969) and Atlantic City Jazz and Folk Festivals, making them city-wide events, both in and outside of the casinos.

10) The casino showrooms should make it easy for the acts to film and record their shows and sold-out shows can be presented live over the internet – or archived and viewed later, or the music downloaded and listened to shortly after the show is over – Live From Atlantic City.

11) With all of the acts that come to Atlantic City there should be full service recording studios for them to record new albums and videos, and the film industry should be encouraged to come to Atlantic City to make movies. There’s no reason why the Boardwalk Empire set had built in a Brooklyn lot, when it could have be right in Atlantic City and made into a tourist attraction when not in use.

12) There used to be over 200 liquor licenses in Atlantic City, and they should be reissued so new bars and restaurants can be opened outside of the casinos, and operated 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. Atlantic City used to be known as an “Open City” open for business all the time - AC 24-7.

13) There should be easy train and/or trolley connections between Downtown Atlantic City and the Atlantic City International Airport, the FAA Tech Center and Stockton College, though non exist at the present time.

14) There should be a high-speed, giant catamaran pedestrian only ferries that run between Atlantic City Inlet, Philadelphia, Cape May and New York City, similar to the Australian ferries used during the America’s Cup and the ferries planned for Hawaii.

15) Atlantic City should be promoted as it has always been known as an “Open City,” open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for business, for meetings, for pleasure, and try to attract those international jet setters, New York and Philadelphia pleasure seekers, and just ordinary people who want to have a good time

Jim Waltzer at the Ritz

2011-04-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

Meet Me at the Ritz
A slice of time from Atlantic City's 'Boardwalk Empire' era. Nucky Johnson and the Ritz.

By Jim Waltzer Add Comment|Comments: 1 |Posted Jul. 19, 2010

http://www.atlanticcityweekly.com/news-and-views/local-history/meet_me_at_the_ritz-50738062.html

The Ritz still stands, near the Trop.
They were a pair the envy of any Hollywood scriptwriter. The tall elegant boss man with a penchant for hand-tailored suits and a stranglehold on power, his valet-bodyguard wider than he was tall and loyal to the last detail. 

Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, treasurer of Atlantic County, ruled the rackets and the Republican Party in Atlantic City. Former cabbie Louie Kessel ordered his master's life. Home base was the posh Ritz Carlton Hotel at Iowa Avenue and the Boardwalk. It was the Roaring 20s and life was good. Nucky had breakfast with an ocean view. Louie handled the wardrobe and daily rubdowns. 

Some of Nucky's guests were better known for rubouts. In 1929, when crime lords from across the land gathered in Atlantic City to sort out their differences, Nucky installed the likes of Al Capone in suites at the Ritz, or perhaps at the nearby President, spiking the ambience with a generous supply of bootlegged liquor and female companions. The seashore kingpin leased the entire ninth floor at the Ritz, where it was said he kept one closet stuffed with cash. He was a soft touch for both bigshots and people down on their luck until the IRS nabbed him and his signature red carnation in 1938.  

The Ritz, though, coninued to dazzle in the sunshine. 

The red-brick rectangular structure had opened at a cost of $6 million in June 1921, its prestigious name promising a new era of splendor by the beach. The grand hotels along the Boardwalk had all -- except for the Claridge, which would come nine years later -- been operating for years when the Ritz added its profile to the Atlantic City skyline. A gala party marked its debut, and with Nucky regularly entertaining political, showbiz and gangland celebrities, the Ritz was party central for many years. New York's natty Mayor Jimmy Walker favored the Ritz, as did seashore perennial Sophie Tucker. Metropolitan opera star Lawrence Tibbett serenaded Boardwalk audiences by belting arias from his beachfront suite.  

Big-dollar card games added to the hotel's lure and lore. 

Two decades later, the stakes had changed. Starting in 1942, the Ritz Carlton served a three-year hitch for Uncle Sam, as did its fellow beachfront hotels -- the Army Air Force had commandeered the town for training. In the fall of 1945, AAF Redistribution Station No. 1 restored private ownership to the Ritz, but the world had changed. In the 1950s, new motels grabbed the budget-conscious, while expanding jet travel ushered high-rollers to distant destinations. The Ritz and the city lost their luster. In 1958, giant hotelier Sheraton purchased the Ritz Carlton for just $4.25 million. In 1969, the hotel converted many rooms to apartments; two years later, it was all apartments. 

The building still stands at Iowa and the Boardwalk. Gone are the rooms -- all on one floor -- dedicated to pantry service. No longer does a special elevator take patrons in bathing gear down to beach level and back up. There is no Merry-Go-Round Bar to spin guests packed under a canvas awning. And up on the ninth floor, the powerbroker is long gone from his perch overlooking the ocean, during a time when sin was a commodity and life a carousel.  

Jim Waltzer's Tales of South Jersey, co-authored by Tom Wilk, is published by Rutgers University Press.

Ten Ideas for Atlantic City

2011-03-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Ten Ideas for Atlantic City – By Bill Kelly billkelly3@gmail.com (609)425-6297

1)They started a Mob-Museum in Las Vegas with support of the FBI, but without too much community support. That museum belongs in Atlantic City, where organized crime got organized at the 1929 convention of mobsters, while Vegas didn’t get started until after WWII, by the same people who decided, at the AC meeting, that gambling should replace booze as the mob’s primary source of income after prohibition ended.

2)Fix the Boardwalk Hall organ – the largest in the world, and make it a major attraction again. Also do whatever it takes to bring back the Miss America pageant.

3)The PGA Senior’s Tour began at the Atlantic City Country Club and there should be a PGA Champion’s Tour event at the Jersey Shore, as well as a major amateur event similar to the Sonny Fraser Tournament that was discontinued when ACCC was purchased by the casinos.

4)While the beach and boardwalk are important, the back bays of Atlantic City are not utilized as they should be by boaters, fishermen, sailors and canoe/kayaks, and the local boat construction industry has for too long concentrated on large yachts, while they also should be building smaller boats that more people can afford and use. Among the boats that should be concentrated on are Olympic class sailboats, row boats and Americas Cup Class sailboats.

5)There is a new, international circuit of America’s Cup Class catamarans that are really fast and exciting to watch, who are looking for places to race – and Atlantic City should be considered as a possible venue. While the America’s Cup is now in San Francisco, it might be raced again in Newport, and Atlantic City could be considered for the World Cup event of America’s Cup Class boats, which would be like hosting the Superbowl of boats.

6)In order to attract foreign visitors, the Atlantic City Airport should make it easy for private planes to land there from Europe, and the Atlantic City Yacht basin should encourage more visits by wealthy yachters.

7)Among the attractions Atlantic City should offer is more concerts and shows, bringing back the Atlantic City Pop Festival (1969) and Atlantic City Jazz and Folk Festivals, making them city-wide events, both in and outside of the casinos.

8)The casino showrooms should make it easy for the acts to film and record their shows and sold-out shows can be presented live over the internet – or archived and viewed later, or the music downloaded and listened to shortly after the show is over – Live From Atlantic City.

9)With all of the acts that come to Atlantic City there should be full service recording studios for them to record new albums and videos, and the film industry should be encouraged to come to Atlantic City to make movies. There’s no reason why the Boardwalk Empire set had built in a Brooklyn lot, when it could have be right in Atlantic City and made into a tourist attraction when not in use.

10)There used to be over 200 liquor licenses in Atlantic City, and they should be reissued so new bars and restaurants can be opened outside of the casinos, and operated 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. Atlantic City used to be known as an “Open City” open for business all the time - AC 24-7.

The Gov in AC

2011-03-21T22:50:00.001-07:00

The Gov in AC

2011-03-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

The Gov in AC

2011-03-21T22:49:00.001-07:00

The Gov in AC

2011-03-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

The Gov in AC

2011-03-21T22:48:00.001-07:00

The Gov in AC

2011-03-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

The Gov and the Mayor

2011-03-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

Seaview Country Clubhouse

2011-02-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

Seaview Country Clubhouse as seen from the Bay Course

NJ Governor Fort

2011-02-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

Henry Milligan and Ali

2011-01-27T20:59:00.000-08:00

I met Henry Milligan in Cape May, where he was working part time as a bar bouncer, while trying to extend his boxing career. After earning 10 letters in sports at Princeton, none in boxing, he turned down a chance to play professional baseball to take up boxing.

Although he was a certified genius, and top graduate in his class with honors, he wanted to know if he could make it as a professional boxer, often fighting in weight classes above his own weight.

The highlight of his career was probably defeating Henry Tillman, an Olympic Gold Medalist, and then being knocked out by 17 year old Mike Tyson in the second round, although leading on points on all cards.

When Tyson was on a roll, and fighting frequently in Atlantic City, I got press passes to the fights, usually held at Convention Hall on the Boardwalk (now Boardwalk Hall), though pre-fight and post-fight parties were held at various casinos.

This photo I took of Henry and Ali was at a pre-fight party at Bally's.

Sorry it is so foggy, but it is a scan of a contact print that I recently found among my affects.

There's also a photo I took of Arnold Cream, aka "Jersey Joe Walcott," heavyweight champion of the world from Camden, New Jersey, my hometown.

I was surprised to learn, when I Googled Henry Milligan and read his Wicki bio, that he too was from Camden, New Jersey, although he grew up in Delaware.

THE STORY

Amateur Boxing Champ – Golden Gloves for Silver Screen
The SandPaper – Thursday, June 11, 1987

The beach bullies don’t kick sand in Henry Milligan’s face. Its not that the diminutive, bespectacled Milligan is so imposing. He’s really quite timid. It’s just his reputation.

Though he hasn’t obtained celebrity status yet, he’s known as a boxer and in fact is quite an anomaly in the history of contemporary American boxing.

Sitting in a both at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, just across the street from his favorite Cape May beach, Milligan pondered his past and his future over three stacks of pancakes. Considering his main goal, in many ways he is in the same situation in which he found himself in 1981 – seeking recognition in an unobserving world.

As the oldest son of DuPont executive, he was a Princeton University engineering graduate who didn’t want to just settle down in a plush job at the company. His father was known as Hank, so he was always Henry, who then worked part time at the shore as a bouncer at Gloria’s saloon (now Cabanas).

“Working for the summer as a bouncer, I though a lot about boxing,” Milligan says while munching on his pancakes. He called a boxing trainer on the telephone and told him he was interested in taking up boxing. “He asked me how old I was, and when I said 23, he thought I was too old.”

That’s all Milligan had to hear to get him into training. When they told him he couldn’t go to Princeton, major in engineering and play three sports he went out and became the first and only Princeton graduate to ear ten varsity letters in three sports – football, wrestling and baseball. And they say that if he would have majored in a less demanding discipline he would have been a candidate for a Rhodes scholarship.

At first the boxing handicappers, sitting back with their cigars, didn’t know what to make of this handsome 185-pound, well-fed white boy.

Like gymnasts and ballerinas, those who want to be groomed as a boxing champion have to start early, and those who train champions want young, easily malleable students. But Mulligan had already proved he was both a good student and great athlete. In the beginning he looked a little out of place, but stepping into the ring over 40 times in his amateur career, he often knocked out his opponents before they could start boxing.

In 1983 at Colorado Springs, Colorado, he went undefeated to win the National Amateur Boxing Championship and was recognized as the best athlete in the tournament.

The following year he competed in the U.S. Olympic trials, losing only to Mike Tyson, who is now considered to be the number one undefeated professional contender for the heavyweight championship. While still an amateur, however, Tyson was runner up for the heavyweight Olympic challenge, losing to Henry Tillman. Tillman, whom Milligan had previously beaten for the U.S. amateur title, went on to win the Olympic gold medal that year.

“It was very frustrating sitting out the Olympics and having a guy I knew I could beat, in fact already had beat, win the gold medal,” Milligan said while pondering his career over breakfast. After three regular plates of pancakes, he ordered what he calls “round two,” 25 silver dollar pancakes and three waffles.

Putting his amateur career behind him, Milligan then turned professional, winning his first ten bouts and generating a lot of fan support from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and his summer home at Cape May.

Every time he had a bout at one of the Atlantic City casinos his friends, family and fans would rent buses and go to the shore in a caravan to watch him fight. His younger brother Mike helped him train for many of his fights.

Then he lost a decision to go ten and one before breaking his nose, or rather having his nose broken in a fight at Resorts International. He didn’t want to throw in the towel and came out at the bell, but he was drinking his own blood, so the referee called it a TKO – technical knockout. Now he’s retired from the ring.

“It’s not so bad,” he said. “I don’t miss the violence or the hurt, but I do miss the attention, the limelight, and people recognizing you for who you are and what you’ve done.”

But he was still eating. “Round three” was a final order of Indian corn pancakes, no butter and just a little syrup.

“Now I’m writing nutritional articles for athletic magazines, doing some modeling and trying to break into acting,” Milligan said with a smile, citing his Princeton theatrical experience and work as a boxing commentator.

“I’d be in New York knocking on doors tomorrow if I just had the name of an agent or someone who could help me get into acting,” Milligan said, “though right now I’m concentrating on promoting nutrition.”

Though his mother thinks that maybe he’s a bit over-conscious about his nutrition, there’s little chance of arguing about his health. There’s not an ounce of fat on his body, yet he eats like a horse.

“Your average American doesn’t eat right,” Milligan asserted, complaining about their using a lot of butter and other additives. “It’s not what you eat, it’s what you put on the food. Pasta and pancakes are all right. They’re easily burned off if you work out like I do – swimming and running, but you can’t put a lot of junk on them.”

Finishing up his last pancakes, and Milligan holds the Uncle Bill’s unofficial record of 22 pancakes, he reflected briefly on next week’s “War at the Shore” with Michael Spinks and Gerry Cooney, knowing that it could possibly have been him up there, maybe as an under card. “Yea, I miss the limelight, the attention, the fact that everybody’s watching you, and you’re up there in the ring going one on one with somebody to see who is the better man.”

“Maybe that’s why I want to be an actor now,” he reflected, “to get back in the limelight.”

Now all Henry Milligan needs is an agent to tell him he can’t make it as an actor in New York, and he’ll be there in a minute.

"Jersey Joe" at the Fights in AC

2010-11-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

1929 Mob Convention / Boardwalk Journal 10/2010

2010-10-06T03:41:00.000-07:00

Meyer Lansky, Al Capone, Nucky Johnson and friends stroll the Atlantic City Boardwalk - April, 1929

Boardwalk Journal - October 2010 Issue

http://www.boardwalkjournal.com/

Once Upon A Time in Atlantic City - The Real Story of the 1929 Organized Crime Convention.

http://www.boardwalkjournal.com/component/content/article/1/77-bill-kelly

Walking the Boards

2010-09-30T03:43:00.000-07:00

Doc Stracher's Passport

2010-09-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Capone

2010-09-21T10:06:00.001-07:00

Strolling the Boardwalk

2010-09-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Longie Zwillman

2010-09-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

Bugsy Siegel

2010-09-21T10:03:00.002-07:00

Nucky Johnson

2010-09-21T10:03:00.001-07:00

Meyer Lansky

2010-09-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Meyer Lansky

2010-09-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

Dick Clark at Steel Pier

2009-12-15T03:06:00.000-08:00

Buffet at AC Boardwalk Hall

2009-08-23T01:30:00.000-07:00

When Jimmy Buffet plays the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Sunday, August 23, it will be telling what he says between songs about being partners in the deal to buy the Trump Marina Hotel-Casino and convert it into Margarittiville.

The deal was set, and then with the downturn in the economy, they cut $100 million off the deal, and it was still set to go through, but now they want to renig on it completely, saying that the Trump organization was moving all its assets to its other two casinos in the city - Trump Taj Mahal and the Trump Plaza, both on the boardwalk.

In the meantime, Trump made a deal with a bank to buy back all three of his Atlantic City casinos, which he had lost during bankruptcy, when bondholders forced him out.

Now he's back, and with a lot less debt service, so he doesn't have to sell the Marina if the deal doesn't go through.

But we were hoping for Jimmy's deal to make it, so we could get the T-shirt and flower print shirt retail store concession at the new casino.

Chickenbone Beach Concert Series 2009

2009-07-06T03:07:00.000-07:00

Chickenbone Beach Concert Series – 2009

[http://www.chickenbonebeach.org/]

It used to be that you would catch the jazz in the nightclubs at night, and then see the musicians, bartenders and waiteresses sleeping on the beach in the day. At least that's the way it was in the hey day.

Kentucky Avenue is where the clubs were in Atlantic City, and not far away, on the other side of the boardwalk, was Chickenbone beach was where the musicans were during the day.

With the clubs now gone, and in memory of the Chickenbone Beach heyday, they began this free jazz concert series a decade ago so it should endure into a real Atlantic City tradition.

Held on the boardwalk between Mississippi & Georgia Avenues, in front of Boardwalk Hall at Kennedy Plaza, this year they will hold six free concerts featuring twelve classic acts.

With the opening act beginning at 7 and going to 8 PM, the headliners will perform from 8:30 to 10 PM on select Thursdays beginning July 2 when the Eddie Morgan Trio opens for trombonist Steve Turre, a Mexican-American from the San Francisco Bay area. Steve's played with Ray Charles, the Saturday Night Live band and in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers – The School of Bop. He also plays the shells – The Sanctified Shells – shell choir. Turre has recorded: Lotus Flower (1999 Verve)and In the Spur of the Moment (2000, Telarc). [http://www.steveturre.com/].

On July 9 Dan Fogel opens for legendary Philadelphia jazz man Bootsie Barnes, who we all know from his many appearances at the Cape May Jazz Fest.

Dan was one of the regulars at the Kentucky Avenue nightclubs, beginning as a patron when he snuck in as a kid, and later on as a keyboard player in some of the makeshift bands they would put together for the shows, which ran from 9 pm until the end of the "Breakfast Show" early in the morning when the sun was up. Then it was time to grab some bibs and chicken at Jimmie's take out across the street from the Club Harlem, and hit the beach. Chickenbone Beach.

Danny and Bootsie on the same bill is something. Bootsie comes from the Old School in Philadelphia, where he is the mainstay of a long jazz tradition, and one of the regular members of the Cape May Jazz Fest Sunday afternoon jam sessions when they end each fest in a rousing fashion.

You can get more info about Dan here: [http://www.danfogel.org/]

And Bootsie can be found at: [http://www.bootsiebarnes.com/]

On July 16 – Hassan Abdullah Quintet opens for the First Lady of Jazz Guitar Monnette Sudler, who runs the guitar workshop at the Cape May Fest, encouraging young people to play jazz on the guitar. These two acts will be double dynomyte.

[http://www.monnettesudlermusic.com/]

On August 6 the CBB Youth Jazz Ensemble – Camp by IDEA of Camden, New Jersey, my Hometown [http://www.idea-arts.org/], will open for pianist Orrin Evans. Now from Philadelphia by way of Trenton, Evans moved to NY in 1995. A teacher, producer and arranger at the Girard Academy and the Mason Gross School of Arts Rutgers, Orrin has recorded Luvpark; Live in Jackson, Mississipi,(on Imani).

Check them out: [http://www.myspace.com/orrinevans]

On August 13 there's Tony Day Trio and flute and sax queen Tia Fuller, a composer and educator, who graduated Magna Cum Laude in college and got a Masters degree in Jazz Pedagogy and Performance from University of Colorado at Boulder (Summa Cum Laude). She's part of the Bayonce Experience and has recorded Pillar of Strength (2005 Wambui) and Healing Space (2007 Mack Avenue). Tia also plays with the T. S. Monk Septet, and other bands and orchestras (ie Nancy Wilson, Jon Faddis, Rufus Reid, Sean Jones) and gave keynote address at the Jazz Institute of New Jersey – “Journey to Success." The daughter of Denver teachers, she has taught at Stanford, played Duquesne and the Panama Jazz Fest.

On August 20 there's Mysterious Traveler with pianist/composer Helen Sung.
Helen is from Texas, UT Austin, where she teaches San Antonio public school students.
[Helen@helensung.com ] She's recorded Songbird (after Albeniz) and teaches at the Helenistique T. Monk Institute of Jazz at New England Conservatory. With Kennedy Center honors, she is a Chinese classical pianist who switched to jazz while a student at UTAustin.

More on Ms. Helen: [http://www.helensung.com/]

Now that's some lineup of great jazz, and every one of those acts is also involved, somehow, in teaching jazz to young people. Hell, you should get school credit for just going to the show.

And it's at Kennedy Plaza, where you can also take in some real art - a sculpture of President John F. Kennedy, dedicated at the 1964 Democratic National Convention when his brother Bobby delivered a famous eulogy.

I will get more on the sculpture - the artist is from Texas, and unlike the bla, nothing, box memorial for JFK just off Dealey Plaza in Dallas, this bronze JFK bust is a very real and almost moving likeness. I have photos somewhere - and find some links to Bobby's speech, since if we're going to learn something about jazz we might as well learn something about why they call the venue JFK Plaza, right?

If you agree, let me know

billkelly3@gmail.com

"Snooks" Perlstein - Billiards Champion

2009-06-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

"Snooks" Perlstein - A Pocket Full of Memories Shooting Pool

By William Kelly

It's 7 p.m. on Wednesday night at Sullivan's bar in Somers Point, and Morris "Snooks" Perlstein lines up a practice shot before the beginning of the first game of he pocket billiards Winter League season.

Snooks stands out from the rest of his eight man team. Maybe its his age. This modest octogenarian is a half century older than the average age of the rest of the players, but he manges to keep a steady hand on the stick, hit the ball straight and sink it in the corner pocket like it was second nature. For Snooks, it is second nature.

This former Atlantic City pocket billiards champion (1951-1954) is generally recognized as being the only living person to have played every world champion since 1926. And he's defeated quite a few of them, including the legendary Ralph Greenleaf, the greatest pool player of all time.

"I'll be 88 years old this Christmas," Snooks says as he slides up to Sullivan's bar and orders a drink. "I was a Christmas present, and I don't believe it myself that I'm still around and still shooting pool."

Born in Philadelphia on December 25, 1904, Morris Perlstein moved to Atlantic City with his family when he was 4, and began to play pool at the YMCA when he was 15.

"Then I began to practice regularly and I really got into the game," he says. And he's been playing it ever since, except for the years he was in the poultry business, when as he puts it, "I had to lay off the game for awhile."

Snooker is a pocket billiards game popular in England, and if you're left without a good shot, you've been "snookered." Snooks however, didn't get his nickname from the poolhalls as one might imagine.

"I got my nickname when I was eight years old, when Earl Yost, a close friend whose family owned Yost Bakery, said that I looked like Snookie Ukom, a comic book character. I didn't know anything about pool at the time."

A few years later he discovered pool, started hanging out at the Y, and then one day went into George Ross' Pool Parlor on South North Carolina Avenue, where he played his best games and legendary opponents - Greenleaf, Tom Heuston, George Kelly, Willie Mosconi - all the great names of the great game.

In 1926 he practiced every day all summer long with Tom Heuston, a houseman at the Grand Atlantic Hotel on South Virginia Ave. They had a six table room at the Hotel and Snooks and Heuston played and practiced. "What a great player and gentleman he was," recalls Perlstein of Heuston. "He's one of the great players nobody knows."

Heuston left Atlantic City for Philadelphia, where he won the World Championship, then won it again. He won the World Championship six time in all, and for two years held teh World Championship in Three Cushion Billiards as well.

In 1948 Ralph Greenleaf came to Atlantic City to play some demonstration games at Ross's Pool Parlor, but found himself in a real match against Perlstein. While Willie Mosconi is well known as the greatest living player, with some 15 World Championships, Greenleaf is credited with 17 World Championships and is recognized by many as the greatest pool player who ever lived. Greenleaf dominated the play for decades from the early '20s on. And when he was no longer in his prime, he seldom, if ever, lost.

When Greenleaf faced off against Perlstein however, Snooks is the one who gave the demonstration, winning the straight pool match 150-147.

"I don't think any match meant more to me, since Greenleaf was the greatest of all time," says Snooks. When Greenleaf died in Mt. Holly, Snooks paid his respects and attended the service.

He has also played, and lost to Willie Mosconi three times. "He ran 135 and was out at 150," laments Perlstein. He hears occassionally from Willie Mosconi's wife, who keeps him posted on the health of the former champion, who hasn't been feeling well lately. (God bless you Willie!)

Snooks became Atlantic City champion in 1951 and held the title four years, making Ross' Pool Parlor a mandatory storp on the old pool shark circuit. Having played every world champion since 1926, Snooks knows them all. Besides Greenleaf and Mosconi he's played Allen Hopkins, Don Wills and Chic Davis, the great black billiards player, who he rallied 40 consecutive points to win 150-79.

At Ross's in 1951 he played George Kelly, the national champion from Philadelphia. "Kelly was a real gentleman," says Snooks, of Grace Kelly's uncle (his father and her father were brothers).

Nor was Ross's Pool Parlor your typical pool hall. "He ran a good room," Perlsteain recalls. "It was a gentleman's room. If he heard someone cussen' he would ask them to leave. It had one 5' by 10' demonstration table, with the rest being 4' 1/2 by 9' regulation.

In 1978 N.J. State Senator Steve Perskie introduced a resolution recognizing Snooks, with Rep. William Hughes doing the same thing in Congress. The resolution reads in part: "Whereas Morris 'Snooks' Perlstein, a lifelong resident and most distinguished citizen of Atlantic City has earned an enviable and truly outstanding reputation for his prowess on the green clooth as a player of the elegant game of pocket billiards....A gentle and modest man who has dazzled us all with his skill...made Atlantic City a mandatory stop for those seeking worldwide recognition in this skilled and artful game...and has played virtually every world and national champion..."

Snooks' team, Sullivan's A Team in the Winter Bar league is the defending champion in the league, but they don't consider Snooks a ringer. "Not at my age. I'm too old to be a ringer," he says. "Besides, we play on small bar size tables, which are a lot different from a regulation table - you can't play the angles as much, and luck comes into play more. You have to be lucky on a bar table. And you can be lucky, but the next guy can be luckier. The skill comes out on a regulation table."

Snooks also plays often at the Margate Log Cabin, a private club with a pool table that Snooks personally pays the upkeep on. "I've never had a table at home," Snooks says, which allows him to get out of his Ventnor home and socialize.

What advice does he give young players who ask?

"Practice."

"That's the greatest advice of all. If you're interested in the game, practice. Steve Miserak says that too, but I was telling people that before Steve was born."

Then Snooks puts his glass on the bar, picks up his stick and goes back to take a few shots before the Pocket Billiards League begins its winter season at Sullivan's Bar & Grill, Somers Point, New Jersey.

Sommelier John Mahoney

2009-06-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

A Touch of Class, By the Glass

- Teaching the Fine Art of Putting Food and Wine Together

[Published The SandPaper, Friday, May 31, 1996 ]

By William Kelly

The first question usually asked before a serious dinner is, "Red, white or sparkling?"

At dinner with John Mahoney however, it's usually all three, especially when he hosts a dinner party that puts the taste of the food and wine back on the pallet together.

While a sit-down dinner where the wine is as much the featured attraction as the food is nothing new for the cultured classes, the most of us, a five-course mean with four glasses of wine and some champagne is a big night.

For Mahoney, it's becoming a matter of professional routine. Mahoney is what the French call a sommelier - a professional wine connoisseur. Learning to enjoy the world's wine is an experience that he enjoys sharing with others. In one week he tasted 386 different varieties of wine.

"My wife doesn't believe me," he said, "but it's work." Mahoney, a former Atlantic County freeholder from Milmay, is a professoinal wine consultant, a national instructor affiliated with the Society of Wine Educators who teaches courses in the art, science and history of wine making and tasting. He also serves as a wine consultant to some of the Jersey Shore's oldest and finest restaurants, including the Washington Inn in Cape May and Gregory's in Somers Point.

While the Washington Inn has Cape May's largest and most varied wine cellar, Gregory's has a limited, yet quite satisfactory selection, available from a wine list that Mahoney helped assemble. He also conducts periodic dinner parties at which different types of wines are tasted.

For Mahoney, the food and wine go together. He works with the chef in preparing different courses of the meal to go with the different varieties of wine.

"Each course is designed to go with each wine," Mahoney explained at a recent function he hosted at Gregory's dining room, where he greeted each person at the door with a freshly poured glass of sparkling white wine.

As a technical point, if it's not from the Champagne region of France, it's sparkling or bubbling wine, and served in a fluted, rather than a wide-brimmed, glass.

"I always start out with sparkling wine, or Champagne, because it cleanses the pallet," he explained. The pallet experiences a variety of tastes as the evening wears on.

Each place at every table is set with four wine glasses and a Champagne flute. The wine is opened early - to breathe - and it's laid out in the order in which the meal is served. Usually, each wine-tasting diner party has a theme, with the food recipes prepared around the wine that will be presented. While on this night the sparkling wine was of a domestic variety, the still wines were from Australia.

For Wine 101 students, the first lesson is "Sip, don't gulp. The more you sip it, the more you can taste and get out of it," advises Mahoney.

And don't just drink it.

"Splash it around the glass. Let it breathe. Smell its aroma. Sip it, then swash it around your mouth so you can enjoy it to its fullest."

Then you can even spit it out if you don't want to get too tipsy, although that's one of the more pleasant side-effects. According to Mahoney, wine is fermented in large casks, which are either made of oak or aluminum, and you should be able to taste the difference between the wood and the metal.

But you can really taste the difference with the food. Each course of the meal is designed to bring out the best of each wine. "Sipping the wine lets you learn how the food and wine combination works," says the sommelier.

At Gregory's, chefs Joseph and Paul Gregory take pride in their culinary skills, learned in the family's restaurant kitchen, and at the Culinary Arts Institute (CAI) at Atlantic Community College, where both matriculated.

Another tidbit for beginners is, to answer the first question; try both red and white wines over dinner, starting with white.

The Australian-flavored recipes developed by Joe and Paul included a "Crocodile Tear Soup" of consomme with quenelles (dumplings), served with Queen Adelaide Chardonnay Classic, Australia's number one selling wine.

Now, you may think that wine wit dinner may be an expensive proposition, but it doesn't have to be. This Queen Adelaide Chardonnay retails for a reasonable $4.67.

Between courses, Mahoney gets everyone's attention by tapping a spoon on a glass and commencing with a brief description of the wine about to be consumed, and how it fits in with the item on the menu. Another classic Aussie Chardonnay, Seppelt Semillon, is sipped along with a noodle (fusulli) with cinnamon and apple appetizer. A Seppelt Cabernet/Shiraz Classic goes well with the flower salad with raspberry vigaigrette dressing and grilled prawns (shrimp), a nice Australian touch.

After a "Freemantle Frozen ZBanana Sorbet," the main course, fresch spring lamb chop, served with a Evan and Tate Gnangara spiced shiraz, a more expensive red wine. With desert, Seppelt's Gold Medal Old Tafford Tawney Port goes well with the vanilla custard and caramel sauce, bringing out the best of the port. The reservation-only affair, normally limited to less than 40 people, is usually advertised in advance. Cost is about $45 per person, and includes food, wine, tax and tip.

WHICH REMINDS ME. I HAVE TO TELL THE STORY OF MY VISIT BY HELICOPTER TO THE MARGRET RIVER WINERY NEAR FREEMANTLE.

Atlantic City Jazz Festival Trivia Question

2009-06-22T17:38:00.001-07:00

ATLANTIC CITY JAZZ FESTIVAL TRIVIA QUESTION

What year was this jazz festival?

I have the poster, but it doesn't say what year.

What decade was this jazz festival?

I'm thinking late 70s early 80s?

An Elsie Street Production?

If you know the answer, if you were there, if you have pictures,
let me know.

Billkelly3@gmail.com

Third Annual
Atlantic City Jazz Festival

The Biggest Jazz Festival in the History of New Jersey
Historic Gardner's Basin
Atlantic City

Friday
August 7

8:00 PM

Melba Moore
Art Blakey
Maynard Ferguson's Big Band
Ramsey Lewis Trio
Herbie Mann

Saturday
August 8

8:00 PM

Ray Charles
Nancy Wilson
Pieces of a Dream
Special Guest Artist
Grover Washington, Jr.
Buddy Rich's Big Band

Sunday
August 9

3:00 PM

Super Jazz Fusion All-Stars

Roy Ayers
Stanley Turrentine
Lonnie Liston Smith
Jean Carn
Bobbi Humphreys
Bobby "Blue" Bland
"Saces" - Damita Jo

Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall

2009-06-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall (formerlly Convention Hall. Built 1929

Buffet at the Beach Bar, Freemantle, WA

2009-05-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

Irene's Gift Shop AC & OC Boardwalks

2009-05-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

Irene's Gift Shop was an Atlantic City boardwalk institution for decades, as was the off-shoot, Eddie Devlin's Irene's on the Ocean City, N.J. boardwalk.

Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall

2009-05-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall

RFK, Jr. in Atalantic City - December 10, 2008

2008-12-09T11:13:00.000-08:00

RFK, Jr. Visit to Atlantic City

It’s been 44 years since his father gave an inspiring speech to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City in 1964, and 28 years since he first made a campaign appearance on behalf of his uncle Ted’s presidential bid in 1980, so there is some anticipation for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s keynote speech before the realtor’s convention in Atlantic City.

1964 was the worst. The Democratic National Convention was supposed to be a happy occasion to re-nominate JFK for his second term as President.

How Atlantic City, woefully unprepared, even got the Convention hasn’t been adequately documented, but the local Democrats, including those from Philadelphia and Camden, as well as Atlantic City, helped JFK get the nomination and win the 1960 election.

Skinny D’Amato among them, owned the 500 Club in Atlantic City, and helped deliver West Virginia to JFK in the critical primary against Hubert Humphrey, allegedly delivering cash and influence through the West Virginia Sheriff’s association, who held their annual convention in Atlantic City.

Skinny’s main man, Frank Sinatra, was also good pals with the President, and was scheduled to sing at the Five during the Convention, which would have rivaled the Presidential inaugural ball parties, and put Atlantic City on the map once again.

Then everything went wrong.

Skinny also worked as manager of Sinatra’s Cal-Neva Lodge, where his partner was Sam Giancana, the Chicago mobster who was targeted for prosecution by Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department, while at the same time, was being used by the CIA to kill Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Frank and Jack had a falling out, but Atlantic City still had the Convention, and Frank was still booked at the Five.

Then JFK was killed, and it was LBJ who was re-nominated at the Atlantic City Democratic National Convention, and RFK who gave the keynote eulogy to his slain brother, a speech often recognized as one of the best ever delivered.

One of RFK’s most distinguished moments was also Atlantic City’s worst and most embarrassing, as all of the reporters and media in town not only reported on the Convention, but also complained about the leaky plumbing, moldy rooms and decaying resort.

Even the Democrats millions of dollars in Urban Renewal money couldn’t save Atlantic City, and it wasn’t until gambling was approved in 1976 and the first casinos opened when the town began to reemerge as an important economically influential city.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who recently said he was not interested in being appointed to the Senate seat occupied by Hillary Clinton, and once held by his father, instead suggested his cousin Caroline Kennedy. He has also been mentioned as a possible member of the Obama cabinet, and he is certainly qualified to be Secretary of the Interior.

RFK, Jr. is expected to deliver his address on Wednesday on the environment, but he could touch on a number of interesting subjects, and his speech is well anticipated by more than just those attending the real estate convention.

Today we sit on a precipice similar to where the city was in 1964, except this time it is not to recreate a new city, but to recreate an economic climate that can be successful, yet balance the economic necessities with a fragile ecological environment where we live, work and play.

Bill Kelly – November 9, 2008

Tribute to John F. Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention
Robert F. Kennedy
Atlantic City, New Jersey
August 27, 1964

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/RFK/RFK+Address+to+the+Democratic+National+Convention.htm

Mr. Chairman, I wish to speak just for a few moments.

I first want to thank all of you delegates to the Democratic National Convention and the supporters of the Democratic Party for all that you did for President John F. Kennedy.

I want to express my appreciation to you for the efforts that you made on his behalf at the convention four years ago, the efforts that you made on his behalf for his election in November of 1960, and perhaps most importantly, the encouragement and the strength that you gave him after he was elected President of the United States.

I know that it was a source of the greatest strength to him to know that there were thousands of people all over the United States who were together with him, dedicated to certain principles and to certain ideals.

No matter what talent an individual possesses, what energy he might have, no matter how much integrity and how much honesty he might have, if he is by himself, and particularly a political figure, he can accomplish very little. But if he is sustained, as President Kennedy was, by the Democratic Party all over the United States, dedicated to the same things that he was attempting to accomplish, he can accomplish a great deal.

No one knew that more than President John F. Kennedy. He used to take great pride in telling of the trip that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison made up the Hudson River in 1800 on a botanical expedition searching for butterflies; that they ended up down in New York City and that they formed the Democratic Party.

He took great pride in the fact that the Democratic Party was the oldest political Party in the world, and he knew that this linkage of Madison and Jefferson with the leaders in New York combined the North and South, and combined the industrial areas of the country with the rural farms and that this combination was always dedicated to progress and all of our Presidents have been dedicated to progress.

He thought of Thomas Jefferson in the Louisiana Purchase, and also when Jefferson realized that the United States could not remain on the Eastern Seaboard and sent Lewis and Clark to the West Coast; of Andrew Jackson; of Woodrow Wilson; of Franklin Roosevelt who saved our citizens who were in great despair because of the financial crisis; of Harry Truman who not only spoke but acted for freedom.

So, when he became President he not only had his own principles and his own ideals but he had the strength of the Democratic Party. As President he wanted to do something for the mentally ill and the mentally retarded; for those who were not covered by Social Security; for those who were not receiving an adequate minimum wage; for those who did not have adequate housing; for our elderly people who had difficulty paying their medical bills; for our fellow citizens who are not white and who had difficulty living in this society. To all this he dedicated himself.

But he realized also that in order for us to make progress here at home, that we had to be strong overseas, that our military strength had to be strong. He said one time, "Only when our arms are sufficient, without doubt, can we be certain, without doubt, that they will never have to be employed." So when we had the crisis with the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc in October of 1962, the Soviet Union withdrew their missiles and bombers from Cuba.

Even beyond that, his idea really was that this country, that this world, should be a better place when we turned it over to the next generation than when we inherited it from the last generation. That is why--with all of the other efforts that he made--the Test Ban Treaty, which was done with Averell Harriman, was so important to him.

And that's why he made such an effort and was committed to the young people not only of the United States but to the young people of the world. And in all of these efforts you were there all of you.

When there were difficulties, you sustained him.

When there were periods of crisis, you stood beside him. When there were periods of happiness, you laughed with him. And when there were periods of sorrow, you comforted him. I realize that as individuals we can't just look back, that we must look forward. When I think of President Kennedy, I think of what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet:

"When he shall die take him and cut him out into stars and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun."

I realize that as individuals, and even more important, as a political party and as a country, we can't just look to the past, we must look to the future.

So I join with you in realizing that what started four years ago--what everyone here started four years ago--that is to be sustained; that is to be continued.

The same effort and the same energy and the same dedication that was given to President John F. Kennedy must be given to President Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey.

If we make that evident, it will not only be for the benefit of the Democratic Party, but, far more important, it will be for the benefit of this whole country.
When we look at this film we must think that President Kennedy once said:
"We have the capacity to make this the best generation in the history of mankind, or make it the last."

If we do our duty, if we meet our responsibilities and our obligations, not just as Democrats, but as American citizens in our local cities and towns and farms and our states and in the country as a whole, then this generation of Americans is going to be the best generation in the history of mankind.

He often quoted from Robert Frost--and said it applied to himself--but we could apply it to the Democratic Party and to all of us as individuals:

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep."

Mrs. Kennedy has asked that this film be dedicated to all of you and to all the others throughout the country who helped make John F. Kennedy President of the United States.

I thank you.

Reflections from someone who was there:

http://www.politickernj.com/max/22436/week-dems-convention-looking-back-ac-and-chi

Med Waste on the Avalon Beach

2008-08-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in the historic Anchorage Tavern the other day when the people sitting next to me, local Somers Pointers, made note of the fact that they just got back from Avalon where they discovered medical waste - needles, syringes, bottles and bags, on the beach around 22nd street.

They came across the debree, called the attention of the lifeguard, and watched as they began the alarm and clean up process. These witnesses said they could clearly see some identification numbers on some of the items.

As the bar room debate began to take sides as to who was responsible, I suggested a conspiracy theory, that the debree was desposited there deliberately by the Poccono resort tourist commission.

That got a hearty laugh all around, and I too thought that a bit outrageous until I read the Tuesday Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported that the mayor and others are now suspecting deliberate sabatogue, rather than the usual malfeasence or mischarage of wastes.

They now acknowledge the ID numbers on the debree and said to expect to learn where it came from in a more "general area," rather than a specific doctor's office.

Now we should go to the local hospitals and learn from them where their wastes goes, and follow it to where it ends up.

What do you say?

Well it turns out that a local doctor personally went out in his boat and distributed the waste. He's been charged and is waiting a court date, but has not divulged his motives yet.

BK

ACConsig

2008-04-30T19:48:00.001-07:00

Hey, I just started this blog when I came up with the name ACConsig, which I thought a great name for a network interested in covering what's going on in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

Atlantic City is now the economic industrial engine that keeps New Jersey running, and will most certainly become even more important in time.

Not just the casinos, the boardwalks, the beaches, the golf, the fishing, boating and sailing, Atlantic City and environs is a magnet for business, tourists, vacationers, gamblers and people who just like to live or spend time at the Jersey Shore.

Entertainment is a big part of that equation, and the casinos have been providing a lot of that lately, though I'm more inclined to find the cool jam or comfortable table with a view.

In any case, ACConsig will try to focus on what is happening in and around Atlantic City, answer questions and call attention to interesting events before they happen.

The idea is to develop ACConig into an Atlantic City network of people with similar tastes in music, dining, entertainment and way of doing business.

BK