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

Nelson Johnson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0937548499 | ISBN-13: 978-0937548493 | Publication Date: July 15, 2002

A bustling little city by the seashore, totally dependent upon money spent by tourists, Atlantic City s popularity rose in the early 20th century and peaked during Prohibition. The resort s singular purpose of providing a good time to its visitors whether lawful or not demanded a single mentality to rule the town. Success of the local economy was the only ideology, and critics and do-gooders weren t tolerated. By 1900, a political juggernaut, funded by payoffs from gambling rooms, bars, and brothels, was firmly entrenched. For the next 70 years, Atlantic City was dominated by a partnership comprised of local politicians and racketeers. This unique alliance reached full bloom in the person of Enoch Nucky Johnson the second of three bosses to head the Republican machine that dominated city politics and society. In Boardwalk Empire, Nucky Johnson, Louis the Commodore Kuehnle, Frank Hap Farley, and Atlantic City itself spring to life in all their garish splendor. Author Nelson Johnson traces AC from its humble beginnings as Jonathan Pitney s seaside health resort, through the notorious backroom politics and power struggles, to the city s astonishing rebirth as an entertainment and gambling mecca where just about anything goes. Boardwalk Empire is a colorful, irresistible history of a unique city and culture. Here is proof positive that truth is stranger and more compelling than fiction. For more information about the HBO television series, or to order the book visit the Plexus Publishing, Inc. website.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Read Boardwalk Empire. . . . Johnson spares no detail when painting a picture of the illegal activities that flourished in Atlantic City."  —Egg Harbor News (New Jersey)

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Nelson Johnson, whose family s presence in Atlantic County predates the founding of Atlantic City, is a lifelong resident of Hammonton, New Jersey. He practiced law for 30 years and was active in Atlantic City and Atlantic County politics through much of that period. As attorney for the Atlantic City Planning Board at the time of the approvals for many of the casinos, he was inspired first to make sense of Atlantic City and later to write an objective political history of the town. The interviews, research, and writing Johnson undertook spanned nearly two decades and resulted in the 2001 book, Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City. Johnson continues to work as an author, researcher, and historian but his day job has changed since the release of Boardwalk Empire: He is currently a Judge of the New Jersey Superior Court, sitting in the Civil Division of Atlantic County. His next book will cover the history of Atlantic City s black community and the contributions of African-Americans to the city s growth and success.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Plexus Publishing (NJ) (July 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937548499
• ISBN-13: 978-0937548493
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,118,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable History, September 28, 2009

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City (Paperback)

When HBO wanted to develop a crime series with the unenviable task of following "The Sopranos," they turned to Martin Scorsese to produce it. The great director chose to base the show on a history book by Nelson Johnson, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, first published in 2002 and now re-released in paperback. The cable drama, starring Steve Buscemi, is shooting this fall in New York and will air next year, with Scorsese directing the pilot.

When people hear the name "Atlantic City," they most likely think of gambling and casinos. But probably not many know that it was the birthplace of the American Mafia. On the Boardwalk today is a picture of a smiling Big Al Capone in a snazzy one-piece bathing suit on one of its historical markers. Few cities can boast of that. In just 30 years of the 19th century, Atlantic City went from being a 10-mile strip of sand dunes to a city based entirely upon two things: tourism and vice.

Nelson Johnson, a New Jersey politician and judge, decided to write the hidden history of Atlantic City; the result is this fascinating and meticulously researched book. Decades-long visitors to the resort like myself, as well as first-time travelers, will find it a good read. He based BOARDWALK EMPIRE on an amazing fact. For the first 70 years of the 20th century, Atlantic City was controlled by just three political bosses who were also, for lack of a better term, gangsters: Louis "the Commodore" Kuehnle, Enoch "Nucky" Johnson (no relation to the author) and Frank "Hap" Farley.

We have often heard of how gangsters historically corrupt elected officials and the police with bribes and payoffs. Atlantic City was different, though, because the gangsters and the Republican Party was one and the same organization. Atlantic City was a one-party city for decades. And here's the really odd thing: the vast majority of the public did not seem to mind because the Republican ward system was effective not only in turning out votes, but also in meeting the needs of the people. Nucky fed the poor. Eventually, the corrupt Republican leaders of the city would dominate and control the entire state of New Jersey.

Johnson takes us back to the earliest days of the resort, when it was filled with more flies and mosquitoes than people. A local doctor named Jonathan Pitney wanted to make some money, so he thought of creating a "health" resort on Abescon Island in the middle of the 19th century. Resorts of any kind were unheard of then, but Cape May, New Jersey, became the nation's first, catering to rich people. By 1870, a rail line linked Philadelphia, the nearest metropolitan area, to the island; Pitney's dream came true, just not the way he expected it.

Atlantic City became the first resort that viewed working class people, mostly from Philly in need of a little diversion after a six-day work week in the factories, as vacationers. The booming resort sought to give the workers what they wanted, which could be summed up in three words: booze, gambling and sex. Atlantic City was born.

The only business on the tiny island was tourism, and the cardinal rule was that the tourists had to go home happy so they would return with their cash the following season. Johnson quotes a local man who said it best: "If the people who came to town had wanted Bible readings, we'd have given 'em that. But nobody ever asked for Bible readings. They wanted booze, broads and gambling, so that's what we gave 'em."

By the 1890s, a Philadelphia newspaper identified 100 brothels on the island, but the cops looked the other way. As long as the payoffs were made to the local Republican machine, racketeers could operate in the open, which is amazing considering that this was Victorian America. Hookers and illegal casinos, and selling booze on Sundays (also unlawful at the time), were vital parts of the town's economy. When a reformist governor threatened to send the state militia in to clean up Atlantic City, boss "Commodore" Kuehnle reassured the local merchants. Johnson writes, "...If the governor did send down the militia, then Kuehnle would have the local whores greet them at the station."

Finally, a way to end war! Of course the militia never arrived, but then America went totally insane after World War I and passed the 19th Amendment prohibiting alcohol. This ushered in the glory years of Atlantic City, which already had seen the rise of huge Beaux Art and architecturally beautiful hotels that lined the Boardwalk like giant sand castles. "Prohibition didn't happen in Atlantic City," according to one expert. There was no need for speakeasies, booze was sold openly, and the famous beach became a major trafficking route for East Coast contraband.

At this time, Atlantic City was ruled by its most flamboyant "decadent monarch" in the person of Enoch "Nucky" Johnson. The author writes, "In his prime, he strode the Boardwalk in evening clothes complete with spats, patent leather shoes, a walking stick, and a red carnation in his lapel. Nucky rode around town in a chauffer-driven, powder blue Rolls Royce limousine...had a retinue of servants to satisfy his every want, and an untaxed income of more than $500,000 a year." He was also a virtual underboss of the Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel New York crime family, the founding fathers of the Mafia. When, in May 1929, organized crime groups from around the country decided to meet to create a nationwide "syndicate" and divide up the turf, there was no question where they were going to hold their meeting. Atlantic City was a wide-open town for gangsters, and Nucky was the perfect host, both gracious and generous.

The repeal of Prohibition and the changing American leisure and travel patterns after World War II sent Atlantic City into a long period of decline. And in reading these pages, Johnson's narrative achieves a bit of a wistful feel. I was reminded of the great Louis Malle 1980 film, Atlantic City, which captured perfectly that time. Burt Lancaster's character says at one point, "You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean back then." But still, the graft, corruption and one-party rule continued unabated until 1971, by which time the once famous resort had nearly become a crumbling ruin.

Johnson takes his history straight through the battle to pass legalized gambling in Atlantic City during the late 1970s and the early decades of the casinos. He is firm in his belief that not only did gambling save the resort from certain death, but it has the potential to make Atlantic City great again. Some might argue this, pointing out that the resort might have been built on a vice, but it is still depending upon a vice to survive. Legalized gambling has hardly been the panacea that proponents promised. Some of the meanest streets of America in terms of poverty can be found just blocks from the casinos. And at night, hookers, another part of the resort's heritage, ply their trades on those sometimes dangerous streets, often within sight of the glittering neon casinos.

Modern-day Atlantic City is filled with ironies like that and ghosts galore. Existing like an afterthought within the shadow of a huge casino tower is the Ritz Hotel, now a condo, which was once the most exclusive spot on the Boardwalk. Nucky, who at one time ruled Atlantic City from the entire ninth floor of the Ritz, would be happy to see the huge casino next door, but extremely disappointed that he was not getting his share of the take.

Nelson Johnson has written a valuable history in BOARDWALK EMPIRE. Reading this book will be good background until we find out what Steve Buscemi does with the role of Nucky Johnson.

--- Reviewed by Tom Callahan

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Killer Read!, September 30, 2002

By 

James I. Manion (Shepherdstown, WV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City (Paperback)

Extremely solid research---the author says it took twenty years, and that is apparent. Johnson tells it all---from salacious anecdote (what the Reading Public demands!) to scholarly relating of broader historical movements to Atlantic City's unique and amazing (some might say "weird") story. So well written, it reads like a novel. From "The Commodore" to "The Donald", Johnson particularly excells at character description. Absolutely brilliant---Highest Recommendation.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NO GAMBLE, January 15, 2003

By 

Robert Wallis (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City (Paperback)

I have been interested in this most amazing city for about 30 years now. I thought that I had nothing else to learn about the city until I read Boardwalk Empire. Thank you Mr. Johnson for bringing a lot of new information to light in a most enjoyable fashion. Once started, it was hard to put this excellent book to rest. I highly recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in urban America. This book is a sure thing.