THE BIGGEST MOB HIT IN YEARS

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ut amoral political operative. Arranged to have a rival councilman lured to a seedy motel by a young hooker, then filmed the encounter in an attempt to get his rival either out of office or in line with the program Calloway was touting. It didn’t work, but that’s not the point. Oh, and did I mention the councilman who was targeted was a part-time minister whose defense was not that he was entrapped, but that he didn’t pay for the sex that was picked up on the video? Mayor Robert Levy. Seemed like a nice guy. Everybody’s friend. A veteran who served with the Green Berets…or not. A personal hustle, but a hustle nonetheless. For years the city’s African-American population had to deal with racism and exclusion. Blacks weren’t part of the early prosperity. In the 1920s, they made up the backbone of the hotel industry’s workforce, but it was almost a plantation situation. With the dawn of casino gambling, they were still largely on the outside, looking in. But when blacks did get power, they didn’t handle it any better than their white predecessors. It wasn’t about making things right, about finally providing opportunities for the city residents to share in the wealth. That might have been the campaign pitch, but the reality after several administrations with African- Americans controlling the mayor’s office and city council is the same old, same old. Everybody’s got game and all that matters is getting ahead. Resorts, whose opening we commemorate this month, understood exactly how to work it. Think about it. There probably wasn’t a better fit than Resorts and Atlantic City. The former Mary Carter Paint Company first showed up in New Jersey helping to shape the referendum and the legislation that would pave the way for this great casino gambling experiment. Resorts had a track record in the Bahamas that raised some questions with the Division of Gaming Enforcement (remember that once independent agency that Gov. Christie has emasculated?). There was the Paradise Island casino staffed by refugees from one of the mob’s Cuban casino operations. And there were the rumored CIA connections, fueled in part by the fact that the casino provided a safe haven for the Shah of Iran when he was driven out of his country. But there was also this. In the Bahamas, Resorts had hired government officials as their barristers (lawyers). That was perfectly permissible under the Bahamian system. It also clearly was smart business. It’s always good to have a leg up in government when your business is in a highly regulated industry. In New Jersey, of course, Resorts couldn’t hire elected officials. But it did the next best thing. Joe McGahn was the Atlantic County State Senator back at the dawn of the casino gambling era. Steven Perskie was one of the local state assemblymen. Resorts local lawyers? Paddy McGahn, the wheelingdealing brother of Senator Joe, and Marvin Perskie, the uncle of Steven. And so the hustle continued. As a kid I came to Atlantic City every summer. My grandmother had a house on Bellvue Avenue The Boardwalk Journal | May 2013 | 39
etween Atlantic and Pacific Avenues. I remember the Five Hundred Club and the Italian Village on the Million Dollar Pier. I remember walking the Boardwalk at night as a 12-year-old, playing in the pinball arcades or going to a movie. There was a great Italian water ice stand in the middle of the Boardwalk block on Bellvue Avenue. Real water ice. One flavor, lemon, with pieces of the lemon rind still in the ice. And on Sundays when you walked home from the beach, all you could smell was gravy cooking in the kitchens of all the transplanted South Philadelphia Italians who made their summer homes there. Shortly after the start of the casino gambling boom, a speculator wanted to buy up one side of the block. This was adjacent to what was supposed to be the Playboy Casino. Remember that? Then it was Elsinore? A “European”-style joint, they said. Gambling on three floors. Never mind that the European label was just a façade to explain away a narrow property that couldn’t sustain a one-floor casino model. Just part of the hustle. Anyway, this speculator wanted to buy up the homes on one side of Bellvue Avenue and was offering $100,000 for each three-story property. This was above market value, but the deal never went anywhere. Shortly after the offer was placed on the table, the neighbors started bickering. Who had a newer kitchen and therefore should get more? Who had hardwood floors or a modern bathroom or a fancier outdoor shower? If their place is worth $100,000, then mine is worth $150,000. What’s in it for me? Vera Coking Ruiz. Who could forget her boarding house on Columbia Place and the great battle with Bob Guccione, the owner of Penthouse Magazine, when the photo layouts in Penthouse were cutting edge porn. Now with the Internet and websites and sex-texting, the magazine almost seems benign. But that’s another story. Guccione was going to build a casino and was buying up the block. Vera Coking Ruiz wanted $1 million for her boarding house. Guccione balked and a financial feud began. He eventually built the steel frame of his casino around her property. The Guccione project faltered, of course, and the steel eventually came down. Enter Donald Trump who built a casino on the Boardwalk and continued to battle with Vera Coking Ruiz. The Donald made out no better than Guccione. Both have since left the scene. But the boarding home, closed and shuttered, remains. The Atlantic City Press ran a story last year that said Vera Coking Ruiz’s family now has the property up for sale. The asking price? Five-million dollars. That’s five times what Guccione wouldn’t pay. Salt Water Taffy? It’s not made with salt water, but who cares. All part of the hype. 40 | The Boardwalk Journal | May 2013
Page 1 and 2: THE BIGGEST MOB HIT IN YEARS. Now A
Page 3: PROUDLY SERVING ATLANTIC CITY SINCE
Page 6: table of contents VOL. 5 ISSUE 5
Page 9 and 10: PokerStar’s bid for the Atlantic
Page 11 and 12: hello my name is Will Pauls WILL PA
Page 13 and 14: Caesars executives Warren Bader and
Page 15 and 16: NaNcy adler NutritioN It’s not a
Page 17 and 18: By Danielle Davies Almost 40 years
Page 19 and 20: fashion by Raina Tallent, Fashion E
Page 21 and 22: 20Questions: Nynell Langford Nynell
Page 24 and 25: Kenneth M. Warren Jr., Esq. My pare
Page 26 and 27: Allen Thomas If you know Atlantic C
Page 28 and 29: Anthony’s Out to Lunch Atlantic C
Page 30 and 31: Popovic, wife of Peter Popovic. It
Page 32 and 33: Lloyd D. Levenson’s - “Life at
Page 34 and 35: Peace of Neuroradiology Mind. Advan
Page 36 and 37: They were lined up down the Boardwa
Page 38 and 39: casino is now in bankruptcy. The st
Page 42 and 43: The diving horse didn’t really di
Page 44 and 45: Quadriceps Sparing Knee Replacement
Page 46 and 47: you should be here accepting them.
Page 48 and 49: Dennis and his friend and martial a
Page 50 and 51: known Dennis Gomes simply, as “Da
Page 52 and 53: speaking at UNLV, I worked in retai
Page 54 and 55: Of course, he did not do all of thi
Page 56 and 57: y Nancy Adler, Nutrition Editor of
Page 58 and 59: • Trademark & Copyright Registrat
Page 60 and 61: “Who’s Jimmy Buffett?” she wa
Page 62 and 63: Atlantic City.... A Place We Call H
Page 64: moreFun nightliFe restaurants Varie

THE BIGGEST MOB HIT IN YEARS

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