Quote:
Originally Posted by Shotsie
Traditionally, Atlantic City was a sleepy resort town where mobsters got away for a weekend on the beach, not this wild capital of rum running and prohibition era lawlessness that they portray on the series.
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"Atlantic City was run as a wide open town, with the local politicians ignoring existing blue laws. During prohibition liquor flowed freely and gambling regularly took place in the back rooms of nightclubs and restaurants.
Through the 1920's and up to about 1960, Atlantic City was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. In its prime, the nation's most popular entertainers regularly performed there. During the 1950s Frank Sinatra regularly appeared at Atlantic City clubs. Atlantic City became one of the most famous resorts in the world."
Everything I've read on Atlantic City during prohibition says it was pretty crazy and gambling was going on there. It had 500,000 people a year coming in to party just on the rail system alone. I don't think of a half million people visiting a town as "sleepy" in 2011. Much less the 1920's.
The story is going to have to follow what happened to Thompson:
"Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson (January 20, 1883 ? December 9, 1968) was an Atlantic City, New Jersey political boss and racketeer. From the 1910s until his imprisonment in 1941, he was the undisputed ?boss? of the Republican political machine that controlled Atlantic City and the Atlantic County government. Using his political position to his advantage, his rule encompassed the Roaring Twenties when Atlantic City was at the height of its popularity as a temporary refuge from Prohibition, his organization also being involved in bootlegging, gambling and prostitution."
Sounds like it WAS kicking ass in the 1920's.
