The 'Penthouse' publisher was the architect behind Miss America's greatest scandal and the failed Penthouse Boardwalk Casino.
Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione never achieved the full notoriety of his contemporaries in the skin magazine trade, but still loomed as a controversial figure with his publication, which was much more hardcore than Hugh Hefner’s Playboy, but much tamer than Larry Flynt’s Hustler.
Yet Guccione, who died Wednesday at 79, did manage to leave two indelible marks on Atlantic City history.
In 1984, Guccione chose to publish nude photos of then reigning Miss America Vanessa Williams (after Hefner turned them down), creating the biggest scandal in the pageant’s history. While many have forgotten the pageant after it skipped off to Vegas a few years ago, in 1984 Miss America was as beloved an institution as the city had ever known. Watching Williams, who was forced to give up her title, broke a lot of hearts in the resort.
But even before that, Guccione was known around town for his failed Penthouse Boardwalk Casino at Pacific and Missouri avenues. Started in 1978, the project ran out of money and halted construction in 1980. It didn’t help that Guccione never received a gambling license. The hulking steel frame would be an eyesore at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway for more than a decade.
But it was also a must-see photo-op for tourists thanks to the late Vera Coking, who refused to sell her home to the project despite a reported $1 million offer. Her modest little house would be surrounded by that metal superstructure like a caged dollhouse, creating an almost iconic image of the city’s struggle to revitalize itself.
Donald Trump finally acquired the property in 1993 and eventually tore the superstructure down (and had his own battle with Coking).
Much of what Guccione had achieved in his life faded as the Internet cut into his magazine empire and bad deals (like his casino) ate away his fortune.
But he will be remembered here as the architect of one of Atlantic City’s saddest days and one of its most absurd images.
You can read a full obit here.
As long as the dancers don't get naked or touch the patrons in a provocative way, such a club would be permissible, according to the report.
More bad news befell The Pier Shops on Monday, as two restaurants abruptly closed their doors, presumably forever — Game On! sports bar and the Trinity Irish Pub & Carvery.
The Greater Atlantic City GLBT Alliance and Schultz-Hill Scholarship Foundation recently announced the return of the Miss’d America Pageant to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011. Carson Kressley, host of ABC’s True Beauty and Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Sraight Guy, will once again bring his one-of-a-kind humor and showmanship to the pageant [...]
Miss America 2010, Caressa Cameron, is shown here with Charles Haney, the owner of The Melting Pot in Atlantic City. Last Tuesday night, July 13, Haney hosted a dinner at the Melting Pot for the 12 finalists of the Miss Dance USA Pageant, held at the Sheraton Atlantic City from July 13-18. The Melting Pot [...]
All of this went out the window when the Miss America Pageant’s CEO, Art McMaster, called to inform that Las Vegas officials indicated that there would only be one parade, and that it would be in Las Vegas.
The seeds of ideas generally come from a small group that discusses a project and then introduces it to others to build up momentum and to make it become a reality. Thus was born the idea of resurrecting the Miss America Parade in Atlantic City.
Look, I’ll admit it. When the Miss America Pageant rejected its Atlantic City home and booked it to Vegas, I lost interest in the pageant. I wasn’t alone. The ratings for the beauty … um, I mean scholarship pageant, continued to sink on the country cable channel CMT, before moving on to The Learning Channel [...]
Last Wednesday night (June 14) Atlantic City welcomed back Miss America. Well, sort of. The reigning Miss America, the lovely, intelligent and warm Miss Jennifer Berry, attended a town hall meeting h...
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