Atlantic City Weekly

There was a song by Ecstasy, Passion & Pain called “Good Things Don’t Last Forever” — but that doesn’t apply to Atlantic City Weekly.

So let me segue back to the beginning. The year was 1974. Memories in Margate was two years old when a young man by the name of Lew Steiner approached me about a new magazine he was putting together called Whoot! He asked if I would like to get involved. I said financially, no, but creatively, yes.

Remember, this was years before gambling. At that time, who knew that the shore would go 52 weeks a year? Traditionally it went from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But we both agreed that there was enough nightlife in the area to make this an exceptional venture.

By the way, Lew had his own history in show business. As a college student he had interned for TV production at New Jersey Public Broadcasting. I felt that with the combination of my being on the radio at the shore and my own relatively new venture at Memories in Margate, there was enough happening for me to do a weekly column.

So I began writing the “Geator Gab,” talking about the people, the places, and the excitement that were a part of the shore community. Back then, before faxes, before e-mail, the column was typed manually — sometimes we even did it in longhand — and mailed in from Philadelphia. Now, of course, it all happens in a snap.

Don’t know how many people back then believed that the Whoot! would be successful, or that it would turn out to be the most read weekly down at the shore. The ongoing success of the Atlantic City Weekly is what Lew Steiner’s vision was back then, and it holds true today — a local periodical about the sites, the scenes, and the people from all over the world who now come and keep the area alive and happening 52 weeks a year.

Through the years our column has changed. What was once the “Geator Gab” underwent a transformation as a result of the many questions we were receiving from readers about my years as an entertainer, about my friends, about my music and about show business in general. So in 2003, when the Whoot! became the Atlantic City Weekly, the “Geator Gab” became “Ask the Geator,” incorporating my 50 years of musical knowledge and show business history, but still continuing to inform its readers, as the Atlantic City Weekly does, about the events and happenings in this wonderful town.

So congratulations to the Whoot!, now the Atlantic City Weekly, on 35 years of being a great part of this community. I commend Lew Steiner for his foresight and his passion, and for taking the Whoot! to where it is today. Rock on, Atlantic City Weekly!

And remember this Saturday evening, Nov. 7, we’ll lift our glasses in tribute to the first 35 years and to many, many more, when we open Memories in Margate for the night to do a record hop benefiting underprivileged children in Ocean City, and you’re invited. For tickets and more info, call Own the Shore Realty at 398-3199 or Coastal Realty at 399-388, or go online at geatorgold.net.

Got a question for Jerry? Send it to AskTheGeator@acweekly.com or Geator Gold Radio, 626 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. For more info on Jerry’s appearances, go to www.geator.net — and keep on rocking, ’cause you only rock once!