People traveled from far and wide to see artists like Frank Sinatra at the Vermilion Room or catch Martin and Lewis at a local supper club.Īnd in 1976, when a referendum in New Jersey legalized casinos in the state but restricted them to Atlantic City, the town became the East Coast’s gambling hot spot. Later on, Atlantic City gained a reputation as the East Coast’s center for nightlife. Maybe they’d catch a Harry Houdini escape act, or perhaps just stroll the grand boardwalk near the ocean. Train’s gonna take us to the sunniest hideawayįor a resident of New York City in 1910, there was no greater escape than a train ride down to Atlantic City, New Jersey.
There’s a song from the musical Ragtime, set in the early 1900s, that opens like this:
