Casinos have been Atlantic City for thirty years, and there are still some people who remember Day One. From the AC Press:
Clutching cash and ready for action, the crowds began surging long before the place was even open. The overflowing masses streamed off the Boardwalk in long lines down Pennsylvania and New York avenues.
Already jittery about their first day at a new job, craps dealer Steve Callender and his co-workers couldn’t believe the crush of people waiting to get inside Resorts International Hotel Casino.
“I don’t think I ever remember seeing so many going into the same place at the same time,” Callender recalled. “We weren’t sure what was going to happen to us. Suddenly, people who were standing in line started pointing at us like we were celebrities. It was cool.”
Once the doors were flung open shortly after 10 a.m. and the gambling began, the crowds grew even larger. Within 20 minutes, the casino reached its capacity of 5,000 people and many others jostled outside shoulder to shoulder. Crowd barriers were set up as the Fire Department and Resorts’ security staff tried to maintain order, limiting the number of people entering the building to 20 at a time.
“It was mayhem – every door, every exit. There were lines everywhere,” said Ann Fox, who was one of the security officers.
Shortly after singer Steve Lawrence ceremoniously rolled the first dice, the slot machines were ringing, cards were dealt and craps tables were packed. It was May 26, 1978, the day Resorts International opened as the first casino and Atlantic City went from being the old-fashioned “Queen of Resorts” to a gambling resort.
“It was chaos,” Callender said in describing the scene. “Everybody was running to get to the slot machines or one of the table games. I was at a craps table and people were standing 12-13 deep just to put a bet down. Some people didn’t know how to bet. They were just throwing money and asking us what to do.”
Callender, who now runs Resorts as its senior vice president of operations, was 24 years old when he began his casino career as a craps dealer. Back then, Resorts bustled with so much activity that employees could barely get any time off. Callender worked three weeks straight until June 17, the day he got married.
“We worked 12 hours a day and had a half an hour a day to have a soda and a sandwich,” said Fox, 54, who now serves as a security shift manager.
Callender, Fox and other “Day One” employees who still work at Resorts said the first day was so hectic that it seems like a blur looking back 30 years later. Marianne Beich, then a blackjack dealer, remembered that the hoopla still hadn’t died down by the time she reported for work at 7 p.m.
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The thought of entourage-less celebrities mingling with ordinary workers seems preposterous now. So does a requirement that Resorts had for men entering the casino after 6 p.m. Aiming for a sophisticated Monte Carlo-style gambling atmosphere, Resorts wanted men to wear jackets at night. The requirement didn’t last long, perhaps because of the garish jackets that Resorts would rent for $10 to men who were not dressed in suits or sport coats.
“They were canary yellow, orange and blue, just the worst colors,” Fox recalled, laughing. “People were showing up in the most incredible outfits. They would say, ‘I paid $600 for this shirt, and I don’t want to rent that ugly jacket for $10.'”
Unlike the round-the-clock gambling that Atlantic City has now, Resorts was forced to close at 6 a.m. on weekends and 4 a.m. on weekdays before reopening at 10 a.m. Limited gambling hours didn’t seem to matter much because Atlantic City had a monopoly on the East Coast at that time. Las Vegas was the only other U.S. casino market in 1978.
Even the color of Resorts was different. Resorts resurrected the old Chalfonte-Haddon Hall hotel complex for the casino. The outside of the building originally was a brownish red, not the more eye-catching white paint that adorns the casino now.
“Merv Griffin painted it white,” Callender said of the celebrity CEO who owned Resorts from 1988 to 1996. “When he painted it, it was beautiful.”
During its history, Resorts has gone through five owners and is now held by Colony Capital LLC, a private real estate investment firm based in Los Angeles. Small by modern standards, Resorts struggles to compete with its younger, larger rivals on the Boardwalk.
Still, the Day One employees talk of their fondness for the old casino and the pride they take in their jobs. They note that 30 years ago, they were the pioneers who helped transform Atlantic City into the $5 billion per year gambling mecca it is today.
“What we went through that first day will never be seen in gaming again,” Beich said. “We made history.”
30 Years of Casino Gaming / Resorts brought full house to Atlantic City
I pulled most of that article because it’s got some valuable historical information and the AC Press site tends to be ephemeral.
I’ve always thought that a book about that first 24 hours would be a great idea. I’d want to talk to as many people as possible and get as many stories as possible about everything leading up to it, the first day, and then the aftermath. But it’s four or five projects down the queue for me, at least for now.
I personally liked the original red brick color better, but then again, I’m into historical stuff. I’d still really like to see an Atlantic City casino with a Victorian-era aesthetic. They could pull it off there much better than in Las Vegas. But it looks like the ultrahip, ultracool look will be dominating in the next building wave.
Finally, for the sake of historical accuracy, I’ve got to tell everyone that a big portion of Atlantic City people don’t pronounce “Resorts” the usual way, with the accent on the second syllable. They use the idiosyncratic pronunciation “RE-sorts.”