U.S News

div class="yn-story-content">

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – From flapper costumes to stroke diversion contests and whiskey-soaked cocktails, ocean City is feat retro, clutch the Roaring '20s in a big way.

It's a newborn strategy to draw newborn playing by invoking the round-the-clock band ambiance of a bygone epoch and cashing in on broad interest in the impact HBO show "Boardwalk Empire" about Prohibition-era ocean City.

Casinos are dressing workers in period costumes, serving drinks from the speakeasy era, doctrine talking and stroke tunes to entertainers and sponsoring diversion contests aforementioned the Lindy, the Charleston and the Shimmy.

Resorts Casino Hotel, whose hotel was built in the 1920s, re-branded itself in a Roaring '20s theme. Caesars and Bally's ocean City held '20s-themed events, and their parent company is considering sponsoring a "Boardwalk Empire" journeying of ocean City, featuring the real-life symptom where semipolitical and rackets boss Enoch "Nucky" President held suite and partook liberally of the intend town's vices — most of which he controlled, as well.

For 30 years, until he was eventually sent to prison in 1941 for set evasion, President dominated ocean City, then digit of the nation's leading resorts. He dominated not exclusive the politico semipolitical organisation that had a power on government, but also made sure illegal liquor, prostitution and recreation operations flourished under the protection of paid-off officials.

"If you came to ocean City backwards then, it was non-stop partying and recreation and fun," said Dennis Gomes, the newborn co-owner of Resorts, who impact on the Roaring '20s thought terminal summer, before the acquire modify became final. "It was a field band environment, a backlash against age conservatism. It was a recreation time."

And a instance grouping want to convey to, it seems.

"Things were rockin' downbound here," said Don Marrandino, orient regional lead of Caesars Entertainment, which owns Caesars, Bally's and digit another ocean City casinos. "We need to intend that back."

Indeed, they do. ocean City has been attractive a beating the past quaternary years, ever since the prototypal casinos unsealed in the metropolis suburbs in Nov 2006. Since then, the nation's second-largest recreation mart has lost nearly a ordinal of its business, falling from $5.2 1000000000 in cards income in 2006 to $3.6 1000000000 terminal year.

And the rivalry keeps coming. university and Algonquin casinos started offering plateau games terminal summer, competing modify more directly with ocean City. Colony unsealed its prototypal cards terminal fall, and a newborn cards is to unstoppered at New royalty City's Aqueduct Racetrack this spring, which module draw soured modify more of ocean City's client base.

The contest is to draw more playing to the seaside resort, and feat backwards 90 eld in instance to do it seems to be the current consensus at the moment.

On Sat night, Bally's held a stroke diversion contest as conception of the Roaring '20s craze, where the contestants had to wear '20s-era outfits.

"The penalization and the style of that epoch was the ultimate," said digit of the contestants, king Lochner of suburban Philadelphia. "Clothes looked such better. People got every clad up."

His partner, Sascha Newberg, said the diversion of that epoch required such more status than it does today.

"You foregather so many assorted people, and everyone has their employ and their role, with every the moves," she said. "Instead of meet movement in a bar smoking, you hit a actual ethnic interaction. A lot of grouping know nothing about this category of penalization or dancing. It's aforementioned looking at a rotary phone and chance it ring."

On New Year's Eve, Resorts clad sextet of its cocktail servers in flapper costumes, with black sequined headbands and feathers tucked inside, strands of pearls cascading downbound digit side. A strolling instrumentalist in a zoot meet greets arriving gamblers in the lobby, a melodic barkeeper is memorizing every the top hits of the '20s. Most of the casinos workers module don those costumes for beatific when Resorts has its grand re-opening around Memorial Day weekend.

When "Boardwalk Empire" debuted in September, Caesars erected a colossus sign with the show's trademark in its lobby, and it apace became digit of the most photographed symptom in ocean City.

Bally's painted murals of '20s-era washing beauties on its Boardwalk facade, and started a self-guided travel journeying of "Boardwalk Empire"-related spots.

And casinos throughout the city offered food, drink and hotel promotions intermeshed to the series, aforementioned hotel flat (long-since oversubscribed out) for $19.20 a night, party and buffet specials for the aforementioned price, whiskey-based drinks straightforward from the show, and modify old-fashioned straight-razor shaves in a barber class chair, meet aforementioned those Nucky President used to enjoy.

"People take knowing where every those characters went and what they did," Marrandino said. "This thing is blistering correct now."

Source