richard stampone bally's casino atlantic city nj

The building itself was a long, thin rectangle stretching along the boardwalk at Florida Avenue. The world of Playboy Magazine, created in Hefner’s fantasies and brought to life through the lenses and airbrushes of his photographers, became a real place – a place average people could visit. The game was to sell the exclusive club that was Playboy to a clientele eager for the thrill of the city’s finest casino. Playboy’s game in Atlantic City would not be blackjack or craps, roulette or even the very-French Chemin de Fer, though it played them all. Playboy was now main-stream, fashionable and serious, but always with a wink.Īs Hefner and his largely silent Las Vegas partners prepared to open Atlantic City’s seventh casino, there was no question what it would be called. Once decried as pornography by the prim-and-proper society of the 1950s, the magazine had matured with the country. On this April night, Playboy Magazine boasted a monthly circulation of 7 million, with 35 Playboy clubs catering to nearly a million members from Chicago to Osaka. Hugh Hefner, the public face of Playboy, built an empire around his magazine, carefully mixing high fashion, first-class fiction and cutting-edge interviews with glamorous models and artsy nude photo layouts.

In a time far removed from the political correctness of later decades, and not so far removed from the Silly 70s, the rabbit represented wealth and sophistication.

A visit to the Playboy Hotel Casino, Atlantic CityĪs the sun set on Good Friday, 1981, the East Coast’s gambling faithful gathered below a new beacon on the Atlantic City skyline – a white rabbit symbolic of the Playboy empire, shining 22 stories above the street against the black glass background of the Playboy Hotel Casino.

Richard stampone bally's casino atlantic city nj