Vol. 5, No. 5, May 2008
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In The Beginning...
As the first casino, Resorts International provided the blueprint for everything to come
On November 1, 1976, the big red brick building at North Carolina Avenue and the Boardwalk was plain old Haddon Hall. It was one of the last remaining historic hotels in town—the biggest of the bunch—but it was still just an aging hotel in a dead-end resort.
But on the following day, when New Jersey voters approved the referendum that legalized casino gaming in Atlantic City, Haddon Hall was thrust into history: this would become the place where the East Coast tasted legal casino gambling for the first time.
It was an unlikely site, at least from the viewpoint of history. Haddon Hall and its sister property, the Chalfonte, were once owned by Quakers who as a matter of policy refused to serve alcohol to their guests. These straitlaced proprietors would have been aghast at the free-flowing booze and wild gambling action that soon broke loose within the walls of a converted Haddon Hall.
In expectation that the referendum would pass, a company named Resorts International bought the hotel to refit it as a casino. They were not disappointed, though Resorts nearly missed taking part in the gambling bonanza.
Resorts had once been a paint business. In 1968, Chairman Jim Crosby sold off the Mary Carter Paint Company, bought a Bahamas casino and, of course, renamed the enterprise.
Crosby and Resorts President I.G. “Jack” Davis were bullish on Atlantic City. After the referendum passed, they raced to get Resorts International opened in the former Haddon Hall. The overworked Division of Gaming Enforcement was unable to finish its licensure investigation in time, though, and the Casino Control Commission was forced to issue a temporary license to Resorts the night before the casino was set to open. Along the way, state regulators scrambled to formulate—and enforce—elements of the new gaming rules.
The public couldn’t wait to start playing. On Friday, May 26, 1978—the start of Memorial Day weekend—lines started forming outside the casino almost before dawn. For months, city officials had been planning for the sudden influx of visitors: 150,000 cars a day were expected, and each of the city’s 8,000 hotel and motel rooms was booked.
The sky was overcast, but no one minded. At 10 a.m. Governor Brendan Byrne made a short speech and cut a red ribbon strung across the casino’s Boardwalk entrance. Inside, entertainer Steve Lawrence placed the first official bet: ten dollars on the pass line at craps. He rolled a five, then sevened out. Thousands of gamblers raced through the casino, looking for a spot at the 84 tables or 893 slot machines. When state and casino officials finally counted the take, Resorts International had made more money than any casino ever. In its first year, the casino earned nearly two and a half times more than the Las Vegas Strip’s biggest property, the MGM Grand.
The casino opened each day at 10 a.m. and closed at 4 in the morning on weeknights, 6 a.m. on weekends; in its first days, there was a 15-minute wait just to get in. Steve Lawrence and his wife, Eydie Gorme, headlined a show produced by Tibor Rudas in the Superstar Theater, giving the crowd a taste of Las Vegas-style entertainment, complete with showgirls, choreography, and glitz. Hungry visitors could stop at several restaurants, including Le Palais, a French eatery, and Camelot, a British-themed steakhouse.
By the end of June, Resorts had added about 500 slot machines and 50 more table games and boasted a casino bigger than any in Vegas. It was without a doubt the most successful casino in the world.
As Atlantic City grew in the early 1980s, Resorts International continued to prosper and planned a huge second casino, the Taj Mahal, across Pennsylvania Avenue. Jim Crosby’s death in 1986 threw the company into turmoil, and when the dust settled a year later, Donald Trump owned the Taj site and Merv Griffin had Resorts. Merv Griffin’s Resorts lasted until 1998 when Sun International, owned by South African casino magnate Sol Kerzner, bought it.
Sun planned a massive rebuilding project, but made only modest improvements before selling Resorts in 2001 to Colony Capital LLC, a private equity fund headed by Thomas J. Barrack, Jr. Colony invested heavily in Resorts, adding the 459-room Rendezvous Tower and completely remodeling and expanding the casino itself.
The reborn Resorts continues to blaze a trail in Atlantic City and remains one of the top destinations by the shore. Its current management is carrying the historic legacy of the resort pioneer into the future.
