The Marx Brothers. Fred Astaire, Fanny Brice. All appeared in stage plays over a 10-year period from 1919 to 1929. Thornton Wilder's The Skin Of Our Teeth opened in the resort in 1942. While Atlantic City was never confused with Hollywood, it did serve as a backdrop and setting for many a film, beginning with a 1929 series, The Cohens and the Kellys of Atlantic City.
More recent films reflect the legal gambling era.
The Club Harlem, The 500 Club, The Punch Bowl, The Top Hat, The Bath and Turf, The Calypso Room. Others booked the top performers of the day. Conventions were down here, so we had to have entertainment. But whites would frequent many of the clubs in the black neighborhoods, especially on Kentucky Avenue, home to Club Harlem. The entertainment was 90 percent black.