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"Atlantic City Panorama" by Paul McGehee, the view from Million Dollar Pier of the famous New Jersey beach resort in the summer of 1950. Known as "The World's Playground", Atlantic City is one of the premiere beach resorts of the East Coast. In its heyday it boasted numerous hotels, some of great size...skyscrapers by the sea. One hotel was even shaped like an elephant! Visible in this 1950 view are the Shelburne, Dennis, Marlborough-Blenheim, Claridge, Madison, Traymore and Chalfonte-Haddon Hall hotels. The massive Boardwalk, always teeming with people, was where one could ride in "rolling chairs" past establishments selling Planter's Peanuts, Fralinger's Salt Water Taffy, hot dogs, cotton candy, hot corn on the cob and more. The amusement piers boasted arcade and carnival attractions as well as top-flight entertainers performing on stage...stars of stage, screen, and vaudeville. And, who could ever forget the Steel Pier's famous "diving horse" show? A young lady on horseback would climb a tower and plummet 40' straight down into a pool (four times a day, seven days a week) as an amazed crowd of ticketholders gasped! Thousands not only came for the attractions, but for sunbathing along the white-sand beach as the waves of the Atlantic Ocean lapped at the shore. Atlantic City was where the Miss America pageant started in 1921. The town still hosts this nationally-televised event to this very day, from the gigantic Boardwalk Hall building (formerly known as Convention Hall). The resort became even further ensconced in pop culture as the setting for the popular 1935 board game "Monopoly", which shares its property names (Park Place, Baltic Avenue, St. James Place, etc. and of course, Boardwalk) with the names of streets in Atlantic City. Today, Atlantic City features several hotels and casinos, amusements and numerous fine restaurants. After all of these years, it's still "The World's Playground"! "Atlantic City Panorama" is faithfully reproduced as an archival-quality print from McGehee's original color pencil drawing, each hand-signed by the artist. Edition size: 1,800 S/N prints. Print image size: 8 1/2" x 33".
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