Here is part of the fascinating, however sickening story of what happened when the gates were opened and the Rabbi found many orphaned children and one child spoke very profoundly of his pain.

ATLANTIC CITY

As a New Jersey native,  I used to be proud of many of their landmarks.

They need to pull the plug on the historical Atlantic City.  It is done…..overcooked …..and dried up.

Sixty years ago it was considered one of the most popular vacation destinations in the country. In fact, it was called the “Playground of America”. For years the Miss America Pageant anchored an exciting week in that city. The Boardwalk was the most famous in the USA and it housed many big stars. It had many similarities to the one and only Las Vegas.

And oh…..something’s amiss.  In recent years, the hotels, casinos, and tourists are losing out to other more stimulating places. Atlantic City won’t roll over and die. They are excited about bringing back the Miss America Pageant this September. That’s a sign of failure, as  the Miss America Pageant has been dying for years.

I recall when they fired the old war horse host, Bert Parks. They replaced him with young emcees with the hopes of making it bigger and better.  When that didn’t happen, they brought Uncle Bert back.  At this point, times had changed, and Burt Parks bombed. The issue was not the emcee, but the beauty pageant itself. It’s over, dead and almost gone. They are trying to resurrect an old lady with too much makeup. Most young women wouldn’t get in a beauty pageant if they were beautiful. It really was a demeaning voyeurism for men who ran this country 50 years ago. We’ve outgrown that stuff and the perception of the beauty pageant has tarnished over the years as equality in women has evolved.

Atlantic City always had the most famous Boardwalk in the world. I remember when I was a kid how impressed I used to be. Unfortunately, today it’s gone to pot. It’s overrun with drunks, pan handlers and dirty pedicab operators who want to pedal you up and down the row of ugly shops selling T-shirts, tattoos, pizza, psychic mind readers, etc.

Atlantic City used to be the only East Coast toilet to flush your money. Now casinos have popped up everywhere so the seniors have a lot of choices on ways to blow their children’s inheritance.

Need more proof? According to Bus & Motorcoach News, traffic to Atlantic City has been on the decline for more than a decade. In February, 140,000 people traveled on casino buses; thirty percent fewer than the same month last year and about half the number riding two years ago.

In the Broadway show “Bells Are Ringing”, there’s a song that’s appropriate now….’The Party’s Over’….(It’s time to call it a day).

Will the last person to leave Atlantic City please turn out the lights.

HAT

HA Thompson, Ty Boyd, Andy Thompson, Don Crosby

A few weeks ago we brought a group of guests to the Hospitality and Tourism Alliance party, a big annual event at the NASCAR grand ballroom. It was a hoot.

Ty Boyd was there too. He and I have been kibitzing for more than 40 years. We have too many coincidences. We honeymooned in the same resort 10 years before we ever met. We spent years at WBT…..the speaking circuit…..talking non stop.

Ty and Pat Boyd

While I’m on the subject of ‘yakking’, anyone who was at the party saw how hard it was to get Ty into the ballroom for dinner. Gov. McCrory doesn’t politic that hard. And how hard it was to get him out when it was over! Ty has been doing this to his poor wife for 53 years and I have just the solution. I was in Petsmart the other day and they have a Great Dane collar and leash that would work perfect on Ty. Pat would have no more problems. One yank and Ty would come running. He would also sit and stay and he’s never done that before.

Don Crosby has offered to do a personality PDP profile on Ty. I told Don it won’t work for him without a ‘BS’ meter. I remember in my radio days when I had astrologers and psychics on my show, and they said Ty was an introvert and would never make it in show business.

Don and Kathleen

HA, Don, Andy

How do you get to the top of anything? Practice, whatever it is, for years. Endless hours. You keep failing until you get it right. Dancing is one of the hardest skills to perfect. Most people can’t tap their foot to the music. Stop saying, “I wish I could do that.” You probably can, but your heart isn’t in it.

These two guys earned the title of “show stoppers” all their lives. Watch. You won’t regret it.

Back in April, WBT celebrated their 90th anniversary and named me to their Hall of Fame. They just put my brass plaque up in the hall last week. The likeness is from 1978 when I had a short Afro like Gabe Kaplan on Welcome Back Kotter.

Something that will last longer than me.

The speaker recently at the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club was Mark Schlereth, ESPN NFL analyst and 12-year veteran of the NFL. He said the average career of an NFL player is 3.4 years. 80% of marriages in the NFL end in divorce because the players don’t have a good ‘Plan B’….when they finish playing. They don’t plan, set goals after they are done playing.

He spoke on leadership. Points of his message:

TRUE LEADERSHIP – when you care more about the people you lead than yourself. Great leaders know who they are. In his opinion the best example of this…….Joe Gibbs former Redskin coach and NASCAR owner. He played for Joe Gibbs. Also:

• Develop the culture of your company so you know where you are going and the goals you are trying to reach.
• Demonstrate care and concern for the people who work for you.  
• Empower your employees. Your obligation is to enrich the lives of others you lead.  
• Don’t point the finger, take the blame.  
• Great leaders cultivate ‘trust’ and it’s difficult to earn……and you can lose it in a split second. 

There is no ‘right way’ to do something wrong.

Let’s keep drinking from this cup.

20 years ago I was in New York City and decided to take a trip to Harlem to see the Apollo Theater and to visit a landmark restaurant in northern Manhattan, called Sylvia’s. A soul food restaurant similar in tradition to The Coffee Cup in Charlotte. Biscuits, ribs and fried chicken, candied yams and collard greens.

In the early 1960’s Sylvia Woods acquired the restaurant and gave it her name. Her brand was not just a restaurant but a ‘hangout.’ A place were you saw people like James Brown, Al Sharpton, Ed Koch, Sidney Poitier, Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, and Bill Clinton when he was President.

Every culture headed to Sylvia’s. It was a melting pot and all the cultures got Sylvia’s love. She had great food but also wonderful friendship. That was the big secret. She would greet you with smiles and warm feelings for coming in. Customers said it was like going to your mom’s house. Sylvia said…. “Give love and show love.” Turns out that was more important than the food.

At Rose (the company I founded in 1985), we’re no different than a good restaurant. Sylvia served good food along with a lot of TLC. Everywhere that you interface with customers is the same. To succeed, you gotta give and show that you love what you’re doing, just like Sylvia’s.

I’m looking at an advertisement in Time Magazine. There’s a picture of Bogart kissing Allison and she says, “Say you love me….say it at least once.” Bogart, clutching her throat, says with their lips pressed together, “I don’t like to talk about it. I like action”. (Excuse me for gagging.)

Was that the way men were supposed to treat women in the 50’s? That was normal love communication in the 50’s huh?

The banner of the ad reads, “Nobody treats them rougher than HUMPHREY BOGART.” Oh really, are you supposed to treat women rough? Bogart was always the tough guy macho male. Think of all the males that were brought up under this influence and still carry that chauvinistic banner.

Next the ad says, “So it’s sizzling action with a sizzling dame….JUNE ALLYSON” Dame? You can’t do that today. Sinatra in his early career called
them ‘dames’ and ‘broads.’ Looking back from this vantage point in history, rather derogatory.

Women got the right to vote in 1920 and men were reluctant to make concessions to women because a lot of them felt they should be kept in their place. In the home, or secretaries, teachers, or nurses. Today women are 50% of the work force.

You want to see how things have changed in 60 years and who’s going to be running the world soon? In a book called The End of Men….The Rise of
Women by Hanna Rosin, men are no longer the dominant sex. Men are falling off the cliff. Men are losing out to women economically because women have better skills and do better in school. Women are more flexible. Women are heads of households and many make more money than men. Women have been underdogs for too long. (See movie “Battle Circus”) Rosin says when manufacturing jobs disappeared it took a toll on men.

Is this bad? I think women are about to take their rightful place in history. It’s only a matter of time that business, politics, and religion will be taken over by women.