Content New HBO movie to be based on Atlantic City book
Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 December 2009 17:33 Written by Peter Frycki Tuesday, 15 December 2009 17:28
BOOK REVIEW - Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson
Nelson Johnson is an historian and New Jersey Superior Court Judge and he has released a no-holds barred book that takes a not so complimentary look at what has made AC tick from its very beginning - corruption. It is also a pleasure to read as it follows just a few key historic figures in a way that is part soap opera and part well-written novel. Any New Jersey politics or history buff will thoroughly enjoy hearing all of the old and new stories about the congressman, State legislators, city politicians and racketeers that have always tried to find a new way to skim off just a little to make a lot - and of course not get caught.
Johnson shows the corrupt side of the city in lurid details with plenty of information on each of the main characters that makes them very real indeed. The book is so well crafted that you will know what makes the character tick and feel a small bit of nostalgic sorrow for those arrested. After all, they did work for the good of the city, as long as the work lined their own pockets. The author shows how that corruption is at the core of what always made the city what it is, a tourist meca for the middle class - and whatever their true desires were on those short weekend AC vacations.
"If the people who came to town had wanted Bible readings, we'd have given them that. But nobody ever asked for Bible readings. They wanted booze, broads, and gambling, so that's what we gave 'em," says Murray Fredericks in the text.
Shocker - Gambling and prostitution was in AC from the beginning. And when prohibition was the law in all 50 states - it did not ever apply in AC! And everyone knew it too! For those too young to remember the days before the Casinos, this book might help explain so many things about "The City that is always turned on" that have always seemed just a little askew in today's world.
HBO television has announced that parts of the book will inspire a dramatic movie, with a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Steve Buscemi. Executive-produced by Terence Winter, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg, and Tim Van Patten, Boardwalk Empire is currently in production for HBO.
Read the book first so that the series is even more enjoyable.
Medford Press Book from Plexus Publishing
www.PlexusPublishing.com, www.Amazon.com, www.BarnesandNoble.com.
ISBN: 978-0-9666748-5-9
