Don Johnson Atlantic City
- Johnson claims to have won $5.8 million at the Tropicana Casino And Resort in one night, $5 million at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, and $4 million at Caesars Atlantic City, under these favorable conditions and before the casinos got wise and pulled the deal off the table. No stranger to the game.
- Actor Don Johnson and Donald Trumps Friend Marla Maples at Trump Castle Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey November 1 1990. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images.
Contact info for Don Johnson in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Atlantic City, New Jersey: Phone number, address lookup, email address, and social networking profiles on Spokeo, your people search engine for contact info & public records. The Atlantic City mayor, a proponent of the implosion due to the safety issues, nonetheless said Trump Plaza's demise was bittersweet. Barbra Streisand and Don Johnson, Muhammad Ali would be. Don Johnson, the CEO of Heritage Development who in a four-month spree a few years ago won $6 million at the Tropicana, $5 million at the Borgata and $4 million at Caesars and has been written.
Trump Plaza, on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was demolished on Wednesday, February 17. The building opened in 1984 as former president Donald Trump’s first casi...
Trump Plaza, on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was demolished on Wednesday, February 17. The building opened in 1984 as former president Donald Trump’s first casino. Credit: Mike Lopez via Storyful
The former Trump Plaza hotel and casino is demolished on February 17, 2021 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
An Atlantic City casino that was once the crown jewel of Donald Trump’s empire was demolished on Wednesday in a controlled explosion.
The former Trump Plaza casino was destroyed after falling into such disrepair that chunks of the building began peeling off and crashing to the ground.
The planned blast caused the building to fall in on itself, collapsing to the ground in just seconds.
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The controlled blast sees the former Trump Plaza hotel and casino begin to fall. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
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It was reduced to a pile of rubble in seconds. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
The removal of the one-time jewel of former president Donald Trump’s casino empire will clear the way for a prime development opportunity on the middle of the Boardwalk, where the Plaza used to market itself as “Atlantic City’s centrepiece”.
“The way we put Trump Plaza and the city of Atlantic City on the map for the whole world was really incredible,” said Bernie Dillon, events manager for the casino from 1984 to 1991.
“Everyone from Hulk Hogan to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – it was the whole gamut of personalities.
“One night before a Tyson fight I stopped dead in my tracks and looked about four rows in as the place was filling up, and there were two guys leaning in close and having a private conversation: Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.
“It was like that a lot. You had Madonna and Sean Penn walking in, Barbra Streisand and Don Johnson, Muhammad Ali would be there, Oprah sitting with Donald ringside,” he said.
“It was a special time. I’m sorry to see it go.”
Though the former president built the casino, the building is now owned by a different billionaire, Carl Icahn, who acquired the two remaining Trump casinos in 2016 from the last of the company’s many bankruptcies.
The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in its heyday back in 2004. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
A look inside the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino before it was closed in 2014. Picture: Mel Evans/APSource:News Limited
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Trump’s former casino fell into disrepair and was demolished – much like his political career. Picture: Twitter @whitehouseSource:Supplied
Demolition crews positioned explosives at strategic points along the building’s support structures, Fire Chief Scott Evans said.
“It will crumble like a deck of cards,” he said.
Mayor Marty Small proposed using the demolition as a fundraiser for the Boys And Girls Club of Atlantic City, and began an auction for the right to press the button that would bring the structure down.
But Mr Icahn – a donor and former special economic adviser to Mr Trump – objected on safety and liability issues, and got the auction house to halt the bids.
Smoke from the demolition floated over the city. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
A man used the demolition for a personal protest against the former president. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
Mr Icahn said he would replace the $175,000 that had already been bid with his own money.
Opened in 1984, when Trump was a real estate developer in his pre-politics days, Trump Plaza was for a time the most successful casino in Atlantic City.
It was the place to be when mega-events such as a Mike Tyson boxing match or a Rolling Stones concert was held next door in Boardwalk Hall.
Ron Gatewood, a food and beverage worker at Trump Plaza from 1986 until its closing in 2014, brought food and drinks to stars including Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross and Barry White in their hotel rooms.
“They were very down to earth people,” Mr Gatewood recalled. “They never made you feel less-than. They tipped very well. Well, some did, anyway.”
The casino even had a cameo in the film Ocean’s Eleven.
When George Clooney and Brad Pitt recruited actor Bernie Mac’s character to help with a Las Vegas casino heist, they plucked him from Trump Plaza, where he was a dealer.
A pile of debris from the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
The statues survived the demolition. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
Bob McDevitt, president of the main casino workers’ union, said the casino was the epitome of glamour when it first opened.
“When there was a Tyson fight, it was like New Year’s Eve all over the city, massive traffic jams,” he said.
Don Johnson Atlantic City
But things began to sour for Trump Plaza when Donald Trump opened the nearby Trump Taj Mahal in 1990, with crushing debt that led the company to pour most of its resources – and cash – into the shiny new hotel and casino.
“The moment that the Taj Mahal opened up, it began a decline for the Plaza,” Mr McDevitt said.
“In order to make sure the Taj Mahal was successful, they shipped all the high rollers from Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle to the Taj, and they really didn’t invest in the Plaza much.”
The Trump Taj Mahal, one of the casinos acquired by Mr Icahn, has since reopened under new ownership as the Hard Rock.
Trump Plaza was the last of four Atlantic City casinos to close in 2014, victims of an oversaturated casino market both in the New Jersey city and in the larger northeast.
There were 12 casinos at the start of 2014 – there now are nine.
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By the time it closed, Trump Plaza was the poorest performing casino in Atlantic City, taking in as much money from gamblers in eight-and-a-half months as the market-leading Borgata did every two weeks.
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This story was originally published on The Sun and is reproduced here with permission