Girls, Games & GamblingA PR Case Study on Atlantic City, New Jersey

Submitted By:Hadiyah Daché

PR Principles, Practices and TheoryClark Atlanta University

Spring 2007

“Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to like the new ones.”

-Aldous Huxley

One of the greatest public relations campaigns in American history started off as a business proposition to lure tourists and commerce into Atlantic City, New Jersey and appeared to the masses as a vain ode to beauty. What began as the Inter-City Pageant—a two-day beauty contest in September of 1921- turned out to be one of Atlantic City’s most successful publicity stunts, lasting over 85 years. A little over ten years later, Atlantic City had once again pulled a tremendous feat in the world of public relations with the debut of the popular board game Monopoly, featuring streets and places in or very near to Atlantic City. Even in the 21st century, Atlantic City still proves to be going strong while on vacation all year long.

By the turn of the 20th century, Atlantic City had become America’s premiere vacation getaway. Located on the railroad line between Philadelphia and New York, the city got more than it’s fair share of tourists. The city was most popular during the summer season as it was conveniently located on the shore of Absecon Island and boasted the nation’s first boardwalk with extravagant amusement rides and shows, luxurious hotels and one-of-a-kind businesses. But, once summer had ended business started to notice the immediate slow down in commerce.

A look at the Atlantic City Boardwalk in August 1920.

In the early 1920s, business owners had begun to seek new ways of attracting tourists and keeping them, and the city, busy past Labor Day. A pseudo-event was created, called the Fall Frolic, by the Atlantic City Businessmen’s League with the help of developers and city officials (Goldsmith 34). During the Fall Frolic another event had been created entitled the Inter-City Pageant. It was a beauty pageant where contestants were judged on how they looked in appearance as well as a swimsuit. In order to successfully launch this pseudo-event, Atlantic City sought the help of local and major newspapers and reporters as well as radio announcers (as the television had not yet been invented). Contestants were solicited by local newspapers in the Northeastern region. These regional newspapers sponsored a “face contest”, a type of beauty contest based solely on a woman’s photograph. Subscribers were encouraged to mail the name of the woman they’d like to win in to the newspaper.

The women who won these contests in their hometowns won an all-expense paid trip to compete in the two-day beauty pageant in Atlantic City. Newspapers also benefited from the pageant. In a committee meeting it had been suggested that newspapers within the Atlantic City trading area use the pageant as a gimmick to increase circulation (Deford 33). This collective effort between the newspapers and Atlantic City stimulated the public’s desire to visit, the first step in travel public relations. During the first pageant, stimulation occurred solely through the newspapers. By its second cycle stimulation was able to occur through print and radio broadcast.

The second step in travel public relations was only partially successful, however, because there were only arrangements for the local winners to get to the event in Atlantic City. Any additional travelers would have to find a means of their own to getting to the festivities. However, more than 100,000 spectators came out to get a glimpse of the beautiful girls (Deford 36). The event itself endured the success of the third step: making certain that visitors are comfortable, well treated and entertained when they get there (Wilcox 603).

The actual public relations professional assigned to the Inter-City Pageant was a reporter for the Atlantic City Press named Herb Test. It was Test who coined the title of Miss America in 1922 during the selection process that would determine the next winner of the Inter-City Pageant. Test proclaimed, “And we’ll call her, Miss America,” (Deford 41). The success of this pseudoevent isn’t just in the number of attendees but in the number of years the event has continued to take place. Even during the Great Depression, Atlantic City was still able to thrive and put on the Miss America Pageant.

The event was creatively conceptualized from the committee of organizers to appeal to self-interest. The Miss America Pageant, for women, paid attention to their psychological need for beauty and social acceptance under beauty (Wilcox 227). For men, the pageant appealed to affection (Wilcox 228).

Margaret Gorman, the 1st winner of the Inner-City Pageant

Audience participation was a reinforcement factor in the pageant’s success (Wilcox 231) by allowing audience members to vote and help in the selection process of the final winner. Atlantic City remained the home for the Miss America Pageant up until 2004 when it was moved to Las Vegas.

Though there is some controversy over who is credited for creating the popular Monopoly board game we know today, there is no question over where the game takes place. It is believed that the Atlantic City version of the board game, and American standard version, was created in 1936 by Charles Darrow (Brady 11). But before it got to Atlantic City, the game had many names and was centered around many different U.S. cities. A woman by the name of Ruth Hoskins had learned the game (called Finance) in Indianapolis, Indiana. When she returned home to Atlantic City she made a new board and replaced the Indianapolis landmarks with those of Atlantic City (Moore 29). While teaching the game to a group of Quakers, Hoskins also changed the rule of Finance from auctioning off property to buying it at the listed price because the Quakers did not believe in auctions.

The rule change is said to be an original from one of the first variations of the game by Lizzie Maggie. Darrow learned this version of the game from Hoskins significant other and decided to create a set of his own. Using the same Atlantic City streets as Hoskins, Darrow created a board that was more aesthetically pleasing and sales took off throughout New Jersey and Philadel-phia. Eventually, Darrow’s version was picked up Parker Brothers and the rest is history.

The Monopoly and Atlantic City relationship is one of particular interest because it is a symbiotic one formed out of complete happenstance. For Atlantic City, the game became free publicity. The success of the Monopoly board games led to the Atlantic City Resort being the leading resort in the U.S. throughout the 1940s. According to Mark Morris, the public relations director for Hasbro games (the company that owns Parker Brothers), the games familiarity was a large part of its success (Courier Post 2004).

An early mock-up of Lizzie Maggie’s version of Finance

Modern-day Monopoly founder Charles Darrow with his version of the game

The fact that everyone knew the Boardwalk without having ever been, made family trips to the Boardwalk much more exciting. Monopoly is a very creative example of product placement; but in this instance the product is a city (Wilcox 409). Along the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, there is a Monopoly-esque structure at each landmark, along with information on that location’s historical background.

Today, Atlantic City is still a thriving tourist location. However, these days it isn’t all from the Miss America Pageant nor the curiosity of some childhood dream that longs to see the “real” Monopoly. Today, Atlantic City continues to thrive from casino resorts and the gambling revenues. The addition of the casino’s to the city in the late 1970s have transformed Atlantic City into a year-round business. The businessmen no longer need to create pseudoevents to get tourists to stay late into September, tourists stay all year.

Works Cited

Brady, Maxine. The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World’s Most Popular Game, First hardcover edition, D. McKay Co. 1974.

Deford, Frank. There She Is: The Life and Times of Miss America. New York: Viking, 1971.

Goldsmith, Rosie. “And The Winner Is…” New Statesman, 10/17/2005, Vol. 134 Issue 4762, p34- 35

Moore, Tim (2004). Do Not Pass Go. Vintage Books.

Sokolic, William. “Roll of the Dice put Monopoly, Atlantic City on Gaming Map” Courier-Post Online. June 14, 2004 http://www.courierpostonline.com/ac150/m061404a. htm. Accessed on April 2, 2007.

Wilcox, Dennis et al. Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, Eighth edition. Boston: Pearson Education. 2007.