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The Last Good Time: Skinny D'Amato, the Notorious 500 Club, & the Rise and Fall of Atlantic City

Average customer rating:

Jonathan rolls a 7.
A bit of AC history
Interesting Time, Place and People.
Great Read
Save your money!

The Last Good Time: Skinny D'Amato, the Notorious 500 Club, & the Rise and Fall of Atlantic City
Jonathan Van Meter
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0609608770
Release Date: 2003-06-17

Book Description

The Last Good Time is a richly layered epic that brings to life a fascinating place, its politics, people, and culture, through the portrait of one of Atlantic City’s most famous families—the powerful, flamboyant, and ultimately tragic D’Amatos. Paul “Skinny” D’Amato created and presided over the 500 Club, the celebrated supper club that entertained thousands of Americans and helped guide the careers of the great Rat Pack performers—Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra. Skinny was at the center of it all, hovering behind the scenes during the zenith of one of the world’s most notorious playgrounds.

Veteran magazine writer Jonathan Van Meter captures the volatile history of twentieth-century Atlantic City—from the days of Prohibition and smoky speakeasies to the city’s heyday of imported Hollywood glamour and glitz after World War II; from the near demise of the resort in the 1970s to the city’s current era of legal “gaming” and dazzling high-tech hotel/casinos.

Skinny D’Amato avoided the public eye whenever possible, though he was perhaps the most important person in the history of Atlantic City, where his nightclub served as the ultimate backroom for the big players of entertainment, politics, sports, and the Mob. Skinny is rarely acknowledged as part of the Rat Pack, but he was at the center of its creation, its mentor. It was Skinny who taught Sinatra how to hold a cigarette, tip big, be cool. He paired Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin for the first time at his 500 Club, and on any given night back in the 1950s and 1960s, you’d find Elizabeth Taylor, Toots Shor, the Gabor sisters, Joe DiMaggio, Milton Berle, Liberace, Grace Kelly, Nat King Cole, and just about every big player in the underworld hanging out by the bar or in the back rooms. Skinny was a link between politicians—including John F. Kennedy—entertainers, and the Mob and was the subject of constant surveillance by the FBI and tax investigators. Whether he was in the Mob or not, Skinny was the ultimate connected guy, a gentleman’s gentleman, a passionate gambler who had a special touch that brought bigpeople together so that they could have a good time.

As Van Meter evokes the ever-evolving landscape of Atlantic City, he shows us how the D’Amato family, like other larger-than-life American families during the last century, experienced a changing wheel of fortune, seeing great moments of wealth, power, and personal attainment, as well as all manner of human tragedy. In the space of a few years, Skinny’s beloved wife, Bettyjane, died of a brain aneurysm at a relatively young age; the 500 Club burned to the ground; and, perhaps most devastating of all, his son, Angelo, was convicted of brutally murdering two people. With the last of the good times behind him, Skinny retreated to his Ventnor, New Jersey, mansion, taking his card game with him, emerging to see his Rat Pack friends, and, in the process, becoming a living symbol of how cool it all was once upon a time in America.

Van Meter expertly renders one of the great untold tales of modern America, a character portrait of both an extraordinary time and place, and the Zelig-like man who hovered over it all. The Last Good Time is a classic tale of the whiskey-soaked dark side of America’s mid-century popular culture.

Customer Reviews:

Jonathan rolls a 7........2007-06-26

The new and the old Atlantic City!

A fast read from the days of the old Steel Pier right up to the Resort Casinos that line the Boardwalk today.

Van Meter starts this journey as he arrives in town to work at Atlantic City Magazine. He gets word about a "sale" at the home of the late Paul "Skinny" D'Amato, the owner of the famous "500 Club." This is 1986 and Atlantic City is now a gambling mecca.

Van Meter quickly becomes enthralled with D'Amato and the history of the city and figures he's a got a pretty good book on his hands. He's right!

The Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin/Marilyn Monore/ Mob connections drive the narrative and the reader gets caught up in their world. Van Meter keeps the pace with the rich and famous and their connection to D'Amato rolling along, and you get to go for the ride.

Damn good ride! All 296 pages of it. Recommended!

A bit of AC history.......2005-04-28

What a great story of a city (Atlantic City) and a man (Skinny D'Amato) who was larger than life. I enjoyed the rise and fall and re-rise of AC.

I was swept up with the history of Victorian Era resort and wish that the old hotels were still there today. I'm a sucker for old, historic buildings. To read about the decline of AC and the revitilisation with the casinos in the late 1970s/early 1980s was also interesting reading.

At the center of it all was Skinny - friend to the stars, on the fringe of the mob; an interesting character to say the least. This is a "two thumbs up" book - recommend to anyone interested in nearly a century of American history.

Interesting Time, Place and People........2005-03-15

Atlantic City was "THE" place at one time, The 500 Club was very famous, the people were famous or trying to be. My wife was born (1945) and raised in A.C., her relatives hung out at the club. A better writer with better research could have written a great book, I bought 3 as gifts before I had read it. I should have bought one and passed it around. Van Meter scratched a surface of a jewel, not deeply. I hope another writer can cut and polish a multi-faceted gem out of this subject.

Great Read.......2003-10-15

You won't be disapointed with this book!!!! The author integrates all of the interesting details of AC in the past 100 years without boring the reader. Any casual reader or historian will love the clever writing style and attention to detail and context of AC - a town with a dynamic history. The tale of Skinny's life and the 500 should be made into a movie!!!!

After reading The Last Good Time, I was prompted to making a trip, now knowing the history of the town that can't really be what it was and is still struggling with where it needs to be in the future (author's forward).

Save your money!.......2003-09-25

A Very disappointed read! I grew up in NYC (Manhattan) and had heard about the 500 Club from my Father, friends and relatives. This book did not do it justice. I could not even stay focused on this it was soooooo boring at times. Unlike Atlantic City should have been in those times. To give the book some credit there were a few interesting tidbits about Joe Di Maggio, Toots Shor, and Sinatra and Crew! It was nothing I could not have learned watching Biography.

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