Atlantic City Memories

Wishing Everyone on this Tumblr a

Summer 1957

Enjoy the opening credits.

In 1959 this movie played the entire summer at the Roxy Theater on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ.

1959 Roxy Theater

All summer shown Frank Capra’s Classic “A Hole in the Head”.

Fishing!

Louis Artist Village

Atlantic City bathers would call, “Hey, little boy, do our family portrait right here.” In just a few minutes, young Louis Levine, painting directly on the beach, would bring forth amazing renditions.

The happy recipients would marvel at his magic and hand him a penny, maybe even a nickel. But the vivid painting would soon disappear—much as our memory of the great artist Louis Levine has.

Louis Levine would eventually graduate from the Philadelphia Art Institute, become admired by gifted American painters like Ben Stahl, and establish himself as the world’s Fastest Sketch Artist. But when he painted in the sand as a boy, he did so because he needed those pennies and nickels.

Born in 1915 in Philadelphia, Louis was the beloved son of a very poor Russian immigrant family. They had barely enough to eat. His younger sister was mentally ill. His mother was forever grieved by her past in pogrom-infested Russia.

Yet Levine had gifts: a huge personality, a handsome face, and a phenomenal talent for making sketches of anything at hand. Over time, Levine moved up from the beach (directly below the boardwalk) to the famous Atlantic City boardwalk. People were amazed by the young man’s prowess with the pencil, brush, or pastels. Prices for sketches moving steadily higher—10 to 20 cents a sketch now for paintings that did not disappear!

Planters Souvenirs

Mr. Peanut

The iconic figure of our youth in Atlantic City of the 50′s to 70′s.

Planters Spoons

Mr. Peanut

In 1916, Planters Nut and Chocolate Company ran a contest for a trademark. Antonio Gentile, a resident of Suffolk, Virginia, the peanut-growing capital of the state, began sketching possible entries for the contest. He drew a friendly, humanized peanut tumbling, serving nuts, and walking with a dignified cane.

Planters Peanut Store on the Boardwalk

The Beatles first held a press conference before their show in Atlantic City.

Then they met with a fan.