The 1964
Democratic National Convention - A Half-Century Later Atlantic City Finds
Itself in a Similar Situation – By William Kelly
The 1964
Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City – 50 Years Ago, that took place
from August 24-27th, was an historic watershed event for the island resort – a
crossroads that led to the revitalization of the city – and it could be a cautionary
tale as Atlantic City reaches another, similar crossroads, where it must once
again reinvent itself.
That
such a convention could be held on the boardwalk at all was the vision of Nucky
Johnson, who was a driving force behind the construction of the Convention Hall
– now Boardwalk Hall – which opened in 1929, the same year that he was the host
for the first major meeting of mob bosses from around the country.
Some of
them were business partners with Joe Kennedy, Sr., who held major ownership
interests in major Canadian and European whiskey distillers, and didn’t mind
doing business with the bootleggers during prohibition. Kennedy also held
hidden interest in the Cal-Neva Lodge that startled the border between
California and Nevada, with a casino on the Nevada side, which was purchased by
Giancana and Sinatra, who brought in Atlantic City’s Skinny D’Amato as the
manager.
In 1960
Joe Kennedy touched base once again with Sam Giancana, the mob boss who
controlled the rackets in Chicago, Las Vegas and California, and got him to
support his son Jack’s 1960 bid to be elected president of the United States.
Giancana’s
good friends Frank Sinatra and Skinny D’Amato were quick to oblige, Sinatra
contributing the campaign theme song “High Hopes,” and he introduced JFK to
Judith Campbell Extner, who served as a mistress and courier between Kennedy
and Giancana.
Skinny D'Amato confers with JFK during the 1960 campaign
Skinny D'Amato confers with JFK during the 1960 campaign
Skinny
D’Amato and Camden attorney Angelo Malandra took suitcases full of cash to West
Virginia that was liberally distributed to Skinny’s friends in the West
Virginia Sheriff’s Association, who counted the votes and often visited his 500
Club when they had their annual convention in Atlantic City.
One of
Kennedy’s last hurdles to being nominated as the Democratic candidate at the
1960 Convention in Los Angeles was the West Virginia primary, where the Irish
Catholic Kennedy was up against Hubert Humphrey, a protestant, so that became
the major issue of the primary, which Kennedy won and dispelling that as an
issue.
A couple
of major decisions were made at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los
Angeles, including the addition of Lyndon Baines Johnson to the ticket as the
Vice Presidential candidate, said to be done on the advice of Joe Kennedy, and
naming Atlantic City as the site of the 1964 Democratic Convention, which some
said was a payback to D’Amato and Sinatra for their support during the
primaries.
Actually
H. Hap Farley was the primary mover behind bringing the 1964 Democratic
Convention to Atlantic City. As the political boss who took over after Nucky
Johnson went to prison, Farley is best known for having the Atlantic City
Expressway built, but he also lobbied extensively to bring both the Republican
and Democratic Conventions to the boardwalk, but succeeded, despite being a
staunch Republican, of only enticing the Democrats.
After
winning the nomination and then the election, President Kennedy asked Sinatra
to arrange for the entertainment for the Inaugural Balls, which he did, and
Sinatra was looking forward to organizing a similar party for Kennedy in
Atlantic City when Kennedy would be renominated for his second term at the 1964
Convention.
But then
things went terribly wrong.
Kennedy
appointed his younger brother Robert F. Kennedy as Attorney General and RFK
targeted the mob bosses as part of a war against organized crime, and he
singled out Sam Giancana, New Orleans don Carlos Marcello and Santo Traficante,
of Tampa, Florida, despite their assistance in getting JFK elected and working
closely with the CIA in trying to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
When J.
Edgar Hover, the head of the FBI told RFK the attorney general that his brother
the president was receiving phone calls and visits at the White House from Judy
Campbell Extner, the mob moll who was also in bed with both Sinatra and
Giancana, the president cut off his contacts with Giancana and began to
distance himself from both Extner and Sinatra.
Then,
rather than Castro being assassinated, JFK was shot and killed while riding in
an open car through the streets of Dallas, and instead of JFK being renominated
for a second term, LBJ was the president who was nominated to be the Democratic
candidate at the 1964 convention on the boardwalk in Atlantic City.
After
the resolution of who would represent the racially divided Mississippi
delegation, the three biggest questions going into Atlantic City in August 1964
were who would be the Vice Presidential nominee, what was the still unreleased
Warren Report on the assassination of President Kennedy going to say, and what
was Robert Kennedy going to do?
No one
knew who the Vice Presidential nominee would be until LBJ invited liberal Minnesota
Senator Hubert Humphrey to accompany him on the flight to Atlantic City.
Humphrey, who Kennedy defeated in the West Virginia primary, had presidential
ambitions himself, but would do LBJ’s bidding, and sold his soul to resolve the
Mississippi issue.
As for
the Warren Commission Report, LBJ knew what was ready to go to press, and that
it would conclude that JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, a deranged loner,
and there was no conspiracy, so that only left one big question – what was RFK
going to do?
LBJ
later said that from the moment JFK was murdered, he felt that RFK didn’t think
he deserved to be president, and Johnson considered the possibility that RFK
would try to lead a revolt at the Convention and attempt to hijack the
nomination from him. If the convention atmosphere presented the opportunity,
RFK’s name could have been introduced, and if LBJ didn’t win on the first
ballet, anything could happen.
In order
to avert this possibility, President Johnson took some unprecedented steps. As
Kennedy family historian Arthur Schlesinger wrote, “The tribute to the fallen
President was originally scheduled for Tuesday night. Johnson had it moved back
to Thursday, by which time the nomination would be completed. He took other
precautions, the most extraordinary of which was to send Cartha DeLoach and and
FBI team of thirty snoops and wire tappers to Atlantic City. The ostensible
purpose was to gather intelligence ‘concerning matters of strife, violence,
etc. The real purpose, according to William Sullivan of the FBI, was to gather
political information useful to President Johnson, particularly bottling up
Robert Kennedy – that is reporting on the activities of Robert Kennedy.”
LBJ also
thought that Robert Kennedy would try to wire tap his boardwalk hotel room, so
he secretly moved to a more secure location – the nearby Margate beach house of
Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Baltimore Colts football team.
As RFK
joined the other dignitaries on stage, Jackie Kennedy handed him a note.
As Schlesinger relates, “Finally Senator Henry Jackson, who was presiding, motioned him (RFK) to the rostrum. When Scoop introduced him, it hit, I mean it really hit, it just went on and on. I stood on the floor in the midst of the thunderous ovation. I had never seen anything like it. Ordinarily an organ in the background controls the pandemonium of a convention. This time they stopped the organ after a moment or so. But the demonstration roared on, reaching a new intensity every time that Robert Kennedy, standing with a wistful half-smile on his face, tried to bring it to an end. As Kennedy once more raised his hand to still the uproar, Jackson whispered to him, ‘Let it go on, just let them do it Bob, let them get it out of their system.’ He repressed his tears. Many of the audience did not. He seemed slight, almost frail, as the crowd screamed itself hoarse. It went on for twenty-two minutes. Finally he began to speak. At the end, the quotation: ‘When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine, that all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish sun.’”
Bobby Kennedy Convention Speech About John F. Kennedy 1964 ElectionWallDotOrg - YouTube
These
words, from Romeo and Juliet, were handed to him by Jackie, and preceded a
short film about the life of John F. Kennedy, who would have certainly been
renominated for a second term if fate and destiny did not intervene.
To
commemorate the occasion, the city of Atlantic City named the plaza in front of
the hall “Kennedy Plaza,” and a bust of JFK by renown sculpture Evangelos
Frudakis was unveiled, a bust that was unveiled, a bust that is now partially hidden by a stage where summer concerts are held.
Though
young people today know Kennedy Plaza as the scene of free concerts and a
nightly lightshow, the statute that stands there remains the last vestige of
another era and a reminder of what might have been if Kennedy had lived to
serve a second term.
William
Kelly is a freelance writer and regional historian from Browns Mills, N.J. He
can be reached at Billkelly3@gmail.com
