The Big Orchestra Show
featuring former members of ELO and ELO Part II
When Parthenon Huxley called to invite me to the Orchestra show featuring former members of ELO and ELO Part II at the Sands Casino, the timing could not have been better.I was planning to go to NY for a baptism and could squeeze both events into my weekend.(I never made it to the baptism). The trip from North Carolina to the northeast is not a fun one. Most of the driving is on interstate 95, an 8 lane monstrosity of a road that runs from Boston to Miami and is not as relaxing as a scenic drive in the country. Its a trip I have taken dozens of times and I hate it. Very little variation in scenary besides the names of cities and the milage signs, but for my pal Parth I would sacrifice my sanity and not only drive the dreaded 95 to my mother-in-laws home in Princeton, but I would then turn around and go southeast another 2 hours to get to Atlantic City the very next day.
We had fully prepared ourselves for this trip by getting two cellular phones from GTE. One for me and one for my wife Andrea. If somehow we were separated in the hysteria at the concert or during the gambling frenzy at The Sands Casino, we would be able to easily locate each other. Also no less important, Parthenon could contact us from his hotel room somewhere in the giant Sands hotel or even ring us from the stage for fun during one of the slow orchesteral interludes. Unfortunately the phones were a disaster and not only could we not call each other but all my messages were being deposited into the mailbox of a couple named Angel and Bobby and could not be retrieved. We were like a ship lost at sea in this very strange world called Atlantic City.
When they legalized gambling in Atlantic City around 20 years ago, everyone in town thought that his train had finally come in. People gobbled up realestate as investments feeling sure that the fortune would be spread throughout the city. It was not to be. What happened was people like Donald Trump and the gambling moguls of Las Vegas built their giant casino hotels and made them so self-sufficient that once you walked in the door you never had to leave until you had run out of money. There were restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, clubs and concert halls all in the building. Inside these buildings was a world of lights and the sound of money. Outside were poor and homeless kept at bay by doormen with brass-buttons on their coats. So while all this money was flowing into Atlantic City it was all going into these Casinos, islands of wealth in a sea of...well maybe not poverty but once you walk out the door of the Casino it gets pretty funky.
Of course I loved it.You have the casino, great restaurants, live jazz and blues in the bars and the misguided hordes spending their social-security checks on the one-armed bandits. These are not the casinos you see in a James Bond movie filled with elegance and sophisticated women who won't sleep with you unless you have a license-to-kill and a couple thousand bucks for champaigne and a room. The people here playing the slots are bussed in from Queens, the Bronx, Philly and Trenton, some with all their belongings in the bag they clutch with one hand while the other endlessly feeds quarters into the machine. The roulete and card tables are the next strata of civilization, college students and young people out for a good time and I suppose a few professional gamblers. One forgets he is only 50 meters from the beach but you can always walk there secure in the knowledge that there is a moving treadmill that will get you back to the casino from the boardwalk when you want to return for some more gambling. The boardwalk itself is a sea of people, like 14th street in NYC on with a beach opposite the tacky shops. But there was not one person on the beach.
The whole time I was a little stressed out. My phone was not working. There was no Parthenon Huxley listed at the Sands and even though there was a big poster of ELO and their music was being played on the house phone system when they put you on hold, Parthenon was not even in the photo. Andrea was beginning to suspect we had been taken in by an elaborate hoax, for what purpose I could only guess at. We were on edge. Rather then enjoy the parade of people on the boardwalk I was on both cell phones talking to GTE, trying to get them working or even contacting Angel and Bob to see if they had any messages for me from Parthenon Huxley. Back in the Sands, none of the dozens of restaurants in the building was suitable for Andrea's purpose, which was simply finding a decent espresso. We finally settled into the easy chairs at the Copa Bar and a minute later Parthenon found us. Things got better at that point.
Parth had a room on the 17th floor with a special key that worked on the elevator. Without this key you could not get to the top 3 floors, including the wonderful 19th floor with its legendary lounge. With this simple key we could get in the door of the 19th floor lounge, into a room with a wonderous buffett with giant shrimp that never ran out, crab-filled artichokes, artichoke-filled crabs, and a huge variety of cheese, meats, salads and artificial and real fruit, plus beautiful waitresses that asked you what you would like to drink and never gave you a bill. The 19th floor lounge was someone's concept of heaven with big stuffed leather chairs, comfortable couches and Jeapordy and Wheel of Fortune, blaring from giant televisions.We spent 4 hours there and would not have left except we got tired of the shrimp.
From there we went to the second floor casino and played the slots. My brother David, also in town for the big show had found us too and on his second quarter won $50. Being more sensible then most of our sad looking neighbors we took his winnings and made our way to the Copa Room for the big ELO show....... The Show