500 Club

The club's main showroom, the Vermilion Room, often featured the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and the slapstick comedy duo of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Subsequent plans to rebuild or reopen the club in a megaresort hotel in Atlantic City amounted to nothing in the years leading up to D'Amato's death in 1984.

[5] In June 1946, D'Amato and his partner, Irvin Wolf, were able to buy out the half interest of Marco Di Fozio.

[12] The names of the celebrities who performed at the club were written in cement on the sidewalk in front of it, similar to Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

[16] The door to the back rooms was beyond the main showroom and was guarded by a doorman; it opened on D'Amato's nod or word.

[18] D'Amato shut down the illegal casino in the early 1950s in the wake of pressure on organized crime exerted by the Kefauver Committee in the United States Senate and expanded the supper club aspect.

The room had black and white zebra-patterned wallpaper, in the style of New York's El Morocco club, and an indoor waterfall surrounded by imitation exotic vegetation stood in the back.

Performers included Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Martin and Lewis, the Will Mastin Trio, Jimmy Durante, Eartha Kitt, Patti Page, Sophie Tucker, the Jackie Paris Trio, Milton Berle, Nat King Cole, and Liberace, among many others.

Martin was originally billed as a solo act, but was joined by both Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. at the midpoint of his engagement.

[13] The blaze, which also destroyed a next-door restaurant and bar, resulting in $1.5 million worth of damage, was believed to have originated in a dressing room.

[38] D'Amato said in response to the news of the fire, which had taken place shortly after a refurbishment, "I was born on this street, if I can, I'll rebuild it, but I don't know how".

[39] In 1976, after a New Jersey referendum approved the establishment of casino gambling in the state, D'Amato said he hoped to re-establish the 500 Club at one of the city's resort hotels.

[43] In September 2015 the Philly Pops recreated the 500 Club in a Philadelphia restaurant, featuring performances by Deana Martin and Michael Andrew.