[5] At the building's dedication, hotel president Richard Harris stated "We are out to do business with the average American citizen without regard to race, religion or politics".

Sheraton spent a further $800,000 on renovations, but sold the hotel again after only thirteen months, on February 18, 1959, to The Ritz of Atlantic City Corp. for the same price they paid for it.

[8] Senator Harrison A. Williams (D-N.J.) told an undercover FBI agent that he could help save the investors $30 million by allowing them to renovate the existing property, rather than building a new one.

The real Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, on whom the character is based, dominated Atlantic City during Prohibition and the Depression,[14] occupied the suites from which he conducted his daily business[3][15][16] until his arrest in 1941 on charges of tax evasion.

[11] A former bellhop at the hotel, James Boyd was Johnson's top enforcer since the late 1920s and was the inspiration for the Boardwalk Empire character Jimmy Darmody.

[20] Renowned guests included performers Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, and Lawrence Tibbett; author Bruce Barton; U.S. Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, and Herbert Hoover; 1920s to '30s Mayor of New York Jimmy Walker; and mobsters Al Capone and Lucky Luciano.

[1][3] Among the celebrities who performed at the hotel during its heyday were Paul Whiteman, Bing Crosby, Red Nichols, and Milton Berle.