To fans ofBoardwalk Empire , Nucky Thompson is the morally complex protagonist they ’ve amount to know and hate in equal component since the show , created by Terence Winter and executive grow by Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg , debuted on HBO in 2010 . For Atlantic City aboriginal Vicki Gold Levi , he ’s a fictional version of Nucky Johnson , the city ’s very literal former political boss whom she had juncture to contact as a youngster . She has hang with Meyer Lansky and Frank Sinatra , too .
Call it one of the perk of being the daughter of Al Gold , Atlantic City ’s official lensman for 25 years beginning in 1939 , who instilled a making love of the urban center in Levi that only true locals can understand . It ’s this same passion for her hometown ’s golden eld that pass Levi to co - authorAtlantic metropolis : 125 Years of Ocean Madnessand to become one of Hollywood ’s go - to resources for re - create America ’s Favorite Playground . Which is how she landed a consultant fishgig onBoardwalk Empire , where she works with research adviser Edward McGinty to ensure that every detail of her beloved Boardwalk is exactly as she remembers it .
How did you come to get involved withBoardwalk Empire?
What are some of the projects or episodes you’ve helped with?
Let me tell you how it work : I have a person there , Ed McGinty , who ’s the head researcher at the show . He ’s from Atlantic City and has been forge on the show since the commencement and he ’s kind of my go - to person on the show .
There are three elbow room that I have evolved in working on the show : I ’m a consultant , so I do n’t really see the scripts , because they keep all of that very private — sometimes even the actors do n’t see the whole script because the surprise element is so important . So I am either need a specific , historical question , which might be something like “ What was the name of King Neptune in 1923 in the Miss America Pageant ? ” That ’s one matter that happens . Another matter is that sometimes I palpate there ’s something they should bang about , so I make up a portfolio of things that I think are significant in that year … So I might say , ' Well this is the year the Miss America Pageant set out ' or ' This twelvemonth they built this hotel ' or blah , blah , blah . I funnel all of that info to Ed McGinty , and then he dedicate it to the writer . So sometimes I see things that I do it I sent in , but I ca n’t be 100 per centum sure that I ’m the only person who send it in . But I lie with I ’m on the right Thomas Nelson Page .
For example , [ the character of ] Jimmy Darmody : When they shoot him — which was a big affair and they ’re still talking about it — they shot him in front of the All - War Memorial memorial on Albany Avenue that was just going up . Now I do n’t consider someone in Dubuque , Iowa make love what it was , butIknew what it was . ( Laughs ) And although it may have make out from other places , too , I get off a portfolio in on that monument being open that class .
The other matter I start to do , which I ’m operate to start doing again in January , is to add up in once a class and talk to the writers . That elbow room , if I have some very specific thing I want to tell the writers immediately , I can do that . I can tell them , ‘ This is really a great optic ’ or ‘ This is a really great historical idea , ’ and then it ’s up to them . The show has expanded . It ’s now in Chicago , it ’s in Philadelphia and New York and now it ’s in Tampa , which is kind of crawl down to Cuba . If the show goes long enough that Meyer Lansky actuallydoesgo to Cuba , I can volunteer a heap .
Did you ever meet any of the characters portrayed on the show?
I actually met Meyer Lansky in New York when I was very young . Of of course , I had no approximation who he was ; he looked just like Lee Strasberg inThe Godfather . I knew his girl and at one head there was a fire in the building where I lived in New York and I got smoked out . Meyer ’s girl had a with child apartment on West End Avenue , so she invited me to continue there until the smoke was cleared from my flat . And her founding father would come to chatter his grandchild . He was an old man and was dead dainty , but it is kind of funny .
And of course I encounter Nucky Johnson , but I was very young . Because he was the former political boss of Atlantic City and my father was a city employee , everybody acknowledge him . I remember run across him as a little girl . I did n’t know him intimately , but I always remember his married woman . He married a chorus girl , Flossie Osbeck , before his visitation so that she could n’t bear witness against him . But she had these long , red , dragon lady nail that as a young young lady I was very impressed by and I still think of them .
Have you spent any time on the renovated boardwalk set in Brooklyn?
Much of the set comes from the Thomas Nelson Page of my book . It was extremely exciting to see incubator babies , Abe Klein ’s restaurant , Fralinger ’s Salt Water Taffy , and all that stuff just sprung from the page of my book in 3 - D. They did such a smart as a whip line , I was in reality in tears . I was so moved by the re - creation and the colors and the arches and the signage and even the Boardwalk . Ed McGinty and I even talked about this when they were building that boardwalk they have in Brooklyn : the Atlantic City Boardwalk is alone in a couple of ways . One is that along the railing it has knuckles . In Coney Island , it ’s just directly rail with up and down , but in Atlantic City the up and down have knuckle joint on them . I call up when I was a consultant on the movieBeaches , which was film in Brooklyn , I was adamant that ‘ You have to make these knuckles , ’ and they made it out of some polymer . In this one , the railings have those knuckles .
Also , the Boardwalk inBoardwalk Empireisn’t true add-in ; it ’s got a herringbone approach pattern . And that ’s very Atlantic City ; not many boardwalk have that . So the whole matter was so authentic , even when you walk into the stores , it just tell me from day one that this was going to be a production of ne plus ultra . And it ’s been that on every stratum — the written material , the activity , the clothing , the re - universe .
In the book that you co-wrote, the photo book, did you use your father’s photos?
I have some , but I also have my own major collection . A lot of my father ’s pictures were destroy , alas , in hurricane and stuff at the Convention Hall . People cogitate I have a ton of my father ’s characterisation , when really I do n’t have enough . I havesome , but I ’ve been collect Atlantic City flick for years , so I have my own collection . And most of my memorabilia collection form the Atlantic City Historical Museum . But I have n’t donated my photos because it leave me to have my own reference section right here in my theatre . And I have a grown Atlantic City subroutine library — every book that ever mentioned Atlantic City . And sometimes I get old speech sound books and things like that .
You’ve been living in New York City since the 1960s. What keeps your ties to Atlantic City so strong?
That ’s an interesting question . A lot of my best friends are still from Atlantic City ; some live on there and some live here . We have a saying in Atlantic City : “ Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin in your shoes . ” There is something about growing up in Atlantic City that really ties you to it , at least in the geological era that I grew up . Because it ’s a big townsfolk picayune town . In the winter time , it ’s a niggling town and if you have a sorority dance you could have it at the biggest hotel in town , because commercial enterprise is dull . And in the summer you ’ve got Frank Sinatra and all the other with child stars there and everyone ’s get a summertime job and you ’re all mingle up in the ballyhoo and the hoopla of the town . And I also was a child actress down there ; I was a phonograph record jockey at the age of five . I had my own radio show .
At five years old?
Yeah , I had a show called “ Views by Vicki . ” And when Bess Myerson was crowned Miss America , I was her page every Nox , carrying her large red velvet train down the rails . And I was Miss Hydrangea . I had this little tiddler actress celebrity life in Atlantic City , so I had an strange childhood down there . I was always on the floats for Miss America and thing like that . We were very magnanimous Atlantic City Boosters …
It ’s not like any other place in New Jersey . It really is n’t . It ’s not the Jersey Shore , it ’s not Snooki . Atlantic City was once considered for the United Nations , it had one of the first air - cooled dramatics , it had one of the earliest postal card , it had a Ferris Wheel before the Ferris Wheel … There ’s so much history and it really was a lieu where everyone went . There ’s so much account to recount and it ’s a place that really grabs you and we all think back it fondly .
Your father was clearly a big influence on your love of Atlantic City, and dedication to keeping its history alive. What do you think he’d say aboutBoardwalk Empire?
He was stick out in 1902 , so I do n’t know how he would finger about the nudeness , but he would be thrilled about this national television show . He was an Atlantic City recall dose . He would be state Nucky stories — therealNucky stories — because he knew him well … He would be say you the privileged scoop on different type on the show that are local . They ’d wanthimas the consultant instead of me !
People look at Atlantic City today and they think: Gambling! Do you think that people’s interest in the history of Atlantic City from an historical and cultural perspective has changed as a result of the show?
Oh , yeah . People are really interested in the show , everywhere I go . I was in Cuba and masses said to me , “ Oh , you jazz Nucky ? ” They were referring to Steve Buscemi , of course , but people are follow the show down in Cuba . This show has a veridical grip on the people who are sports fan of it . I myself can not wait for Sundays to see the show .
What is it that draws you to the show, separate from working on it?
I can forge on something and not love it ; I could do that and just do my occupation . But I ’m a big fan of the show . The playacting is so good and the clothes and the authenticity . Nucky often drives in a low-spirited Rolls - Royce like the real Nucky did . Nucky Thompson is not Nucky Johnson ; it ’s a prototype . It ’s historical fiction , and that ’s really important to build . That does n’t think that they do n’t say that the right person was in office . Edward BaderwasMayor of Atlantic City at that time — they’re precise to that . But a mass of mass expect me , “ Oh , was Nucky Johnson a liquidator ? ” Not to my personal knowledge . But Nucky Thompson is . So it ’s historical fabrication establish on the prototype . It ’s not the actual story of Nucky Johnson and it ’s of import to delineate that . I think multitude understand that by now , this is its fourth season … I ca n’t say enough about the show and the experience . There are enough reference to allow you make love that there ’s been research done .
Yes, you can tell that what you’re watching is authentic and meticulously researched rather than just thrown together based on someone’s idea of what a particular time and place looked and/or felt like.
When I pick up them mention Rendezvous Park , that ’s just so “ within . ” You might hear of Miss America , but you ’re not going to see of Rendezvous Park unless you ’re paying tending to the research . And of course Rendezvous Park was the site of the Convention Hall — I have sex that account . So I can see that they ’re putting their ducks in a wrangle .
