'They were very down-to-earth people,' Gatewood recalled. Ron Gatewood, a food and beverage worker at Trump Plaza from 1986 until its closing in 2014, brought food and drinks to stars including Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross and Barry White in their hotel rooms. It was the place to be when mega-events such as a Mike Tyson boxing match or a Rolling Stones concert was held next door in Boardwalk Hall. Opened in 1984, when Trump was a real estate developer in his pre-politics days, Trump Plaza was for a time the most successful casino in Atlantic City. Icahn said he would replace the $175,000 that had already been bid with his own money.

Mayor Marty Small proposed using the demolition as a fundraiser for the Boys And Girls Club of Atlantic City, and began an auction for the right to press the button that would bring the structure down.īut Icahn - a donor and former special economic adviser to Trump - objected on safety and liability issues, and got the auction house to halt the bids. Though the former president built it, the building is now owned by a different billionaire, Icahn, who acquired the two remaining Trump casinos in 2016 from the last of their many bankruptcies. VIDEO: The last hours of Trump Plaza Casino It's yet another blow to Atlantic City's now-fragile economy. SEE ALSO: The final hours of the Trump Plaza Casino To complete the implosion, demolition crews positioned explosives at strategic points along the building's support structures designed to knock its legs out from under it, bringing the building down on itself, with the debris falling in a slightly north-northeast direction, Fire Chief Scott Evans said. One night before a Tyson fight I stopped dead in my tracks and looked about four rows in as the place was filling up, and there were two guys leaning in close and having a private conversation: Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.'

'Everyone from Hulk Hogan to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was the whole gamut of personalities. 'The way we put Trump Plaza and the city of Atlantic City on the map for the whole world was really incredible,' said Bernie Dillon, the events manager for the casino from 1984 to 1991. The Plaza used to market itself as 'Atlantic City's centerpiece.' We all here will remember this forever,' Small said.

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