ABSTRACT
George A. Hamid was Atlantic City's Thompson and Disney, and his Steel Pier was a smaller, though only slightly smaller, version of Luna Park and Disneyland. The owners of Steel Pier had to find a way around legal barriers against discrimination to recreate what they envisioned as a viable and not entirely inclusive post-Civil Rights, urban middle-class public. Just like urban amusement parks in New York, Cleveland and Los Angeles, Atlantic City lost its mass crowd in the 1960s. In response, Hamid worked on his showplace and worked on local politicians and city leaders to bring the masses back to the Boardwalk. Hamid spearheaded a petition drive calling on local officials to deploy K-9 police dogs on the Boardwalk. Within five years of the opening of the first Atlantic City casino, Hamid was gone and the Pier no longer mattered.
