Steel Pier, Atlantic City: Showplace of the Nation

For much of the 20th century Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ, was the center of American entertainment on the East Coast. There were big bands, movies, sideshows, acrobats, flag-pole sitters, Frank Sinatra, Miss America -- and throngs of people lining up to get a seat so they could watch brave horses and riders dive into a pool of water. It was aptly called the ''Showplace of the Nation'' and it was all that and more. This all-in-one entertainment mecca on the Boardwalk, novel in its day, has never been matched, not even at latter-day theme parks. Where else could you take the entire family for a day and see fortune-telling parakeets, the World of Tomorrow, John Philip Sousa and his band, a bear on a bicycle, World Famous Diving Horses, take a ride below the sea in the Diving Bell, spend the evening in the marine ballroom, and take in a movie -- all for one ticket? It was a colossal offering of escape, popular culture, fun and fantasy. It was a grand treat served up with gusto and cotton candy, a destination not to be missed -- an empire of grand-thinking impresarios, oddities and glamor that meshed into one cohesive and attainable summer destination. This large-format coffee-table book, published in full color, includes 227 historic photographs, illustrations, and advertising images. Steel Pier evokes a time when more really was more, a time when there was so much invention, talent and industry that it could only be experienced in one place -- at the edge of the continent, in a city that took its name from a vast ocean, on a great pier reaching out into the sea. (Benjamin Franklin Awards 2010 finalist: Regional Book, Cover Design, and Interior Design.)