From Publishers Weekly
Van Meter delivers a wonderful narrative-a biography, really-of one of the most controversial cities in the U.S., the nightclub and gambling mecca of Atlantic City. Beginning with the city's founding in the 1850s as a resort for Philadelphians, Van Meter reconstructs the foundation of greed, corruption, crime and, most important, entertainment on which Atlantic City was built. All the characters are there, including Atlantic City's first openly corrupt politician, Nucky Johnson. But entrepreneur Paul "Skinny" D'Amato gets most of Van Meter's attention. A grade-school dropout, D'Amato worked his way up from operator of a smalltime, illegal gambling den (the first legal casino opened in 1978) to owner and operator of the 500 Club, the soon-to-be world-famous nightclub and haven for mobsters. Van Meter carefully details how the charming and clever D'Amato and his 500 Club were the reason for the success of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, as well how they assisted Frank Sinatra to bounce back into the public eye. Van Meter expands the narrative to cover D'Amato's friendship with Sinatra and mob boss Sam Giancana and their involvement with the Cal-Neva Resort, as well as their collusion in helping get John F. Kennedy into office. Van Meter also convincingly argues that despite D'Amato's acquaintance with the likes of Giancana and Lucky Luciano, D'Amato himself was neither a member of nor beholden to the mob. If there is one fault with the book, it is that Van Meter, who writes for Vanity Fair, Vogue and Esquire, often relies on punchy, detail-laden magazine style. But this is a minor quibble in an otherwise riveting glimpse into the throbbing heart of Atlantic City. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Atlantic City may be a notorious gambling town, but, as Van Meter makes abundantly clear in this enlightening book, it is not a mere clone of Las Vegas. For one thing, it's older. Incorporated in 1855, it began as a resort town; the first boardwalk was built in 1870, and the new American working class, thousands of people with leisure time and the money to enjoy it, flocked to Atlantic City. Eventually, and perhaps inevitably, the city's focus shifted, or perhaps narrowed, from harmless pleasure to something far less innocuous: gambling. Van Meter chronicles the modern evolution of Atlantic City by telling the story of one of its movers and shakers, the flamboyant Paul "Skinny" D'Amato, whose nightclub hosted the biggest names in both entertainment (the Rat Pack were regulars) and organized crime and from whose back rooms the course of Atlantic City was charted. This is a fascinating tale of greed and corruption, and it enlightens as it entertains. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“With The Last Good Time, Jonathan Van Meter has done for Atlantic City what John Berendt did for Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Far from just a juicy history of Atlantic City—although it is that as well—Van Meter has crafted a masterful and eminently readable tale of a fascinating time and place. Through his portrait of Paul ‘Skinny’ D’Amato and the 500 Club, Van Meter sheds new light on American icons we thought we already knew all about—Sinatra, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis—and captures that incredible period where entertainers, politicians, sports heroes, and mobsters could all gather at the same club and have a drink together.”—Gay Talese

“Jonathan Van Meter has written an engrossing history of a how a time and a place and a man and a family intersected to make a New Jersey sand spit the dead center of what was in its period America’s most irresistible illicit glamour—a world where everyone knew Frank and Dean and The Yankee Clipper and all the pretty women wanted to be Conover models.”—Joan Didion

“The Last Good Time is a great read! Was Skinny D’Amato in the mob or on its periphery? Good question, but it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Jonathan Van Meter has brought to life a man who was at the center of a period that saw mobsters, politicians, entertainers, businessmen, casino operators and sports stars all converge at Skinny D’Amato’s 500 Club. For guys and dolls of every stripe it was probably the last good time, and Van Meter captures it perfectly.”—Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy and Casino


From the Hardcover edition.


Review
?With The Last Good Time, Jonathan Van Meter has done for Atlantic City what John Berendt did for Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Far from just a juicy history of Atlantic City?although it is that as well?Van Meter has crafted a masterful and eminently readable tale of a fascinating time and place. Through his portrait of Paul ?Skinny? D?Amato and the 500 Club, Van Meter sheds new light on American icons we thought we already knew all about?Sinatra, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis?and captures that incredible period where entertainers, politicians, sports heroes, and mobsters could all gather at the same club and have a drink together.??Gay Talese

?Jonathan Van Meter has written an engrossing history of a how a time and a place and a man and a family intersected to make a New Jersey sand spit the dead center of what was in its period America?s most irresistible illicit glamour?a world where everyone knew Frank and Dean and The Yankee Clipper and all the pretty women wanted to be Conover models.??Joan Didion

?The Last Good Time is a great read! Was Skinny D?Amato in the mob or on its periphery? Good question, but it doesn?t matter. The important thing is that Jonathan Van Meter has brought to life a man who was at the center of a period that saw mobsters, politicians, entertainers, businessmen, casino operators and sports stars all converge at Skinny D?Amato?s 500 Club. For guys and dolls of every stripe it was probably the last good time, and Van Meter captures it perfectly.??Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy and Casino


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Last Good Time is a richly layered epic that brings to life a fascinating place, its politics, people, and culture, through the portrait of one of Atlantic City's most famous families—the powerful, flamboyant, and ultimately tragic D'Amatos. Paul "Skinny" D'Amato created and presided over the 500 Club, the celebrated supper club that entertained thousands of Americans and helped guide the careers of the great Rat Pack performers—Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra. Skinny was at the center of it all, hovering behind the scenes during the zenith of one of the world's most notorious playgrounds.

Veteran magazine writer Jonathan Van Meter captures the volatile history of twentieth-century Atlantic City—from the days of Prohibition and smoky speakeasies to the city's heyday of imported Hollywood glamour and glitz after World War II; from the near demise of the resort in the 1970s to the city's current era of legal "gaming" and dazzling high-tech hotel/casinos.

Skinny D'Amato avoided the public eye whenever possible, though he was perhaps the most important person in the history of Atlantic City, where his nightclub served as the ultimate backroom for the big players of entertainment, politics, sports, and the Mob. Skinny is rarely acknowledged as part of the Rat Pack, but he was at the center of its creation, its mentor. It was Skinny who taught Sinatra how to hold a cigarette, tip big, be cool. He paired Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin for the first time at his 500 Club, and on any given night back in the 1950s and 1960s, you'd find Elizabeth Taylor, Toots Shor, the Gabor sisters, Joe DiMaggio, Milton Berle, Liberace, Grace Kelly, Nat King Cole,and just about every big player in the underworld hanging out by the bar or in the back rooms. Skinny was a link between politicians—including John F. Kennedy—entertainers, and the Mob and was the subject of constant surveillance by the FBI and tax investigators. Whether he was in the Mob or not, Skinny was the ultimate connected guy, a gentleman's gentleman, a passionate gambler who had a special touch that brought bigpeople together so that they could have a good time.

As Van Meter evokes the ever-evolving landscape of Atlantic City, he shows us how the D'Amato family, like other larger-than-life American families during the last century, experienced a changing wheel of fortune, seeing great moments of wealth, power, and personal attainment, as well as all manner of human tragedy. In the space of a few years, Skinny's beloved wife, Bettyjane, died of a brain aneurysm at a relatively young age; the 500 Club burned to the ground; and, perhaps most devastating of all, his son, Angelo, was convicted of brutally murdering two people. With the last of the good times behind him, Skinny retreated to his Ventnor, New Jersey, mansion, taking his card game with him, emerging to see his Rat Pack friends, and, in the process, becoming a living symbol of how cool it all was once upon a time in America.