In addition, the strategy called for a continuation of entertainment in the Cabaret Theater, with the Fifth Dimension due in for a two-week engagement starting Monday.
But on Wednesday, a day after the closing announcement, everyone knew the end was near.
For Allen and Rossi, it was one thing to make patrons laugh during their performance. The audience, after all, still has many other Atlantic City casinos left to choose from. Generating chuckles from the Atlantis workers is another matter.
"This is a special day for us," Rossi said at one point during the show. ''We just signed a five-year contract with Atlantis."
Even the Atlantis workers - especially the Atlantis workers - found that one kind of funny.
A little later, Allen noted, "We'll be back here in the winter. The new owners said it will be a cold day when those guys come back."
The Atlantis employees could relate to that.
So the show must go on. That's tradition. And Allen and Rossi, along with vocalist Katie Blackwell, are doing their best to keep smiles on as many faces as possible.
Allen and Rossi are old hands at it. In fact, this week marks the 25th anniversary of their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. There would be more than 100 such appearances on that show.
It was Nat "King" Cole who brought them together. Allen had been an opening act for Cole. Rossi was a Las Vegas production show singer. Cole, who died in 1965, thought they would make a great team. He was right.
Allen is the mop-topped little guy with the quick one-liners. In the early days of the act, he made "hello dere" a national greeting.
Rossi is the tall one, the consummate straight man who occasionally throws a song into the act - using either his natural voice or ones he borrows from such notables as Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, John Wayne, even Luciano Pavarotti.
