CasiNotes: Caesars to take starring role in promoting HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'

LOOK FOR Caesars Atlantic City to play a major role in a promotional campaign for the upcoming HBO series "Boardwalk Empire," which is set in Atlantic City during Prohibition.

According to New York Times marketing columnist Stuart Elliott, the midtown pleasure palace is hosting what is shaping up to be a glammed-out Sept. 16 premiere of the highly anticipated historical drama, as well as a first-episode screening Sept. 19 (when the program debuts in its regular Sunday-night slot). The casino will be offering hotel rooms for $19.20 (get it?) per night from Sept. 16-30.

Our sources along the Great Wood Way tell us Caesars has more "Boardwalk Empire"-inspired promotions and events scheduled, but everybody involved is clamming up until the full game plan is unveiled Aug. 27.

In case you just got back from an extended trip to the Crab Nebula, "Boardwalk Empire" stars Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, a character based on the real-life Nucky Johnson. As Atlantic County treasurer between the World Wars, Nucky ran all of AyCee's rackets, including booze, gambling and prostitution.

The series, executive-produced by superstar director Martin Scorsese and actor/producer Mark Wahlberg, is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Atlantic County Judge Nelson Johnson.

In some quarters, "Empire" is being anticipated as a major marketing godsend for Atlantic City, which, of course, has not received much good news the past few years. Unfortunately, because there is barely anything left of the world's first Boardwalk from the 1920s because of casino-era construction, all of the exterior scenes were shot on a replica promenade that was built at a studio in Brooklyn, N.Y.

However, one of the few remaining buildings is now known as the Ritz Condominiums at Boardwalk and Iowa Avenue. Back in the days of raccoon coats and bathtub gin, the Ritz was the hotel that Nucky Johnson called home.

A 'pier'-less vantage point

The first 500 folks to sign up will receive a free credential allowing access to the complex's third-level Surf Deck, where they will have an unparalleled view of the airborne action that takes place above the beach between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.