Whoot …. There it was
The cover of the Sept. 25, 1975 issue of Whoot.
Caesars Atlantic City is celebrating 30 years in town. Resorts celebrated that milestone last year. Atlantic City Weekly has them both beat. AC Weekly began on this day, 35 years ago, June 19, 1974 as Whoot “The Entertainment Paper for Night Owls.”
A young Stockton College student named Lew Steiner had an idea for an entertainment paper to cover the Atlantic City nightclub (The Whoot Route) and dining scene. With the help and backing of his parents, co-founders Herb and Marcia Steiner, he brought that idea to life. When gambling became a reality in 1978, Whoot was already established as the go-to guide for what was happening in the AC region.
Lew and I knew each other from Ventnor and later as college students at Stockton, where we both worked for the school newspaper, The Argo. I began doing movie reviews for the Whoot in 1975, moved on to the Philadelphia Journal and Philadelphia Bulletin from 1978-80, then returned to my hometown weekly in 1983. I’ve been here ever since.
When you work for a weekly paper you tend to do a bit of everything. As well as all the fun, glamorous stuff like covering shows and interviewing celebrities, my Whoot duties included typing in ad copy on early photographic typesetting machines that had to have the type fonts placed in the machine manually, only four at a time. I helped opaque the page negatives by filling in the flaws by hand with a special type of Sharpie, often late at night. I remember one evening where I went to a show, covering a performance by Ann-Margret, then returned to the office around midnight to help finish the negatives.
My column from the Sept. 25, 1975 issue.
My dream job was to be the film critic at the New York Times, but over the years I’ve learned to appreciate the diversity of my Whoot duties. Movies are still my first passion — my handle is Moviejunkie after all — but getting a chance to interview my favorite singer, Bonnie Raitt, among any others entertainers that have visited AC over the years is a pretty sweet gig as well.
Whoot made a major move into the modern era when the publisher of Philadelphia Weekly, Review Publishing, bought the paper in 2000. Whoot eventually was renamed Atlantic City Weekly with Lew retained as the publisher. I still do my movie reviews and the casino listings, but my favorite new gig is blogger.
As we celebrate 35 years this summer, we want our longtime readers to celebrate with us. Please send along your memories of Atlantic City events over the past 35 years to editorial@acweekly.com.
We might be a polished, classy publication in 2009 but in our heart still beats the soul of the Whoot, the little paper that could.
My mom and I with Carol Burnett.
Tags: Bonnie Raitt, Philadelphia Weekly, Review Publishing, Whoot