By Chuck Darrow
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying Donald Trump’s reign as an Atlantic City casino mogul made for interesting times—both for him and the public at large. And one of the wildest times of all occurred when the man who would, some 27 years later, become our 45th president, brought the Rolling Stones to town for a three-night run at Convention Hall (now Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall) in December, 1989.
There will be more detail about the origin of the engagement below, but the three-pack of gigs, which was sponsored by the now-demolished Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino (located adjacent to the arena; there was even indoor access between the two buildings) comprised the finale of the North American portion of band’s epic “Steel Wheels” tour—its first road trip in eight years. The trio of performances included a worldwide pay-per-view broadcast on Dec. 19 that also featured guest stars Eric Clapton, Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin of Guns N’ Roses and blues legend John Lee Hooker.
The first show was Dec. 17 and after taking the next day off (presumably to celebrate guitarist Keith Richards’ 46th birthday and/or sixth wedding anniversary) there were performances on the 19th and 20th. While it probably won’t be surprising to learn the most memorable night was the 19th, you might not expect that it had nothing to do with what took place onstage. Instead, the drama(s) unfolded behind the scenes, and, so the story goes, they included Richards contemplating introducing The Donald to the blade of his knife
As for how the Plaza came to be the site of the pay-per-view event, according to the tour’s producer, Toronto-based Michael Cohl, he decided to produce the pay-per-view using the boxing-industry template. This meant getting a casino-hotel to pay a multi-million-dollar “site fee” to the Stones for their participation in the telecast–in addition to their standard performance paycheck.
In a 2015 address at a concert-promotion industry convention, Cohl recalled he could find no takers in Las Vegas, so he decided to hit up Trump. But Cohl’s proposal included a provision that the future POTUS have no direct involvement with the broadcast, except in Atlantic City, where he could do local media interviews.
According to Cohl, his people had arranged a live, 6:40 p.m. segment on the CBS Evening News prior to the start of the broadcast. But at 5:50 p.m., he received word that Trump was conducting a press conference in the same space the Stones were scheduled to use for their TV spot.
Cohl rushed from the Plaza and put an end to the Q-and-A session, then returned to the hotel—where he was told that Trump was again taking questions from the media. At that point, Cohl has maintained, Richards pulled out the knife he always carried and announced that if Cohl didn’t muzzle Trump, he would.
Cohl returned to Convention Hall and read Trump the riot act—a move, he claimed, that caused three Trump security staffers—one brandishing a set of brass knuckles– to move menacingly toward him. But the trio of Trump heavies quickly realized a small army of Stones crew members had gathered behind Cohl with weapons of their own, including tire irons and hockey sticks.
And thus Donald Trump was, for one of the few times in his life, silenced. But there are two historically interesting footnotes to the saga of the Stones 1989 visit to AyCee:
The last of the three Convention Hall shows was the final North American gig the Stones’ original bassist, Bill Wyman, ever did with the band.
Also, among those at Trump’s press conference was one person who certainly, to my eyes, at least, didn’t appear to belong there. She was a youngish, quite attractive blonde who clearly was not a media type (one giveaway: she wasn’t wearing any press credentials).
It was months later that it dawned on me the mystery woman was his future second wife, Marla Maples, who was there even though Trump was still married to his first wife, Ivana.
Remembering When is a monthly column that looks at Atlantic City’s often-wild, always-fascinating history.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
