There was a time when the prime destination for Philadelphia partygoers was not New York, but New York Avenue in Atlantic City. I have fond memories of late nights at places like Studio Six, The Rendevous, Club Tru and Brass Rail. Traveling down to the Jersey shore for a day of fun and sun and a night of drinks and dancing was like a mini vacation (the word “staycation” hadn’t been coined yet). In an era where weekend trips to P-Town or Key West may not always be feasible, A.C. has once again emerged as an LGBT destination. This week, we spoke to Patrick McCormack, education committee chair for the Atlantic City LGBT Alliance, about the gay nightlife resurgence in A.C. and the upcoming Miss’d America Pageant, which I’m told is not to be missed.
PGN: Before we get into the history of A.C., let’s learn a little about your roots. PMC: I was born in Swissvale, Pa., a small mill town outside of Pittsburgh. I lived there until I moved to A.C. in 1986 and, 25 years later, I’m still here. This is home: I live with sand in my shoes.
PGN: What was life like in Swissvale? PMC: It was interesting. It was smalltown life where everybody knows everybody. All your siblings went to school with all your friend’s siblings. A very blue-collar, mostly Irish and Italian community. I’m one of seven: five boys, two girls. I’m next to the youngest so my teachers had all my brothers and sisters before me. [Laughs.] My parents had already heard everything, so I couldn’t get away with a lot! It wasn’t an easy place for a gay or lesbian person to be out for a number of reasons. The time period when I started realizing that I was attracted to men was about the early ’70s and it was a lot different then — especially in a small town. We still have a lot of work to do now but, back then, things were really difficult. I lived in a mill town where guys were rough and tumble and didn’t take kindly to anything different. Their perception of a gay man was effeminate and flamboyant, so I had to hide that side of me and was never a “stereotypical” gay man. I was very much in the closet and did the whole dating girls, going to the prom with a date route. All the while, feeling conflicted inside.
PGN: What did the folks do? PMC: My father was a port authority bus driver and my mother was a medical secretary.
PGN: And seven kids? PMC: Yeah, well, Irish Catholic: What can I say? The folks down the street had 15 kids, three bedrooms and one bathroom. That’s just how it was. PGN: I guess you’re good at sharing. PMC: [Laughs.] Yes! A lot of hand-me-down clothes and secondhand toys. But the funny thing is we never knew we were poor. Everyone else was in the same boat, so it wasn’t like we stood out. Everyone started working at a young age to help out, whether it was a paper route or something else. I’ve pretty much had a job since I was 12.
PGN: What was the worst job? PMC: I worked for the borough of Swissdale for a summer in sanitation. Hanging onto the back of a garbage truck for dear life and breathing in the stench of garbage at the height of the summer was not the most fun.
PGN: That’s pretty macho work … PMC: Yeah, I was able to fake it on occasion!
PGN: What did you want to be when you grew up? PMC: I always knew I’d do well at sales. As a kid, I was always selling greeting cards, you know the ones you’d order from the back of the comic books — Olympic greeting cards. I sold Handy Andy tool sets, I’d shovel snow, any number of things. I was good with people. I enjoy people.
PGN: And what do you do now? PMC: I’m the director of sales at the Trump Taj Mahal, which is a 2,025-room hotel with the most meeting space in Atlantic City — it’s a big conference property. I’m responsible for bringing in $5.3 million of revenue a year.
PGN: I read that you’re the best at selling the city. PMC: Well, I believe that it’s important to sell A.C. as a destination city first and then our respective properties. Some salespeople focus solely on their own properties out of fear that if they mention their competition, they might lose that piece of business, but I have the opposite mindset. We have to get people excited about A.C. first and if that means letting them know about competitors, that’s OK.
PGN: [Laughs.] Kind of like Santa in “Miracle on 34th Street” sending people to Gimbels. PMC: Yeah, it just makes sense. I’m also on the board of the Atlantic City LGBT Alliance and the education chair. In doing that, I try to come up with education topics that are going to be interesting and fun and that people will want to attend. That can be a challenge, but we’ve come up with some fun programs. We had a food and wine tasting event where I had a wine expert come in and talk about pairing food and wine. The House of Blues sponsored the event and provided the food and one of our good partners, Merrill Lynch, sponsored the entertainment, so we had a live band. It was a very successful event. We also did a veterinary event. One of our members, Dr. Newkirk, has a veterinary practice and teaches holistic health for pets, so he did a seminar on what to feed your pet and how to read nutrition labels, etc. We made it fun with a dress-as-your-pet contest. Dr. Newkirk gave his presentation dressed as Daffy Duck and I came as my dog Ellie and we raised money for the Humane Society. You have to be creative to make the educational programs fun.
PGN: Are you an animal person? PMC: Yeah, my Facebook picture is of me with Ellie. I’ve had cats, but I was always too busy to have a dog. Then my partner Larry retired and we were able to get a dog. She is absolutely my child.
PGN: Working at the Taj, what’s a favorite celebrity encounter? PMC: Oh, that’s tough. I’ve met Kenny Rogers: He’s very personable. We’ve had a lot of good hosts for the Miss’d America Pageant — Suzanne Westenhoefer and Carson Kressley. They’re both very nice, but I’ll have to go with Carson as my favorite. PGN: He’s going to be hosting this year as well, isn’t he? PMC: Yes, he’s on the bill, as well as Martha Wash from the Weather Girls, who will perform at the pageant and also at the after-party at Pro Bar, which is the new gay bar at Resorts.
PGN: Who was your least favorite? PMC: Hands-down Sheena Easton. In the late ’80s, I worked at Bally’s and she was here for an event. She had strict instructions that no one was supposed to talk to her or even look at her. One of the security guards who’d been a fan of hers made the mistake of saying, “I just wanted to say, I love your music,” while she was escorting her down. Easton flipped out on her. She started yelling, “Get her out of here! I told you I didn’t want anybody talking to me!” and really debased the woman in front of everybody. It was awful: She had the woman in tears. She was an obnoxious diva.
PGN: I guess karma got her; she’s not doing anything now. PMC: She wasn’t doing all that much back then! She just had a big ego.
PGN: So changing gears, what’s a historical event you wish you could have attended? PMC: The inauguration of President Obama. I’m a strong supporter.
PGN: Me too, hopefully we can go to his re-inauguration next January! What Olympic event would you compete in? PMC: Hmmn. This is really gay, but I’d want there to be an Olympic dance competition. I like watching “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance?” — which is my favorite. I think the kids just have so much crazy God-given talent: They’re amazing to watch. I can’t dance, so I’d have to learn first before I entered the dance Olympics, but it would be fun!
PGN: Who would you want as a partner? PMC: Charlize Theron. She’s absolutely stunning.
PGN: What makes you blush? PMC: [Laughs.] It’s usually something stupid that I’ve said. PGN: Biggest mishap on the job? PMC: Going way back, I was working at an Italian restaurant and they didn’t have a back of the house — you had to take dirty dishes all the way across the hall from the restaurant. During a peak hour, I was carrying an entire rack of glasses through the dining room and I caught my foot on a divot in the floor. A few-hundred glasses flew up in the air and came down with a giant crash and the entire room broke into applause. It was terrible; I’m still not sure why people do that!
PGN: I think they’re trying to make the person feel better by making light of it. PMC: [Laughs.] I guess, but I was mortified!
PGN: Worst Christmas present you ever received? PMC: I owned a home in Brigantine and my boyfriend at the time would come and stay with me. I had three bedrooms and, at times, he’d sleep in a separate room just to get a good night’s sleep. For Christmas one year, he bought me a sheet set for the bed he slept on! It was a little selfish and we broke up shortly thereafter.
PGN: The best? PMC: With seven kids, we didn’t have a lot of money and didn’t get much throughout the year, but my parents always made sure to have lots of presents at Christmas. So coming down on Christmas morning, we each had a pile of our own gifts. That was the best.
PGN: How did you meet your partner Larry? PMC: We met on AOL South Jersey Man for Man. It gave new meaning to “You’ve Got Mail (Male).” He was from Pa. and I was living at the shore. We went on three dates and knew that there was something special. We’ve been together now for about 16 years.
PGN: I didn’t even know AOL was doing that back then. PMC: Yeah, before that it was the personals in the PGN. You would write to a person to meet them. It was a bit slower!
PGN: So let’s talk about the Miss’d America Pageant. PMC: It started at Studio Six back in the day when a lot of LGBT people worked behind the scenes on the Miss America Pageant or at the casinos and weren’t able to actually see the contest. So they started the Miss’d America Pageant for those who missed it. It was a fundraiser for the South Jersey AIDS Alliance and went on for approximately 14 years until Miss America left A.C. A few years ago, the Atlantic City LGBT Alliance decided we needed a signature event so we brought back the Miss’d Pageant and it’s been getting bigger every year. It’s now being held in Boardwalk Hall, where Miss America used to be held, so we’re on the same runway you watched for all those years on TV. Last year we raised more than $30,000 for charity and this year we hope to do even more. In addition to Carson Kressley and Martha Wash, we’re going to have “American Idol” [contestant] Erika Schiff performing, new lavish sets and some big production numbers, as well as the Miss’d America dancers and, of course, the fabulous contestants.
PGN: What was a favorite moment with the pageant? PMC: The first year we brought it back, we had a pre-party before the contest. Everyone was so excited to be doing the pageant again and to be a part of bringing the LGBT community back to A.C., there was an incredible energy and excitement in the room. It was like a homecoming. People you hadn’t seen in years were all there, so it was like a big gay family reunion.
PGN: For people like me who haven’t been to A.C. in a while, why should we come back? PMC: Atlantic City is resurging as an LGBT destination. The Resorts casino just opened a new gay bar, Pro Bar, where we are holding our after-party, and the casino community is actively marketing to the LGBT community. Pro Bar is the first full-time gay bar at any large American casino and other venues are doing new things as well. Trump Taj Mahal had a “Fun and ‘Gay’mes” weekend with Gay Bingo After Dark and a tea dance at the Casbah Nightclub and Tropicana did a gay night at Planet Rose, and a lot of casinos have been promoting commitment ceremonies since [civil unions were] legalized in N.J. The alliance has also been partnering with a lot of the businesses to do monthly mixers at different venues. It’s all coming along.
PGN: You have some incredible drag performers: What’s your favorite drag name? PMC: There are some good ones, but Hedda Lettuce always makes me laugh.
PGN: And what would be your drag name? PMC: Sparky Braddock. That would be the name of my first dog and the name of the first street I lived on.
PGN: The motto for A.C. is “The City That’s Always Turned On.” What turns you on? PMC: Well, I love what I do and I love being here. Atlantic City has so many amenities and there’s always something to do day or night. And I love being by the ocean. It’s both beautiful and spiritual. I also truly find that the people in Atlantic City, both gay and straight, are incredible to be around. There’s an amazing caliber of people here from all walks of life and they’re all family to me. n
To suggest a community member for “Professional Portrait,” write to [email protected].