Boardwalk Empire Author Speaks in Ocean City Tonight

Local historian Nelson Johnson will bring tales of Ocean City's naughty neighbor to the Historical Museum's lecture series tonight, July 21, 2011.

Johnson is the author of Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, the nonfiction work that provides the basis for the fictional HBO series of the same name.

Johnson will speak at 7 p.m. (July 21) at the as part of the Ocean City Historical Museum's free .

Johnson's book tells the story of a resort that rose to international prominence by giving visitors what they wanted—whether it was legal or not. The narrative traces the history of three men—Louis "The Commodore" Kuehnle, Enoch "Nucky" Johnson and Frank "Hap" Farley—who controlled Atlantic City, its politics and its illegal rackets.

HBO's Boardwalk Empire is based on the life of Nucky Johnson—though the fictional Nucky Thompson differs from Johnson in many respects.

"I'm watching it, and I'm enjoying it," Johnson said Wednesday of the HBO series. "I'm able to separate it in my brain."

An Atlantic City attorney at the time, Johnson began work on Boardwalk Empire in the early 1980s. He continue writing and researching until it was published in 2002. He published a second book, The Northside: African Americans and the Creation of Atlantic City, in 2010. Johnson, a Hammonton resident, is now a judge in Atlantic County.

Johnson said Wednesday that he's at work on another book that has nothing to do with Atlantic City. He called his new project "a history of a history of a history, all dealing with interesting people in New Jersey."

To order Boardwalk Empire, visit Plexus Publishing.