Atlantic City was the setting for Andy Warhol’s first visit to the city, a January 1983 excursion with Diana Ross that combined a Frank Sinatra show, a presentation of Warhol’s portrait of Ross, and a tour of the Golden Nugget. In the diary, the city appears not as a surveyed destination but as a carefully staged entertainment world, entered through celebrity connections and viewed from inside its casino architecture.

The First Visit

On January 27, Warhol travelled from New York to Atlantic City with Diana Ross. She had recently signed to perform at the Golden Nugget and wanted to see the room, having never played a small venue before. Warhol was accompanying her to the Sinatra show and carrying a print of the portrait he had made of Ross, intended for the casino’s owner. The visit therefore linked a private artistic commission to the practical question of how Ross’s new engagement would look and feel in person.

As they left New York, Warhol noted the beauty of the skyline. The journey’s transition from that familiar urban view to Atlantic City’s casino interior gives the account its movement: the destination is approached through a change of scale, from the city seen at a distance to the entertainment complex explored room by room.

The Golden Nugget

A man whom Edmund Gaultney had once brought to Warhol’s office met the party in Atlantic City. Warhol learned that the man’s brother, Steve Wynn, owned the Golden Nugget. Wynn was there with his wife and children, whom Warhol described as a good-looking American family. The introduction made the casino visit an encounter with the people who owned and operated the venue, as well as with its public spectacle.

Ross considered two outfits before settling first on a skimpy white dress and later changing into tight black pants and a top. Warhol offered to act as her hairdresser and choose between them, but could not decide either. He then toured the casino: it contained eighteen restaurants, and Victorian styling prevailed throughout. When he asked why the interiors were Victorian, he was told that nobody gambled if a place looked modern. The explanation made décor part of the casino’s practical appeal, not simply ornament.

The tour continued up an escalator five stories high. Warhol was told that a plane would be sent for him whenever he wanted, but the offer was withdrawn when he said he was not a gambler. Ross, by contrast, was described as a big gambler, though she had not yet gambled at the Golden Nugget. The exchange tied the venue’s hospitality to the activity it was built around: access and attention seemed to depend on whether a visitor might play.

Celebrity and Social Encounters

After the show, Warhol went with Ross to Sinatra’s suite. Sinatra shook his hand for the first time; a tailor was there measuring Sinatra for suits, while security staff covered the cameras of people attempting to take photographs. Warhol had not brought his own camera, so the encounter remained an observation rather than a record. The scene gathers the visit’s recurring conditions—celebrity proximity, controlled access, and the management of images—inside a private room attached to a public performance.

Sinatra mentioned that his next album would include a song with Michael Jackson, and Ross suggested that he do one with her as well. Later, when Warhol and Ross were briefly alone, he made a joke about the unusual names he had encountered. Ross answered with a sideways movement of her nose, turning the remark into a comic gesture. The diary closes its Atlantic City episode with this exchange and Warhol’s return home at midnight, leaving the city framed by the show, the casino’s theatrical interiors, and the intimate social comedy of the trip.