PrintIn a reversal of a decision announced earlier in February, the Steel Pier of the Atlantic Pier Amusements and Cape Entertainment Co. in Atlantic City, N.J., will not resume its famous high diving horse act.
Pressure from animal rights activists, online petitioners and local protests influenced the decision, according to Press of Atlantic City.
“We didn’t want the negativity to derail the positive things that are happening,” said Anthony Catanoso, co-owner of Atlantic Pier Amusements Co. “Although we’ll preserve history and nostalgia in our own way, we won’t be doing it through the diving horse act.”
Begun in 1929, the high diving act, immortalized in the movie Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, featured bathing suit clad women riding horses off a 40-foot platform into deep pools of water. It was a popular attraction at the Pier until it was shut down in 1978. The act was briefly reintroduced in 1993, but due to overwhelming pressure from animal rights activists it was again canceled.
Anthony, Charles, and William Catanoso along with partners Ed Olwell and Paul Steelman purchased the pier from Trump Entertainment in 2011 and intended to include the return of the diving act as one of many improvements approved in a $102 million development plan scheduled to conclude in 2015.
“We’ve got four years and three phases of great things going on, a renovation that won’t be rivaled anywhere in the city, so we’re looking forward to moving forward on a positive note,” said Catanoso.
