At 6 a.m. Wednesday, the doors were set to close on a chapter that helped rewrite downtown Aurora’s story.
For more than three decades, Hollywood Casino’s riverboat pavilion has stood along the Fox River, its lights reflecting off the water and its presence woven into the city’s downtown identity.
Soon, its gambling operations will move to a gleaming new resort near Interstate 88 in the city, leaving behind the riverfront home that first captured Aurora’s imagination on June 17, 1993.
While I was not on the first cruise that set sail, I vividly recall the excitement of that red letter day, along with the anticipation that led up to it.
When I first arrived in the newsroom the previous month, it felt as though Aurora was standing on the edge of something big. A team of journalists had been assigned to cover the opening of this new casino, including two reporters who were on that inaugural cruise, and designers who created a detailed two-page spread that cleverly laid out every inch of those four-deck paddlewheel-style vessels, each about 145 feet long and capable of carrying 600 passengers.
Aurora was a different city back then. The headlines too often focused on gangs, crime and a downtown struggling to find its footing.
Then came the promise of riverboat gambling – a bold idea that city leaders believed could help spark a revival. The $70 million project was touted as a centerpiece of downtown revitalization, a catalyst that would bring jobs, visitors and new energy to a city eager to shed its rough-around-the-edges reputation.
“There was a lot of excitement,” recalls David Pierce, who was mayor when Aurora got its casino after the state had already handed out 10 such licenses.
“It was the biggest opening since the revitalization of the Paramount” in 1976-77.
Back then, of course, Illinois law required casinos to actually float. So when the City of Lights I and City of Lights II pulled away from the dock, they carried not only hundreds of eager gamblers but local leaders who knew that this project had the potential to be a game-changer. People weren’t just buying the $15 tickets for a few hours of blackjack and slot machines. They were buying into a vision.
The first owner of Hollywood Casino in Aurora was the Pratt family, who had strong ties to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and brought all the glitz and glam with them. The land-based pavilion, restaurant and lounges included a more upscale design – think Art Deco, large chandeliers, brass- and gold-toned trim, theatrical lighting and bold carpeting – than a typical Midwestern boat attraction.
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Even more exciting – at least to people like me who were not into gambling – was the parade of celebrities that found its way to downtown Aurora.
One of Pierce’s fondest memories was sitting next to Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney – flown in to cut the ribbon at that grand opening – as they were ferried to the riverboat on that first cruise, and listening to him reminisce about other icons, including Judy Garland.
Speaking of which, Aurora was not just another property to the Pratt family but was their company’s first Hollywood-branded casino. So there was a lot of cool memorabilia on display during those early years: photographs, posters, movie props and costumes, including Dorothy’s red slippers from the “Wizard of Oz.”
Other big names that graced the Paramount stage in the year following that grand opening: Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Ann-Margret, Smokey Robinson and the incomparable Willie Nelson, who I got to interview in his bus after his show (and have a picture buried somewhere in my attic to prove it).
The steady stream of celebrity appearances largely faded after Hollywood Casino was sold to the now-PENN Entertainment in 2003, as did the excitement around the casino. For one thing, there was never any real economic spillover to other downtown businesses, as some people had hoped. And casino revenues gradually declined as Illinois expanded gambling opportunities, drawing customers to new venues, while a statewide smoking ban and higher gaming taxes added additional challenges to the industry.
Still, there’s no question, insisted Pierce, that the casino as a “destination place” lived up to its promise to deliver jobs, infrastructure improvements, public safety and community projects. According to previous reporting, at its height in 2007, it brought in $15.4 million a year in revenue for the city of Aurora.
“It became a major cash resister for the city,” insisted Pierce. “It did what we expected it to do.”
Longtime Aurora Ald. Mike Saville also looks back fondly on those early days, noting how the city and business community came together to bring “huge infrastructure” improvements to downtown Aurora in preparation for that first cruise. Those included the riverwalk, a parking deck, dredging the river and constructing a canoe chute, putting in fountains, decorative pavers, landscaping and streetlights.
“It helped put Aurora on the map,” he said.
And now that the casino has left that area, “downtown is not skipping a beat,” Saville added, pointing to the Aurora Civic Center Authority and the launch of the Paramount Theatre’s nationally-recognized Broadway Series as the linchpin that transformed downtown into a destination for far more than gambling.
Only time will reveal what becomes of the land the casino called home for more than three decades, and whether the new and improved version along the interstate can forge the same connection to Aurora.
As Pierce noted, “It will be interesting to see what happens.”
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