Frank Sinatra, “Old Blue-Eyes,” freshly shorn, stands next to Rocky Vitteta, the house barber. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are on stage. So is Milton Berle. Dozens of others smile — from the walls and display cases, beside souvenir brochures and matchbooks. Beaming out from among lines of chorus girls and musicians are faces as recognizable as Pearl Bailey’s and Lena Horne’s. Or the Andrews Sisters’. Other faces, though perhaps instantly recognizable in their own day, serve today — for most of us, at least — as reminders of the fleeting nature of fame.
The tale of the Riviera began in 1931, the same year the George Washington Bridge first forged its link between the bright lights of Manhattan and the tree-shaded suburbs of Bergen County. In that year the renowned nightclub entrepreneur Ben Marden bought a cliff-top hotel in Fort Lee called the Villa Richard. Marden refurbished the Richard as a world-class club.
Painted yellow, the art-deco building was shaped like the rounded transom of a great yacht berthed high above the Hudson (the windows were even shaped like portholes). At night a huge red neon sign could be read from miles away: Ben Marden’s Riviera. On warm evenings, the roof could be retracted to allow for dancing by starlight. The stage revolved so that one act could replace another without pause in the entertainment. And then there was the talk of hidden gambling rooms…
As construction began on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, it became clear that the Riviera’s days were numbered. Miller fought against the closing, but it was a fight he was destined to lose. The building was eventually torn down, and only a few nondescript traces remain in the woods atop the cliffs. Many of the contents of the club were auctioned off, and some of these have found their way back to the exhibit that the Fort Lee Historical Society gathered together to display at the Fort Lee Museum.
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