The HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" has focused national attention, for better or worse, on the history of Atlantic City. The New Yorker's Ben McGrath visited A.C. with Temple historian and American Studies Director Bryant Simon, author of Boardwalk of Dreams, to learn the truth about the city's history as reflected in its public spaces. In the television show, the benches are pointed out to sea. In reality, said Simon, the benches pointed toward the Boardwalk, "a stage where people came to announce they had made it in America."