New Jersey, the company was encouraged by the governor. This would not be the case with the later resorts built on the Boardwalk. Chalfonte-Haddon Hall was first briefly renamed The Palace Hotel in May 1977, before being again renamed Resorts International Hotel on July 1, 1977. Resorts International opening Resorts International's new casino opened its doors at 10:00AM on May 26, 1978. Initial gaming laws in New Jersey only allowed casinos to operate for 18 hours during the week and 20 hours during the weekends. This situation produced massive lines outside of Resorts, and people waited hours to get inside after Governor Brendan Byrne cut the ceremonial opening ribbon. The first acts in the hotel's 1700-seat Super Star Theater were Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, with Lawrence throwing out the first dice roll at one of the casino's craps tables. After the conversion to Resorts International, the squash courts on the 15th floor of Haddon Hall remained in operation under their original name: The Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Racquet Club. The Chalfonte Hotel building was left vacant until demolished in 1980 to make room for a parking lot. Ownership changes Despite the initial success of its flagship Atlantic City property, Resorts International struggled to compete with its competition as more casinos were developed on the boardwalk. Newer and more extravagant resorts began to erode market share and interest in the property during the 1980s, and Resorts International added to the problem by not making any significant upgrades to the property. Instead, the company focused on expanding its operations in the market by announcing in the mid 1980s its plans to develop a new property in Atlantic City called the Taj Mahal Casino. Financial difficulties, however, prevented Resorts International from ever completing the Taj Mahal project, and in 1987 the company became a takeover target when Donald Trump purchased a controlling block of Resorts International stock. After the death of James M. Crosby, Trump made an offer to all remaining Resorts International shareholders in late 1987 to buy all of the remaining outstanding shares of the company's stock that he did not already control. Trump was challenged for control of the company in early 1988, though, when Merv Griffin, through his Griffin Gaming & Entertainment company, also made a bid for all of the stock in Resorts International. After a two-month battle for control of the company, Trump and Griffin finally reached an