It was a 7-foot-high Plexiglas whirlpool bath shaped like a long-stemmed champagne glass, large enough to accommodate two adults. Wilkins later came up with the idea of a champagne glass bathtub, which debuted in 1983. In the early 1970s he pioneered the concept of the in-room swimming pool.
Some of Wilkins’s ideas, including mirrors on the ceilings, circular beds, and heart-shaped bathtubs, would appear at other Caesars resorts in Las Vegas and Tahoe. In 1997 Ski Magazine stated that the Caesars Pocono chain captured about one-third of the local couples market. We had to look for somebody with deep pockets that’s why we sold to Caesars.” He became the president and chief operating officer of Caesars Pocono Resorts and opened three other resorts in the Poconos: Paradise Stream, Pocono Palace, and Brookdale. Wilkins said, “We had more business than we knew what to do with but had no money for expansion. In 1969 Wilkins and O’Brien sold Cove Haven to Caesars World of Las Vegas. When they finally got the bath through, they realized it reflected a heart shape… perfect for a couples resort.” In order to make the turn, they needed to distort the shape a bit. “When Wilkins and Obie were carrying the prototype down a flight of stairs, they ran into a corner. He came over the next day, and we began planning construction…” Honest Phil Policare, Chief Excitement Officer at Cove Haven, said that Wilkins and O’Brien were planning to put whirlpools in every suite, and the first one they bought was a common circle. I immediately ran down to the basement of my house and drew a big heart on the concrete floor and called Obie. Wilkins said, “I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea of a heart-shaped bathtub. There were conflicting accounts as to how Wilkins came up with the idea for the tub. The tubs fell out of favor in the 1990s, and a new generation of vacationers considered them tacky. Author George Cantor wrote, “Wilkins’s amorous innovation… helped transform the Poconos into America’s premier honeymoon haven.” According to Local Flair Magazine, “These iconic tubs symbolized romance and luxury for couples looking to retreat to a scenic and quiet getaway without having to travel far.” By the 1980s, resorts all over the world could buy a mass-produced version of the heart-shaped tub in fiberglass or acrylic. Rival resorts also installed heart-shaped tubs, as Wilkins had never secured a patent. The heart-shaped tub became a symbol of the Pocono resort business. They described it as “affluent vulgarity.” There was already action in the bedroom, but I thought there could be action in the bathroom, too.” In January 1971 Life magazine featured a two-page photograph of a couple smooching in one of the red-tiled “sweetheart tubs” at Cove Haven. He stated, “I felt that the bathroom was the great neglected honeymoon accommodation. Wilkins built the first six tubs himself, pouring concrete into a heart-shaped mold and covering them with red tile. The tubs cost $3,000 to make and install. In 1963 Wilkins invented the heart-shaped bathtub as a way to generate more honeymoon business at the hotel. They renamed the hotel Cove Haven and marketed it as a couples-only resort. In 1958 Wilkins and his partner Harold O’Brien purchased Hotel Pocopaupack on the banks of Lake Wallenpaupack in Lakeville, Pennsylvania. After his discharge from the Navy, Wilkins started an electrical contracting business, but it was destroyed by Hurricane Diane in 1955. He served in the Pacific Theater on two submarines, USS Rasher and USS Gurnard, and was trained as an electrician. At age 17, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Wilkins enlisted in the United States Navy. His father, Benjamin Wilkins, was a tailor from Russia and his mother, the former Rose Katz, was from Hungary. The oldest of three children, Wilkins was born in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, to immigrants.
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