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Grimaldi’s Rings in Coney Island Comeback with Dreamland Bell

Posted in Artifacts, Food & Drink, history, tagged Coney Island, Coney Island History Project, Dreamland Bell, Gene Ritter, Grimaldi's, restaurant, Superstorm Sandy on May 13, 2013 | 3 Comments »

1885 Bell from Iron Pier at Dreamland Park on Display at Grimaldi’s Coney Island. Mary 12, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Grimaldi’s in Coney Island, which renovated and reopened on April 30 after being flooded by Superstorm Sandy, is now offering a slice of Coney Island history along with their pizza pies. The “Dreamland Bell” that survived the Dreamland Fire of 1911 was put on display yesterday at the pizza restaurant, where it is a powerful symbol of Coney’s comeback from Sandy. The Bell can be seen through the open storefront by pedestrians walking on the north side of Surf Avenue. It is expected to be on display at the popular pizza restaurant for two to three weeks, store owner Joe Silvestri told ATZ.

The 1885 bronze bell cast by James Gregory once welcomed steamship passengers arriving at the New Iron Pier to visit Coney Island’s Dreamland Park, which was on the site of the New York Aquarium. After a 20 year quest, Coney Island diver Gene Ritter found the Bell twenty-five feet underwater, about one hundred yards offshore. On September 3, 2009, nearly a century after the fire that destroyed Dreamland and the Pier, the bell was raised from the ocean floor and a day later was put on exhibit at the Coney Island History Project.

Vintage Ad: Iron Steamboat Co. The Only All Water Route to Coney Island. Photo by Tricia Vita via Coney Island History Project flickr

Vintage Ad: Iron Steamboat Co. “The Only All Water Route” to Coney Island. Photo © Tricia Vita via Coney Island History Project flickr

“The reason we’re doing it now at Grimaldi’s is because of the devastation of Sandy,” Ritter told ATZ. “We’re trying to help them out.” The fact that the restaurant is decorated with poster-size photos of Coney Island’s historic Dreamland Park and Luna Park “makes it a natural,” Ritter added. Later this week, Charles Denson of the Coney Island History Project will install a plaque with the history of the Dreamland Bell and archival photos.

When the Dreamland Bell made its debut at the History Project on Labor Day Weekend in 2009, joy and optimism about the future of Coney Island was reflected in the faces of many friends and acquaintances who made a special trip to see the Bell and ring it. The discovery of the Bell symbolized and presaged the rebirth of Coney Island because it marked the return of something that was thought to have been irrevocably destroyed. No one expected the return of an artifact lost nearly one hundred years ago in a fire, and certainly not such an important artifact as the Dreamland Bell. It’s fitting that the Bell has been brought back to ring in Coney Island’s comeback from the destruction of Sandy.

Grimaldi’s, 1215 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11224

Gene Ritter with Russell of Grimaldi’s in front of photo of Dreamland Tower at Grimaldi’s Surf Avenue restaurant. May 12, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Rare & Vintage: Looking for Artifacts from Idora Park

Posted in amusement park, Artifacts, history, tagged Idora Park, Jane's Carousel, Jim Amey, museum, Ohio, Youngstown on April 8, 2013 | 5 Comments »

Jane’s Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park came from Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio

Even before Jane’s Carousel was installed in Brooklyn Bridge Park, groups traveled from Ohio to DUMBO to be reunited with the carousel of their childhood, beautifully restored by Jane Walentas. Philadelphia Toboggan Company’s 1922 PTC #61 was originally installed in Youngstown, Ohio’s Idora Park, which closed after a devastating fire. The Walentas’ purchase of the carousel at the park’s 1984 auction kept the ride from being broken up.

Seeing an ad by Jim Amey on a used ride site seeking ride cars and other Idora Park artifacts for his homegrown museum reminded us of the Ohioans poignant visits. When ATZ contacted Amey, he said the Idora property was still vacant after 30 years and the park’s rides had gone the way of the four winds.

I was in my mid 20s and living overseas when Idora Park ‘died.’ I was sad to hear about Idora’s fire and closure, but it took quite a few years before I realized just how much I (and Youngstown) had lost when Idora Park disappeared. I returned to Youngstown in 1993 and my wife and I walked the Idora Park property. It was heartbreaking to see the destruction and decay. I had been to this park so many times as a child and as a teenager. I worked at Idora Park in the Football Throw game and the Skee-Ball game in the summer of 1976 – my last real visit to Idora Park. Now it was gone. I think that walk of ours was when the seed was first planted that I needed to try to preserve whatever parts of Idora Park I could find, to preserve and share the memory of Idora Park.

Amey started to find Idora Park ride cars, posters and ephemera through people he met via the message boards at IdoraPark.org. His collection includes one of only three front cars to the Wildcat roller coaster, a rear car to the wooden Jackrabbit roller coaster, a Silver Rocket Ship, a Tilt-A-Whirl car, three Caterpillar cars, the 12-foot-tall metal Nutcracker Soldiers that guarded Kiddieland, the entire Kiddieland train and all of its tracks (seen in the 1952 photo below) and a 6-foot-long Idora Park neon sign.

Reed children riding train at Idora Park, Youngstown, OH, 1952. Photo by Walter Reed courtesy of Leon Reed/lreed76 via flickr

“My wife Toni and I are going to put up a building to display our Idora Park collection during certain parts of the year,” says Amey, who plans to retire in the Youngstown area, where he owns property in Canfield, Ohio. “We spoke to the zoning department and the director there is excited about our plan and he’s ready to help us make this a reality. I want people to have the chance to come and relive a little of Idora Park. I’m having large banners made up from photographs that were taken while Idora Park was operating. Those banners will serve as backdrops for the rides that will be on display. We’re still in the planning stages, but I expect that the building will be in place within the next 12 months.”

Since Idora Park closed nearly 30 years ago and it is difficult to identify things as being from the park, Amey is also looking for what he calls “Idora Park-Identical, or Idora Park-Like artifacts” including signs, ride parts and games. His email address is jamesamey[AT]aol[DOT]com.

Idora Park Wildcat roller coaster car on left, Jackrabbit car on right. Jim Amey Collection

Victrola Vault: In Summertime Down By the Sea (1904)

Posted in history, Music, Music Video, tagged 1904, Dan W Quinn, Graphophone, In Summertime Down By the Sea, record, summertime, Victrolaman on January 9, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Temps in the mid-50s in January coupled with the news that 2012 was the hottest ever in the US has put us in the mood for a little summertime music. “In Summertime Down by the Sea” was sung by the successful early recording artist Dan W. Quinn in 1904, when Dreamland was brand-new and Luna Park was just one year old. “The splendid new summer song. Don’t fail to get it for your act,” said an ad in The New York Dramatic Mirror.

In summertime down by the sea
The only real place boys for me
Take a ride on a trolley get there before dark
Take your sweetheart to Dreamland or to Luna Park
In summertime down by the sea
The place where we all like to be…

The Columbia black wax cylinder record is played on a 1901 Columbia Model AB Graphophone. Both are from the collection of Victrolaman, whose 1920s recording of the Mills Brothers “Coney Island Washboard Roundelay” was previously featured on ATZ. Victrolaman’s YouTube channel features recorded sound from the 1890s up to the mid-1930s played on the original gramophones & phonographs of that era.

In Summertime Down by the Sea. The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, Special Collections at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library of The Johns Hopkins University