Amusing the Zillion

Traveler: The Cats of Rimini’s Italia in Miniatura Park

May 8, 2013 by Tricia

The departure of Target the Coney Island Cat from Jimmy’s Balloon Dart on the Bowery for a new life in Las Vegas has left the People’s Playground without a cat mascot. It got us thinking about Italia in Miniatura, a theme park in Rimini, Italy, where a colony of cats have made themselves at home amid the tourist attraction’s 273 miniature reproductions of Italy’s monuments, churches, piazzas and landscapes.

Fed and cared for by the Rambaldi family, who own the park, the cats have appeared on calendars and starred in this 2008 film. This is not trick photography — the park’s scale models are the playground of the cats, whose names are Premuroso, Zuccherina, Pastrichio, Vittorio Emanuele, Oxford and Stu. “A thoroughly weird tour of Italy from a giant cat´s perspective,” writes Russell Bekins, who shot and edited “Italian Holiday” over a three-year period.

Several years ago, after meeting Bekins at the IAAPA convention, we first learned about Italia in Miniatura and its cats and did a story on Europe’s miniature parks for IAAPA’s Funworld Magazine. In addition to the scale models and landscaping, the park also features an interactive driving school for children, a water cannon ride featuring a replica of Rimini’s medieval castle, and other novel attractions.

Video of the Day: Restoration of Grandma’s Predictions

May 7, 2013 by Tricia

Grandma’s Predictions and Zoltar at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, Coney Island, July 2012

The venerable, circa 1929 “Grandma’s Predictions” has been telling fortunes under Coney Island’s 1920 Wonder Wheel all her life. A couple of seasons ago a brand-new Zoltar was brought in to keep her company and proved very popular with visitors to the arcade. Hurricane Sandy soaked both of them, and decapitated poor Zoltar. A new Zoltar Speaks machine was promptly ordered and is already here, but Grandma, an irreplaceable antique as well as a good luck charm for the three generations of the Vourderis family who have owned the park, was sent off to be restored.

Last night these riveting videos of Grandma’s wax head getting “eye surgery” at National Jukebox Exchange appeared on YouTube. The octogenarian tarot card reader is also getting new wax hands cast from the original mold, according to arcade restorer John Papa. He appears in the video along with fellow arcade restorer Bob Yorburg, who told ATZ that Grandma will get a new wig, dress and cabinet, too. The rare arcade piece is known as the “Cleveland Grandma” by collectors since she was built by the William Gent Manufacturing Company in Cleveland, “Grandma’s Predictions” is expected to come home to Coney Island on Mother’s Day, where a welcome home party will be held at Deno’s Wonder Wheel.

February 28, 2013: Coney Island Shooting Gallery from 1940s Makes Comeback

February 14, 2013: Photo of the Day: Lettering Saved from Demolished Arcade

August 15, 2011: Games: Where You Can Play Vintage Pinball Year Round

October 10, 2010: Traveler: Where You Can Play Fascination Year Round

Posted in amusement park, Artifacts, video | Tagged antique, arcade, Cleveland Grandma, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Grandma's Predictions, John Papa. Bob Yorburg, National Jukebox Exchange | Leave a Comment »

Photo of the Day: It’s Easy

May 4, 2013 by Tricia

It’s Easy, Coney Island. April 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Next door to “Coney Island Always” and “Miss Coney Island,” puppets, zikes and other unique prizes can be won at Benny’s games. On West 12th Street near the Boardwalk.

Badge Board Memories: From Let’s Jazz to Born This Way

May 1, 2013 by Tricia

Badge Board in Union Square Subway Station. March 31, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

On the subway platform at Union Square, we came across a vendor with this colorful badge board. Groucho Marxist, Straight But Not Narrow, Born This Way, Whatever! Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Haile Selassie. The badge board man –as his profession used to be called–said he began selling the buttons in Union Square after losing his job. The chance encounter brought back memories of my father, who liked to say that he was a jack of all trades and a master of none. Before he got into the carnival business, one of his trades was selling buttons with funny sayings and novelties at fairs and parades. This miniature black velvet badge board was created with some old buttons that turned up after he died. Let’s Jazz, How Do You Get That Way, Don’t Monkey With Me, Kiss Me Kid I’m Sweet.

Dad’s Badge Board Recreated. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Exclusive: Coney Island Zip Line to Be Dismantled Today

April 30, 2013 by Tricia

Abandoned Zip Line on Stillwell Avenue, Coney Island. December 5, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The strange saga of the zip line that came to Coney Island last summer and never opened (except for an hour-and-a-half) due to a permitting snafu with the City is about to end. The attraction was supposed to be part of the BK Festival and was set up on Thor Equities Stillwell Avenue lot behind Nathan’s, where it was left standing after the festival closed. Bob Rigsby, Project Manager of Scaffold King Rentals, Inc. of Rockville, Indiana, the company that rented the scaffolding to independent operator CAT 5 Zipline, has come to Coney Island to reclaim it.

“There’s $80,000 worth of metal, if we had to replace it,” Rigsby says of the two towers, which survived Superstorm Sandy just fine. “Right now we’re $60,000 in the hole.”

Scaffold King has hired a local crew to take down the towers starting this morning. It took five months for Rigsby to prove ownership of the scaffolding and get the necessary permits to dismantle it. The actual zip line is from a company in Boston that Scaffold King works with frequently, he says. Rigsby added that they will be installing a zip line elsewhere in New York that will go over the rooftops. We’re jealous. It’s too bad Coney Island never got to see this attraction in action. Based on the astronomical number of hits on ATZ posts updating the status of the Coney Island Zip Line and the emails and comments from people eagerly waiting for it to open, it would have been very popular and could have been a year-round attraction.

In January 2012, Scaffold King erected the launch and landing towers for the first-ever Super Bowl zip line, which was the single-longest temporary one ever constructed. Here’s a video of the 800-foot zip line at Super Bowl XLVI Village along Capitol Street in downtown Indianapolis.

UPDATE May 5, 2012

Tangled Up in Red Tape Department: First the zip line couldn’t open because of City permitting issues, now it’s stuck here because of permitting issues. The dismantling of the zip wires got underway as scheduled on Monday, but before the scaffolding could be taken down, work was stopped due to the wording on the permit. “The I’s have to be dotted and the T’s have to be crossed,” Rigsby said before he went home to Indiana without his company’s zip line, leaving Thor Equities to work out the details of the permit to take it down this week. (It was finally dismantled and trucked away.)

Still wanna zip line in New York City? Last year, a 160-foot portable zip line was added to the Summer Streets Program, run by the City’s DOT. Locations included Union Square and Foley Square in Manhattan. The annual event is on three consecutive Saturdays in the summer. The zip line was offered free of charge and was very popular. Will it be back this year?

Photo of the Day: Moon Viewing in Coney Island by Bruce Handy

April 28, 2013 by Tricia

Full Moon in Coney Island, March 26, 2013. Photo © Bruce Handy

March 26th’s full moon peers over the top of the landmark Cyclone roller coaster and the Wonder Wheel’s “Thrills!” sign in this exquisite capture by Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy. The American flags are the cherry on top!

Look Back: Thor’s Hit Parade of Signs in Coney Island

April 26, 2013 by Tricia

April 22, 2013: View from DNALSI YENOC, Coney Island. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

This week, the framework for a large sign was erected on the roof of Thor Equities new building at Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island. Will it be a billboard for a business or another one of Thor Equities “Space for Lease” teasers? As a photographer friend says: “That’s how you can tell a Thor property in Coney Island…the ‘For Lease’ sign!”

The building is the first sight you see when exiting Stillwell Terminal and we’ve taken many photos from this vantage point. There’s even a flickr group called DNALSI YENOC — Coney Island spelled backwards– showing how this view has changed over the past few years. Watch this space to see yet one more. In the meantime, here’s a look back at the signage, dating back to 2007, on Joe Sitt’s properties in Coney Island.

DNALSI YENOC: View of Surf Ave from Stillwell Terminal

April 8, 2012: DNALSI YENOC: View of Thor’s New Building on Surf Ave from Stillwell Terminal. Photo © Tricia Vita

The photo above shows the same view one year ago, when Thor’s building was completed and then immediately covered with plywood and a signature banner trumpeting “Retail Space Available.” The building remained vacant but now has at least three tenants for the 2013 season that ATZ was able to confirm: Maritza’s Souvenir Shop, a longtime tenant of the historic Henderson Building which was demo’d to make way for the generic-looking new building, is back in her old spot for the summer. It’Sugar, a Miami-based candy retailer, has the corner store and is expected to open May 3. Wampum, a lifestyle clothing brand and skateboard shop with two other locations in Bridgehampton and Nolita, is slated to open in Coney on May 24.

May 28, 2012: Coney Island ‘Funny Face’ Mural on Thor Equities Building at Surf and Stillwell. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

On Memorial Day Weekend 2012, the plywood on the Surf Avenue side of Thor’s vacant building came alive with this Funny Face mural. On Stillwell, the plywood remained dotted with signs touting “CONEY ISLAND – The RETAIL RIDE of a LIFETIME – for leasing contact…” As we wrote previously: “Ain’t it just like Joe Sitt to tout retail when Coney Island, the birthplace of the amusement industry, is expecting its best season yet because of the success of Luna Park on land purchased by the City from Thor?”

View of Henderson Building and Shore Hotel

Now we’re time-traveling back to July 2009, a few weeks before the City Council passed the rezoning that allows high-rise hotels on Joe Sitt’s property on the south side side of Surf, including this lot! The original caption on the photo was “View of Endangered Historic Buildings Owned by Thor Equities” and called people to a rally to “Save Coney Island.” Sadly, the Henderson Building and the Shore Hotel, seen above, were demolished in December 2010.

During the 2009 season, Thor’s banners touted “Festival by the Sea. A Uniquely Entertaining and Amusing Flea Market in Coney Island. Head Straight on Stillwell for Tons of Fun.” It was not.

May 15, 2009: Thor Equities flea market ‘Closed due to threat of bad weather’ on a sunny day. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

One of the most eye-catching signs at the flea market was “Closed due to threat of bad weather” posted on a sunny day in May due to a tent malfunction. You can’t make this stuff up. It was soon replaced by one that read “Pardon our Appearance while we adjust our tents.” Translation: The City’s DOB was requiring that the tents and structures be able to withstand hurricane force winds before issuing a C of O.

Shore Hotel Nature's Paradise by the Sea

Plastered with Thor’s ubiquitous “Space for Lease” signs but never leased, Coney Island’s Shore Hotel was boarded up with plywood painted in festive colors. A much smaller sign on a fence said “ATTENTION The Shore Hotel has closed down.”

The Shore Hotel was built circa 1903 and demolished by Thor Equities on December 10, 2010. It took only a couple of days for the demo men to take down the century-old wood frame building. There was nothing left of “Nature’s Paradise by the Sea” but a pile of sticks to be hauled away.

One signage-related highlight of 2008 was Joe Sitt being called “The Grinch Who Stole Coney Island” by the New York Post after cutting locks and hanging for lease banners on his Boardwalk and Stillwell properties on Christmas Eve. A section of the gigantic banner on the Henderson Building is seen in the photo below. R.I.P Shoot Out the Star. So far, Thor’s new building at Surf and Stillwell has no tenants with amusement games or arcades.

January 1, 2009: Thor Equities phone number dwarfs Shoot out the Star, Coney Island.

Also in 2008, Thor’s “Future of Coney Island” banners were recycled by tenants as decorative backdrops for their games. In January 2009, the slogan was tarnished when Thor’s Future of Coney Island website URL was taken over by a Belgian porn entrepreneur. “Who ever would have thunk the Future of Coney Island would turn out to be Biker Chicks in Heat and Lust on the Beach? Our suggestion: Somebody reopen the Shore Hotel right away with free 24/7 Belgian porn,” wrote Gowanus Lounge’s Bob Guskind.

August 8, 2008: Thor Equities Space for Lease and ‘Future of Coney’ banners as backdrop for basketball joint on Surf Ave. Photo © Tricia Vita

Thor regained control of the URL but later gave it up. Yes, that’s right, Joe Sitt no longer owns “The FutureofConeyIsland.com”! If you type in the URL, you’re redirected to its new owner, real estate site LivingThere.com (“A Better Way to Find a Home”). Wanna buy an “exquisitely spacious 2 bedroom/1 bath coop in Trump Village Section 3 on a high floor offers spectacular views of the ocean from every room and balcony”?