September | 2010 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for September, 2010

Luna Park Coney Island: Zamperla Air Race On-Ride POV Video

Posted in Amusement ride, video, tagged Air RAce, Coaster Force, Coney Island, Luna Park, POV video, Zamperla on September 16, 2010| 1 Comment »

If you’re a wimp when it comes to thrill rides, this on-ride POV vid is your chance to go for a virtual spin on Zamperla’s new Air Race. Woo hoo! From our article about Luna Park in the August issue of IAAPA Funworld: “Our intention is to have the latest rides that we develop in our park,” says Valerio Ferrari (CEO of Zamperla USA and Central Amusements International), who points to the Air Race, a prototype designed by Mega Disk’O creator Gianbattista Zambelli. The thrill ride, which sends riders upside down at up to 4 g forces, made its world debut in Coney Island.

Zamperla’s Luna Park in Coney Island opened on Memorial Day weekend. The park is currently open weekends through Halloween.

An off-ride POV video (also by Coaster Force) conveys the visual impact of the ride. When you’re standing at the perimeter, it really does feel like the aerobatic planes are diving towards you!

Joe Sitt Is Prez of Heritage Museum, But It’s Not in Coney Island

Posted in historic preservation, history, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, heritage museum, Joe Sitt, Joey Coney Island, Thor Equities on September 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

Thor Equities phone # dwarfs Shoot out the Star. Jan 1, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Thor Equities phone # dwarfs Shoot out the Star on Henderson Bldg. Jan 1, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

News to us: Joe Sitt, CEO of Thor Equities, the real estate speculator whose destruction of four historic buildings in Coney Island is currently underway, is into history after all! Today we learned that Sitt is president of a history museum. The Sephardic Heritage Museum, incorporated as a “non-profit or religious entity” in Delaware in 2005, had nearly $3 million in assets according to last year’s filing. The address listed for the museum is the same as Thor Equities office. The museum is not yet open to the public, we were told by a gentleman who answered the phone at a Lakeland, New Jersey number listed on the web. The filing states: “When the museum opens, it will maintain and publicly display objects of historical, cultural and religious significance to persons with Sephardic Jewish descent and their heritage.”

ATZ was tipped off to the existence of the fledgling museum via an invitation to a film screening at Lincoln Center that was forwarded by a reader. The invite says: Joseph J. Sitt & The Sephardic Heritage Museum present a premier screening of “The Syrian Jewish Community.” The first ever documentary film tracing our history. October 24, 2010. 6:00 PM screening of the film. LINCOLN CENTER, Avery Fisher Hall. Tickets on sale now $30 to $150. All proceeds go to The Sephardic Heritage Museum. All tickets are tax deductible.

Founding a museum and supporting a documentary film devoted to one’s heritage are commendable efforts. We just wish Joe Sitt showed a similar interest in the historical and cultural significance of Coney Island’s amusement district and the properties that he owns there. The Grashorn Building, Coney Island’s oldest structure, built in the 1880s; the 1923 Bank of Coney Island, the 1903 Shore Hotel and the former Henderson Music Hall have a date with the wrecking ball.

Coney Island's Oldest: Built in 1880s, Grashorn Building in 1969. Photo © Charles Denson via Coney Island History Project

In “Four Coney Island Buildings to Fall,” Friday’s Story of the Day on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s website, Thor spokesman Stefan Friedman said, “These are ramshackle structures, eyesores.” Historian Charles Denson countered by citing the Parachute Jump, which had been described by detractors as “an eyesore” and “dangerous” in the years prior to its rehab and landmark designation. In the article, Juan Rivero of Save Coney Island noted that an engineer has offered to assess the buildings’ structural integrity free of charge, if Thor Equities is willing to grant access to the buildings. How about it Joey Coney Island?

Video: Coney Island’s Faber’s Fascination by Charles Denson

Posted in history, video, tagged arcade, Charles Denson, Coney Island, demolition, Faber's Fascination, Henderson Building, signage, Thor Equities on September 12, 2010| 7 Comments »

Historian Charles Denson, author of Coney Island: Lost and Found, shot this video of the Faber’s Fascination sign on September 9th and 10th. An employee of the arcade lit up the Faber’s sign one last time before all of the letters were removed from the facade. As ATZ reported last week, the arcade, which has been in the Henderson Building since the 1930s, closed on Labor Day 2010.

Denson says in the video’s intro: “The iconic sign was the last remaining example of Coney’s bare bulb Electric Eden illumination that began with Luna Park in 1903. It is also the latest victim of predatory real-estate developer Thor Equities’ self-described summer of demolition, spurred on by the City’s rezoning of the site for a 30-story high-rise hotel that will most likely never be built. These images are from the sign’s last night of illumination.”

In “Four Coney Buildings to Fall,” Friday’s Story of the Day on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s website, Denson cited the new Luna Park and the rehab of the Parachute Jump as the kind of direction we should keep going in. “Coney Island is really down to a handful of what you could call ‘landmark’ buildings,” Denson said in the article. “It would be good if Thor Equities would at least save one of them.”