December | 2010 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for December, 2010

Happy Holidays from Amusing the Zillion

Posted in Photography, tagged Christmas, Christmas Window, Shop Window, Toy Carnival on December 24, 2010| 5 Comments »

Christmas Window at Caravansary, 115-A Greenwich Ave in the Village. December 23, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The rides are closed for the winter in Coney Island, but in a shop window in the West Village, we found a toy carnival awhirl amid Christmas ornaments. There’s even a roller coaster called “Cyclone.”

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Coney Island Christmas Wish List: $12M Shore Theater

Posted in historic preservation, Real Estate, tagged Landmarks Preservation Commission, New York City Landmark, Shore Theater on December 23, 2010| 3 Comments »

Shore Theater for Sale. Dec 19, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Since the Shore Theater became an official New York City landmark last week, the “For Sale” banners on its scaffolding have beckoned. ATZ phoned the broker to ask a) the price and b) if we could get a peek inside. Hey, we’re curious. The Shore Theater was built at the same time as the Cyclone roller coaster and the Wonder Wheel, yet it’s been dark for as long as we’ve been coming to Coney Island. The theater closed in the 1970s.

If buying the Shore and saving it from 35 years of neglect is on your Christmas Wish List, please be a millionaire. The building will cost you $12 million. Fillmore broker Lenny Libman says he has “a few prospective buyers” as well as businesses looking to lease the ground floor. He does not think the City will buy it. As for a peek inside, we’re still working on it. Libman says, “It would be taking your life into your own hands” due to the condition of the interior.

The building’s owner Horace Bullard wouldn’t allow anyone inside prior to the designation because he feared the building would be landmarked, says Libman. Even HBO’s hit show “Boardwalk Empire” has failed to get their foot in the door. Ironically the Shore Theater was landmarked anyway, though only the exterior was considered for designation at this time. Elisabeth de Bourbon of the Landmarks Preservation Commission told ATZ that by law the commission may consider only those buildings which are “customarily open to the public” for interior designation.

New York City has 110 buildings with landmarked interiors, including Grand Central Station and the lobbies of the Empire State and Woolworth Buildings, as well as such Broadway theaters as the Majestic, Martin Beck, Ambassador and Beacon.

Shore Theater for Sale. Dec 19, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Photo of the Day: Shoot the Freak Is Boarded Up

Posted in Photo of the Day, Redevelopment, tagged Amanda Burden, Boardwalk, Coney Island, Mayor Bloomberg, Shoot the Freak on December 22, 2010| 1 Comment »

Shoot The Freak. Dec. 22, 2010. Photo © Rubys Host via flickr

If you were hoping to take one last souvenir photo in front of Shoot the Freak on New Year’s Day, fuhgeddaboutit. This afternoon, construction workers boarded up the front of the vacant lot where the famed Coney Island paintball game has been played since 2002. Central Amusement International/Zamperla has a DOB permit for “the installation of temporary fencing and site preparation.” Workers told the photographer: “It’s the new entrance to one of the roller coasters coming into Scream Zone for 2011.”

“The back wall/fences are now gone and the stuff inside removed, but that’s it,” said Rubyshost in an email. “They were bringing in new material for fencing, poles etc – part of the wall was open so I could see the entire back.”

Shoot the Freak is one of the eight Boardwalk businesses being evicted by CAI, which has leased the property from the City. The Coney Island 8’s court date was postponed till January 10, 2011

When news of the Boardwalk evictions broke in November, New York Magazine chimed in with “Let Us Now Mourn the Loss of Coney Island’s ‘Shoot the Freak’” to remind us that city planning commissioner Amanda Burden once assured New York that she “loved” and “would vote for” Shoot the Freak. That was back in 2007. No love now! Here’s the vid of the Mayor, Burden and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff answering a reporter’s question about the future of Shoot the Freak and other Coney Island attractions. The videographer is the late Bob Guskind of Gowanus Lounge. Bob would have appreciated the irony of this video showing up three years later in a post about the demise of Shoot the Freak.

UPDATE… December 23, 2010…11:00 pm

This afternoon, “The Coney Island 8” issued a press statement on the shuttering of Shoot the Freak. It says in part: “We are angered and saddened that, just a few days before Christmas, one of our businesses, ‘Shoot the Freak,’ has had its entrances illegally boarded up and all of its property removed. This was done without the knowledge of the owner Anthony Berlingieri.” The businesses, which are fighting their eviction in court, also launched a new website to tell their story and ask New Yorkers to call the Mayor’s office in support of the Coney Island 8. The url is www.coneyisland8.com.