Mobster-themed window display featuring Lucky Luciano & Al Capone. Surf Avenue, Coney Island. June 28, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr
On the north side of Coney Island’s Surf Avenue, the florist with the surreal Roman centurion window display that we photographed last year has morphed into a party planner with a hokey mobster-themed window display. Al Capone earned his infamous nickname “Scarface” in 1917 after getting slashed in a fight at Coney Island’s Harvard Inn. Charles “Lucky” Luciano became mob boss soon after inviting Joe “The Boss” Masseria to lunch at Nuova Villa Tammaro on West 15th Street, where Joe got rubbed out in 1931. Photos of the two mobsters (and an unidentified third man) along with faux bags of loot, bootleg liquor and getaway car are part of the window display across the street from Luna Park. May we suggest that in addition to the bar/batmitzvahs and sweet sixteen parties, the party planners open up a wax museum a la Lillie Santangelo’s World in Wax Musee? If you’re too young to remember it, watch Charles Ludlam’s silent horror short “The Museum of Wax,” shot in the late 1970s.
Related posts on ATZ…
July 6, 2012: Photo of the Day: Art on the Move in Coney Island
April 13, 2012: Photo of the Day: Catch 1 Ball Win This Prize
August 8, 2011: Photo of the Day: Across the Street from the Cyclone
June 30, 2011: Photo of the Day: Mermaid Avenue at Dusk
Amusing the Zillion 
Like this! Wonder what might happen if you cropped in on two faces with the wheel in back. Really interesting image.