Playland Arcade Building, August 12, 2012. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr
Demolition began today of the long vacant Playland Arcade, which has been closed since 1981. The interior walls were gutted by a demo crew using a small bulldozer. Asbestos removal is slated for Thursday with the exterior walls expected to come down soon afterwards.
ATZ asked former arcade operator and Coney Island regular Stan Fox, who operated Playland with his brother from 1957 until 1971, how he felt seeing the last of the arcade. “As I would walk by the empty arcade thousands of times over the years, in my mind’s eye I would see the ghosts of people who worked in Playland,” said Fox. “I would hear the sound of Skee-Ball going up and down the alleys, the ka-chunk of the plates rolling over, the ding-ding of the pinball machines and the jingling of coins being emptied into change bags.”
Owned by Horace Bullard, the Playland building was posted with a City-issued demolition order in September. Bullard is also the owner of the adjacent Thunderbolt lot, which has been vacant since the City tore down the roller coaster in 2000. In recent days, City workers cleared weeds from the lot. Bullard also owns the landmarked Shore Theater, which is for sale for $13.5 million.
An arcade operated in the Playland building from the 1930s until 1981, according to Stan Fox, who grew up working in his brother’s penny arcades in Coney Island. He says the arcades were operated by four sets of brothers over a 50-year period: the Silver brothers (Silver’s Penny Arcade), the Katz brothers (Star Penny Arcade), Alex Elowitz and Stan Fox (Playland Arcade), and the Getlan brothers, who kept the Playland name.
Alex Elowitz got his start in the arcade business working as a 12-year old change boy for the Silver brothers, says Fox. After a stint in the Army, Alex returned to Coney Island and in 1949 opened his first Playland Arcade on 20th Street and the Boardwalk in the Washington Baths building. Playlands at 15th Street and the Boardwalk and 12th Street and the Boardwalk (where Nathan’s is now) followed.
In 1957, Alex and Stan opened their fourth Playland Arcade in the building currently under demolition. They bought the business from the surviving Katz brother for $50,000 and leased the building from Klein and Moran, who also owned the Thunderbolt. “Rent for the whole season was $15,000 in 1957,” says Fox. “In those days 10th Avenue between 42nd and 49th Streets was Coin Machine Row. We ordered a ton of new equipment and renovated the place.” The brothers operated the arcade until 1977, when they sold the business to the Getlan brothers. In 1981 the arcade machines were auctioned and the business closed, leaving Playland vacant for the past thirty years.
UPDATE February 14, 2013:
The demolition of Coney Island’s Playland Arcade, which got underway in October, was interrupted by SuperStorm Sandy. The job was finished today. It’s gone! Charles Denson of the Coney Island History Project managed to save the remaining letters on the facade– L, N and D– and several of the murals. An exhibit is scheduled for this summer.
Related posts on ATZ…
October 7, 2012: ATZ’s Big Wish List for the New Coney Island
March 26, 2012: Photo of the Day: Target the Coney Island Arcade Cat
March 20, 2012: 60 Years of Family History in Coney Island End with Sale of Eldorado
April 13, 2011: Coney Island Arcade Debuts Cobra, Braves Loss of Arcade
Amusing the Zillion 
Back in March 2011, a nor easter knocked down the plywood covering the what was the front door, giving me the opportunity to take this video of the interior
Thanks for sharing this “inside look”, Capt. Neomo. Love all the vintage artwork.
The walls have now been stripped. there is nothing left….
Wow, wonder what’s going to be put there. We were at Coney Island on Rosh Hashana; I stopped to take a couple of photos and my daughter, almost age 12, thought that I was being ridiculous because, for her entire life, that building has been slowly decaying. Why waste precious moments that could be spent on rides photographing it yet again?
I guess it’s too much to hope that something fantastic and true to the spirits of Coney Island will be put in its place.
My wish list for 15th Street and beyond!
https://amusingthezillion.com/2012/10/07/atzs-big-wish-list-for-the-new-coney-island/
Someone should go in there and rescue those signs on the wall.
The video is from March 2011. The signage that you see in the video is already gone. There is nothing left, it was already stripped away. The asbestos removal began yesterday. Some signage was rescued last year by the Coney Island History Project.
$7.00 for 3 min ride not worth it
I worked there making change from a coin apron in 1967, as well as retrieving stuck roller poker balls. Most games were $0.10, and I developed a collection of mercury dimes, substituting my own newer ones. Ate dinner at Nathan’s. Coney Island was already shrinking, and Playland was near the far border of the amusement zone.