October | 2012 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for October, 2012

Art of the Day: Fire Eater by Marie Roberts

Posted in art, tagged Blue Mountain Gallery, Deborah Stern, Fire Eater, Marie Roberts, sideshow banner on October 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Fire Eater Sideshow Banner © Marie Roberts. Photo by AmusingtheZillion.com

If you happen to be in Chelsea, stop by Blue Mountain Gallery to see this lovely fire eater sideshow banner by Marie Roberts, though you have to know where to look. Along with two smaller banners, the former advertisement for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow hangs on the back wall adjacent to the desk. It’s an extra added attraction to the main exhibition “Occupied and Unwelcome,” a collaboration by Deborah Stern (Tucson, Arizona) and Marie Roberts (Brooklyn, NY) that merges the landscapes of Zuccotti Park with the Sonoran Desert. The show is on view through October 27th.

Blue Mountain Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10001. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm. Phone 718-486-4730.

Related posts on ATZ...

October 10, 2012: Up for Auction: Sideshow & Magic Banners by Fred Johnson

October 4, 2012: Art of the Day: Coney Island Hysterical Society

August 21, 2012: Art of the Day: Out of Disorder (Coney Island) by Takahiro Iwasaki

August 6, 2012: Art of the Day: Madame Twisto by Marie Roberts

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50-Year-Old Coney Island Kiddie Park Begins Dismantling Rides

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, News, tagged Carol McCullough, Coney Island, Jimmy McCullough, McCullough's Kiddie Park, Thor Equities on October 17, 2012| 1 Comment »

Kiddie Wheel Being Taken Down, McCullough’s Kiddie Park, Coney Island. October 15, 2012. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

On Monday, workers at McCullough’s Kiddie Park at the corner of West 12th Street and the Bowery in Coney Island began dismantling the little yellow wheel and the Herschell carousel under the gaze of the Bumblebees. As ATZ reported last month, the park’s lease with property owner Thor Equities ended this year (Exclusive: McCullough’s Kiddie Park Closing After 50 Years in Coney Island, ATZ, September 4, 2012). Since the parties could not agree to terms of a lease renewal, Jimmy McCullough, who is Coney’s oldest ride operator, is closing his family’s last remaining business here.

“Jimmy McCullough and the McCullough family would like to thank our customers for generations and decades, and all of our business associates in Coney Island,” said his daughter Carol McCullough in an interview with ATZ in September. The McCullough family has operated amusements here for four generations and is related to the Tilyous of Steeplechase Park. In the 1950s, they had Kiddielands at Surf Avenue and 15th Street as well as Surf Avenue and 8th Street next to the Cyclone. The Kiddie Park at 12th Street has been in operation since the 1960s and had ten kiddie rides after a sublease expired on an adjacent property also owned by Thor Equities.

The McCullough family’s lasting legacy is the three historic wooden carousels that they once operated in Coney Island. The rides remain in New York City’s parks: the Prospect Park Carousel, the Flushing Meadows Carousel, and the B&B Carousell, which will reopen in Coney Island’s new Steeplechase Plaza in 2013.

Aerial View of McCullough’s Kiddie Park. October 14, 2012. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

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Louis at the Eldorado Bumper Cars Yells “We’re Still Open!”

Posted in Amusement ride, Events, tagged Coney Island, Coney Island Performance Festival, Eldorado Bumper Cars, Parachute, poetry, Scott Fitlin on October 13, 2012| 5 Comments »

Louis Beard, Ticketseller at Eldorado Bumper Cars, Surf Avenue, Coney Island. July 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Actually we can’t remember precisely what Louis was saying when we snapped this humorous photo, but the Eldorado Auto Skooters and most of Coney Island’s other rides are still open weekends through the end of October. This week marks the second anniversary of the death of Scotty Fitlin, the DJ extraordinaire of Surf Avenue’s legendary disco palace of bumper cars, which is now run by arcade operator Gordon Lee.

On Saturday, in addition to selling tickets to the famed “Bump Your Ass Off” ride, Louis will be reading Coney Island poetry into the mic at 4pm. The site-specific poetry event is part of Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival happening this weekend in front of the jellyfish tank at the New York Aquarium and amid the amusement park artifacts at the Coney Island History Project. The Eldorado’s last rides of 2012 — and possibly forever, though we hope not!–will be on October 26 and 27.

Eldorado Bumper Cars and Arcade, 1216 Surf Avenue, Coney Island. Phone 718- 946-6642