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Video of the Day: Restoration of Grandma’s Predictions

Posted in amusement park, Artifacts, video, tagged antique, arcade, Bob Yorburg, Cleveland Grandma, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Grandma's Predictions, John Papa, National Jukebox Exchange on May 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Grandma’s Predictions and Zoltar at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, Coney Island, July 2012

The venerable, circa 1923 “Grandma’s Predictions” has been telling fortunes under Coney Island’s 1920 Wonder Wheel all her life. A couple of seasons ago a brand-new Zoltar was brought in to keep her company and proved very popular with visitors to the arcade. Hurricane Sandy soaked both of them, and decapitated poor Zoltar. A new Zoltar Speaks machine was promptly ordered and is already here, but Grandma, an irreplaceable antique as well as a good luck charm for the three generations of the Vourderis family who have owned the park, was sent off to be restored.

Last night these riveting videos of Grandma’s wax head getting “eye surgery” at National Jukebox Exchange appeared on YouTube. The octogenarian tarot card reader is also getting new wax hands cast from the original mold, according to arcade restorer John Papa. He appears in the video along with fellow arcade restorer Bob Yorburg, who told ATZ that Grandma will get a new wig, dress and cabinet, too. The rare arcade piece is known as the “Cleveland Grandma” by collectors since she was built by the William Gent Manufacturing Company in Cleveland, “Grandma’s Predictions” is expected to come home to Coney Island on Mother’s Day, where a welcome home party will be held at Deno’s Wonder Wheel.

Exclusive: Coney Island Zip Line to Be Dismantled Today

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, video, tagged Coney Isalnd, Scaffold King, Super Bowl Zip Line, Zip line, zipline on April 30, 2013| 2 Comments »

Abandoned Zip Line on Stillwell Avenue, Coney Island. December 5, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The strange saga of the zip line that came to Coney Island last summer and never opened (except for an hour-and-a-half) due to a permitting snafu with the City is about to end. The attraction was supposed to be part of the BK Festival and was set up on Thor Equities Stillwell Avenue lot behind Nathan’s, where it was left standing after the festival closed. Bob Rigsby, Project Manager of Scaffold King Rentals, Inc. of Rockville, Indiana, the company that rented the scaffolding to independent operator CAT 5 Zipline, has come to Coney Island to reclaim it.

“There’s $80,000 worth of metal, if we had to replace it,” Rigsby says of the two towers, which survived Superstorm Sandy just fine. “Right now we’re $60,000 in the hole.”

Scaffold King has hired a local crew to take down the towers starting this morning. It took five months for Rigsby to prove ownership of the scaffolding and get the necessary permits to dismantle it. The actual zip line is from a company in Boston that Scaffold King works with frequently, he says. Rigsby added that they will be installing a zip line elsewhere in New York that will go over the rooftops. We’re jealous. It’s too bad Coney Island never got to see this attraction in action. Based on the astronomical number of hits on ATZ posts updating the status of the Coney Island Zip Line and the emails and comments from people eagerly waiting for it to open, it would have been very popular and could have been a year-round attraction.

In January 2012, Scaffold King erected the launch and landing towers for the first-ever Super Bowl zip line, which was the single-longest temporary one ever constructed. Here’s a video of the 800-foot zip line at Super Bowl XLVI Village along Capitol Street in downtown Indianapolis.

UPDATE May 5, 2013

Tangled Up in Red Tape Department: First the zip line couldn’t open because of City permitting issues, now it’s stuck here because of permitting issues. The dismantling of the zip wires got underway as scheduled on Monday, but before the scaffolding could be taken down, work was stopped due to the wording on the permit. “The I’s have to be dotted and the T’s have to be crossed,” Rigsby said before he went home to Indiana without his company’s zip line, leaving Thor Equities to work out the details of the permit to take it down this week. (It was finally dismantled and trucked away.)

Still wanna zip line in New York City? Last year, a 160-foot portable zip line was added to the Summer Streets Program, run by the City’s DOT. Locations included Union Square and Foley Square in Manhattan. The annual event is on three consecutive Saturdays in the summer. The zip line was offered free of charge and was very popular. Will it be back this year?

Rare & Vintage: Looking for Artifacts from Idora Park

Posted in amusement park, Artifacts, history, tagged Idora Park, Jane's Carousel, Jim Amey, museum, Ohio, Youngstown on April 8, 2013| 16 Comments »

Jane’s Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park came from Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio

Even before Jane’s Carousel was installed in Brooklyn Bridge Park, groups traveled from Ohio to DUMBO to be reunited with the carousel of their childhood, beautifully restored by Jane Walentas. Philadelphia Toboggan Company’s 1922 PTC #61 was originally installed in Youngstown, Ohio’s Idora Park, which closed after a devastating fire. The Walentas’ purchase of the carousel at the park’s 1984 auction kept the ride from being broken up.

Seeing an ad by Jim Amey on a used ride site seeking ride cars and other Idora Park artifacts for his homegrown museum reminded us of the Ohioans poignant visits. When ATZ contacted Amey, he said the Idora property was still vacant after 30 years and the park’s rides had gone the way of the four winds.

I was in my mid 20s and living overseas when Idora Park ‘died.’ I was sad to hear about Idora’s fire and closure, but it took quite a few years before I realized just how much I (and Youngstown) had lost when Idora Park disappeared. I returned to Youngstown in 1993 and my wife and I walked the Idora Park property. It was heartbreaking to see the destruction and decay. I had been to this park so many times as a child and as a teenager. I worked at Idora Park in the Football Throw game and the Skee-Ball game in the summer of 1976 – my last real visit to Idora Park. Now it was gone. I think that walk of ours was when the seed was first planted that I needed to try to preserve whatever parts of Idora Park I could find, to preserve and share the memory of Idora Park.

Amey started to find Idora Park ride cars, posters and ephemera through people he met via the message boards at IdoraPark.org. His collection includes one of only three front cars to the Wildcat roller coaster, a rear car to the wooden Jackrabbit roller coaster, a Silver Rocket Ship, a Tilt-A-Whirl car, three Caterpillar cars, the 12-foot-tall metal Nutcracker Soldiers that guarded Kiddieland, the entire Kiddieland train and all of its tracks (seen in the 1952 photo below) and a 6-foot-long Idora Park neon sign.

Reed children riding train at Idora Park, Youngstown, OH, 1952. Photo by Walter Reed courtesy of Leon Reed/lreed76 via flickr

“My wife Toni and I are going to put up a building to display our Idora Park collection during certain parts of the year,” says Amey, who plans to retire in the Youngstown area, where he owns property in Canfield, Ohio. “We spoke to the zoning department and the director there is excited about our plan and he’s ready to help us make this a reality. I want people to have the chance to come and relive a little of Idora Park. I’m having large banners made up from photographs that were taken while Idora Park was operating. Those banners will serve as backdrops for the rides that will be on display. We’re still in the planning stages, but I expect that the building will be in place within the next 12 months.”

Since Idora Park closed nearly 30 years ago and it is difficult to identify things as being from the park, Amey is also looking for what he calls “Idora Park-Identical, or Idora Park-Like artifacts” including signs, ride parts and games. His email address is jamesamey[AT]aol[DOT]com.