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Film Trailer: Zipper, Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, film, Redevelopment, tagged Amy Nicholson, documentary, new trailer, Zipper on July 26, 2012| 1 Comment »

The Zipper was a thrill ride on West 12th Street in Coney Island. Now it’s the title of Amy Nicholson’s new documentary about the rezoning and redevelopment of Coney Island. “A small-time ride operator and his beloved carnival contraption become casualties in the battle over the future of Coney Island” is the film’s capsule description. The trailer was released the other day and it will make you want to see the movie, even if you think you know how the redevelopment turned out.

The Bloomberg administration succeeded in “saving” Coney Island by buying it from Thor Equities, didn’t they? That’s what you’d believe from some of the news stories and statistics released this summer. “Coney Island, Renewed but Recognizable,” says the New York Times. Ah, but the story is far from over. What kind of vision will future Mayors have for Coney Island? Before the lease on Luna Park expires in December 2020, the City plans to issue an RFP for a permanent amusement operator. Meanwhile, six years after evicting the Zipper, Thor CEO Joe Sitt is sitting on property rezoned for 30-story hotels and advertising his first new building in Coney Island as “The Retail Ride of a Lifetime.”

We’ve been following @TheZipper on twitter over the past year and get a kick out of their tweets referring to “Zipper star Amanda Burden,” “Zipper star Domenic Recchia” and “Zipper star Joe Sitt,” among others. We imagined the Director of the New York City Department of City Planning, Coney Island’s City Councilman and Thor’s CEO on the red carpet, now here they are in the trailer. A grinning Joe Sitt shows off a framed T-shirt with his self-proclaimed nickname “Joey Coney Island” and rattles off the names of businesses that might come to his Coney Island: Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Dave and Buster’s, Hard Rock, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Ugh. Sounds like Any Vacation Spot, USA.

We’d say “Bring Back Coney Island’s Zipper,” but it was sold to a carnival operator in a beach town in Honduras, where it’s still thrilling riders, according to the film-maker, who went to see it one last time. The Honduras footage will provide a satisfying coda to the film which Nicholson and cinematographer Jerry Risius have been working on for the past five years. But what happened to its owner, independent ride operator Eddie Miranda? In the trailer, he says his days in Coney Island are pretty much over. The Zipper film’s new website also debuted this week.

Video of the Day: Coney Island Lights by Jim McDonnell

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, video, tagged carnival lights, Coney Island, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Jim McDonnell, Luna Park, Scream Zone on July 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

“Coney Island Lights,” a new video by photographer and self-described “footage guru” Jim McDonnell, is lyrical and bewitching. Lights from Coney’s various amusement parks and attractions come together fluidly thanks to masterful editing by Jim, who knows Coney Island and has a talent for distilling its essence into a short film.

Luna Park’s Air Race ride looks like its performing a ballet with the whirling pinwheels on the park’s lighted gate. You’ll also catch sight of the dancing lights of the landmark Cyclone and Wonder Wheel, Deno’s Carousel and the blinking red eye of the Spook-A-Rama Cyclops, 12th Street’s Saturn 6, Surf Avenue’s Eldorado, the new Boardwalk signs and Scream Zone rides, and the old school carnival rides in Cha Cha’s Steeplechase Park.

In 2010 and 2011, ATZ posted Jim McDonnell’s “Coney Island Dancing” videos. We’re looking forward to “Coney Island Dancing 2012,” which is being shot over the course of this summer.

Alberto Zamperla Talks Watermania for Coney Island, Cowboys & Aliens Coaster

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, tagged Alberto Zamperla, Coney Island, Interactive ride, Luna Park, new ride, roller coaster, water attraction, Zamperla on July 3, 2012| 1 Comment »

The July issue of Italian Wired has a feature story on Alberto Zamperla, president and CEO of Antonio Zamperla S.p.A and founder of Coney Island’s Luna Park. “Megagiostre: l’arte di trasformare adrenalina in soldi è italiana.” Translation: “Mega Rides: The art of turning adrenaline into money is Italian.” Two grafs in the article caught our eye. Since the conversation is in Italian, we translated the quotes with the help of Google, Bing and a dictionary. If any of our readers have corrections, let us know.

When reporter Riccardo Meggiato asked Zamperla what his company is secretly working on, he replied: “We plan an interactive water attraction, which will be built in Coney Island in a few days before being sold throughout the world. It’s called Watermania and consists of a madcap monorail in which the occupants can also shoot the water cannons against those who are there to watch.”

It’s not clear if Watermania was planned for this season at the time of the interview, which may have been done months ago. We’d be very surprised to see the ride this summer. Where will it go? With very little space for new rides, the ride will probably replace one of the other rides in Luna Park.

Zamperla also tells Wired that his company is developing a super coaster inspired by the sci-fi Western “Cowboys & Aliens.” In the 2011 movie, a spaceship arrives in the Arizona Territory, where a posse of cowboys and townsfolk do battle with the aliens. The description of the coaster, featuring a dark tunnel where interactive movies are projected and riders blast away at adversaries calls to mind Universal’s Men in Black or Disney’s Buzz Lightyear Ride.

Neither Coney Island nor a time frame for the coaster’s completion are mentioned in regard to the super coaster, but Zamperla’s intention is to have the latest rides that they develop in the park. The Air Race, a prototype designed by Mega Disk’O creator Gianbattista Zambelli made its world debut in Luna Park Coney Island in 2010.

Thanks to Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy for his portrait of Alberto Zamperla at Luna Park.