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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.

Photo of the Day: Mangels Pony Cart Ride

Posted in Amusement ride, Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged childhood memories, Deno's Kiddie Park, Fourth of July, Pony Cart, William F Mangels on July 4, 2012| 7 Comments »

Fourth of July calls up memories of riding a Mangels pony cart on the carny kids float in a smalltown parade. When Colbert’s Fiesta played Manomet, Massachusetts for the Fourth, the carnival once made a float bedecked with Pony Carts from the Mangels Pony Cart Ride. The little carny kids, including me, got to ride in the carts on the float, wearing our Sunday best. I remember being awestruck by the teenage girls who suddenly looked like fairy princesses in their prom gowns and tiaras. We flung candy and carnival prizes to the crowd.

This classic pony cart ride at Deno’s Kiddie Park was manufactured a few blocks away at the Mangels Factory on 8th Street in Coney Island, which is now the Deptartment of Motor Vehicles Building. William F. Mangels also invented the Whip, which we had on the carnival too. Happy Memories and Happy Fourth of July!