Amusement ride | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for the ‘Amusement ride’ Category

Photo of the Day: Spring Has Sprung in Coney Island

Posted in Amusement ride, tagged Bruce Handy, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, solar lighting, solar panel, Spring in Coney Island, Wonder Wheel on March 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Wonder Wheel on the First Night of Spring. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

In preparation for March 28th’s official opening of Coney Island’s rides, the cars–stationary and swinging– were put back on the Wonder Wheel today. Along with the open concession stands on the Boardwalk and the spinning rides in Deno’s Kiddie Park, it was the first sign of spring in Coney Island. Thanks to photographer Bruce Handy for this lovely first photo of the Wheel on the first night of spring! “I saw the wheel turning this morning, What a joy!!! Was away all day and when I got back to Coney the cars were on,” writes Bruce.

This year, the 90-year-old Wonder Wheel’s swinging cars will be lit with amber lights that will replicate the lighting scheme of the ride in the 1920s. The big difference is the lights will be powered by solar panels installed on top of the cars, according to an interview with Deno Vourderis in the Coney Island History Project’s Oral History Archive. Vourderis’s family owns the New York City landmark and also operates Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, which has 22 rides.

Read Full Post »

Eldorado Auto Skooter: Coney Island’s Disco Palace of Bumper Cars

Posted in Amusement ride, Favorites, tagged Auto Skooter, Bumper Car, Coney Island, Eldorado, Scott Fitlin, Soli on March 14, 2010| 5 Comments »

As we say in the amusement biz, it’s the front of the show that gets the dough! The front of Coney Island’s Eldorado, the popular disco palace of bumper cars, is famed for its lights and signage. On flickr you’ll find dozens of pix of the dazzling theater-style “Eldorado Auto Skooter” marquee and the sassy “BUMP YOUR ASS OFF!” signs by Dreamland Artist Club founder Steve Powers.

When you visit Coney Island, you can’t miss the Eldorado. It’s on Surf Avenue right across from Stillwell Terminal. On the inside you’ll find Scott Fitlin, who grew up working in his family’s business and is the Eldorado’s DJ extraordinaire. The Fitlin family also owns and operates the Eldorado Arcade on Coney Island’s Bowery.

The Eldorado was the first of Coney Island’s rides to open for business during last weekend’s balmy weather. Let’s just get it out of the way and say these bumper cars are our fave ride! We love to drive but seldom have the chance since we live in New York City and no longer own a car. It’s seriously fun not having to worry about getting a ticket for bumping into another car because that’s the whole idea!

Coney Island's Eldorado Bumper Cars. Photo © Barry Yanowitz via flickr

We asked our friend Scott to tell us about the history of the Eldorado…

Eldorado was hand built by my grandfather Joseph Buxbaum, my Dad Sandy Fitlin, and my Uncle Peter Buxbaum, and a carpenter named Rafael. Opening date was March 21st 1973, admission was 50 cents and 25 cent re-rides.

Today it is $6.00 admission, $2.00 re-rides, and $3.00 re-rides on weekends.

The lighting is disco style from the Studio 54 era, and we are upgrading this year to newer LED technology effects.

Our sound is custom built, by us, and we have had professionals in from time to time, back in the old days it was Richard Long, famous for the sound at Studio 54 and The Paradise Garage. Our sound is extremely powerful yet very easy to listen to, it doesn’t hurt the ear. CRYSTAL CLEAR, lightning fast, and stunning transient response, the crack of the snare drum is scary. Our bass is tremendous, and I play dance music, the sound that has energy and life, and POSITIVITY!

Our Bumper cars are Italian made Soli cars. They look good, run fast, and bump good.

WE built the ELDORADO starting in 1971 when my family purchased the building and moved from next door. My grandfather originally had The Shamrock Irish House on Henderson Walk and Bowery, and they went out front with games in the late 50s early 60s.

The Eldorado Arcade opened for the spring of `71, the bumper cars were constructed during the winter of `72, and grand opened March 21, 1973. The FIRST record played was Cisco Kid-War!

Eldorado Bumper Cars & Arcade, 1216 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11224

Eldorado Bumper Car Crew. Photo © Tricia Vita/me/myself/i via flickr

Made in Brooklyn: The World’s Only Jet-Powered Merry-Go-Round

Posted in Amusement ride, art, tagged Brooklyn, Hackett, homemade carousel, Jet Ponies, jet-powered ride, Madagascar Institute, Made in Brooklyn, pulse jet engine on February 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In the early 20th century, Brooklyn was home to master carousel builders and carvers Charles Looff on Bedford Avenue, MC Illions and Sons Carousell Works on Ocean Parkway, and Stein & Goldstein and William F Mangels in Coney Island. Alas, the golden age of the carousel ended in the 1920s. It was news to us that anyone was building carnival rides in Brooklyn in the 21st century, much less a jet-powered merry-go-round! We first learned about “Jet Ponies” this week when Hackett, the founder of the Gowanus-based Madagascar Institute and the ride’s inventor, gave a talk at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg. If you missed “FIRE IT UP: The Secrets of Backyard Jet Propulsion w/Hackett,” take a look at these vids…

Here’s the homemade carousel in its fiery glory at a 3 am test run in September 2009. The vid was shot in the backyard of a crew member.

The jet-powered merry-go-round had its inaugural spin with human riders the very next day at Gadgetoff 2009, a festival at Snug Harbor in Staten Island. A representative from Popular Mechanics volunteered to be one of the first riders. The ride operators use a leaf blower and a blowtorch to ignite the pulse-jet engines. BOOM! One YouTube commenter says, “You guys are frigging nuts. You used two ‘pulse-jets’ to make a merry-go-round. You get two thumbs up just for not killing yourselves.” But another commenter says, “This demonstrates what we can do when we put our minds and our scavenging abilities to work. What a great ride. When will it show up in the traveling carnivals? I know my kids will clamor for a ride or three.”

Hackett is an expert on valveless pulse-jet engines who has built a jet-powered bike, a jet-powered fish and is working on a jet pack. In an interview with The Faster Times, he says…

The motive power behind the Jet Ponies are pulse jet engines (more specifically: Valveless pulse jet engines, more more specifically: Hiller- Lockwood patent Valveless Pulse Jets). We did not invent them- the concept has been around for maybe a hundred years. They heyday of pulse jets was in the 1940s, when they provided the thrust that threw V1 rockets up from Holland, into gravity’s rainbow, and down onto England….

I do not know of any jet-powered carnival rides that were not built by us, and I feel that if they did exist, I would have heard about it. My hope is that some smartass punk nerd kids somewhere see the video on YouTube and say to themselves “I can do better than that,” and then do.

“Jet Ponies” is an art project of the Madagascar Institute, an “art combine” who create large-scale sculptures and rides, live performances, and guerilla art events. The carousel’s most recent appearance was at 2009 NYC Burning Man Decompression at Aviator Sports/Floyd Bennett Field. Any chance Jet Ponies will show up in Coney Island? As soon as we hear back from Hackett, we’ll let you know.