history | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for the ‘history’ Category

Video: Coney Island’s Faber’s Fascination by Charles Denson

Posted in history, video, tagged arcade, Charles Denson, Coney Island, demolition, Faber's Fascination, Henderson Building, signage, Thor Equities on September 12, 2010| 7 Comments »

Historian Charles Denson, author of Coney Island: Lost and Found, shot this video of the Faber’s Fascination sign on September 9th and 10th. An employee of the arcade lit up the Faber’s sign one last time before all of the letters were removed from the facade. As ATZ reported last week, the arcade, which has been in the Henderson Building since the 1930s, closed on Labor Day 2010.

Denson says in the video’s intro: “The iconic sign was the last remaining example of Coney’s bare bulb Electric Eden illumination that began with Luna Park in 1903. It is also the latest victim of predatory real-estate developer Thor Equities’ self-described summer of demolition, spurred on by the City’s rezoning of the site for a 30-story high-rise hotel that will most likely never be built. These images are from the sign’s last night of illumination.”

In “Four Coney Buildings to Fall,” Friday’s Story of the Day on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s website, Denson cited the new Luna Park and the rehab of the Parachute Jump as the kind of direction we should keep going in. “Coney Island is really down to a handful of what you could call ‘landmark’ buildings,” Denson said in the article. “It would be good if Thor Equities would at least save one of them.”

Aug 29: Lost Theaters of Coney Island, Brighton Beach Are Topic of Lecture

Posted in Events, history, tagged Book Launch, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn Theatre Index, Cezar Del Valle, Coney Island, Henderson Music Hall, Manhattan Beach, Save Coney Island, walking tour on August 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Vintage Postcard of Henderson's Music Hall Stage in Coney Island. Cezar Del Valle Collection

On Sunday at the Coney Island Museum’s Ask the Experts series, theater historian Cezar Del Valle will give an illustrated lecture to celebrate the launch of his Brooklyn Theater Index. The first volume covering theaters from Adams Street to Lorimer has just been published. The topic of his talk will be drawn from the third volume, a work-in-progress devoted to Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach.

The subject is timely, since one of Coney Island’s historic theater buildings, the former Henderson Music Hall at Surf and Stillwell, has been doomed to demolition. Pre-demo asbestos abatement is currently underway by Thor Equities despite preservationists efforts to save the building and make it part of an historic district.

Del Valle told ATZ that the Henderson Music Hall will be part of his talk. “Twice in the past, I have been asked to work on landmarking Henderson,” he says. “First on a panel and then in an advisory capacity. Sad to say, nothing ever came of it. I thought the building was being held hostage for some future bargaining ploy but I was wrong. If you went around to the Bowery side, a few of the windows still followed the rake of the old balcony.”

The Henderson was one of six buildings nominated for city landmark designation by Coney Island USA in 2004, although its chances were thought to be slim since the building has been altered extensively. It was even cut in half in 1923 when Stillwell Avenue south of Surf was created!

Del Valle’s area of expertise is New York City popular entertainment between 1850 and the 1950s, including special emphasis on actual theater buildings. He has led walking tours of the lost theaters of Coney Island’s Bowery. “In its fabulous heyday, the resort was more than just rides and arcades; it was home to numerous cabarets, variety halls and movie shows – a training ground for a generation of legendary performers,” says Del Valle.

If you’re able to make a day of it, Save Coney Island will be offering a free walking tour this Sunday at 11 am and every Sunday through the end of September. The guided tour covers the historic buildings along Surf Avenue as well as some of Coney Island’s existing landmarks. According to the group’s website, “we will have historic pictures so you can see what the buildings once were and a few renderings illustrating how these buildings could be creatively restored and reused.”

August 29, 4:30 pm, Ask the Experts! Cezar Del Valle’s Brooklyn Theater Index Book Launch, Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue, Coney Island, $5 admission, Free for members of Coney Island USA.

August 29, 11:00 am, Save Coney Island’s Walking Tour of Historic Coney Island, meet in front of the Shore Theater, on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Aves, Rain or shine. Free, but suggested donation of $10 appreciated

Can You Help Identify this Window into Coney Island’s Past?

Posted in Artifacts, history, tagged antique window, Charles Feltman, Coney Island USA, Feltman's on August 22, 2010| 8 Comments »

On Saturday we chatted with Luke Stangarone in front of Coney Island USA, where he was cleaning a stained glass window, one of two which the Sheepshead Bay resident is donating to the Coney Island Museum. Rescued from three feet of mud in a Park Slope basement, the windows originally came from Coney Island’s Feltman’s complex, says Stangarone. The tantalizing question is which part of Feltman’s? Stangarone speculates the windows could be from the ballroom or the carousel pavilion. He says that his wife’s relatives, the Whittakers, worked at the Parachute Jump and rescued the artifacts from Feltman’s demolition more than 50 years ago. Can you help identify this window into Coney Island’s past?

Charles Feltman is famous as the inventor of the hot dog, but his entertainment complex on Surf Avenue was multi-faceted and covered a full city block. According to the Coney Island History Project, which has a 120-year-old chair from Feltman’s Maple Garden on display, the Feltman empire included nine restaurants, two bars, a ballroom, an outdoor movie theater, a hotel, a beer garden, a bathhouse, a pavilion, a Tyrolean village, a carousel, a roller coaster called the ZIZ and the maple garden! Since Feltman’s closed in 1954 and was demolished to make way for Astroland Park in 1962, you’d have be over 60 to remember going there. Perhaps someone will recognize the window from family photos that show the stained glass window in the background. Let us know if you have any clues!