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Animation of the Day: Coney Island’s Luna Park at Night

Posted in history, Photo of the Day, tagged 1900s, animation, Coney Island, Electric Eden, Luna Park, Photography, stereo card, wiggle stereoscopy on December 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here’s a front seat view from Coney Island’s long-vanished Shoot-the-Chutes (1895-1944), originally built for Sea Lion Park. Our friends at Clicksypics have transformed a 1904 Underwood & Underwood stereo card of “Brilliant Luna Park at Night, Coney Island, New York’s great pleasure resort” into an animation of Coney Island’s Electric Eden. By 1907, Luna Park was illuminated by 1,300,000 incandescent bulbs at a cost of $5,600 a week. What a holiday light display it would be today!

Luna Park at Night Stereo Card Animation

“I came up with this idea on a whim, I don’t know that it’s been done before, I just knew that I had never seen any,” says the stereo animation’s creator. For the full collection and information about how these wiggle pictures are made, visit Clicksy’s weblog.

Victrola Vault: Mills Brothers “Coney Island Washboard Roundelay”

Posted in history, Music Video, tagged antique talking machine, Coney Island in the 1920s, Coney Island Washboard, Mills Brothers, roundelay, Victrola on December 15, 2009| 3 Comments »

This amusing tune recorded eighty years ago by the Mills Brothers is about a Coney Island gal who plays washboard music on the Boardwalk and “could rag a tune right through the knees of a brand new suit of easy breezes.” The suit is updated to Levi jeans in some recent recordings of “Coney Island Washboard.” The Victrola and 78 prm record are from the very impressive collection of victrolaman, who says: “For those not familiar with the Mills Brothers, the only instrument heard on the record is a guitar, all other instrumental sounds are made by the Brothers themselves. The Victrola is an early two door Victor Credenza from 1925. The Credenza was the flagship model of Victor’s new Orthophonic Victrola’s which were introduced to the general public on ‘Victor Day’ in late 1925.”

What else was new in 1925? Coney Island’s Thunderbolt roller coaster (demolished in 2000) and Shore Theatre (currently vacant, proposed for NYC landmark designation) were built. The Coney Island Chamber of Commerce announced the construction of the Half-Moon Hotel, a 16-story, 400-room hotel as “an important step in the program of rehabilitating Coney Island” and attracting ”a high class of patronage, similar to that which must now resort to Atlantic City.” The $3 million hotel at West 29th Street and the Boardwalk opened in 1927 and was demolished in 1983 to make way for a new Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center. Also built in 1927: the Cyclone Roller coaster, one of four City landmarks in Coney Island.

On June 26, the Coney Island History Project invited Michael W. Haar aka "The Cranky DJ" to help celebrate the Cyclone’s 82nd birthday. He brought his 1923 Brunswick phonograph and 1921 Victor Victrola to the party. Both are original talking machines powered entirely by manual hand-crank. No electricity whatsoever! Mike has a weekly show on East Village Radio called The Ragged Phonograph. Photo © Coney Island History Project

Coney Island Dreamland Bell Travels to Brooklyn Borough Hall for Exhibition

Posted in Artifacts, history, tagged Brooklyn, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Coney Island, Coney Island History Project, David Grider, Dreamland Bell, Gene Ritter, James Gregory on October 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Souvenir Photo: Nick and Niko Ring the Dreamland Pier Bell at the Coney Island History Project, Sept 13, 2009. Photo by Tricia Vita/Coney Island History Project via flickr

Souvenir Photo: Nick and Niko Ring the Dreamland Pier Bell at the Coney Island History Project, Sept 13, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita/Coney Island History Project via flickr

If you missed the chance to ring the century old Dreamland Pier Bell at the Coney Island History Project last month, you’ll have a chance to ring it at Brooklyn Borough Hall beginning next week (Oct 6). Gene Ritter, the Coney Island diver who discovered the Bell and raised it from the ocean floor on September 3 is bringing the Bell to Brooklyn Borough Hall for a public exhibition at the invitation of Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Ritter told ATZ the Bell ~~is expected to travel~~ traveled from Coney Island to Borough Hall today (Oct 2) to be ready for a celebratory bell ringing on Tuesday that will kick off a two to four week public exhibition. “I think we will have the Bell on display in the main hall at first,” said Ritter. “Then we will move it to the tourism and visitors center. I was told once we get there we could pick the best spot for the Bell.”

Diver Gene Ritter with Photos of Dreamland Bell. Photo by Tricia Vita/Coney Island History Project via flickr

Diver and Bell Discoverer Gene Ritter with Historic Photos of the Bell. Photo © Tricia Vita/Coney Island History Project via flickr

During the Bell’s display at the Coney Island History Project, visitors were invited to “Be a Part of History…Ring the Bell!” Ritter’s future plans for exhibiting the Bell are still tentative. He is in discussion with the New York Aquarium in Coney Island and Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino as possible off season venues. One thing for sure, Ritter says the Bell will return to Coney Island to ring in the opening day of the season at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park on Palm Sunday 2010. He would also like to bring the Bell back to the Coney Island History Project’s seasonal exhibition center, which is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Vintage Ad: Iron Steamboat Co. The Only All Water Route to Coney Island. Photo by Tricia Vita/Coney Island History Project via flickr

Vintage Ad: Iron Steamboat Co. "The Only All Water Route" to Coney Island. Photo © Tricia Vita/Coney Island History Project via flickr

The 1885 bronze bell once welcomed steamship passengers arriving at the New Iron Pier to visit Coney Island’s original Dreamland Park, which was on the site of the New York Aquarium. The historic bell survived the Dreamland fire of 1911 and was discovered underwater after a 20-year quest by Coney Island diver Gene Ritter. On display with the Bell are period images from historian Charles Denson’s archive including a photo of the Bell at the end of the Iron Pier and a vintage ad for “The Only All Water Route” to Coney Island. Rates were 35 cents round trip!

The Bell was cast by James Gregory in 1885. Photo by Tricia Vita/Coney Island History Project via flickr

Information about “James Gregory,” the bell maker whose name is inscribed on the Bell, has come to light thanks to the research of architect David Grider. The Brooklyn resident and history buff has experience with the hanging and mounting of Bells having managed bell projects for Trinity Church at St. Paul’s Chapel (the Lord Mayor’s bell, a memorial to 9/11) and Trinity Church (a new 12-bell Change Ring assembly in the steeple of the church). He has volunteered to help design the final home for the Dreamland Bell and in the meantime is cobbling together an essay on Coney Island’s historic bell:

I’ve attached the excerpt I found last night about the Mechanics’ Bell, a sort of complicated story of a bell that was apparently cast in 1831 and erected in various locations around the city. The last page has the info about the foundry:

“… so a new bell was cast from the metal of the old one by James Gregory of Cannon Street, the brass founder, who had been in that location since about 1850, being the successor of William Buckley, the bell founder.”

I was struck by the similarity of its bell mount to the one seen in that picture of the new iron pier, and wow, what an amazing find the Dreamland Bell is: not only a link to America’s premier amusement destination, but also, indirectly, a sort of lost beacon for New York’s vanished ship-building industry – it would not surprise me if the Dreamland Bell was cast from the very same mold that Gregory would have used to make the Mechanic’s Bell.

Gregory looks to have been in business at least 40 years. I particularly like the 1896 Ad from American Yacht; seems he also ran the Eckford Iron Works. Most of the area (Cannon Street, etc.) was plowed under for Baruch Houses and other urban renewal projects, not unlike big chunks of Coney…

After a celebratory welcome of the dive team and the Bell on October 6, Tuesday, at 11 am, the free exhibition is scheduled to run through October 23, 2009. Hours are 9 am -6 pm, Monday- Friday. Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn.

An 1896 ad from American Yacht for Eckford Iron Works on Cannon Street lists James Gregory, Brass Founder and Finisher, as one of the proprietors. Coney Island History Project via flickr