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Photo of the Day: Easter Bunnies in Coney Island

Posted in Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged Bunny headgear, Coney Island, Easter, Easter Sunday on April 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Easter Sunday on the Boardwalk. April 4, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Coney Island’s Palm Sunday opener is a warm-up for Easter Sunday, among the busiest days of the season for the amusement rides and games if the sun shines. And it is! Today’s weather tweeted by NY1: “Lots of sunshine on this Easter morning. Expect temps around 53 by noon and reaching 62 as an overall high!”

Never mind the Easter bonnet, bunny headgear is hot in Coney Island aka Rabbit Island. According to dictionary.com’s “What’s the difference between a bunny, a rabbit, and a hare? (What does it have to do with Coney Island?),” until the 18th century rabbits were called coneys and Coney Island is one of the only references that is still used in North America. Hope we don’t miss you in the throng!

Photo of the Day: Cherry Blossoms on Wonder Wheel Way

Posted in Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged cherry blossoms, Coney Island, Spring in Coney Island, springtime, Wonder Wheel Way on March 24, 2012| 4 Comments »

Young Cherry Blossom Tree on Wonder Wheel Way, Coney Island. March 23, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

It’s time to sing “Sakura, Sakura, ya-yo-i no so-ra wa…,” the Japanese folk song about cherry blossoms waving in the breeze. Yesterday in Coney Island, we happened to notice the littlest cherry tree beginning to blossom on Wonder Wheel Way. The sapling was planted last spring, when this section of the new pedestrian street was built between Stillwell Avenue and West 12th Street. Deno’s Wonder Wheel, the Astrotower and Scream Zone’s Steeplechase Coaster are seen in the background. Designed to connect the Parachute Jump, Wonder Wheel and Cyclone, Wonder Wheel Way will eventually extend from West 12th to West 10th Street.

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Photo of the Day: Signs of Coney’s Club Atlantis Resurface

Posted in art, Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged Boardwalk, Bruce Handy, Cha-Cha's, Club Atlantis, Coney Island, mermaid, vernacular signage on January 16, 2012| 2 Comments »

Signage for Coney Island’s Club Atlantis, including this voluptuous mermaid, resurfaced after the sign for the evicted Cha Cha’s Bar & Cafe was removed from the building’s facade. The Boardwalk store was home to the Atlantis from the 1940s through the 1990s. In the last few years of its life, the letters from the famed sign that spelled Atlantis became corroded and were removed. This hand-painted signage replaced it. Does anyone recall who painted it and when?

The club had many different owners over the years, including Murray Weingar, a co-owner of Miami’s Copacabana, and bandleader Mousey Powell in the 1940s. In the ’70s, the Atlantis featured a singing cowboy and in the ’90s it became a Latin dance club, writes Charles Denson in Coney Island: Lost and Found. Cha Cha’s, the Home of Wild Women and Wise Guys, was also called Cha Cha’s Club Atlantis until it closed at the end of October.

One of the earliest mentions we could find for the Atlantis was during World War II. A notice in the July 11, 1942 edition of the Billboard said:

Atlantis bar, grill and dance hall on the Boardwalk, owned by Murray Weingar and Hymie Schuman, operates under blue dim-outs after sundown. Bar trade on main floor entertained by Ralph Lawrence, accordionist; Embassy Trio, singers and intrumentalists, with Ruth Blair doing the vocals. Patriotic display changed weekly in bar’s center. On top deck is a squared arena for the jitterbugs tripping to Sol Curry’s Ork and applauding Karen Kaye’s singing.

Tom’s Restaurant of Prospect Heights is renovating the Boardwalk space formerly occupied by both Cha Cha’s and Nathan’s, the site of the original Atlantis. The new restaurant will have a roof deck and is expected to open in April. Cha Cha’s, one of six Boardwalk businesses whose leases were not renewed by Central Amusement International, is seeking to relocate nearby.

Thanks to Coney Island photographer and Sunday archaeologist Bruce Handy for these photos!