Photo of the Day | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for the ‘Photo of the Day’ Category

Photo of the Day: Notice to All Park Users Effective May 23

Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged New York City, no smoking, Photography, smoking ban on May 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Notice to All Park Users... May 23, 2011. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

“Notice to All Park Users…Effective May 23, 2011, smoking will not be allowed within the park. Thank you for your cooperation.” This solitary warning posted in a vitrine at the Parks Department’s restrooms on the Coney Island Boardwalk has been up for quite a few weeks. The citywide smoking ban at parks, beaches and plazas went into effect on Monday and the beach officially opens this weekend. The Wall Street Journal reported that Parks is in the process of putting up thousands of permanent signs and launching a media campaign to alert people to the new law.

If the ban is enforced, we expect to see smokers step off the Boardwalk onto the sidewalks of West 10th and 12th Streets just to have a cigarette. We also expect to see some interesting pix of people having a surreptitious smoke in Coney Island this summer, despite the ban.

Signage: Fresh Crispy Popcorn, Candy Caramel Apples

Posted in Food, Photo of the Day, tagged Coney Island, Denny's Ice Cream, signage on March 12, 2011| 2 Comments »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27469924@N06/5514450245/

Vintage Sign inside Denny's Ice Cream, Coney Island. February 28, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

After Denny’s Ice Cream Shop opens in April, we’ll be sure to post a close-up of their to die-for pistachio-banana soft serve in a sugar cone. With sprinkles on top! For now, here’s a vintage hand-painted sign that we just happened to see for the first time the other day. Passing by the Surf Avenue store, we found the metal shutter open a smidgen and called out a hello. Denny’s owner Dennis Corines rolled up the gate and invited us inside, where he and a helper were busy getting ready for the season’s opening day.

Denny has owned and operated the ice cream shop for 33 years, but it turns out the sign has been there even longer. How long? One Coney Islander tells ATZ that it was painted 40 years ago by Alex and Ethel Cohen, a couple whose first sign-painting shop was across from P.S. 239, now Mark Twain Junior High. The husband’s job was the lettering, the wife did the art. So much of Coney Island’s vernacular signage has been destroyed or is endangered by redevelopment, we’re happy to discover one sign that is safe and given pride of place.

Denny’s Ice Cream, 1212 Surf Avenue near Stillwell, Coney Island. 718-266-9371

Photo of the Day: Looking Back at Brooklyn Biarritz

Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged Brooklyn Biarritz, Coney Island, Smoking on the beach on March 2, 2011| 4 Comments »

Mildred Price and Bertram Thorn in Brooklyn Biarritz, 1941. Photo by Fred Fehl. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts / Billy Rose Theatre Collection

Thanks to the new smoking ban at beaches and parks, sharing a cigarette with your honey on Coney Island’s beach may soon be as dated as falling in love under the Boardwalk and the phrase “Brooklyn Biarritz.” For a few days back in 1941, the stage of Broadway’s Royale Theater was covered in real sand littered with crumpled papers, banana peels and yes, cigarette butts, to recreate Coney Island’s beach. An overflowing trash can played a role, too. The setting was for a comedy in three acts called Brooklyn Biarritz, a euphemism for Coney Island that we’ve never heard before. The play was panned and closed on March 1, 1941, after four performances. But set designer Frederick Fox won raves for his realistic scenic design, which one reviewer called “the star of the show.”