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Photo of the Day: One’s a Thrill Ride, the Other Is Boro Taxi

Posted in Amusement ride, Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged ad, ad campaign, Boro Taxi, Brooklyn, Coney Island, Cyclone, subway poster, taxi, Taxi & Limousine Commission on January 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Seen on the B Train: Poster Promoting the Boro Taxi Program. January 29, 2014. Photo © Tricia Vita

“ONE’S A THRILL RIDE, THE OTHER IS A RIDE YOU’LL BE THRILLED WITH. #BOROTAXI,” according to this clever ad promoting Boro Taxi. Launched two months ago, the ads feature the new green taxis in front of iconic locations throughout the five boroughs, but the first time we spotted this one with the Coney Island Cyclone was yesterday on the B train. The Taxi & Limousine Commission says “The ads are designed to enhance public awareness of the program, while letting people know how and where they can most conveniently catch a Boro Taxi.”

However, a market analysis published in December showed 0 <1 drop offs and pickups per day in Coney Island. The study says that 11% of Boro Taxi drop-offs were in the Bronx, 22% were in Northern Manhattan, 32% were in Queens, 11% were in Brooklyn, and less than 1% were in Staten Island. The other 23% of drop-offs were in Manhattan’s Hail Exclusionary Zone. The Commission has licensed 6,000 green Boro Taxis, also known as the Street Hail Livery program, to serve areas of the city not commonly served by yellow medallion cabs. Have you hailed a Boro Taxi?

The Cyclone and the rest of Coney Island’s rides open for the season on Sunday, April 13th.

Photo of the Day: Coney Island Snowscape by Bruce Handy

Posted in Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged beach, Bruce Handy, Coney Island, Parachute Jump, snow on January 22, 2014| 1 Comment »

Snowy Coney Island Beach with Parachute Jump. January 21, 2014. Photo © Bruce Handy

While Manhattan’s avenues were snarled with slow-moving traffic during Tuesday’s snowstorm, Coney Island Beach was as tranquil as the moon. In this striking snowscape by Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy, Steeplechase Pier peeks out from behind snow-dusted rocks as the Parachute Jump shimmers in the distance.

Annie Oakley & Buffalo Bill ‘Star’ in Wild West Show Auction

Posted in Auction, film, Photography, tagged Annie Oakley, Barbara Stanwyck, Buffalo Bill, cabinet card, movie poster, Photo Album, Wild West, Wild West Show, William F. Cody on January 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

La Gloire de Cirque, French movie poster for ‘Annie Oakley,” 1935. High Noon Western Americana

This striking Belgian movie poster titled La Gloire du Cirque for the 1935 RKO film Annie Oakley is currently up for auction at High Noon Western Americana. Barbara Stanwyck starred as the sharpshooting “Queen of the Roaring Eighties” who joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1885. The January 25th sale is in Mesa, Arizona, with online bidding available via Live Auctioneers.

While the Hollywood movie was a fictionalized account of Annie Oakley’s career, authentic photos and memorabilia documenting Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show will be on the auction block at the January 31st sale of the Garlow Collection of William F. Cody Family Photographs and related ephemera. Most of the items in the sale at Cowan’s Auctions are descended directly in the family of Patricia Garlow, the great-granddaughter of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill in Irma Cody’s Wild West Show Album , Cowan’s Auctions, January 31, 2014

Cody was the first president of the Showmen’s League of America and one of the first international entertainers. His daughter Irma Cody’s Wild West Show Photo Album is among the rarest items in the auction and has a pre-sale estimate of $4,000-$6,000. The album features photos of Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley as well as trick ropers, cavalrymen, musicians, show managers and sideshow performers congregating among their tents.

Sideshow Performers in Irma Cody’s Wild West Show Album , Cowan’s Auctions, January 31, 2014

This cabinet photograph of Annie Oakley wearing a chest full of shooting medals was taken by Stacy of Brooklyn in 1894. In May, the Wild West built a huge grandstand on Third Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets at Ambrose Park, where the show “delighted twenty thousand,” according to the The New York World.

Annie Oakley Cabinet Photograph by Stacy , Brooklyn, NY. Cowan’s Auctions, January 31, 2014

Buffalo Bill’s great Wild West Show opened at Ambrose Park, South Brooklyn, yesterday afternoon, in a blaze of glory and amid a shower of ringing coin thrown by the 20,000 people who occupied seats in the grand stands.

Col. Cody had unquestionably in this exhibition surpassed all his former efforts in the show line, and to miss seeing his Congress of Rough Riders of the World, in their most wonderful and daring feats of horsemanship, which, by the way, are perfectly natural, and contain no circus play, is to miss one of the finest educational exhibitions ever given…

The entertainment consisted further of rifle shooting by the celebrated woman rifle shot, Miss Annie Oakley; horse races between a cowboy, Cossack, Mexican, Arab and Indian on the horses of their native lands; an exhibition of the famous old pony express, an immigrant train attacked by Indians on the plains, exhibitions of horsemanship by Riffian Arabs, cowboys, Mexicans, and others; hurdle races, races between Indian boys on ponyback, the battle of the Little Big Horn, illustrating Custer’s last stand; the attack on the Deadwood coach and settlers’ cabins by Indians; buffalo hunts, a military musical drill, the cavalrymen of all nations, and Col. Cody’s wonderful exhibitions of sharp-shooting at glass balls with a rifle while riding at full speed.

The New York World, May 13, 1894