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Last Chance to See Mermaid Parade Before It Turns 30!

Posted in Events, Photography, Visitor Info, tagged Coney Island, Mermaid Parade on June 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Lollipop and Candy Mermaids. Coney Island Mermaid Parade, June 20, 2009. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

This Saturday is the 29th annual Mermaid Parade and if you’re anywhere near New York City, you should come out to Coney Island for the day. Take the D, F, N or Q to Stillwell Avenue and arrive well before the 2 pm start of the parade to pick out a spot on Surf Avenue or the Boardwalk.

If you’re in a faraway state or foreign country, there’s always next year. Of course, we’re joking about seeing the parade before it turns 30. The Mermaid Parade is a quirky Coney Island institution that gets better with age. It should be on your list of things to do before and after you turn 30.

Here’s our slide show from the 2010 Mermaid Parade, featuring our view from the judges stand. The pix are posted pretty much in chronological order, from the judges sitting in the empty stand before the parade to paraders walking east on a still barricaded and empty Surf Avenue after it was over.

This part of our post is for a friend of a friend, who is coming all the way from the Netherlands to play in Sunday’s Brooklyn Pinball Championship in Williamsburg. He was looking for “some advice as a tourist” in Brooklyn so here it is: It’s a big weekend in Coney Island, with the first fireworks of the season on Friday night at 9:30 pm and more fireworks on Saturday after the Brooklyn Cyclones’ season opener. If it’s your first time here– or your first time in a long time– check out the attractions and events listing on the Coney Island Fun Guide before you go.

ATZ’s must see-and-do list includes the landmark Cyclone and Wonder Wheel, the Eldorado Bumper cars, the Air Race in Luna Park, the new Sling Shot ride in Scream Zone, Coney Island USA’s ten-in-one circus sideshow, vintage films and photo exhibit at the Coney Island History Project, Tazo the Sea Otter at the Aquarium, the bars and businesses on the Bowery and Boardwalk, the original Nathan’s Famous, and Williams Candy or Denny’s Ice Cream for dessert!

HBO’s Bored to Death Brings Susquehanna Hat Co. to Coney Island

Posted in film, Photography, tagged Abbott & Costello, Bagel Street, Bored to Death, Coney Island, Coney Island Beach Shop, Susquehanna Hat Company on June 6, 2011| 6 Comments »

HBO's 'Bored to Death'Moved the Susquehanna Hat Co. on Bagel Street into Coney Island's Oldest Building for Film Shoot. June 6, 2011. Photo © Charles Denson/ConeyIsland History Project

If you’ve ever seen Abbott & Costello’s Bagel Street routine about the Susquehanna Hat Company, you’ll do a double take when you pass by Surf Avenue and Jones Walk in Coney Island. The Jones Walk sign now says Bagel Street and The Susquehanna Hat Company–“Coney Island’s Greatest Hat Supplier”–occupies Coney Island’s oldest building, Thor Equities’ long-vacant Grashorn Building. The signage on the shop makes it look like it’s been there forever. But it’s a set for the HBO series “Bored to Death,” which is filming in Coney Island this week.

If the T-shirts and souvenirs in the window and inside the store look familiar, that’s because the props manager bought everything locally at Coney Island Beach Shop located behind Nathan’s. If you see anything you like at the Susquehanna Hat Company, you can buy it at the Beach Shop, which still has plenty of merchandise in their store as well as online.

The last time ATZ wrote about Coney Island’s oldest building, it had been rescued by Will Smith and “Men in Black 3,” who were filming in Coney Island in May. The MIB3 production crew fixed up the gutted interior of the building located at Surf and Jones Walk to use as their location headquarters. Now the spiffed up building and its interior are actually part of the story.

“Bored to Death” is an HBO comedy series featuring a Brooklyn writer who moonlights as a private detective. In this episode he is sent to investigate something funny that’s going on at the Susquehanna Hat Company. More than that we cannot say! Though it will be interesting to see how the script plays off the Abbott & Costello skit from “In Society” (1944). Will it solve the mystery of why everybody they meet flies into a rage upon hearing the name of the Susquehanna Hat Company?

Thanks very much to Charles Denson of the Coney Island History Project, who has been photographing the Grashorn building for decades, and we hope many more decades, for sending us these on location photos.

Susquehanna Hat Co. on Bagel Street Has Moved into the Grashorn Building, Coney Island's Oldest for Film Shoot. June 6, 2011. Photo © Charles Denson/ConeyIsland History Project

Photo Album: Street Art Down by the Coney Island Bowery

Posted in art, Photography, tagged Coney Island, Keith Schweitzer, ND'A, NO Longer Empty, OverUnder, street art, Thor Equities, Veng on June 1, 2011| 1 Comment »

No Longer Empty in Coney Island: Polar Bear by Veng and ND'A painting Down by the Boardwalk. May 28, 2011. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

On Saturday in Coney Island, we passed by the Bowery side of Thor Equities’ blue construction fence to find an artist working on a Down by the Boardwalk-themed painting. It features a friendly octopus holding a boombox and a note saying “On a blanket with my baby is where I’ll be.” Like the three street artists whose work we wrote about last month in “Photo Album: Whimsical Murals Blossom in Coney Island,” ND’A aka Nick was sent by the art organization No Longer Empty and the City’s Economic Development Corporation to beautify the streetscape.

Keith Schweitzer, who organized the mural project for No Longer Empty, told ATZ about the other new murals: “The polar bear – to the left of Nick’s octopus – is by Veng, the same artist who painted the semi-realistic faces and clown on the Stillwell wall. He’s a quiet, talented man and often full of surprises. He arrived at the wall that morning and said ‘I am going to paint a polar bear.’. It was later I found out that he & his family/friends take part in the Polar Bear Club activity at Coney Island each year. Like I said, he’s a quiet man, and I’m not sure if hearing about Rabbi Abraham Abraham’s recent passing away had anything to do with the subject of the mural.”

No Longer Empty in Coney Island: ND'A painting Down by the Boardwalk... May 28, 2011. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

As for the large CONEY letters guarded by New York’s Finest in the photo below, they were painted by OverUnder, who also painted the Stillwell Avenue side of the fence with Veng. “OverUnder did the whimsical swimmers and the heart ‘Love to Sea you,’ and other elements of the wall,” says Schweitzer. “On one of the days that we were painting Stillwell Ave, a newlywed couple walked toward OverUnder from the boardwalk having just taken post-wedding photos. They were in full wedding attire and asked OverUnder if he would paint something for them. OverUnder obliged, asking their names, and painted their initials H&B inside of a heart. That was not part of the planned composition, but it developed into the wonderful ‘tattoo’ heart and I am happy to see that many people stop to be photographed in front of the heart.”

We’re happy to see these fanciful paintings bringing good vibrations to this decimated block. As previously noted, it’s a good solution to distract people’s attention from the construction fence and the empty lot at the gateway to Coney Island’s beach and boardwalk. Sad to say, the century-old Henderson Music Hall stood here until real estate speculator Joe “Blight for Spite” Sitt knocked it down in January. A pile driver was recently moved onto the lot at Surf and Stillwell. Behind the blue fence, a foundation for a high rise is being built, on top of which a placeholder one-story commercial building will be plopped next season. Nothing can quell my sorrow that we lost the zoning battle to keep high rises of up to 30 stories off the south side of Surf.