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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Holiday Album: Coney Island in the Bronx

Posted in Events, Photography, Travel, tagged Botanical Garden, Bronx, Coney Island, holidays, Luna Park, train show on December 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Every Christmas, exquisite models of long-vanished Coney Island landmarks are part of a holiday tradition at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Thanks to ATZ reader Jim Levine, who sent us his photos of the 20th annual Holiday Train Show.

Among the replicas are the original entrance and a ticket booth from Coney Island’s first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 on the north side of Surf Avenue. There’s also a Coney Island bound trolley and the Galveston Flood Building, where a cyclorama of the 1900 catastrophe was a popular attraction.

According to the Botanical Garden’s release, “Natural materials such as bark, twigs, stems, fruits, seeds, and pine cones are used to create more than 140 scaled iconic buildings, including the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Radio City Music Hall, and the original Yankee Stadium. More than a dozen large-scale model railway trains—from late-1800s American steam engines and streetcars to modern freight and high-speed passenger trains and trolleys—traverse nearly a quarter-mile of track across rustic bridges, along overhead trestles, through tunnels, and past waterfalls that cascade into flowing creeks.”

Jim shared a bit of trivia about the trolley in the picture below, which he says is a model of car number 1001. “It was one of the last trolleys to run in Coney Island. My father, who was just starting with the Transit Authority in the 1940s, drove that trolley in Coney Island. That car, 1001, is now at the Shore Line Trolley Museum up in Connecticut and has been fully restored.”

The New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show runs through January 16, 2012. Tickets are available online.

Jones Walk’s “Miss Coney Island” Shimmies Over to 12th St

Posted in Coney Island, Photography, Travel, tagged amusements, Charles Denson, coin-operated, dancing, fall in love, love, Miss Coney Island on December 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Get ready for the Summer of Love in Coney Island! ATZ has learned exclusively that Jones Walk’s legendary “Miss Coney Island” will be dancing more than ever in 2012 at a brand-new location on West 12th Street. The shimmying mannequin’s vitrine will be next to the Coney Island History Project’s exhibition center, near the entrance to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. The price is the same: “25¢ to Fall in Love.”

“I love staring into Miss Coney Island’s eyes,” said Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project, which is expanding its exhibition center into a second storefront that will be Miss CI’s neighbor. “She’s also my favorite dance partner and having her next door is a dream come true.”

As we’ve noted previously, Miss Coney Island does not receive a salary. Her only way of paying the rent on her vitrine is your spare change. When you visit next season, we recommend bringing a whole roll of quarters to spend on Miss CI and her neighbor, Coney Island Always, an animated diorama of Coney Island attractions that will be expanded to include 15 rides, a tightrope walker and a unicyclist. As the signs say, “25¢ to Laugh,” “25¢ to Smile,” and “Don’t Postpone Joy!”

Miss Coney Island and Coney Island Always, along with Skin the Wire and two or three other games, are relocating from Jones Walk to booths on West 12th Street, which is City-owned property leased to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. Last month, the City’s Economic Development Corporation issued an RFP (Request for Proposals) for the booths on the east side of Jones Walk, a 1,650 square foot space that was purchased along with a larger parcel in 2008. The RFP requires renovating or completely rebuilding the existing booths, some of which are in poor condition. Proposals are due January 6th.

Fascination: From Coney Island to Nantasket Beach

Posted in Amusement Game, Travel, tagged Coney Island, Fascination, Games, Nantasket Beach on November 29, 2011| 2 Comments »

Here are a few photos taken for our feature story “Fascinated by Fascination” in the current issue of Games Magazine. Last fall after Coney Island lost its Faber’s Fascination sign, ATZ first wrote about the Fascination Parlor on the south shore of Boston in “Where You Can Play Fascination Year Round.” A sign in the window proudly proclaims that this arcade game, which combines the luck of bingo with the skill of Skee-ball, was brought to Nantasket Beach from Coney Island more than 60 years ago. In Coney, the game was once popular enough to keep three Fascination parlors flourishing — Faber’s, Eddie’s and Moe’s–but the last one closed in the 1970s and now there are none.

In August, we made the trip to Nantasket Beach in Hull to play Fascination for the first time and write about it for Games. The travel piece also delves into the history of Fascination, which made its debut in Coney, and the game’s inventor John Gibbs. At the heart of the story are reminiscences and photos related to Nat Faber’s Empire, which encompassed Fascination Parlors in Coney Island, as well as the Rockaways and Long Beach and Edgemere in Long Island.

“Fascinated by Fascination” is in the February 2012 issue of Games Magazine, which went on sale today, November 29. Copies are available at newsstands or may be purchased via Games website.