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Video of the Day: The Down Home Daredevils

Posted in film, sideshow, video, tagged family, Jill Fleet, Lucky Daredevil Thrillshow, sideshow, Thrill Kill Jill, Tyler Fleet, Tyler Fyre on October 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

“You want to go to the circus? Good news, you live in the circus!” says Tyler Fleet aka Tyler Fyre at the beginning of this sweet documentary short “The Down Home Daredevils.” Tyler and his wife Jill, whose stage name is Thrill Kill Jill, are the doting parents of two adorable little boys–Hank Lightning and Duke Dynamite. They’re also sword swallowers and fire eaters, and in Jill’s case a snake charmer, with the Lucky Daredevil Thrill Show.

The film by Corcoran College of Art new media photojournalism students Ben Dorger, Jenny Harnish and Emma Scott follows the family from their home in West Virginia to the Hell City Tattoo Convention in Columbus, Ohio. Hank, who is a toddler, joins dad onstage to do a make-believe straitjacket escape and Duke gets his first taste of applause as a babe in mom’s arms. “What the kids do in the show is up to the kids,” says Jill. “We’ll nurture them right into the show. It’s the family business.”

The film premiered at this year’s Coney Island Film Festival and was among “ATZ’s Top 10 Coney Island Film Festival Picks.”

Video of the Day: Coney Island Carnival (1945)

Posted in Amusement ride, film, video, tagged 1940s, Coney Island, Games, newsreel, rides on September 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Before television, newsreels like this one filmed in Coney Island circa 1945 were shown in movie theaters. The film starts with the Wonder Wheel (described by the narrator as “a mass of iron lace”) and ends with the Parachute Jump (“the highest in the whole United States”) and the Cyclone (“mountain climbing on wheels”). Among the long-vanished rides that appear are the Virginia Reel, Looper, Whip, Octopus, Caterpillar, Rocket Ships, a carousel with a ring machine and the original Steeplechase horse race.

Video of the Day: Mil Amores Dancer in Coney Island

Posted in video, tagged Boardwalk, Coney Island, dancing, Mil Amores, thousand loves on September 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Mil Amores means literally “thousand loves” in Spanish and refers to a person who loves having different men or women to be with and to conquer them. It’s also the title of this flirtatious dance video shot on the Coney Island Boardwalk, where the summer dance parties are legendary. A very accomplished male dancer smoothly changes partners at least four times in the five minute 38 second video.