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Exclusive: Coney Island Zip Line to Be Dismantled Today

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, video, tagged Coney Isalnd, Scaffold King, Super Bowl Zip Line, Zip line, zipline on April 30, 2013| 2 Comments »

Abandoned Zip Line on Stillwell Avenue, Coney Island. December 5, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The strange saga of the zip line that came to Coney Island last summer and never opened (except for an hour-and-a-half) due to a permitting snafu with the City is about to end. The attraction was supposed to be part of the BK Festival and was set up on Thor Equities Stillwell Avenue lot behind Nathan’s, where it was left standing after the festival closed. Bob Rigsby, Project Manager of Scaffold King Rentals, Inc. of Rockville, Indiana, the company that rented the scaffolding to independent operator CAT 5 Zipline, has come to Coney Island to reclaim it.

“There’s $80,000 worth of metal, if we had to replace it,” Rigsby says of the two towers, which survived Superstorm Sandy just fine. “Right now we’re $60,000 in the hole.”

Scaffold King has hired a local crew to take down the towers starting this morning. It took five months for Rigsby to prove ownership of the scaffolding and get the necessary permits to dismantle it. The actual zip line is from a company in Boston that Scaffold King works with frequently, he says. Rigsby added that they will be installing a zip line elsewhere in New York that will go over the rooftops. We’re jealous. It’s too bad Coney Island never got to see this attraction in action. Based on the astronomical number of hits on ATZ posts updating the status of the Coney Island Zip Line and the emails and comments from people eagerly waiting for it to open, it would have been very popular and could have been a year-round attraction.

In January 2012, Scaffold King erected the launch and landing towers for the first-ever Super Bowl zip line, which was the single-longest temporary one ever constructed. Here’s a video of the 800-foot zip line at Super Bowl XLVI Village along Capitol Street in downtown Indianapolis.

UPDATE May 5, 2013

Tangled Up in Red Tape Department: First the zip line couldn’t open because of City permitting issues, now it’s stuck here because of permitting issues. The dismantling of the zip wires got underway as scheduled on Monday, but before the scaffolding could be taken down, work was stopped due to the wording on the permit. “The I’s have to be dotted and the T’s have to be crossed,” Rigsby said before he went home to Indiana without his company’s zip line, leaving Thor Equities to work out the details of the permit to take it down this week. (It was finally dismantled and trucked away.)

Still wanna zip line in New York City? Last year, a 160-foot portable zip line was added to the Summer Streets Program, run by the City’s DOT. Locations included Union Square and Foley Square in Manhattan. The annual event is on three consecutive Saturdays in the summer. The zip line was offered free of charge and was very popular. Will it be back this year?

Saturday Matinee: Coney Island’s Polar Express by Steven Day

Posted in Amusement ride, video, tagged Coney Island, dancing, Guerrero, Himalaya, independent ride, Polar Express, Scott Fitlin, Steven Day on April 20, 2013| 2 Comments »

With atmospheric footage shot in 2009, this new video by Steven Day vividly captures the late night scene at Coney Island’s legendary Polar Express. The independently owned ride on West 12th Street is famed for its mega sound system, live DJs, and long ride cycle with cars moving both forwards and backwards.

There’s also the allure of the crowd that gathers in front of the ride to see and be seen dancing in the street. Now required to shut down by midnight, the Polar Express as well as the rides at the now closed McCullough’s Kiddie Park across the street used to spin till 2 or 3 AM. Back in the day, Coney Island’s Himalayas would stay open till 4 or 5 AM!

The late Scott Fitlin, who made his family’s Eldorado Bumper Cars into a Studio 54-inspired disco palace with its own legendary sound system, once shared his boyhood memories of 12th Street’s Himalaya on the Coney Island Message board:

And back in 1969, I would be in my families place, and they would let me go out in the evening BY MYSELF, to go on some rides, everybody knew who I was so I was ok to walk around, and my dad would always tell me stay off of W12th st. The Himalaya was where the Black Spider is now, and they had the best sound and music at that time, a HUGE crowd dancing in front of the ride, and thats where my dad would always come find me. Hanging out dancing to Stax, and Motown in front of The Twins Himalaya! Then they would call out my name over the speakers from the DJ booth, and I would go up on the ride to the booth, Big Willie was the DJ, and he would show me how the ride ran, and the how the music was played. Then he would put me on the mic to scream out, HIMALAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Oh, I thought I was so cool, the stuff kids only dream about, I was doing!

And to a young boy, looking out at the street with what seemed to be thousands of people boogieing, THAT was THE ENTIRE WORLD for me right there! I honestly think that was the moment I got the sand in my shoes!

The Guerrero family, who own the Polar Express, have actually operated four or five different Himalayas in Coney Island, beginning around 1975 next to the Thunderbolt roller coaster. They moved the ride to Stillwell Avenue behind Nathan’s before buying the Himi on 12th Street from “The Twins.” The ride was later replaced with the Polar Express. In Day’s video, you’ll also catch glimpses of West 12th Street’s now demolished Bank of Coney Island and Coney Island Arcade.

Video of the Day: Meet Takeshi Yamada of “Immortalized”

Posted in art, Television, video, tagged AMC, Coney Isalnd, Immortalized, Immortalizer, rogue taxidermy, Takeshi Yamada, taxidermy on January 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This clip for AMC’s new reality show “Immortalized” introduces Coney Island artist Takeshi Yamada and his world of rogue taxidermy. It’s exciting to see our friend and his sea rabbit Seara, who are among the Boardwalk’s most recognizable eccentrics, on the cusp of TV stardom.

“People love freak show. People are attracted to freaks,” says Yamada as he shows off the taxidermied oddities in his Museum of World of Wonders. “I am one of the most famous freak show gaff masters. A freak show gaff master’s job is to make fake creations such as Fiji Mermaid, Chupacabra, Hairy Trout, those kind of things…”

In the unscripted series, Yamada is one of four “Immortalizers” who will face off against challengers in a taxidermy competition. “I had a great time creating truly monumental scale and spectacular rogue taxidermy monsters for this TV series,” Yamada told ATZ in an interview (“Coney Island Taxidermist Takeshi Yamada in AMC Reality Show,” Nov 29, 2012). “Immortalized” consists of eight, half-hour episodes and premieres on Thursday, February 14 at 10pm.