Amusing the Zillion

Rare & Vintage: Voltess, the Girl Who Defies Electricity

July 15, 2013 by Tricia

Vintage Sideshow Banner: Voltess, The Girl Who Defies Electricity circa 1930. Millard & Bulsterbaum, 2894 W 8th St. Coney Island via Urban Country

This vintage Millard and Bulsterbaum banner for “Voltess, The Girl Who Defies Electricity” was painted for Sam Wagner’s World Circus Sideshow in Coney Island. Variously known as Electra, Electricia and Voltara, the act features a girl who is said to be able to withstand high voltage and shoot sparks from her fingertips due to having been struck by lightning. The banner, which measures approximately eight by five, is offered for sale by Urban Country.

Algernon Millard and John Bulsterbaum established their Coney Island shop around 1915 at 2894 W 8th Street and were in business through the Depression. Their ads proclaimed “We Paint Banners That Get Top Money for Carnivals and Circus.” The studio was credited with introducing liberal use of orange paint and bold lines that made their banners visible from clear across the midway.

Millard and Bulsterbaum, 2894 W 8th Street, Coney Island

Music Video: Wonder Wheel by Josh Joplin

July 13, 2013 by Tricia

The music video for this exquisitely elegiac song by Josh Joplin was filmed in 2002, but we just now discovered it on the singer-songwriter’s YouTube channel. In addition to the landmark “Wonder Wheel” that is the song’s namesake and anchor, you’ll catch glimpses of the long vanished Zipper and Astroland and the recently demolished Playland Arcade and Astrotower. The poetic lyrics perfectly capture the mood of something irrecoverably gone. “I’m not sure exactly how I feel,” muses Joplin in this single from the album The Future That Was.

“My friends Ben Niles and Geoffrey O’Brien made this beautiful video for my song Wonder Wheel,” Joplin wrote in 2010. “Coney Island is going to change very soon as developers have bought it up and plan on demolishing much of what gives this magical place its soul. I’m so happy to have footage of it as it was when I first came there as a 13 year old kid.”

Photo of the Day: Solar Charging Station in Coney Island

July 11, 2013 by Tricia

Post-Sandy public amenities on the Coney Island Boardwalk include this new solar powered charging station at West 8th Street. Known as Street Charge, the modular unit accommodates up to six devices at one time and will be here through October, Goal Zero’s Mark Olsen told ATZ. Industry leader in portable solar power Goal Zero teamed up with AT&T and Brooklyn design studio Pensa to bring the charging stations to New York City’s streets, parks and beaches. Additional locations include Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Rockaway Beach. Besides providing power, Street Charge will have the potential for lighting, WIFI, and signage for ads and way finding, according to Goal Zero.