Amusing the Zillion

Photo Album: Pieces of Coney Island Skyline in December

January 7, 2013 by Tricia

Coney Island Sunset with Scream Zone and Parachute Jump. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

While putting together “Amusing the Zillion’s Top 10 Coney Island News Stories of 2012,” we considered doing a fave unposted photos of 2012 feature but there were too many pix to choose from. If a photo isn’t or doesn’t become newsworthy, it often gets overlooked. Since there’s a post-holiday lull in the usual Coney Island Melodrama, here’s an album of quiet photos from early December. What these images have in common are pieces of the Coney Island skyline.

Coney Island Skyline, December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Hoax photos from Hurricane Sandy of the Parachute Jump snapped in two and real photos of a coaster underwater in Seaside Heights have visitors coming to ATZ to find out if Coney Island’s rides survived. The answer is yes! Coney Island’s rides will open for the 2013 season on March 24th, Palm Sunday, with a complimentary spin on the Wonder Wheel. Seen in the photo above from left to right: the Astro Tower, which is no longer an operating ride, but will be lit with LEDs; the Cyclone Roller Coaster; Deno’s Wonder Wheel, minus its cars, which are removed for the winter; and Scream Zone’s Steeplechase Coaster and Zenobio.

Brooms lined up post-Sandy inside Luna Park Coney Island. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

In November, Luna Park pitched in to help Coney Island recover from Hurricane Sandy by rewarding volunteers who signed up for four hours of clean-up with an unlimited ride, four-hour wristband to the park. “Over 300 people volunteered their time with Luna Park as part of a massive effort to rebuild Coney Island,” according to a post on the park’s Facebook page. “Luna volunteers cleared 4 parks and playgrounds, served 3 churches, cleaned 9 homes and 2 streets and helped clear the boardwalk by the amusement areas.”

Victim of Sandy. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

This surreal image of a discarded carnival prize in post-Sandy Coney Island was just too sad to post on the day that we snapped it. A big part of it was the game that it came from is owned by a friend. The storm-damaged plush bear and fellow prizes were photographed here and there in the amusement area before being carted away.

The Last of McCullough’s Kiddie Park. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Even sadder was our last look at the last remaining ride sign in McCullough’s Kiddie Park, which had been torn down and was being trucked away. The Bumblebees, Kiddie Ferris Wheel and Himalaya are all gone. Today, there’s an empty lot where the kiddie park existed since the 1960s. As ATZ reported in September, the McCullough family operated amusements in Coney Island for four generations and are related to the Tilyous of Steeplechase Park. They closed the kiddie park, their last remaining business here, after being unable to come to an agreement on terms for a lease extension with property owner Thor Equities.

On the bright side, Pete’s Clam Stop and its old school signage on Surf Avenue at 15th Street is here to stay. Along with Williams Candy next door, it is owned by Peter Agrapides, who has worked in Coney Island for six decades.

Pete’s Clam Stop, Coney Island. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Saturday Matinee: A Peep Show on the Mutoscope Machine

January 5, 2013 by Tricia

Step right up and see “Double Trouble,” an early 20th century peep show reel. Yes, it’s SFW though dancers wearing short skirts were considered risque when this moving picture machine was new. Invented in 1894 and marketed by the American Mutoscope Company, the coin-op machines contained flip book movies with a viewing time of about a minute.

These classic reels were made from 1897 to 1907, when the company turned completely to projection, and were created and almost totally produced in New York City. Although the 4,000-plus titles included a variety of subjects, it was the girly movies with suggestive titles like “Artists and Models” and “Wiggling Wonders” (glimpsed in the photo below) that won notoriety.

Mutoscope machines were popular in Coney Island and the Rev. Frederick Bruce Russell of the Law and Order Society raided and closed several for the exhibition of improper pictures on July 30, 1897. “Those closed by Mr. Russell to-day were at Feltman’s Pavilion, Koster’s Concert Hall, the Sea Beach Palace and the Old Iron Pier,” said an article on the front page of the Brooklyn Eagle. “The particular pictures which fell under the reformer’s eye were entitled ‘What the Girls Did With Willie’s Hat’ and ‘Fun in a Boarding School.’”

What did the girls do with the hat that was so scandalous? They frolicked and kicked it high over their heads while wearing short skirts like the girls in “Double Trouble.” Bring back the peep show! It would be fun to have some of these old Mutoscope movie machine as well as an arcade museum as we noted previously in “ATZ’s Big Wish List for the New Coney Island,” ATZ, October 7, 2012).

Boys looking at penny movies at South Louisiana State Fair, 1938. Photograph by Russell Lee. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

Photo Album: New Year’s Day Coney Island Photo Diary by Bruce Handy

January 3, 2013 by Tricia

Coney Island Polar Bear New Year’s Day Plunge

“After Superstorm Sandy, this was the first time Coney could shine,” says Coney Island resident and photographer Bruce Handy, whose empathetic shots of Coney Island people and places appear frequently on ATZ. He spent his New Year’s Day as usual taking photos on the beach and boardwalk. We’re delighted to start off a new year of photo albums with his photographs of the 2013 Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge.

“I tried to capture people in their natural element, especially emotions: happy, sad, afraid of the cold water, maybe thinking it was a good idea at home but now would rather be in a warmer place,” says Bruce. “About ninety percent of the people were very happy to start their year bathing in the medicinal waters of Coney Island. Sandy was a reminder that life is short and the Polar Bear Plunge is the answer, to follow your heart and soul, to not waste a minute, go for it.”

As ATZ previously reported, for the first time in the Polar Bear Club’s history, instead of everyone running into the water at once, groups went in approximately every seven minutes, a couple hundred at a time. “Each of the five runs was different, all the people were very enthusiastic,” says Bruce. Last year on New Year’s Day, temps in the 50s drew a record number of celebrants– more than 3,000– making the changes advisable from a safety standpoint. This year, tempa were in the 30s and the event drew approximately 2,000 swimmers, according to Dennis Thomas, president of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club.