Amusing the Zillion

Up for Auction: Rack of Vintage Carnival Knockdown Dolls

November 11, 2011 by Tricia

Carnival Knockdown Dolls. Slotin Folk Art Who's Who in Folk Art Auction. November 12, 2011

Remember when carnival cat racks were hand-painted and each one had its own unique personality? This tier of hand-painted canvas knockdown dolls from a vintage cat rack, also known as a doll or punk rack, will be on the auction block this weekend at Slotin Folk Art. The rack measures 74″ long x 5″ deep x 14″ high and is hinged. The pre-sale estimate is $1,000-2,000. It’s rare to find a whole row of ’em, since the majority of vintage games that have survived are broken up and sold piecemeal to collectors.

In 2009, ATZ wrote about an auction of a complete cat rack as well as a duck pond, stick joints and all, which belonged to an old-timer whose father had been in the business forever. The seller tried to preserve these pieces of Vermont fair history and offered the games in their entirety for many months on eBay, but no buyers came forward. The dolls were (and some of them still are) being sold separately for $150-$175 and the antique stick joint is now available for a mere $249!

Carnival Knockdown Dolls. Slotin Folk Art Who's Who in Folk Art Auction. November 12, 2011

The rack of nine carnival cats in Saturday’s Slotin Folk Art Auction is from the collection of George and Sue Viener, who own the Outsider Folk Art Gallery in Reading, Pennyslvania. The couple were introduced to the world of Outsider Folk Art and Americana in 1970 during a visit to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. Viener told ATZ that he acquired the carnival doll rack a couple of years ago from a dealer in Pennsylvania. The dolls are decorated on both sides and each one is unique, unlike the standardized cat rack manufactured today. The row of dolls tips slightly forward, says Viener, which he theorized made it more difficult for players to knock them down and win the game.

Carnival Knockdown Dolls. Slotin Folk Art Who's Who in Folk Art Auction. November 12, 2011

The cat rack has already attracted online bidders and will be sold at Slotin Folk Art’s “Who’s Who in Folk Art Auction” on November 12. A larger, 21-inch tall carnival cat from the Viener Collection is also up for bid. The two-day folk art auction consists of over 1,000 lots, with the first day devoted to the Viener Collection. The live auction will be held at Historic Buford Hall in Buford, Georgia. Absentee, phone and online bidding are also available on auction days.

Carnival Knockdown Dolls. Slotin Folk Art Who's Who in Folk Art Auction. November 12, 2011

Video: First Plunge of Season for Coney Island Polar Bears

November 10, 2011 by Tricia

It’s Polar Bear Season in Coney Island! After the rides close in October, the beach is home to the exuberant members of the country’s oldest cold-water bathing club. At 1 pm every Sunday from November through April, the Bears and Cubs plunge into the chilly Atlantic. It’s fun to spectate and take photos from the shore.

Photographer Jim McDonnell, who has taken the New Year’s Day Plunge, made this short video of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club’s season opener on November 6th.

The Club’s increasingly popular New Year’s Day fundraiser for Camp Sunshine draws about 1000 who take the plunge and is open to the public. Aspiring members must participate in 12 swims during the season and be approved by the membership. “We have about 140 full-time members in the club,” Polar Bear President Dennis Thomas told ATZ in a previously posted interview. “At our weekly swims we have been averaging 80-90 swimmers.”

Visit the Coney Island Polar Bear Club website for info on joining a swim as a guest or becoming a member.

To attend, show up any Sunday between November and April at the New York Aquarium Education Hall, on the Boardwalk at West 8th Street by 12:30 pm. Bring your bathing suit (duh), a towel and surf boots or an extra pair of sneakers (you really need something to protect and insulate your feet.) and some warm clothes. We also recommend you bring a friend should you need assistance or want your picture taken on the beach. You will be assigned a “buddy” to swim with and must obey all safety precautions prescribed by the Club.

The History of Coney Island’s Dancing Clams

November 8, 2011 by Tricia

The Oldest Inhabitant of Coney Island from The History of Coney Island, 1878. Picture Collection of the New York Public Library

Coney Island’s Dancing Clams are older than the Switchback, the world’s first roller coaster (1884), and George C. Tilyou’s Steeplechase Park (1897). In fact, the frolicking mollusks are Coney’s oldest inhabitants, ATZ learned from a droll history of the seaside resort published in 1878. “The History of Coney Island from its first discovery in 4, 11, 44, down to last night, in rhyme” is a 47-page book with whimsical sketches of the summer scene from Coney’s western end at Norton’s Point to Brighton and Manhattan Beach. We also discovered that this rare volume was digitized by the Library of Congress and can be read online or downloaded to your Kindle.

A Chowder Party: Vegetables and fish gathering around a pot of chowder from The History of Coney Island,1878. Picture Collection of the New York Public Library

Written and illustrated by I.F. Eaton, the book was “adapted for all children under age 85, with notes by the editor (promissory ones), with maps and sketches in water color, drawings of bier, and many dry cuts.” There are a great many humorous sketches of beach-goers, including bathing beauties in Victorian dress and a mermaid startling a man digging for clams. It’s interesting to see that Coney’s Dancing Clams were not yet wearing top hats and trousers in 1878.

Last month, ATZ posted Lindsay Wengler’s photos documenting Gyro Corner Clam Bar’s hand-painted signs of top-hatted clam waiters serving clams on the half shell. Reader Beth Greenberg posted the comment “That’s one classy clam: look at his top hat and white gloves. That’s Coney Island!” Indeed, it is. Feltman’s Restaurant, where the hot dog was invented, had a famous ad in the 1900s called “The Epicure’s Parade” featuring both a top-hatted clam and a hot dog, as well as a strolling lobster, corn on the cob and mug of beer. Gregory & Paul’s, now Paul’s Daughter, has their own quirky version painted by Catherine Gavalas about 20 years ago, but my fave is their top-hatted Mr. Shrimp. Artist Richard Eagan, the co-founder of the Coney Island Hysterical Society, paid homage to the Feltman’s original with an architectural portrait of polychromed canvas and wood in 1997 and recently completed a limited handmade edition of ten.

In “The History of Coney Island,” the rhymes are as delightful as the drawings:

The hard-shell crab goes sideling by,
With murder in his little eye.
All sorts and sizes here you view,
Of those you eat and that eat you;
And you can see, in this strange spot.
How fish look ere they go to pot.

Prices were very reasonable in Coney Island back in the day: Tilyou’s Bathing Establishment, Bathing Suit and Clam Chowder, 25 cents. Bathing suit without Chowder, 15 cents. Donkey ride on the Beach, 10 cents. Clams, 5 cents. “The History of Coney Island,” 20 cents.