Amusing the Zillion

Video: Coney Island Dancing 2011 by Jim McDonnell

September 6, 2011 by Tricia

“Everyone likes to dance at Coney Island,” says photographer and Coney regular Jim McDonnell, who has been shooting Coney Island Dancing 2011 all summer long. We’ve been anticipating the debut of the second vid in what promises to be an annual series. Jim is a professional film editor and self-described “footage guru” who has a knack for distilling a season’s worth of dance moves at the People’s Playground into a short video.

The 2011 vid clocks in at four minutes and 48 seconds–one minute and 19 seconds longer than Coney Island Dancing 2010–so you’ll get to see more dancers this year. In addition, it’s set to music with a less frenetic tempo and a mellow mood: Intodeep’s “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.” Highlights include the Coney Island Dancers, Mermaid Paraders and performers in Luna Park and the Coney Island Talent Show on the Boardwalk. Music at the Polar Express, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park and Coney Island Flicks on the Beach also sets the stage for impromptu boogying.

If you’re not in this video, or on the cutting room floor, chances are you haven’t spent enough time dancing on the boards. There’s always next summer.

Video of the Day: “IT Girl” Clara Bow in Coney Island

August 16, 2011 by Tricia

Brooklyn-born silent screen star Clara Bow was known as “The Brooklyn Bonfire” and “The ‘IT’ Girl.” What is IT? “Self-confidence and indifference as to whether you are pleasing or not and something in you that gives the impression that you are not at all cold,” explained Elinor Glyn, whose novel was the basis for the 1927 film “IT” that made Clara Bow a sex symbol.

In this scene from the film, Bow is a shop girl who goes on a first date with her boss to Coney Island’s Steeplechase Park. It’s fun to watch old-fashioned “date rides” like the Human Roulette Wheel and the Barrel of Love help them get acquainted. When the couple try the slide, “Mr. Waltham” jauntily wraps his legs around her and she asks him to hold her tight. But when he drives her home and tries to kiss her goodnight, she slaps his face and says “So you’re one of those minute men. The minute you know a girl, you think you can kiss her!”

Our favorite real-life quote from Clara Bow: “I’m a curiosity in Hollywood. I’m a big freak, because I’m myself!” And here’s a delicious bit of trivia from Matt Kennedy, the longtime executive secretary of the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, who was born in 1905, the same year as Clara Bowtinelli: As a teenager, the future IT Girl sliced hot dog rolls for Nathan’s!

Games: Where You Can Play Vintage Pinball Year Round

August 15, 2011 by Tricia

Back in May, I visited Asbury Park on assignment for Games Magazine to write a feature on the Silver Ball Museum Arcade and Pinball Hall of Fame. This year-round mecca for pinball wizards and wannabes is a great day trip via NJ Transit from Penn Station. A $20 wristband lets you play all day. Silver Ball is quite a playground, with 200 lovingly restored machines from the electromechanical wonders of the 1930s and ’40s up to the solid state electronic games of today. The little boy in the photo is playing Gottlieb’s Flipper Parade, a 1961 add-a-ball game featuring pop bumpers, slingshots, gobble holes and an animated cannon that fires a ball when a free shot is made. My article on Silver Ball and other places where you can play vintage pinball year round is published in the October 2011 issue of Games (on sale through September 12).