Amusing the Zillion

Zamperla’s Power Surge Set to Make A Coney Island Comeback

May 18, 2015 by Tricia

Newly arrived Zamperla Power Surge at Luna Park’s Scream Zone. May 16, 2015. Photo © Magicalthemeparks

A new thrill ride has arrived in Coney Island in time to be awhirl for Memorial Day Weekend! Central Amusement International, the park division of ride manufacturer Zamperla, has brought in a new Power Surge. It is being set up this week on West 12th Street behind Nathan’s in Luna Park’s Scream Zone, adjacent to their Steeplechase coaster.

The ride is no stranger to Coney Island. As ATZ reported previously, Zamp’s Power Surge came to Astroland in time for Fourth of July in 2001. A press release said it was drawing people into the park like a magnet and put on a great show. A photo of the ride was featured on the cover of Time Out New York. “After decades of decay, the weirdly wonderful Coney Island is poised for a comeback” was the intro to the cover story “Fantasy Island.”

Zamperla’s Power Surge which debuted in 1999, opened in Astroland in 2001. Photo © The Astroland Archive.

The Power Surge made its debut in 1999 and is considered one of Zamperla’s signature rides. “Up to twenty-four riders at a time flip, twist, and spin through two motor driven rotations, and a third gravity driven rotation, guaranteed to deliver a different ride experience each and every time,” according to the ride manufacturer’s catalogue.

Site prep at future home of Power Surge in Luna Park’s Scream Zone. May 10, 2015. Photo © Tricia Vita

Summer Reading: Undertow by Michael Buckley

May 17, 2015 by Tricia

In Michael Buckley’s gripping new YA novel Undertow, Coney Island is a dystopia known as “the Zone, the DMZ and Fish City.” Its famed amusement parks and Mermaid Parade are long abandoned. The neighborhood has been fenced off from the rest of New York City and turned into a militarized zone since a warrior race of sea people called the Alpha swam ashore and raised a tent city on the beach.

The book’s narrator is Lyric Walker, a feisty 16-year-old Coney Islander who is thrust into the spotlight when her high school is opened to six Alpha teens. A movie version of the story would be a dream job for a make-up department: “Many have scales. Others have jagged rows of teeth, and mouths like open wounds,” Lyric says of the Alpha students who have to be escorted past violent protestors by soldiers, cops and FBI agents. “One of them is a teenaged mountain of power, a slightly smaller version of the giant warriors who led the way. He has sunken eyes and tiny spikes on his neck, shoulders and forearms.” There’s also a girl with gelatinous skin through which her veins and bones can be seen and a golden god with a bruised face and serrated knives that pop out of his arms.

The golden god is the Alpha prince Fathom, who does battle nightly on the beach with his father’s challengers and wears his bruises like trophies. A mutual attraction develops between the charismatic prince and Lyric when the principal assigns her to be his tutor and meet with him privately every day. When their meetings incur the wrath of the xenophobic governor, the safety of Lyric’s family, who have been harboring a secret from their friends and neighbors, is put in jeopardy.

Lyric Walker is an engaging protagonist, as are the other characters in the book, including her parents, making it a great summer read for both teens and adults. Undertow climaxes with an epic battle on the beach in which Lyric literally learns to make waves. Readers rooting for a human-Alpha romance will be happy to know this is the first novel of a trilogy.

In an interview, Buckley says that Undertow took its inspiration from a refugee crisis that made headlines last year. Tens of thousands of children fled Central America and came to the U.S. where they were imprisoned while elected officials called for electrified fences at the border, similar to the ones in his novel. The Brooklyn resident’s best-selling middle grade series the Sisters Grimm and NERDS have sold more than four million copies and appear in 22 languages.

On Tuesday, May 19, BookCourt at 163 Court Street in Brooklyn is hosting an author reading, audience Q & A and book signing at 7pm.

Undertow by Michael Buckley. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. Hardcover, $18.99

Up for Auction: Nieman Eisman Banner of Monkey Scooter Rider

May 15, 2015 by Tricia

Monkey Scooter Banner by Nieman Eisman, Circa 1930s. Mosby & Co Auctions, May 16, 2015.

We’ve seen quite a few banners of carnival monkeys driving tiny race cars in Monkey Speedways, but never a monkey on a scooter. Considering the current popularity of scooters, this delightful banner could attract some competitive bidding when it goes on the auction block on Saturday.

The painting by Nieman Eisman, a master of the Chicago style of banner painting from the 1920s through the mid-1950s, is one of several carnival canvases in Mosby & Company’s Auction on May 17th. The pre-sale estimate of the giant-sized advertisement –it is approximately 6 feet tall by 9 feet wide–is $2,500 – $3,500. The catalogue is online and one can bid now or in real time during the auction.

Hollywood Movie Star Banner by Nieman Eisman, Circa 1930s. Mosby & Co Auctions, May 16, 2015.

A second Eisman banner titled Hollywood Movie Star shows two tuxedoed monkeys at a fancy restaurant. Banners by both Fred Johnson and Johnny Meah featuring Otis Jordan, “The Frog Boy,” who worked at Coney Island USA’s Sideshows by the Seashore in his later years, are also among the desirable banners in Saturday’s sale.