Charles Denson | Amusing the Zillion

Posts Tagged ‘Charles Denson’

Video of the Day: Climbing Coney Island’s Parachute Jump

Posted in Photography, video, tagged Brooklyn, Charles Denson, childhood dream, Coney Island, landmark, Parachute Jump, Seth Kaufman, Steeplechase Park on January 18, 2012| 1 Comment »

Just watching this video of Coney historian Charles Denson climbing the 270-foot tall Parachute Jump gives us vertigo. Ten years ago, when the landmarked Jump was about to get a $5 million refurbishment, we did a story for Preservation that featured a striking portrait of Denson standing atop the tower. Denson’s 10-minute film of the climb, released today via his “Coneyologist” Channel on YouTube, features video footage by Seth Kaufman and his own exquisite photos.

The Coney Island native, who came of age riding the Parachute Jump with his dad in Steeplechase Park, told us: “That ride—there was nothing like it, before or since. Just when you thought, ‘It can’t go any higher,’ the chute hit the top and exploded. You were flying in a free fall. Then it billowed open and you sailed down.”

Originally designed by a retired Naval commander to train military paratroopers in the 1930s, parachute towers were modified into amusement attractions when civilians clamored to ride. Denson last soared from the Jump’s tower in 1962, two years before the great granddaddy of vertical-thrill rides, along with the rest of Steeplechase Park, closed forever.

In 2002, Denson fulfilled his childhood dream to once again see the view from the top. He writes:

The Jump was a nature preserve. The motor room base was filled with pigeon nests and covered with muddy footprints of the raccoons who fed on the eggs. A raptor circled us at the top as we disturbed its perch, and the feet of the many small birds it had caught and devoured were spread out across the catwalks. I grew up a few blocks from the Jump and have documented it since it closed. When the city decided to dismantle and renovate the Jump ten years ago, my engineer friend Seth Kaufman had the only copy of the original plans. The city needed them so we made a deal: We got to climb it legally.

If you think it would be crazy fun to scale Brooklyn’s Eiffel Tower, keep in mind Denson has issued a warning remarkably similar to that of a sideshow sword swallower: “Do NOT try this on your own. It is extremely dangerous and chances are that you will die.”

Will Casino Gold Rush of 1970s Replay in Coney Island?

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged Aqueduct, casino, Charles Denson, Coney Island, gambling, Genting, Governor Cuomo, New York on January 10, 2012| 2 Comments »

Last week, when Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz called Coney Island “a natural” for casino gambling, and said it would bring jobs and revenue, he gave voice to what Coney Islanders with long memories have been talking about since Governor Cuomo proposed legalizing casino gambling in New York. It brings back memories of the late 1970s when “Casinos Mean Jobs- Let the People Decide” was the slogan of a group of Coney businessmen who lobbied Albany. Will the casino gold rush of that era, which finally ended when Governor Carey nixed the idea of a referendum, replay in Coney Island and set off another wave of real estate speculation?

A chapter in Charles Denson’s book Coney Island: Lost and Found vividly documents the “casino fever” that seized Coney after casino gambling was legalized in Atlantic City in 1976 and the New York State Legislature began studying the idea. A billboard saying “Welcome to Coney Island, The Perfect Resort for Casino Gambling” was put up by a local business group writes Denson, who worried that casino gambling would wipe out the amusement area and wouldn’t benefit the neighborhood. He notes that “for a brief period during 1979, the asking price for property on the Boardwalk rose from $3 to $100 per square foot.” Interviews with Horace Bullard, whose Shore Theater was said to have caught Frank Sinatra’s eye, as well as with Astroland owner Jerry Albert and realtor Charles Tesoro portray the “Casinos for Coney” mania that prevailed during a four-year period.

“It was crazy,” Tesoro told Denson. “Limousines would pull up with guys coming up to the office from Las Vegas, in silk suits, saying, ‘sell to us now, get us some property, we wanna get in!’ It was like a crazy house, like the gold rush…They’d sit at my desk and say, ‘Waddaya got? We want options on everything you got. Everything!’ They wanted options because if gambling didn’t go through, they’re out. But if gambling went through, they’d pay triple the asking price for the property.”

One of the reasons gambling didn’t go through was behind-the-scenes lobbying of politicians by the Trumps, who were already involved in Atlantic City, Tesoro and others say in Denson’s book.

Detail of the CIDC's Coney Island Retail Opportunities Map. Fall 2011. Green = Property for Sale, Blue = Property for Lease

Coney Island for Sale: Detail of the CIDC's Coney Island Retail Opportunities Map

When we first read that Governor Cuomo proposed legalizing casino gambling in New York and Mayor Bloomberg said as long as New York City shares in the revenue, we bet Joe Sitt began dusting off his Vegas-y renderings for the south side of Surf in anticipation. And we imagined that the mostly vacant, fantastically high-priced properties for sale or lease in Coney Island would sit empty for another couple of years, until the referendum on casino gambling could be put to a vote. That won’t happen until November 2013 at the earliest.

Horace Bullard still owns the Shore Theater, which currently has an asking price of $13 million, and his Thunderbolt parcel, a three-acre development site next to the Cyclones stadium, is up for grabs too. On the north side of Surf, there are the infamous furniture stores in buildings with price tags of $5.4 million and $3.39 million. These sites are among the 24 privately owned properties for sale or lease on the CIDC’s map of Coney Island Retail Opportunities Fall 2011, now called Coney Island Property Opportunities Winter 2011-2012. Will the map morph into Coney Island Casino Opportunities in 2013?

Coney Island for Lease: Detail of the CIDC's Coney Island Retail Opportunities Map, Fall 2011

The Washington Baths property, which Bullard acquired during the casino gold rush and later sold to Joe Sitt, who in turn sold it to Taconic Investment Partners, which got it rezoned for high-rise condos, would make a dandy casino complex. The 5.5 blocks of vacant land is just west of MCU Park. Blackjack and Baccarat on the Beach? Taconic also has a 99-year lease on the landmarked terracotta palace on the Boardwalk that was once the Childs Restaurant.

The monkey wrench in the plan for a Coney casino is a possible demand by Genting, which already operates a racino at Aqueduct, to ask the state for exclusive rights to casino operations in New York City. However, Governor Cuomo’s spokesman told the Post, “There’s no agreement on exclusivity.”

The Associated Press reports Malaysia-based Genting spent more than $774,000 on New York lobbying in the first 10 months of 2011, or 10 times its total for 2010. Their lobbyist is SKDKnickerbocker, the same firm that represents Thor Equities, Mayor Bloomberg, and other high-powered clients. Coney Island has already been impacted, and not in a positive way, by Genting’s venture at Aqueduct. The displaced Aqueduct flea market vendors moved to Thor Equities Stillwell Avenue property last summer. Their dismal debut was billed as a “festival” because a flea market is not a permitted use in Coney Island’s amusement zone.

September 2005: Thor Equities rendering in NY Magazine's The Incredibly Bold, Audaciously Cheesy, Jaw-Droppingly Vegasified, Billion-Dollar Glam-Rock Makeover of Coney Island

Amusing the Zillion’s Fave 11 Posts of 2011 – Part 1

Posted in Favorites, Photography, video, tagged cat, Charles Denson, Coney Island, Cyclone, Jim McDonnell, The Whip, William F Mangels on December 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

ATZ’s “Top 10 Coney Island News Stories of 2011” was based on page views, but our fave posts didn’t make the cut. “Sometimes really great posts fall through the cracks, are too esoteric to be popular, or at least deserve another visit,” writes blogger Visualingual, whose exquisite “Looking Back: Best VL Posts of 2010,” (and 2011) inspired us to put together this round-up of ATZ faves. In Part 1 and 2 (tomorrow), you’ll find videos, photos, and an antique image or two to while away the last hours of 2011…

In February we dropped by the Bowery to visit Target the Coney Island Arcade Cat & His Friend Pretty. When the games are open for business, the gregarious Target is likely to be found sitting on the counter of the Balloon Dart. Even in the winter, he can be seen making his rounds.

Also in February, ATZ paid tribute to a legendary Coney Island ride inventor in “Bring Back the Whip! A Birthday Gift for William F Mangels.” But if you want to ride the Whip, you’ll have to take a trip to Rye Playland, Knoebels, Kennywood, Trimper’s or any one of the other parks or carnivals listed on ATZ’s Whip Census in the post. Coney Island, where this classic was invented in 1914, doesn’t have an operating Whip! In this video by sodadaze, you can see the ride in action at Knoebels set to the tune of Devo’s “Whip It.”

In March, ATZ posted historian and Coney Island History Project director Charles Denson’s latest video “Cyclone Roller Coaster: Four Seasons.” This behind-the-scenes look at Coney Island’s landmark roller coaster lets you walk the tracks – summer and winter – and get up close to the machinery in the motor room.

In March, ATZ learned via twitter that Coney Island’s Inexhaustible Cow, a 19th century attraction which dispensed milk for 5 cents a cup, had apparently survived. A Pennsylvania dealer of Americana was selling the wooden cow (milk not included) for $78,000. In Inexhaustible Cows & Bottomless Cups of Chocolate Milk, we looked into the history of the Coney Island cows –there was more than one–and reminisced about bottomless cups of chocolate milk for a quarter at the Michigan State Fair.

Cow, Coney Island from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views. New York Public Library, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs

If you’re adept at reading letters backwards you’ll like this Flickr Slide Show: DNALSI YENOC –> CONEY ISLAND. The letters frame the view from Stillwell Terminal as visitors exit onto Surf Avenue. DNALSI YENOC is also the name of a flickr group started by Coney Island photographer Barry Yanowitz. The collection of photos document the view, which changed irrevocably in 2010 when the Henderson Building and Shore Hotel across the avenue were demolished by Thor Equities. A new building –touted as “The Retail Ride of a Lifetime” by Thor– is now rising on the empty lot.

One of our favorite photos of the summer of 2011 is this Photo of the Day: Umbrellas on Coney Island Beach. On the Fourth of July, photographer Jim McDonnell took this amazing shot of Coney Island’s beach brimming with colorful umbrellas. “The 4th itself started out hazy but turned hot, humid and incredibly crowded!” he said.