Coney Island | Amusing the Zillion

Posts Tagged ‘Coney Island’

Traveler: ‘Coney Island’ Gets Shout-Out in Pavement Art at BBC’s World Piazza in London

Posted in art, tagged BBC, BBC Broadcasting House, Coney Island, Mark Pimlott, World on February 3, 2015| 2 Comments »

Photo of Coney Island paving stone by BBC journalist Jacqui Maher via Instagram

Coney Island is one of the 750 place names inscribed on the paving stones of World, a permanent installation at BBC’s Broadcasting House in London. Created by artist and architect Mark Pimlott, the pavement art expresses the global dimension of the BBC, whose motto is “Nation shall speak peace unto nation.” World has steel lines of longitude and latitude, small embedded lights and an audio installation linked to broadcasts from the BBC World Service.

ATZ learned about the artwork, which debuted in 2011, via a tweet from a BBC journalist who wondered why Coney Island was part of the piece. We emailed Pimlott to ask how the names were chosen and his association with Coney Island.

The names were arrived at through association with many different events and aspects of historical consciousness. These were not arrived at scientifically, but associatively, in a manner resembling improvisation. There were places of origins, pleasure, religions, catastrophe, atrocity, infamy and fame; rivers, deserts and islands, all of which would strike a user of the square as significant in some way, evoking memories or ideas or connections. In all, walking across the square and reading names would result in a wealth of interrelated thoughts about the world we make and inhabit.

World by Mark Pimlott at BBC Broadcasting House

‘Coney Island’ is featured in a little cluster of other islands: some remote, others famous. The ‘island’ bit is what bound them together, even just the word ‘island.’ For me, Coney Island appeared because of its evocation of ‘everyman’ relaxation, Luna Park, photographs of the great hordes on the beach made by Weegee, the hot dog eating competition, a particular conception of summer. I visited only once, many years ago, a rather melancholic affair, not uncommon to all seaside ‘resorts.’

Coney Island 2015: Wahlburgers Signage Goes Up at Thor’s Retail Building

Posted in Food, Food & Drink, tagged Big Apple Burgers LLC, Coney Burgers LLC, Coney Island, Donnie Wahlberg, franchise, Mark Wahlberg, Paul Wahlberg, retail building, Thor Equities, Wahlburgers on January 31, 2015| 1 Comment »

The location of the Wahlburgers celebrity burger franchise opening in Coney Island was publicly revealed for the first time today when signage went up on Thor Equities’ retail building. It’s no surprise –Coney insiders had already guessed because there’s one vacant retail space built for a restaurant and no other comparable spot for lease in the amusement area. In addition to the ground floor, the restaurant space offers rooftop seating.

The sign says “Coming Spring 2015 – Wahlburgers – Our Family – Our Story – Our Burgers” and promotes their website. The next guessing game is when the celebrity brothers–Donnie, Mark and Paul Wahlberg– and a TV crew will turn up in Coney for a site visit. A May 1st opening date was previously announced.

The Wahlberg family’s adventures in the burger business is the subject of an A & E TV reality series that debuted in January 2014. The Coney Island location and the store’s opening are being scripted into the show’s 2015 season.

The building on Surf and Stillwell Avenues across from Nathan’s Famous has been long touted by Thor as “The Retail Ride of a Lifetime.” Current tenants include It’Sugar, Rainbow Shop, Surf & Stillwell Brooklyn Apparel Co. and two mini-arcades required by the City’s zoning law. Wahlburgers’ immediate neighbors will be the Brooklyn Nets Shop and Brooklyn Rock, which sells hand-printed clothing and gifts.

The company announced in December that New York-based franchisee Big Apple Burgers is preparing to launch six restaurants in Manhattan and one in Coney Island. Wahlburgers will join a number of other national chains and franchises slated to open this year in Coney Island. As ATZ reported earlier this week, Johnny Rockets, Checkers, and Subway Cafe are currently under construction, IHOP is finalizing a lease deal, and the Boston Beer Corporation got a license to operate a brewery to house their Coney Island Brewing Company division.

UPDATE April 27, 2015:

Last week, Wahlburgers released details of the 6,800 square foot franchise restaurant currently under construction in Coney Island and slated to open this summer. Read more at Coney Island 2015: Update on Wahlburgers, Temporary Fair at Thor’s Vacant Lots

Look Back: Astroland’s Very Last Day, January 31, 2009

Posted in history, Look Back, Photo Album, Photography, tagged Astroland, Astroland's last day, Coney Island, Feltman's, water flume on January 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Astroland sign from Neptune’s Flume. January 31, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita

This set of photos was taken five years ago– January 31, 2009–on Astroland’s very last day. It was as bitter cold as it is today. In the months after the park closed in September 2008, the rides and games were dismantled and trucked away. According to the terms of Astroland’s lease extension with Thor Equities, the property had to vacated by February 1st. Amusing the Zillion did not debut until April 2009, but we posted these pix along with our thoughts on flickr:

I expected my Jan 28th visit to Astroland to be my last visit (see set). But I had some business in the area so I stopped by Astroland on Jan 31. By then there wasn’t much left and I didn’t have the heart to take more than a half dozen or so photos. Jan 31 was Astroland’s very last day, the day the lease expired and the property had to be vacated.

On Feb 1, 2009, the Astroland property became the former site of Astroland Park. Since then I refer to it as Thorland after Thor Equities. Others call it Sittville or Sittland East after Thor CEO Joe Sitt. The predatory real estate speculator who owns the 3-acre site is pressuring the city to allow for time-share high rises and shopping mall style retail. Astroland, and now the Boardwalk businesses threatened by huge Thor Space for Lease signs, are pawns or hostages in Thor’s high stakes game with the City. The City’s controversial rezoning of the C-7 amusement district is currently underway.

Abandoned old arcade machines on last day of Astroland. January 31, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita

Among the items that remained and were about to be thrown into a dumpster were these broken old arcade machines. Boxing machines manufactured by Zamperla! Ironically, the parks division of Zamperla would build Luna Park on the former Astroland site in 2010, after this lot and other boardwalk property was bought by the City from Thor Equities for $95.6 million.

Jeff rescues Astroland’s American flag, which flew from the Astrotower, from soon to be Thorland. Astroland’s signs and rides are safe in storage. NOT sold to Australia or anywhere else, not yet! Perhaps the reconfigured “Astroland,” signs and all, will be able to return to a new location or its old location (if Sitt sells to the city) in Coney Island? That would be a “long shot” (Astroland owner’s words in the press). But I don’t think we should give up hope completely if the owner still has hope. Some of Astroland’s historic signs were rescued today by the Coney Island History Project.

Rescuing signage from Astroland’s water flume. January 21, 2009

Home of the hot dog? This building has been used as a workshop for the last forty-some years. Astroland workers swept up for the last time on Jan 31, 2009 before vacating the property. I took these photos for my friend “Coney Islander.” who says the tiles are not only Coney Island history, but American history too. He wanted a tile as a keepsake, but we couldn’t find a loose one.

Home of the hot dog? The tile floor in the old Feltman’s Kitchen Bldg was swept on Astroland’s last day. January 31, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita

Of course “the first hot dog” was invented when Feltman was pushing a pie wagon in the 1860s. But the building is all that remains of Feltman’s empire in Coney Island. The floor definitely has character. It has a story to tell. We just have to figure out what it is. Sometimes if the true story isn’t known, an apochryphal one fills the vacuum. The floor looks so old it’s easy to imagine the original hot dog falling on it. It may be doubtful as history goes, but captures the imagination.

The story unfolded a year later, when the building was being demolished to make way for Luna Park: Nathan Slept Here! Coney Island’s Feltman’s Kitchen Set for Demolition, (ATZ, January 19, 2010)