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Posts Tagged ‘Coney Island’

Perfect Time to Bring Back the Coney Island Velodrome

Posted in Redevelopment, Sports, tagged bicycling, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Coney Island, Coney Island Velodrome, Harry Schwartzman, Joshua Rechnitz, sports complex, track racing, velodrome on January 11, 2013| 4 Comments »

Two racers at the Coney Island Velodrome. The star is Tom Duffin Jr. Photo courtesy Century Road Club Association via NYBikeJumble.com

The news that philanthropist Joshua Rechnitz’s plan to donate $50M to build an indoor velodrome in Brooklyn Bridge Park was scrapped got us thinking: Why not build the velodrome in Coney Island, which had an outdoor one from 1930 until the 1950s? It was New York’s last commercial bicycle racing venue, according to NY Bike Jumble founder Harry Schwartzman, who curated an exhibit of bikes, photos and ephemera relating to the Coney Island Velodrome at Brooklyn’s Old Stone House in 2010.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Rechnitz and his nonprofit NYC Fieldhouse had withdrawn the proposal for Brooklyn Bridge Park due to high site costs and would seek another location in the New York Metro area for the sports complex. According to NYC Fieldhouse’s website: “As currently envisioned, a facility of no more than 115,000 sq. ft. will hold a maximum of 2499 seats. It will feature a 200-meter inclined cycling track, a boathouse, a 22,000 sq. ft. infield and other spaces that will serve various public uses including sporting events and community activities.” The gift was the largest single donation to New York City parks and would have covered the design and construction of the building as well as any revenue shortfall over the first ten years.

Velodrome Rider. Photo courtesy Century Road Club Association via NYBikeJumble.com

The Coney Island Velodrome was a 10,000-seat arena with a 1/8-mile wooden oval track. The venue also hosted prize fights and midget car racing. The velodrome was razed in 1955 to make way for Luna Park Houses. ATZ asked Schwartzman for his thoughts on the Coney Island Velodrome and the possibility of bringing it back. He said in an email:

The Coney Island Velodrome at 12th and Neptune was a ‘competition’ track where a typical race day would include up to twenty three events, from 100 meter sprints to 40 mile motor paced events where riders would shadow a motorcycle around the track at speeds upwards of fifty miles an hour. The track was built in the thirties, waning days of the popularity of bicycle track racing in the USA, and the sport was not as popular as it had been in the eighteen nineties or in the twenties, when stars, gangsters and celebrities would frequent the races.

Coney Island’s audience would have been more proletarian and most likely recent immigrants from lands where bicycle racing was still popular. Cycling is still a very accessible sport, and track racing is even more so than any other discipline. With the explosion of the popularity of cycling, it’s the perfect time to bring back the Coney Island Velodrome!

Coney Island Velodrome Program, Collection of Century Road Club Association. Courtesy NYBikeJumble.com

Photo Album: Pieces of Coney Island Skyline in December

Posted in Photo Album, Photography, tagged Coney Island, Hurricane Sandy, Luna Park, McCullough's Kiddie Park, Pete's Clam Stop, Scream Zone, skyline, sunset, Wonder Wheel on January 7, 2013| 3 Comments »

Coney Island Sunset with Scream Zone and Parachute Jump. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

While putting together “Amusing the Zillion’s Top 10 Coney Island News Stories of 2012,” we considered doing a fave unposted photos of 2012 feature but there were too many pix to choose from. If a photo isn’t or doesn’t become newsworthy, it often gets overlooked. Since there’s a post-holiday lull in the usual Coney Island Melodrama, here’s an album of quiet photos from early December. What these images have in common are pieces of the Coney Island skyline.

Coney Island Skyline, December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Hoax photos from Hurricane Sandy of the Parachute Jump snapped in two and real photos of a coaster underwater in Seaside Heights have visitors coming to ATZ to find out if Coney Island’s rides survived. The answer is yes! Coney Island’s rides will open for the 2013 season on March 24th, Palm Sunday, with a complimentary spin on the Wonder Wheel. Seen in the photo above from left to right: the Astro Tower, which is no longer an operating ride, but will be lit with LEDs; the Cyclone Roller Coaster; Deno’s Wonder Wheel, minus its cars, which are removed for the winter; and Scream Zone’s Steeplechase Coaster and Zenobio.

Brooms lined up post-Sandy inside Luna Park Coney Island. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

In November, Luna Park pitched in to help Coney Island recover from Hurricane Sandy by rewarding volunteers who signed up for four hours of clean-up with an unlimited ride, four-hour wristband to the park. “Over 300 people volunteered their time with Luna Park as part of a massive effort to rebuild Coney Island,” according to a post on the park’s Facebook page. “Luna volunteers cleared 4 parks and playgrounds, served 3 churches, cleaned 9 homes and 2 streets and helped clear the boardwalk by the amusement areas.”

Victim of Sandy. December 6, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

This surreal image of a discarded carnival prize in post-Sandy Coney Island was just too sad to post on the day that we snapped it. A big part of it was the game that it came from is owned by a friend. The storm-damaged plush bear and fellow prizes were photographed here and there in the amusement area before being carted away.

Even sadder was our last look at the last remaining ride sign in McCullough’s Kiddie Park, which had been torn down and was being trucked away. The Bumblebees, Kiddie Ferris Wheel and Himalaya are all gone. Today, there’s an empty lot where the kiddie park existed since the 1960s. As ATZ reported in September, the McCullough family operated amusements in Coney Island for four generations and are related to the Tilyous of Steeplechase Park. They closed the kiddie park, their last remaining business here, after being unable to come to an agreement on terms for a lease extension with property owner Thor Equities.

On the bright side, Pete’s Clam Stop and its old school signage on Surf Avenue at 15th Street is here to stay. Along with Williams Candy next door, it is owned by Peter Agrapides, who has worked in Coney Island for six decades.

Saturday Matinee: A Peep Show on the Mutoscope Machine

Posted in film, video, tagged antique, Coney Island, Mutoscope, peep show, penny movie on January 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

Step right up and see “Double Trouble,” an early 20th century peep show reel. Yes, it’s SFW though dancers wearing short skirts were considered risque when this moving picture machine was new. Invented in 1894 and marketed by the American Mutoscope Company, the coin-op machines contained flip book movies with a viewing time of about a minute.

These classic reels were made from 1897 to 1907, when the company turned completely to projection, and were created and almost totally produced in New York City. Although the 4,000-plus titles included a variety of subjects, it was the girly movies with suggestive titles like “Artists and Models” and “Wiggling Wonders” (glimpsed in the photo below) that won notoriety.

Mutoscope machines were popular in Coney Island and the Rev. Frederick Bruce Russell of the Law and Order Society raided and closed several for the exhibition of improper pictures on July 30, 1897. “Those closed by Mr. Russell to-day were at Feltman’s Pavilion, Koster’s Concert Hall, the Sea Beach Palace and the Old Iron Pier,” said an article on the front page of the Brooklyn Eagle. “The particular pictures which fell under the reformer’s eye were entitled ‘What the Girls Did With Willie’s Hat’ and ‘Fun in a Boarding School.’”

What did the girls do with the hat that was so scandalous? They frolicked and kicked it high over their heads while wearing short skirts like the girls in “Double Trouble.” Bring back the peep show! It would be fun to have some of these old Mutoscope movie machine as well as an arcade museum as we noted previously in “ATZ’s Big Wish List for the New Coney Island,” ATZ, October 7, 2012).