“FABULOUS! FAMOUS! THRILLING!…THE ONE THE ONLY Coney Island!” This vintage Subway Sun ad featuring a couple of happy Parachute Jump riders advised subway riders to take the BMT or IND “D” to Coney Island. The poster has made a comeback in one of the vintage buses that the MTA is running for the holidays. Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy spotted it and other retro ads in 1950s-and 1960s-era buses running the M42 crosstown route through today, December 23rd.
The Subway Sun series was the work of cartoonist Amelia Opdyke Jones aka “Oppy” and dates from the 1940s through the 1960s. Check out Bruce’s flickr slide show to see the vintage buses and ads for NATO, Clark Bars (“You’ll like it a whale of a lot!”), Maidenform Bras, Rockaways’ Playland and “Special Fireworks Shows” in Coney Island on September 9 and 16th! The mid-September dates coincided with the Mardi Gras parades produced by the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce from 1903 through 1954.
Related posts on ATZ…
March 22, 2011: Rare & Vintage: Souvenir of Frank Bostock’s Coney Island
March 9, 2011: Inexhaustible Cows & Bottomless Cups of Chocolate Milk
December 4, 2010: Artifact of the Day: Vintage Coffee Cup from Childs Restaurant
December 19, 2010: Rare & Vintage: Original Coney Island Motordrome Bike