Wonder Wheel | Amusing the Zillion

Posts Tagged ‘Wonder Wheel’

Photo of the Day: Swinging on the Wonder Wheel

Posted in Amusement ride, Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged Coney Island, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Eccentric Ferris Wheel Company, Swinging Car, Wonder Wheel on October 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sign for Swinging Car, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, Coney Island. September 12, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Swinging or Stationary? Most people reply “Swinging” when asked which type of car they wish to ride on Deno’s Wonder Wheel, which has 16 swinging cars and 8 stationary ones. This holiday weekend may be your last chance to experience the roller coaster-like thrill this season before the landmark wheel, built in 1920 by the Eccentric Ferris Wheel Company, closes for annual maintenance. The Wheel is open from 12 noon on Sunday and Columbus Day. The photo of the swinging red car was of course taken from one of the stationary cars, which go higher and are our favorite for taking pictures.

Check out “Coney Island Always: Visiting the Big CI Year-Round” for info on what’s open in October.

Update: The Wheel will stay open weekends through October 27 along with the rest of Coney Island’s rides.

Red Car, Wonder Wheel. Coney Island. September 12, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

September 13, 2013: Coney Island Always: Visiting the Big CI Year-Round

March 19, 2013: First Sign of Spring in Coney: Cars Go up on Wonder Wheel

September 30, 2010: Video: The Wanted’s Lose My Mind at Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel Park

September 4, 2010: Go Up, It’s Great! Coney Island’s & Deno’s Wonder Wheel

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Beyonce Shoots New Music Video in Coney Island

Posted in Music, Photography, tagged Beyoncé, Coney Island, Cyclone, Eldorado, Music Video, Spook-A-Rama, video shoot, Wonder Wheel on August 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Beyoncé riding the Coney Island Cyclone. August 29, 2013. Photo via beyonce-legion.com

Thursday morning’s awesome rumor turned out to be true! Woke up to a phone call from a TV reporter asking if we knew anything about Beyoncé shooting a music video on the Coney Island Cyclone today. A few hours later the chatter on twitter was that she was arriving at 4PM. Uh, make that 5.

Beyoncé and her crew conquered the Cyclone roller coaster before moving on to Coney’s legendary “Bump Your Ass Off” Eldorado Auto Skooters and Arcade. A bit later she was surrounded by adoring fans on the Boardwalk. In Wonder Wheel Park, Beyoncé went for a whirl on the landmark Wheel and the classic Spook-A-Rama dark ride with the music video’s director Terry Richardson.

By 9:30PM, they were heading back for another go at Eldorado, where the music part of the video was being shot and no phone calls or photos were allowed, said a friend who was an extra. The famed disco palace of bumper cars was closed all day for the shoot.

The music video is said to be for a new song called “XO,” which is expected to be released in about 3 months.

Beyoncé and photographer Terry Richardson riding Spook-A-Rama, Coney Island. August 29, 2013. Photo via beyonce-legion.com

Music Video: Wonder Wheel by Josh Joplin

Posted in Music Video, tagged Josh Joplin, Wonder Wheel on July 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The music video for this exquisitely elegiac song by Josh Joplin was filmed in 2002, but we just now discovered it on the singer-songwriter’s YouTube channel. In addition to the landmark “Wonder Wheel” that is the song’s namesake and anchor, you’ll catch glimpses of the long vanished Zipper and Astroland and the recently demolished Playland Arcade and Astrotower. The poetic lyrics perfectly capture the mood of something irrecoverably gone. “I’m not sure exactly how I feel,” muses Joplin in this single from the album The Future That Was.

“My friends Ben Niles and Geoffrey O’Brien made this beautiful video for my song Wonder Wheel,” Joplin wrote in 2010. “Coney Island is going to change very soon as developers have bought it up and plan on demolishing much of what gives this magical place its soul. I’m so happy to have footage of it as it was when I first came there as a 13 year old kid.”