For many, the photographs of Coney Island on display serve as a pleasant reminder of childhood summer days spent along the beach. Those who were born too late to have enjoyed the earlier days of Coney Island -- when bathhouses were open to help wash off the heat of summer, and “under the boardwalk” was more than just a 1964 track by The Drifters -- get the chance to experience Coney Island through black and white prints of a brimming beach and inflated parachute ride drifting above the seafront.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen and such an interesting part of Coney Island’s past,” said Lauren Anderson, a first-time visitor to the History Project Center. “I just wish I could have been around to see it myself!”
While the photography exhibits, including "Coney Island Icons: The Story Behind the Landmarks of the World's Playground" and "The Astroland Archives Photography Exhibit: Back to the Future,” preserve Coney Island in image, “Coney Island Voices” is an oral history project that gives people of all ages the chance to preserve their memories and experiences of Coney Island. For those passing through, the exhibition center incorporated a Video Interview Booth at the open of the season, prepared to record the memories of anyone with a Coney Island story to share.
“Many visitors have cherished memories of Coney Island to share with us. Others are too young to remember but are fascinated by films and photos of the beach packed with people in the 1930s or the rides at Steeplechase Park, which closed in 1964,” said Tricia Vita, administrative director of the Coney Island History Project. “I think our location under the Cyclone helps the history lesson come alive for visitors.”
It’s little surprise that Vita should be involved in something like the CIHP – she spent the first 17 years of her life in a traveling carnival with her parents, who operated the game concessions in New England and in New York State. Though she was never taken to Coney Island as a child, Vita knew it as a historic place and began coming to the amusement mecca in the early 1980s after graduating from college and moving to New York City.
“Coney Island is the birthplace of the amusement industry in the U.S. -- the place where the hot dog was invented and the roller coaster and other rides were first manufactured,” said Vita. “Coney Island still has mom and pop businesses that have been here for decades. They make Coney Island a special place. I've really enjoyed getting to know everyone. It's like coming home to me.”
Charles Denson, a Coney Island native, executive director of the History Project, and local historian, has been instrumental in the success of the project. Author of the award-winning book Coney Island: Lost and Found, Denson’s photographs of Coney Island have been the center of the History Project exhibit. Featured works by Denson included "Woody Guthrie: The Coney Island Years," "Land Grab: A History of Coney Island Development, 1823-2007," and "Icons: The Landmarks of Coney Island," as well as the Coney Island Hall of Fame, honoring local pioneers, leaders and visionaries.
"I think people revisit places where they've had unusual experiences," said Denson. "There's a Coney Island saying, ‘If you get sand in your shoes you can never get it out.' These people, I think, have sand in their shoes."
In recent years, the unique grounds of Coney Island, a 2.7-mile bazaar of sideshows and amusement rides long cherished by visitors from around the city, nation, and world, have been threatened by new zoning laws and planned new development. . Having watched Astroland switch the lights on its last running season, lovers and lodgers of Coney Island have been looking to Coney Island’s past to help preserve its future, starting at the History Project.
“It's sad to think that many of the structures and attractions we are photographing today may only exist in photos in the future,” said Vita. “The History Project's Icons exhibit highlights endangered Coney Island landmarks such as the Shore Theater, Nathan's, and the Grasshorn, Henderson and Popper Buildings. The City has delayed acting on the landmark applications of these historic buildings, which are in danger of being demolished after the city's rezoning is complete.”
For Amanda Deutch and other Coney Island History Project staffers, preserving the history of Coney Island and raising awareness to protect its future means maintaining a bridge between generations.
“There are interviews with people with Coney Island memories ranging from an elderly woman who, as a child, was put on exhibit as an incubator baby by the man who invented them, to a man who rode the Cyclone for two days straight,” said Deutch. “The aim is to continue to have that span of old to young, to create a living, vibrant portrait of Coney Island past and present.”
It’s been nearly a century since New York City subway lines reached into the seaside resort of Coney Island, allowing the city’s less wealthy citizens inside the then-lavish resort for just five cents. Nathan’s hot dogs were 10 cents, and the bathhouses were 50 cents.
When the beach opened to the public just three years later in 1923, Coney Island began welcoming millions, meeting prices their visitors could afford, and creating its legacy.
For the visitors of the future, the Coney Island History Project hopes to keep the icon alive, while capturing its essence and heritage in still-shot and in oral history.
Said project volunteer Stan Fox: “She might not be as great as she once was, but she’s not done yet!”
