Coney Island Brewery Beer Can Art

A group of Coney Island artists and their friends created beer can art pieces and exhibited their work at Coney Island Brewery in the spring. Funny Face, Moveable Mermaid Can, Coney Island Is For Lovers, and See Me, Hear Me, Touch Me, Beer Me were among the titles of these ingenious 12-ounce size artworks.

The artists in the show included Angeline DelValle, Carlos Cordero, Dana Danger, Daniel Fischer, End of the Line, Erin Mathewson, Jennie Jones, Joey Bones, Obsidian and Benjamin Bard, Sam Nahra, Tom Kane, and Victoria Pitula.

We were impressed by the creativity of the artists and thank them for their generosity. Sales of the work were donated to the Coney Island History Project.

posted Jun 17th, 2022 in News and tagged with art, Artists, Coney Island,...

It's My Estuary Day at Coney Island Creek and Coney Island Ferry Update

Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project, tabled at It's My Estuary Day on Coney Island Creek in Kaiser Park, held on June 4th. The annual event is organized by the New York State Marine Education Association in partnership with the NYC Parks Department and participating organizations. Activities included a beach clean-up, underwater oyster reef observation via a remote operated vehicle, seining, and kayaking. More than 150 students from three boroughs plus Yonkers were in attendance.

It is currently horseshoe crab monitoring season at Kaiser Park and Calvert Vaux Park. The crabs are counted and tagged at the beach at high tide to assess the health and well being of this important species. If you wish to volunteer, please choose the site and date via this link and contact the site coordinator to schedule.

In late May, the City’s Economic Development Corporation met with Coney Island residents to provide updates on the Coney Island ferry project. Officials announced that plans to bring a ferry to Kaiser Park were delayed indefinitely, citing “significant sand shift" where the dock is proposed, according to an article in The City. The narrow channel approach for the ferry is dangerous and prone to shoaling and sand buildup that can cause ferries to run aground at low tide. This serious problem and others were pointed out many times at public meetings and in written comments over the last two years, but the warnings were ignored by City officials who wanted to push the project through. New locations for the ferry dock are now being considered.

Photo Credit: Charles Denson

posted Jun 9th, 2022 in News and tagged with Coney Island Creek, It's My Estuary Day, Kaiser Park,...

Coney Island Stories Podcast Growing Up in the 1960s

"Growing Up in the 1960s," the new episode of Coney Island Stories, is being released today. Listen and subscribe via your podcast app or the podcast page on our website.

Season Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Four, Coney Islanders who grew up in the 1960s share memories of being the original tenants at Luna Park Houses and Trump Village, high rise co-ops that opened in the 1960s. They remember the last years of Steeplechase Park, a rising crime rate and urban renewal. In 1967, Mayor Lindsay declared the entire West End of Coney Island a poverty zone. More than 40 blocks were slated for condemnation. The one bright spot during the 1960s was the space age-themed Astroland Park. The park became the anchor for Coney Island, the glue that held it together while many businesses gave up and many property owners sold and moved away.

The oral histories in Episode Four are with Alison Cintorrino, Alan Kirschenbaum, Jim Lucarelli, the Salvia sisters, Lucille DaCosta and Gladys Sandman, and Tony Williams. The interviews were conducted by Amanda Deutch, Ali Lemer, Shavon Meyers, and Tricia Vita between 2016 and 2022. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Season Two of the podcast series is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Coney Island History Project

The Coney Island History Project's exhibition center opens for the 2022 season on Saturday, May 28th, of Memorial Day Weekend. Since the History Project's inception in 2004 with a portable recording booth on the Boardwalk and the inaugural season of our exhibition center in 2007, we have proudly offered "Free Admission for One and All!” The exhibition center is open free of charge on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (1:00PM-7:00PM) from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. We're located at 3059 West 12th Street, adjacent to the West 12th Street entrance to Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, just a few steps off the Boardwalk.

Visitors can view historic artifacts, photographs, maps, ephemera and films of Coney Island's colorful past. You're invited to take free souvenir photos with "Cy," the mesmerizing Spook-A-Rama Cyclops, and Coney Island's only original Steeplechase horse from the legendary ride that gave Steeplechase Park its name. Our rarest treasure on display is Coney Island's oldest surviving artifact from the dawn of the "World's Playground." The 1823 Toll House sign in our collection dates back to the days when the toll for a horse and rider to "the Island" was 5 cents! Visitors can also share and preserve their Coney Island memories by recording an oral history for our multilingual archive, which has over 400 interviews available for online listening.

The Coney Island History Project's special exhibition for the 2022 season is "Barbara Rosenberg: Coney Island Street Photography, 1964-2010," on view from May 28 through September 5, 2022. Barbara Rosenberg (1938-2016) was born and raised in New York City, where she lived her entire life. She was the consummate New Yorker, a social worker who dedicated her life to street photography here, and around the world. Barbara began taking photos as a kid and always had a camera with her. "I was drawn to photography after seeing the photographic images of the French photographers Doisneau, Brassaï, and Cartier-Bresson," she said, "New York City became my canvas, the streets and Coney Island especially, supplied me with an unending source of images."

Barbara Rosenberg

June 3 Jokes with Josue, a Haitian Puppet Show created by Emmanuel Elpenord

Save the Date! On Friday, June 3, the Coney Island History Project presents Jokes with Josue: A Haitian Puppet Show created and performed by Emmanuel Elpenord. The free performance will be at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, 3059 West 12th Street in Coney Island, in the outdoor plaza below the park's Phoenix roller coaster. The show is designed for kids ages 5-8. It starts at 1:00 PM and will run for about 30 minutes with Q&A afterwards.

Emmanuel Elpenord is a first-generation Haitian-American actor, puppeteer, improviser and voice artist. "Jokes with Josue is a series of Haitian riddles featuring a marionette and cut-aways to toy theater scenes, all set under Haitian music," says Elpenord. “It includes a longer-form Haitian folktale or fable performed in a traditional style with some call and response games,  pantomime, character voices and improvisation."

Elpenord has performed as Othello, Duke Orsino, and Oberon in Shakespeare in Bryant Park; as a puppeteer at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park; in the Off Broadway run, national and international tours of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show; and as Eeyore, Owl, and Rabbit in the Off-Broadway run of Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation, returning to Theater Row on June 18.

Born and raised in Coney Island, Emmanuel Elpenord is a magna cum laude graduate of Brooklyn College with a BFA in Acting, BA in TV/Radio Production, and BFA in Creative Writing. In 2020, he recorded an oral history for the History Project’s archive in which he shares memories of growing up in Sea Rise apartments and a souvenir of the Wonder Wheel. He recalls auditioning for Luna Park's Nights of Horror Halloween event in 2012, in which he was cast as the Devil. "I still treasure the experience as like my little badge of carnydom in having worked at Coney Island," says Elpenord in the interview. "I'm one of the freaks too."

Elpenord created Jokes with Josue and commissioned a marionette carved by Kevin White and costumed by Taylor Harrison for the June 3 performance in Coney Island. The sound is produced by  Haitian-American DJ MetroSoundsNYC. Poster design by Erin Mathewson. Among the invited guests are first, second, and third graders from Coney Island’s P.S. 90, the Magnet School for Environmental Studies and Community Wellness.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

For more info, email events@coneyislandhistory.org.

Emmanuel Elpenord

Photo courtesy of Emmanuel Elpenord.

posted May 25th, 2022 in Events and tagged with June 3, Coney Island, Emmanuel Elpenord,...

May 22 Greek American Folklore Society Music and Dance at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park


Save the Date! On Sunday, May 22, the Coney Island History Project presents a performance of Greek music and dance in honor of Denos and Lula Vourderis, the founders of Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. Dancers from the Greek American Folklore Society will perform dances from Crete, Pontos, and more. Then the audience will be invited to learn a few steps and join in. The event also features live music by Yiannis Mandas (Cretan Lyra), George Exarchakis (Cretan Laouto) and Evangelia Makropoulos (Daouli). The free performance will be at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, 3059 West 12th Street in Coney Island, below the park's Phoenix roller coaster. The event starts at 3PM and will run for about 90 minutes.

“We originally planned this performance of Greek heritage two years ago to celebrate the Wonder Wheel’s 100th birthday,” said Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project. “It’s great to finally be able to honor the Wheel and the Vourderis family for their historic commitment to Coney Island.” Denson’s book, Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel Park, tells how Denos Vourderis, who was born in Greece in 1920, the same year the Wonder Wheel was constructed, came to the purchase the ride and build his family’s amusement park around it. In 1948, he was a hot-dog vendor in New York when he promised his girlfriend Lula: “You marry me, I buy you the Wonder Wheel.” She married him and 35 years later, the Wheel came up for sale and he kept his promise and bought it for her, the world’s largest engagement ring.

After a backbreaking restoration that took several years, the Wonder Wheel prospered, becoming an official New York City landmark in 1989. Three generations of the Vourderis family –parents, children, and grandchildren—have worked to make Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park a success story, the best that Coney Island has to offer. Denos passed away in 1994, and Lula followed him 2019. West 12th Street adjacent to the park is named “Denos D. Vourderis Place” and “Theodora Lula Vourderis Way” in their honor.

The Greek American Folklore Society is dedicated to the study, preservation and instruction of the history and traditions of Hellenic folk culture. They share their work with the public through stage re-enactments of traditional Greek customs, songs and dances, as well as through lectures, exhibits and workshops. Founded in 1983 as a non-profit organization in Astoria, the Society's activities encompass a wide variety of folk art traditions from all regions and islands of Greece, in addition to the communities of the Greek Diaspora past and present.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The Coney Island History Project is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibit "Barbara Rosenberg: Coney Island Street Photography, 1964-2010" on view from May 28 through September 5, 2022.

Barbara Rosenberg (1938-2016) was born and raised in New York City, where she lived her entire life. She was the consummate New Yorker, a social worker who dedicated her life to street photography here, and around the world. Barbara began taking photos as a kid and always had a camera with her. "I was drawn to photography after seeing the photographic images of the French photographers Doisneau, Brassaï, and Cartier-Bresson," she said, "New York City became my canvas, the streets and Coney Island especially, supplied me with an unending source of images." 

She used her camera to express her passion for culture, history, and the human condition. A 2011 article in American Photo Magazine described her approach as "unobtrusive, aesthetically artful, and quietly humorous." Working out of a darkroom in her apartment, she developed negatives, made prints, cut mats and made frames, ultimately spending more than a decade selling her work from a stall on Columbus Avenue. "I would sell to people who just fell in love with my work," she said of her years running a booth.

Barbara documented Coney Island for fifty years and when she died in 2016 she left her photographic work to the Coney Island History Project. We remember her with a selection of her work covering Steeplechase Park, the Polar Bear Club, and Boardwalk attractions from the 1970s. "I am always an observer," she said, "the small gesture, the quiet mostly unobserved moments became my subject matter." 

"Barbara Rosenberg: Coney Island Street Photography, 1964-2010" will be on view from May 28 through September 5, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 1:00PM- 7:00PM. The Coney Island History Project exhibition center is located at 3059 West 12th Street at the entrance to Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, just a few steps off the Boardwalk. For additional information, e-mail events@coneyislandhistory.org.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

posted May 9th, 2022 in Events and tagged with Barbara Rosenberg, photography, Coney Island,...

Tymell Murphy

Tymell Murphy is a professional basketball player and the author of a new book, Poetry in Motion: Poems and Stories.  Photo courtesy of Tymell Murphy.

Among the recent additions to the Coney Island History Project's oral history archive are interviews with basketball player and author Tymell Murphy, who grew up in Coney Island, and Australian circus historian and author Mark St Leon whose family performed at the original Luna Park.

Tymell Murphy and his family moved to Coney Island's Surfside Gardens in 2003. He shares boyhood memories of always having a basketball court nearby being a lifesaver and reminder of what he wanted to do. After playing basketball in high school and junior college, Murphy went to FIU in Miami and played for the Florida International Panthers in the NCAA. He went on to play overseas for professional teams in Egypt, Dubai, Mexico, Japan and China. When the pandemic brought sports to a halt in 2020, Murphy returned to the U.S. and used the pause to devote time to creative writing, a passion of his when he was younger. "I never really had a plan to create a book out of it," he says of Poetry in Motion: Poems and Stories, "It just all came together at the right time."

Elsie St Leon Luna Park

Elsie St. Leon performing at open air circus in Luna Park, circa 1910. Photo courtesy of Mark St. Leon.

Mark St Leon is descended from Australia's earliest circus family and has written numerous books and articles including Circus: The Australian Story.  Research at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts led to his discovery of photos and news clippings about the St Leon family's performances in Coney Island at Thompson and Dundy's Luna Park in the early 1900s. He shares stories of the St. Leon troupe of bareback riders, acrobats and tightwire artists who came to the U.S. led by his great-uncle Alfred and starring Alfred's children Elsie, Ida and George. Elsie and Ida also performed the lead role in the hit play Polly of the Circus produced by Luna Park founder Frederick Thompson. Mark St. Leon’s website is The Pennygaff.

More than 400 oral histories are available for listening in the Coney Island History Project’s online archive. Please listen, share, and if you or someone you know would like to record a story via phone or Zoom, sign up here. We record oral histories in English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and other languages with people who have lived or worked in Coney Island and nearby neighborhoods or have a special connection to these places.

posted May 6th, 2022 in News and tagged with Coney Island, Coney Island History Project, oral history,...

Coney Island Stories

"Growing Up in the 1950s," the new episode of Coney Island Stories, is being released today. Listen and subscribe via your fave podcast app or the podcast page on our website.

Season Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Three, Coney Islanders who grew up in the ‘50s share their stories of living in apartments and over stores on Mermaid Avenue and its side streets. More than a thousand families were able to move into the two brand-new city-owned projects, Gravesend Houses and Coney Island Houses. Others made do with seasonal bungalows and rooming houses as year-round homes. World-famous Steeplechase Park was their neighborhood playground and television was a popular new indoor pastime.

The oral histories in Episode Three are with Susan Petersen Avitzour, Barbara Unterman Jones, Sheldon Krimsky, David Louie, Johanna Gargiulo Sherman, and Ronald Stewart. The interviews were conducted by Charles Denson, Leila Goldstein, Samira Tazari, and Tricia Vita between 2007 and 2021. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. 

Season Two of the podcast series is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

 

Lobbying for casinos in the 1970s. Photograph by John Rea

CASINOS FOR CONEY

Joe Sitt's Casino Island? Casinos are once again being considered for Coney Island. We thought this scheme died in the 1970s. Developer Thor Equities and the firm's lobbyist, Patricia Lynch, are making the rounds, speaking with local NYCHA leaders, Community Board 13, and others, lobbying to build a Casino on Thor property. Thor owns a good chunk of land (rezoned in 2009 for hotels and high rises) on the Bowery and on Stillwell Avenue. The meetings have taken place in secret with little publicity. Luckily, this plan is a long shot, and one has to remember that Atlantic City casino developers broke all the promises made in the '70s to the local community. Jobs and community benefits are always the hook, but are rarely delivered. Coney Island does not have the infrastructure to support a casino. Good luck with this one. 

THAT SINKING FEELING: THE CONEY ISLAND FERRY

For anyone who still thinks the ferry in Kaiser Park is a good idea, please be aware that on April 6, 2022, the NYC Economic Development Corporation and its contractors were fined $70,000 by the State of New York for violating numerous environmental laws during construction of the Coney Island Creek ferry landing. Some of the fines were for illegal dredging and dumping in Coney Island Creek and Gravesend Bay, and for not reporting an oil slick. The EDC managed to violate nearly every aspect of its permits. This does not bode well for the future operation of the ferry, which is situated in a precarious location that negatively impacts the environment, impedes recreation for the community, and endangers educational programs at Kaiser Park.

Improper dredging for the Coney Island ferry violated New York State enviromental laws.

EARTH DAY AT CONEY

It's nice to see that the little food stand, Boardwalk Bistro, is open again on the Boardwalk below the Ocean Drive high rises at West 35th Street. Food stands have been lacking at the West End beach since Larry and Vinny's Pizzeria closed in 1996. I enjoyed a nice hot potato knish with mustard there last week. It's not Shatzkins, but we welcome a food concession at this popular beach location. Anyone remember Sam's Knishes on the Boardwalk at 32nd?

Leaving the boardwalk I noticed that the Miami Beach-style glass towers built by John Catsimatidis are apparently an environmental nightmare. The Ocean Drive buildings were given a giant "F" Energy Efficiency Rating, something rarely seen in New York. The large "F," posted at the building's entrance, means that: "the owner of such building has not complied, and the owner has had an opportunity to be heard with respect to such non-compliance." Happy Earth Day!

"Ocean Dreams" gets a big "F."

posted Apr 24th, 2022 in By Charles Denson and tagged with