America's Playground:
The Development of Coney Island
John Parascandola
Luna Park,1909. Collection of the Author.
Coney Island is more than just a world-famous amusement area in Brooklyn, New York. It has served as a metaphor for various aspects of society and life, as reflected in the title of a collection of poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, A Coney Island of the Mind (a phrase borrowed from Henry Miller).
Over the years, Coney has been known by nicknames from "America's Playground" to "Sodom by the Sea." For some, it is the symbol of the best of America’s democratic nature, welcoming all regardless of race, social class, gender, or ethnicity, while for others it has been a site of blighted dreams, representing the excesses of capitalism, hedonism and urban decay.
Over the years, Coney has been known by nicknames from "America's Playground" to "Sodom by the Sea." For some, it is the symbol of the best of America’s democratic nature, welcoming all regardless of race, social class, gender, or ethnicity, while for others it has been a site of blighted dreams, representing the excesses of capitalism, hedonism and urban decay.
Settlement of the Island
Hippodrome at Dreamland,1905. Collection of the Author.
The settlement of the area now known as Coney Island by European colonists began in the middle of the seventeenth century. Although the island and the nearby section of the mainland were controlled by the Dutch, they chose not to settle there and granted a patent or title to the land to a group of English colonists. They established the town of Gravesend on the mainland. The island was called “Coney Eylant” by the Dutch, possibly after the “coneys” or rabbits that lived there, although this derivation is disputed. When the English took possession of New Netherlands from the Dutch, the new governor reconfirmed the patent for Gravesend to the colonists. Coney Island was used by the colonists in common as grazing land for their livestock and remained essentially uninhabited for the next 150 years.
Beginnings of the Amusement Park
"Greetings from Coney Island" postcard,1909. Collection of the Author.
As sea bathing became more popular in the eighteenth century, a few colonial aristocrats visited Gravesend’s beach. Efforts to use Coney Island as a summer resort, however, did not begin until the nineteenth century. The building of a private toll road causeway across the creek separating the island from the mainland in the 1820s made it more accessible (and no longer truly an island). The Gravesend town supervisor also erected an inn providing food and accommodations and promoted the tonic value of sea bathing. Soon a second hotel was erected on the island, and regular stagecoach service from the Brooklyn mainland was instituted. Daily ferry service to the island was initiated in 1844.
It was not until after the Civil War, however, that Coney truly began to flourish as a popular resort. A spate of hotels grew up along the beach, and they often included restaurants and facilities for renting bathing costumes. In 1868, one guidebook listed Coney Island as the best beach on the Atlantic coast, and by 1873 it was attracting 25,000 to 30,000 visitors on weekends.
Transportation to the island blossomed in the 1870s, when four steam railroad lines were built to rapidly bring passengers from Brooklyn to Coney. Two large ocean piers were also constructed in this period, as well as a major public road.
The openness of Coney also allowed for the introduction of a criminal element, and beginning about 1870 the so-called “Gut” section of Coney’s West End became a center for horse racing, boxing, gambling, drinking, and prostitution.
A vast amusement zone also grew up there. The first roller coaster built in the United States, LaMarcus Thompson’s Switchback Gravity Railway, was opened at Coney Island in 1884. It was a primitive ride by today’s standards. Passengers had to climb a fifty-foot high loading platform to board a train, which was propelled along a wooden track by gravity at the break-neck speed of six miles an hour. It came to a stop at the crest of a hill at the other end of the track, where passengers than re-boarded the train (after it has been switched to the opposing track) for the return ride. The popularity of the coaster encouraged the construction of other amusement rides, including the first coaster in the country which had a mechanical conveyor to carry the cars to the top. Other rides included carousels, toboggan rides, and an aerial slide.
In addition to the mechanical rides, there were also dining establishments, dime museums, concert halls, dance pavilions, sideshows, circuses, fireworks displays, games of chance, an aquarium, and other forms of amusement including John Philip Sousa’s marching band and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Many of these amusements were part of the Bowery Midway, an area containing many games, shows, and attractions such as the Streets of Cairo, where one could ride an elephant or camel or watch an erotic “couchee-couchee” dance by performers including the famed Little Egypt.
It was not until after the Civil War, however, that Coney truly began to flourish as a popular resort. A spate of hotels grew up along the beach, and they often included restaurants and facilities for renting bathing costumes. In 1868, one guidebook listed Coney Island as the best beach on the Atlantic coast, and by 1873 it was attracting 25,000 to 30,000 visitors on weekends.
Transportation to the island blossomed in the 1870s, when four steam railroad lines were built to rapidly bring passengers from Brooklyn to Coney. Two large ocean piers were also constructed in this period, as well as a major public road.
The openness of Coney also allowed for the introduction of a criminal element, and beginning about 1870 the so-called “Gut” section of Coney’s West End became a center for horse racing, boxing, gambling, drinking, and prostitution.
A vast amusement zone also grew up there. The first roller coaster built in the United States, LaMarcus Thompson’s Switchback Gravity Railway, was opened at Coney Island in 1884. It was a primitive ride by today’s standards. Passengers had to climb a fifty-foot high loading platform to board a train, which was propelled along a wooden track by gravity at the break-neck speed of six miles an hour. It came to a stop at the crest of a hill at the other end of the track, where passengers than re-boarded the train (after it has been switched to the opposing track) for the return ride. The popularity of the coaster encouraged the construction of other amusement rides, including the first coaster in the country which had a mechanical conveyor to carry the cars to the top. Other rides included carousels, toboggan rides, and an aerial slide.
In addition to the mechanical rides, there were also dining establishments, dime museums, concert halls, dance pavilions, sideshows, circuses, fireworks displays, games of chance, an aquarium, and other forms of amusement including John Philip Sousa’s marching band and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Many of these amusements were part of the Bowery Midway, an area containing many games, shows, and attractions such as the Streets of Cairo, where one could ride an elephant or camel or watch an erotic “couchee-couchee” dance by performers including the famed Little Egypt.
Democracy and Segregation
Post card showing sideshow at Coney Island,1913. Collection of the Author.
The movement, beginning in the 1880s, to grant workers a “half-holiday” on Saturdays led to increased leisure time, which benefited Coney’s entertainment industry. It increasingly became easier and cheaper to get to by rail and offered a variety of inexpensive forms of entertainment and, such as nickel rides and hot dogs.
Working class women, who had few places to socialize, were among the groups using Coney as an outlet from their dreary lives. Coney provided a casual and fun atmosphere which encouraged interaction of the sexes and forms of recreation that were less structured and less regulated than in normal social situations. This freedom is perhaps best reflected in the lure of the beach with its, for the time, scandalous beach attire.
Despite Coney’s democratic spirit, which brought together people of various classes, the segregation universal in American society was also seen there. Though Coney was often called the "People’s Playground," not everyone was always allowed to play in the same places. African Americans had to use segregated bath houses and were discouraged from occupying certain sections of the beach. Jews were also not welcome at first in some establishments.
Working class women, who had few places to socialize, were among the groups using Coney as an outlet from their dreary lives. Coney provided a casual and fun atmosphere which encouraged interaction of the sexes and forms of recreation that were less structured and less regulated than in normal social situations. This freedom is perhaps best reflected in the lure of the beach with its, for the time, scandalous beach attire.
Despite Coney’s democratic spirit, which brought together people of various classes, the segregation universal in American society was also seen there. Though Coney was often called the "People’s Playground," not everyone was always allowed to play in the same places. African Americans had to use segregated bath houses and were discouraged from occupying certain sections of the beach. Jews were also not welcome at first in some establishments.
Coney's Heydey
Postcard showing women in carnival dress at Steeplechase Park,1916. Collection of the Author.
Coney entered its heyday at the turn of the twentieth century, with the construction of spectacular amusement parks. The era began with the opening of Sea Lion Park, the first enclosed park where an admission fee was charged on entrance, in 1895. It lasted only until 1902, but served as the inspiration for entrepreneur and showman George C. Tilyou to create his more elaborate Steeplechase Park.
One of the obstacles entrepreneurs such as Tilyou faced was changing the frequent perception of Coney as an immoral, crime-infested area. In keeping with the progressive reformers of the turn of the century, Tilyou sought to appeal to the middle class. Tilyou and the other park founders enclosed their parks to keep out undesirables, banned alcohol on the grounds, and hired their own security. The signature ride was the Steeplechase, where participants rode mechanical horses along a metal track. Other attractions included a Ferris wheel, a boat ride along the Grand Canals of Venice, a miniature railroad, a bathhouse, formal gardens, and a large ballroom. Half the park burned down in 1907, but Tilyou rebuilt it on an even grander scale.
Tilyou, shrewd businessman that he was, learned that sex, at least if provided in fairly safe, limited doses, did in fact sell, even in the Progressive era. Tilyou somehow managed to blend “good clean fun” with the sensuous, and the park was not viewed by most as vulgar. To enter the park, for example, visitors had to walk through the Barrel of Fun, a rolling barrel that tossed them around and into each other. Popular rides that also threw people together included the Human Roulette Wheel, the Whirlpool, and the Human Pool Table. Even more daring for the time was the Blowhole Theater, located at the end of the Steeplechase ride. As couples walked across a platform, jets of air would blow the woman’s skirt up and the man often received an electric shock from a clown, while earlier victims looked on and laughed. In a sense, the visitors to the park were part of the entertainment, laughing at each other’s public embarrassment.
The spectacular Luna Park opened on May 16, 1903. Dubbed the “Electric Eden,” Luna Park was a fantasy land lit by some 250,000 electric lights; in fact, lights from Coney, not the Statue of Liberty or the New York skyline, were the first thing those arriving in New York harbor could see. The park included such attractions as a ride to the moon, another illusion called “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea,” a circus, theatrical performances, and spectacular recreations of several disasters such as the Fall of Pompeii and the Galveston, Texas, flood of 1900. There were elephant and camel rides, a two-hundred foot tower with lights that changed color, and replicas of many cultures including Japan, Ireland, and Italy. Luna Park, which relied upon carefully constructed illusion and manipulation of its audience, tended to attract a slightly more affluent crowd than the more physically-based Steeplechase.
The last of the “big three” amusement parks in Coney Island was Dreamland. The park opened in 1904, and was designed to be a grander, even more sophisticated version of Luna Park. The many attractions at Dreamland included a midget city, Frank Bostock’s wild animal show, scenic railways, a ballroom, a Japanese tea pavilion, the Hell Gate boat ride, Dr. Martin Couney’s Infant Incubators (a spectacle in which many premature babies’ lives were actually saved), and the Fighting the Flames exhibition (which featured firefighters battling a staged blaze at a tenement building and rescuing the tenants). As magnificent as the park was, however, it was not a financial success. Perhaps the owner’s efforts to provide a somewhat more refined, didactic amusement did not catch on with most of Coney’s visitors. Dreamland soon went bankrupt and was sold at auction in 1910. It never had another chance to succeed as a fire in 1911 largely destroyed the park.
One of the obstacles entrepreneurs such as Tilyou faced was changing the frequent perception of Coney as an immoral, crime-infested area. In keeping with the progressive reformers of the turn of the century, Tilyou sought to appeal to the middle class. Tilyou and the other park founders enclosed their parks to keep out undesirables, banned alcohol on the grounds, and hired their own security. The signature ride was the Steeplechase, where participants rode mechanical horses along a metal track. Other attractions included a Ferris wheel, a boat ride along the Grand Canals of Venice, a miniature railroad, a bathhouse, formal gardens, and a large ballroom. Half the park burned down in 1907, but Tilyou rebuilt it on an even grander scale.
Tilyou, shrewd businessman that he was, learned that sex, at least if provided in fairly safe, limited doses, did in fact sell, even in the Progressive era. Tilyou somehow managed to blend “good clean fun” with the sensuous, and the park was not viewed by most as vulgar. To enter the park, for example, visitors had to walk through the Barrel of Fun, a rolling barrel that tossed them around and into each other. Popular rides that also threw people together included the Human Roulette Wheel, the Whirlpool, and the Human Pool Table. Even more daring for the time was the Blowhole Theater, located at the end of the Steeplechase ride. As couples walked across a platform, jets of air would blow the woman’s skirt up and the man often received an electric shock from a clown, while earlier victims looked on and laughed. In a sense, the visitors to the park were part of the entertainment, laughing at each other’s public embarrassment.
The spectacular Luna Park opened on May 16, 1903. Dubbed the “Electric Eden,” Luna Park was a fantasy land lit by some 250,000 electric lights; in fact, lights from Coney, not the Statue of Liberty or the New York skyline, were the first thing those arriving in New York harbor could see. The park included such attractions as a ride to the moon, another illusion called “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea,” a circus, theatrical performances, and spectacular recreations of several disasters such as the Fall of Pompeii and the Galveston, Texas, flood of 1900. There were elephant and camel rides, a two-hundred foot tower with lights that changed color, and replicas of many cultures including Japan, Ireland, and Italy. Luna Park, which relied upon carefully constructed illusion and manipulation of its audience, tended to attract a slightly more affluent crowd than the more physically-based Steeplechase.
The last of the “big three” amusement parks in Coney Island was Dreamland. The park opened in 1904, and was designed to be a grander, even more sophisticated version of Luna Park. The many attractions at Dreamland included a midget city, Frank Bostock’s wild animal show, scenic railways, a ballroom, a Japanese tea pavilion, the Hell Gate boat ride, Dr. Martin Couney’s Infant Incubators (a spectacle in which many premature babies’ lives were actually saved), and the Fighting the Flames exhibition (which featured firefighters battling a staged blaze at a tenement building and rescuing the tenants). As magnificent as the park was, however, it was not a financial success. Perhaps the owner’s efforts to provide a somewhat more refined, didactic amusement did not catch on with most of Coney’s visitors. Dreamland soon went bankrupt and was sold at auction in 1910. It never had another chance to succeed as a fire in 1911 largely destroyed the park.
Decline
Surf Avenue and Steeplechase at Night (Early 20th century). Collection of the Author.
Coney was at its peak during the years that the three major amusement parks dominated the scene. It was the major tourist destination in America. Crowds routinely topped 100,000. In contrast, Disney World has never reached this figure.
As John Kasson has argued, Coney in this period reflected major changes in American society, with the emergence of a new mass culture, one in opposition to the more genteel standards in taste and comportment of the Victorian era. The activities available at Coney, such as bathing, dancing, vaudeville and circus acts, mechanical rides, and exotic attractions all catered to this new cultural mood. It was becoming a symbol of fun and frolic, and also of major changes in American manners and morals.
Although Coney Island continued to be a major amusement area, and its beach often attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors a day through at least the 1950s, it has never regained the glory of its golden years.
For Further Reading
Michael Immerso, Coney Island: The People's Playground
John F. Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century
Charles Denson, Coney Island Lost and Found
John S. Berman, Coney Island
An excellent novel depicting Coney in the twentieth century is Kevin Baker, Dreamland.
John Parascandola received his Ph.D. in history of science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught for fourteen years. After retiring from a career of more than twenty years as a historian for the federal government, he teaches part-time at the University of Maryland College Park. This article has been adapted from the introduction of a forthcoming book of readings on Coney Island edited by Dr. Parascandola and his brother Louis Parascandola.
As John Kasson has argued, Coney in this period reflected major changes in American society, with the emergence of a new mass culture, one in opposition to the more genteel standards in taste and comportment of the Victorian era. The activities available at Coney, such as bathing, dancing, vaudeville and circus acts, mechanical rides, and exotic attractions all catered to this new cultural mood. It was becoming a symbol of fun and frolic, and also of major changes in American manners and morals.
Although Coney Island continued to be a major amusement area, and its beach often attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors a day through at least the 1950s, it has never regained the glory of its golden years.
For Further Reading
Michael Immerso, Coney Island: The People's Playground
John F. Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century
Charles Denson, Coney Island Lost and Found
John S. Berman, Coney Island
An excellent novel depicting Coney in the twentieth century is Kevin Baker, Dreamland.
John Parascandola received his Ph.D. in history of science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught for fourteen years. After retiring from a career of more than twenty years as a historian for the federal government, he teaches part-time at the University of Maryland College Park. This article has been adapted from the introduction of a forthcoming book of readings on Coney Island edited by Dr. Parascandola and his brother Louis Parascandola.
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