Say the words “Coney Island” to New Yorkers, especially of a certain age, and you may well get a dreamy kind of pause and a vivid memory: feeling the sensation of a drop on the Cyclone roller coaster, seeing the steel top on the gigantic Parachute Jump from the distance, riding the fast Steeplechase horses, eating a corn dog for the first time. At one time, it seemed, everybody went there, if at least once.
Coney Island isn’t just a place of yesteryear, of Astroland and Luna Park. As anyone can attest who goes to the Mermaid Parade, the Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, or a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game, sees the sideshow, or rides the bumper cars, Coney Island is alive today. It remains not only a legend but a draw for many tourists and local beach lovers. (Also check out “Coney Island’s Off-Season Vibe” on Mindfulwalker.com.)
No one would argue, however, that this is the Coney Island of its heyday in the early 20th century and before World War II. It has vacant spaces on the waterfront and parking lots where amusement rides used to be. Many New Yorkers never venture out on the subway to it today. The owners of Astroland recently took down and packed up Dante’s Inferno and other rides, with their lease expiring at the end of January. They packed up the stuff but apparently hope they’ll be back, as part of a resurrected Coney Island, according to NY1.
And that’s where the fun and the dreams are taking shape right now, albeit with some tough, hard-to-sort-out battles that are becoming their own Coney Island sideshow: What might arise near the boardwalk and sand along the Atlantic Ocean? This is the question that the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) has asked the public and is considering itself as part of its ImagineConey initiative. Hundreds of ideas have poured in to the MAS. If Coney Island’s future were a Nathan’s Famous hot dog, it’d come with everything.
Luna Park: Coming Around Again?
A bit of background: New York City, in the face of the Bloomberg Administration, wants to rezone and revitalize Coney Island into a year-round destination with amusement rides, indoor and outdoor entertainment, and new housing. A developer has his own ideas. Plus, the Municipal Art Society is advocating its own bigger plan and gathering the public’s creative ideas and input through ImagineConey.
To get an idea of just how much this place lives on in the hearts of many people and stokes their imaginations, check out the ImagineConey exhibit, on view through March 11 at the MAS Urban Center galleries, at 457 Madison Ave., at East 51st Street.
The Municipal Art Society received more than 350 ideas, and the exhibit spotlights these as well as the ideas of two public sessions and an intensive design workshop where experts imagined a future Coney Island. This isn’t the most visually compelling exhibit, but the sheer number and types of ideas, from wacky to inspiring – some of them shown in images or models – stir the imagination.
Here’s a sampling of the public’s ideas for structures: a surreal cityscape, an underwater theme park, a new Luna Park, a giant art installation, the world’s largest lollipop, a Bread & Puppet Theater, Moorish castles, an underwater swimming pool, and a new world’s tallest tower. One suggested rebuilding the Victorian-style buildings. Another proposed creating a new Elephant Hotel, after the old one built in the shape of an elephant and opened in the late 19th century. (The old hotel reportedly developed a reputation for prostitution and illegal activity, sparking the use of the phrase “seeing the elephant” locally.”)
The zany, on-the-edge spirit of Coney Island lives on within many who proposed rides and programs. Some want a new Tornado, after the steeply whipping roller coaster, and new Astro Tower, which allowed riders to go up, up, up, and catch a 360-degree view of the environs. Another idea: Build an Inverted Wooden Roller Coaster; Kenneth Vogel constructed a model of this stomach churner, which can be seen at the MAS exhibit. One person would like to see a transit roller coaster (sounds like the MTA’s finances to me).
The public recommendations for programs sound very much like the sometimes-anarchic amalgam of New York, with 64 proposals listed at the exhibit. They include: a yuppie zoo, an image of which showed characters behind bars sipping Starbucks-like refreshments; a vegan boardwalk café; a “parade of disasters” (cable news has shown how popular this programming can be); invention contests; a New York transit graffiti museum; ice queen contests; cutest baby contests; a “sushi skate park”; an international ethnic foods market; a zoo of cloned animals; and an Italian theme park. There were also tamer ideas such as bird and nature tours, movies on the boardwalk, jazz festivals; and hot air balloon rides.
Coney Conflicts
It wasn’t apparent from the exhibit exactly how the Municipal Art Society will make use of the ideas the public has submitted. As part of ImagineConey, the MAS is advocating for its own ideas. It convened a team of amusement, design, and real estate experts in the intensive design workshop. The team recommends that Coney Island become “the world’s greatest seaside stage” with four key elements:
- a major cable car ride, in which passengers would ride in waterproof pods above the amusements and nearby areas, which would provide not only transit but amazing views of the sea and the city;
- a retractable roof, which would preserve Coney Island as a year-round destination while protecting its outdoor character;
- “The Strip,” a hotel and entertainment district; and
- “The Electric City,” which would be a “casbah” of small buildings and structures with digital LED skins that could be programmed for “all kinds of extraordinary effects” such as being in different cities around the globe, etc.
Meanwhile, the developer, Joseph J. Sitt, isn’t having much of what the city or MAS want. His plan, which, according to The New York Times, “owes more to Disney World than to Coney Island’s tradition of inexpensive rides,” envisions time-share hotels and huge retail stores that the new zoning wouldn’t permit.
The Municipal Art Society believes the city’s plans, which include new mixed-income housing, restaurants, and parks in addition to the amusement district, are much better than other recent redevelopment schemes. However, it wants the Bloomberg Administration to be more audacious and set aside 26 acres, not just the narrow 9.4-acre district along the boardwalk south of Surf Avenue, to create enough space for outdoor amusements – especially for a signature ride that will draw visitors from far and wide. The city is considering its rezoning plan and skirmishing with the developer, while the Municipal Art Society promotes its vision.
But what will the site of freak shows, hot dogs, the Mermaid Parade, and memories that people recall for generations become – another Disney World facsimile or a place in which, as one MAS leader put it, Coney Island’s “honky-tonk soul” lives on? Stay tuned.
Note: Mindful Walker also explored Coney Island today during an off-season walk through the neighborhood. See “Coney Island’s Off-Season Vibe.”
Update: The Municipal Art Society is building on some of the ideas and principles the public proposed as the City of New York considers Coney Island’s rezoning plan.
Brooklyn Community Board 13 gave the go-ahead to the Bloomberg Administration’s rezoning plan on Mar. 11, 2009.
New York City Council approved the Coney Island redevelopment plan in July, 2009. Various groups, including Save Coney Island, are pushing for an expanded open-air amusement area and for other changes to the rezoning proposal.
Ah…you have evoked some great memories for me. I remember well, the thrill of the Cyclone. Remember how it would go achingly slow up the big hill and then right at the top, it would actually stop for a second…and then varoom, down the hill when your stomach would drop?? To get my sister on once when she was little, my Dad said he would tell the operator to slow it down (and he actually did so – the operator winked and said sure thing!). And nothing tasted better than a Nathan’s dog and fries with the smell of the ocean behind us. Good stuff…
My Mom, her brothers and aunt have many, many stories of Skovals Walk and how that is where everyone went on the hot summer days in Brooklyn just after World War II.
Regarding the new proposals, I think the retractable roof is ridiculous. And the thought of it becoming a Disney facsimilie is unthinkable (I equate it to the feeling I get when I see the Hard Rock Cafe in Key West). Some of the public’s ideas are cool. I’m glad the city is so involved and wants to maintain the wonderfully goofy character – certainly would not happen if left in the hands of developers whose only interest really is personal profit (yes – I am the master of stating the obvious).
Another great article Susan – thanks!! I love this site!
Chris,
Wonderful comment, and thank you!
I can feel the ocean breeze and taste the hot dog as you write about it. Great memory of the Cyclone! Can you tell me more about your mother’s recollection of Skovals Walk or a story your family has of it?
The Municipal Art Society put together a list of principles underlying the public’s responses to ImagineConey…what the public wants, such as “magical,” “affordable,” “fun,” “edgy.” One of them was: “Not Times Square.” (There are things I love in Times Square, but that flavor would never be right for Coney Island.)
I hope the Municipal Art Society can have some impact on what ultimately happens at Coney Island, and I plan to keep track of the proposals and update the audience.
Thanks again!
Susan
Hi Susan,
I asked my Mom to share her memories of Skovals Walk. She said it was a series of bungalows along the boardwalk that was between Steeplechase to the north and Ocean Tide (a huge saltwater swimming pool) to the south. My Mom’s grandmother (Nana) would rent a two-bedroom bungalow (complete with kitchen and bathroom) for the summer. The women and children would stay all week, the men would come on weekends. There was a nearby bathhouse where people who did not have a bungalow rented lockers and took showers.
She remembers that there was a bar (where you could also get food like hamburgers and hot dogs) underneath the boardwalk that she thinks (not sure) was named Peggy O’Neill’s. She recalls that it was a bar but the adults drank mostly beer (lots of it). The men played handball. Everyone played ping-pong. Mom said the kids would hang around the adults who were playing ping-pong and drinking lots of beer, hoping to scrounge a quarter (and my Mom stressed that 25 cents went a long way back then in the mid to late 1940s). When some kid scrounged a quarter, the kids would run up to the boardwalk to play games (one of the favorites was skeeball).
Mom said that they would get to Coney Island by either the subway or the trolley. She said she loved to swim in the ocean – the water was lovely. I asked if was too crowded on a hot day to really enjoy swimming and she said not at all. She said she has seen old pictures of Jones Beach where people were packed like sardines – she said Coney Island swimming was not like that.
I listed the spelling incorrectly – it is Scoville’s Walk. I’ve asked (via the Geni family tree Web site) older relatives on my Mother’s side of the family to please provide more memories – that is how I learned of my incorrect spelling of a word I heard hundreds of times but never read.
Scoville’s Walk…ah, OK! I did not know of it until you mentioned it. I’ve Googled it and found an old classified ad for a bungalow in Scoville’s Walk.
That’s a very understandable spelling mistake.
Thanks for letting me know! I’d love to hear more about Scoville’s Walk from those who used to go there.
Susan
I spent my early teen (1954/55/56 ) summers renting a locker at Ocean Tide…Bay #22……I believe Scoville’s was Bay #17? Anyway….our days were filled with swimming, dancing to the Juke Box (Bayridge lindy) in a fence-enclosed area away from the public bar and buying our lunch heros from Mary’s….delicious….mmmmmmm
Debby,
Your comment draws such a wonderful picture of those days at Coney Island…swimming, heros, dancing, all great. What memories! I think that is why Coney means so much to a lot of people.
I love the lindy hop, and do a bit of swing dancing. Not sure what you mean by “Bayridge lindy.” Was this the local version of the lindy? Would love to know.
As for which Bay number Scoville’s was, I’m going to have to throw that question out to the audience. This includes Chris, whose comments are above and whose family regularly went to and loved Scoville’s. (I was a Pennsylvania teen whose first beach days were spent at the Jersey Shore.)
I looked around and found a link for an audio in which two sisters recall their days spent at the Ocean Tide bathing club (from the Coney Island History Project):
http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/voices/index.php?g=voices&s=details&object_id=272
How sweet and simple were and are those beach days! I think that’s one of the reasons why people love dances such as the lindy — brings so much of it back!
Thanks,
Susan
Hi Susan,
Thanks for responding and for the link. I listened a bit this a.m. and will finish the sisters’ interview later…they’re a bit younger than I but from my old neighborhood “Windsor Terrace.” I took the Coney Island Ave Trolley Car to the “barn” end of the line…and then had to transfer to the Neptune Ave Line.
To answer your question about the Bay Ridge Lindy, it was popular among the boys from Bay Ridge who danced at Ocean Tide. They’d swing their arm and then bring it up to the shoulder and that was basically the difference from the ordinary lindy that we knew! I can still remember some of the Bay Ridge boys…Ray Buttacavoli, Billy Smart, Phil Ditto….wonder where they are?
Remember six dances from the jukebox for a quarter — McCabe’s beer garden, came in a white cardboard container. Only sold to minors.
James,
Thanks for another Coney memory. Are you saying that a certain beer was sold in white cardboard containers? Or was it a non-alcoholic beverage because it was sold to minors?
Always enjoy hearing these memories!
Susan
Sixty years ago the only non-alcoholic beer was Near Beer. The beer sold to minors at McCabe’s was REAL alcoholic beer.
Guess that is where the phrase, “those were the days, my friend….” comes from, James.
Thanks!
Debby,
I have seen pictures of those trolleys in Brooklyn. It all sounds so great and fun. (I only rode trolleys in Philly.)
And thanks so much for the description of the Bay Ridge Lindy, and that special move! The next time I see one of the dance teachers at the swing dance we sometimes go to, I’m going to ask him about it. Who knew?! It’s like the neighborhood boys developed their own special way of dancing.
Like you, at various times I think of names from dances and other times of the past. In fact, I often say I’ll remember those names as well as others from my Catholic school class, etc., my whole life. Funny how the names stick!
Thanks again for sharing the memories! I’m sure others will relate to those special times.
Susan
I now live just south of Annapolis, Maryland, but until the age of 27 I lived in NYC. Until age 12 in Bay Ridge. Attended St. Pats until 1962. I remember waiting for the bus outside Woolworth’s on 86th street to catch the bus to Coney Island. I think we took two buses and got off on the opposite side of the street from Nathan’s.
Many times we went to Ocean Tide pool. I can still smell the steam bath my mom made me go into with her. The maze of grey wooden lockers we changed in. The steam room was a ritual we did at the end of the day before we went to the enclosed dance area with the wooden floor. And yes I did the Lindy at age 5 or 6. It is one of the most vivid memories I have as a very young girl.
I also remember holding onto the very green rope with the barrels in the ocean because I could not swim. I’m amazed I survived. Thanks to all who are writing about that special time and place .
Nancy,
Thanks for sharing such amazing and vivid memories, the sights, smells, and experiences of that time.
It’s wonderful that you were dancing the Lindy at age 5 or 6. What is better than that!
I’m intending this fall to follow up on what plans and changes are going on at Coney Island. It was not a part of my childhood, but I am so thankful for visitors to the site such as yourself who share their great and very alive memories of such a special place!
Best,
Susan
I remember dancing at Ocean Tide….jukebox…6 plays for 25 cents. Irish bar on Neptune Ave. I think it was McClean’s. You had to be under 14 to buy beer in a cardboard container. What about Hinsch’s and the Snake Pit bar next door?
McClean’s Bar was McCabe’s.
James,
Thanks for your great memories. Wasn’t that cool to get six plays for a quarter? Your jukebox tunes cost about the same as I remember, on the jukebox in my small town in Western Pa.
I found a reference to McCabe’s in the book Coney Island: Lost and Found. People also post memories on the bulletin board at Coneyisland.com, and I wonder if someone has written about McCabe’s.
Had not heard of the Snake Pit before!
Best,
Susan
The “Snake Pit” was a nickname for a grungy bar next to Hinsch’s. When guys turned 18 (legal age at that time), they graduated to the Snake Pit. I think it’s POPEYES now.
Popeyes….oh my.
James, I was just reading about the effort to landmark the Coney Island Pumping Station. It is such a classic Art Deco structure. If it is designated, these incredible Pegasus statues could be brought back to their home.
Have been searching for some who might have spent their summers at Ocean Tide where we swam but mostly danced to the jukebox near the pool. MaryLou….Phil…Ray..’round 1951-56.
Would be great to hear from some of those folks. Sounds like such wonderful times! Perhaps once some of the new plans, to resurrect more of Coney Island’s amusements and entertainment, there will be some reunions there.
Susan
I remember McCabe’s bar on Surf and W. 34th Street. It was torn down in the late 1970s to make way for that huge apartment building with duplex apartments. McCabe’s was across the street from Mary’s hero shop and the Coney Island Y.
I grew up in Sea Gate and spent my youth in and around Coney Island. The place was magical and seedy at the same time… pure excitement! When you tell people you are from Coney Island, everyone in the world knows where you are talking about! Great times!
I remember Ocean Tide pool at Bay 22. “Peg o’ My Heart” would blast from the jukebox. My friends and I had a cabana at the pool. I think there were four of us. I remember Mary’s sandwich shop on the corner of Surf Avenue. One Sunday someone stole my shoes (new cleopatra sandals), and Mar lent me a pair. She was a size 4 and I was a 7, but I managed to get home.
Rosemary,
What a sweet, fun memory! I can almost hear your friends laughing, having a great time.
Thanks for sharing this memory!
Susan
I, too, remember Ocean Tide. I would go there during the summer or 1954, 1955. I remember “Sh-Boom” blasting. Another on “Baby let me ___ ___ ___.” Not a nice reference.
Hi, Rich,
“Magical and seedy at the same time” — that is such an excellent description for what Coney Island was.
Did a little more research, and I found photos of the razing of McCabe’s, in the book Coney Island: Lost and Found. I imagine the 1970s must have been quite a time of knocking buildings over in Coney Island, as it was elsewhere in cities. A place like that may be gone, but it never quite leaves our memory, almost like a person.
You can tell how much of an impact Coney Island’s “great times” have had on so many people.
Thanks for your excellent comments!
Susan
Funny thing about McCabe’s: When I was about 13 I played bass in a local “garage band.” Our drummer’s Uncle Jack was a great guy and a frequent patron of McCabe’s. On one occasion he arranged for us to play a few songs at McCabe’s. I don’t know what the legalities were regarding minors being in a bar, but McCabe enthusiastically agreed to let us play (in the back of the place) one Saturday night, and he paid us $50 (divided by the 4 of us!!). We were terrible, but had fun and it was our first paying gig!
As for the late 1960s-early 1970s, it was a depressing time in Coney Island. Then-Mayor John Lindsay’s policies resulted in Coney becoming a dumping ground for the city’s poor. As ‘welfare’ families moved in to replace blue-collar working families, Coney’s fortunes rapidly declined. Businesses closed or were burned down for the insurance money, landlords abandoned their four-family apartments that lined the streets from W. 16th to W. 36th St., and the tenants (who were paying rent and not receiving basic services) set fire to their own apartment houses. By the late 1970s there were empty lots filled with garbage and debris where there once had been a thriving community.
Like you so eloquently put it, the Coney Island of our youth never quite leaves our memory. Like the shadow of a smile when a loved one is gone, the memories of sights and sounds (and even smells) of Coney Island linger a lifetime.
And the characters who lived among us… you can’t imagine! But that’s another story. LOL!
Regards,
Rich
Rich,
Thank you again for your comments and memories about Coney Island. Love the anecdote about the “first paying gig” at McCabe’s.
You definitely paint a very stark picture of what occurred at Coney Island in the 1960s and early 1970s. I have read about the building of huge public housing complexes and the bulldozing of other buildings at Coney Island, as well as the Rockaways. How much such changes, even some well-intentioned ones, tear the fabric of communities. I hope we’ve learned some things about affordable housing AND preserving community but I’m not sure enough.
Yes, I bet the characters in Coney were something!
Best,
Susan
Susan,
Here is a link to a fascinating but dark perspective on Coney Island, written last February by Joshua Cohen:
http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/books/1047/amusements/
The author writes “… no other New York neighborhood boasts Coney’s literary history.”
He continues “…its literature has always been one of writers on-leave, basking in the childhood fantastic by noon, and the libidinous by dusk. Coney’s appearance in the chapters of novels and in the stanzas of poems especially represents an intrusion of magic into worldweary realism…” a more eloquent and articulate way of presenting my feelings; Coney Island is a place which is magical but seedy at the same time.
I was a member at Oceantide from 1951-1953. Yes, had many a “hero” at Mary’s. It was a great place to meet friends.
Five of us from Bay Ridge used to work at American Can, 4-12:30 p.m. Met at Oceantide at 11 a.m. and then went to work.
Took my wife (55 years) to Nathan’s for a $.15 chow mein sandwich.
Have lived in San Francisco since 1978; don’t really want to go back to Brooklyn. But Coney Island was the greatest swimming hole.
Dan,
Thanks for sharing the great memories. Seems like it was just yesterday from the sounds of it.
And a chow mein sandwich? I’ve been to Nathan’s but never had one of those. I will have to try it soon!
It’s amazing how those fun memories can stay alive for a long time. Ultimately, that’s the best description of Coney Island: “the greatest swimming hole.”
Best,
Susan
Kay McKearney-Bradshaw…. I used to dance with you at Ocean Tide. …Wasn’t your sister in the Navy and had a French poodle? Beer under the boardwalk. Mary’s sandwiches…$0.25
James Tucker, what a pleasant surprise! You have a great memory…far better than mine. How did you remember my sister being in the Navy…and our poodle Jacques? Did we date once or twice? Hinsch’s, too? Have you been back to CI or Bay Ridge? So nice to make this connection.
Ask me what happened an hour ago and I won’t remember:-). That was the first time I heard of a French poodle. I wish we had dated, ha ha…We did dance many times. Hinsch’s. St. Pat’s. Green Tea Room. OLA and yes, the Snake Pit.
I moved to Colorado for about 32 years but I’m back on Sh Road. I’ve bumped into so many people I hadn’t seen in 40 years. One of your friends lives in my co-op complex.
Last time I was in Bay Ridge was about three years ago..just before moving down here to NC. Had a sandwich at Hinsch’s and spoke to Herman’s family. Lived in NYC for 18 years and miss it something awful. Lucky you… to be on Shore Road. Where did you go to HS? Who knows me in your complex? Again, so nice to touch base with you. k
Jr and Sr year at Ft Hamilton. If my memory serves me right, you went to Ft Hamilton, too. I don’t want to put someone’s last name. Your friend’s name was Mary Ann R.
What made you move back after so many years? Do you know if the Embers restaurant is still there? I forgot that I lived on 97th & 4th Ave. in the early ’80s and that was one of my favorite places to eat.
Sorry I don’t recognize Mary Ann R. I’m great on faces…not too good on names. I am visiting my NJ sister in April and they want to spend the day ’round Ft. H. Perhaps you can recommend a good restaurant? Sorry…I ask lots of questions… a habit from my former profession. Do you remember Shatzkin’s Knishes (near Nathan’s?)
Kay,
On one of your questions: Yes, the Embers is still there. (Interesting to read what the individual diners say about the Embers restaurant if you follow that link with the New York magazine review. I haven’t been to the Embers…takes time to work around the circuit of New York’s steak places, especially if one limits red meat to once or twice a week. :c) ).
Listening to the way people talk about Shatzkin’s knishes, I can tell that they were one of a kind. In fact, two fellows are planning to bring back Shatzkin’s knishes. This Web site tells about their plans, and I will keep an eye on this. They talk about how people remember the taste of these knishes even 70 years later. Definitely would want to sample one of those new knishes and write about it!
Thanks for these great memories and questions you’ve posted.
Susan
Sorry for the delay answering. Were you a policewoman? A very good Italian restaurant. Gino’s on 75th Street and 5th Avenue. It started out as a pizzeria (1 small store), now it’s 3….is that telling you something? Another place is JT’s on 3rd Avenue and about 96th Street. Both are very good. You may remember Mary Ann R, Mary Lou, and Marilyn D, and Ellie L, too
Susan,
Thanks so much for your information on Embers and the Shatzkin’s site. I signed up for their newsletter and anxiously await progress/production. Last time I was in Coney Island (’07) I convinced a friend to go on the Cyclone and followed that excitement with a pie at Totonno’s . A perfect day!
So many fond memories…people, places, and things. Keep up the good work.
Kay,
Thank you — how kind of you to say that about the site. I do plan to head out to Coney Island again soon and see what’s up. It is great to walk there and hang out…and seeing the responses of people like you and James makes me appreciate how much it has meant to people.
I may have to replicate that day that you describe. Awesome!
Thanks again so much.
Susan
Think I ate at Gino’s many times when I lived on 79th…I will keep both in mind when we visit. Thanks! Is Hinsch’s still there? I have such memories of ordering fries and a vanilla Coke and trying to hang out as long as possible before old Mr. Hinsch would start moving us out. Then once outside…the cops moving us along. Do you remember that?
I remember Mary Lou, Marilyn, and Ellie. Mary Ann R…I have 2 possibilities — either she grew up on my block or she is the Mary Ann I knew more closely after I married Joe Bradshaw. Pls ask her. Who was your best buddy back then? Did you go to St. Pat’s grammar school?
This will be lengthy….ha ha…Gino’s is now a white linen tablecloths and linen napkins, moderately upscale. Do I remember Hinsch’s…. Remember on Friday nights after St. Pat’s confraternity (11 p.m.), Mrs. H. locked everyone in so it wouldn’t get too crowded. Can you imagine anyone doing that today? When police told us to move, we did. Now they flip the police the finger and take them to court.
Old Mrs. Hinsch just died a few years ago. John the head waiter owns it now, but he is retired and lives in Florida. His son runs it. He looks the same but taller.
Do you remember tuna sandwiches were $.35, Coke $.10. Now it’s near $7.00. I didn’t go to St. Pat’s.
How about the movie theaters…Alpine, Dyker, and Shore Road. The only one left is the Alpine; I think it has 3 different theaters. Haven’t been there. One of the movie theaters here in Brooklyn was closed down because of bed bugs. I don’t think I want to go to a movie and have to put large black plastic garbage bags over the seat.
Enough said…or is it enuf…ha ha.
Forgot… I don”t see Mary Ann too often. She still works. I think she went to St. Joseph’s Commercial H.S. and dated a fellow named Murphy or Fitz.
How about the Harbor movie theater that was on 92nd & Fourth? That was where I had my first date…I think I was ten! He put his arm ’round the back of my chair and touched my shoulder. I thought I had died and gone to heaven!! And do you remember the boxcar diner that was next door right above the subway? After the bars closed, it was the place to get great eggs and homefries cooked by Mike, the owner.
James…your memory of old Mrs. H. was great! What area of Bay Ridge did you live? I would like to know more about what you think of Bay Ridge now. No, not a policewoman…a therapist who specialized in assessment/evaluation. Needed to ask LOTS of questions.
Kay and James,
This conversation is priceless, and I feel I’ve been whisked to that time and to those places, Bay Ridge, Coney Island…thanks! I’m sure I can’t pay 35 cents for a tuna sandwich now though.
Also, I’m getting very hungry reading these comments: pizza, steak, knishes, home fries, regular fries, (and of course, washed down with a vanilla Coke). No problem for this Italian-American! Obviously, time to head to Bay Ridge and/or Coney Island soon for a spring nosh-while-I-walk.
Susan
WOW…therapist…I would have thought (from your young days) you would have been a regular WITH a therapist. Ha ha…only kidding. Do you mean the Yankee Diner next door to the Harbor movie theater? I always went there, after dates, with my friends. The Harbor is now a fitness center. The Dyker is Radio Shack. Remember the beautiful white marble stairs? The Shore Road theater is now Jenny Craig and I think the Gap. I live near Shore Road in the nineties.
I wonder if Mrs. H was laid out in her black and white uniform she wore. Ha ha.
Do you remember Lundy’s in Sheepheads Bay? It’s a Russian food market. It’s beautiful inside and you can eat there…very good.
Thanks for Mary Ann’s info. She is the one who I was thinking of. For some reason I see her hanging out in the Tea Room more than Hinsch’s. But we dated in the same circles as well as socialized for a couple of years when I started working….when I wasn’t seeing my therapist…of course!
Remember Lundy’s, as my mother took me there when I was young. Is Fontbonne and Visitation still there in the ’90s? How about the Gingerbread House? And wasn’t there a animal trainer with a gorilla…living near FHHS?
So you left Brooklyn for many years. Did you marry a local gal/have a family? What kind of work did you do? Are you retired now? Here I go again!
Fontbonne and Visitation still there. The high school girls at Fontbonne now look like dancers in a Brittany Spears video. Did you know that Fontbonne was bought by Diamond Jim Brady for his mistress (singer/actress) Lillian Russell? Rumor be….the Spanish house near former Shore Road hospital belonged to a mistress of Randolph Hearst.
Four kids too many….ha ha. Kay, the Tea Room was on Mondays when Hinsch’s was closed. It would take a Web site to explain what I did for a living. Yes, I’m retired for 9 years. Basically I worked for a company that managed “Data” on microfilm & microfiche — long before the Internet. The data was leased by engineering companies, universities & libraries. I heard the same thing about the gorilla; don’t know if it’s true. Enough of me…did you know there is a Revolutionary War cemetery on Narrows Avenue in the 70s about the size of a private lot?
Remember Mitchell’s drive-in on 7th Ave & 86th Street (waitresses on roller skates)? It’s been Nathan’s for many years.
Signing off…my brain is fried.
Any kids?
Thank you for another wonderful post. Where else could anyone get that kind of info in such an ideal way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the look for such information.
Hi,
Thank you, and how wonderful for you to take a moment to say so.
What is your presentation on? Also, is it at the museum (the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, referenced by your e-mail) in Boise?
Warm regards,
Susan
Two. Think my brother worked at Mitchell’s and then went down the street to spend his money at that crazy bar The Country Club. Did you ever go to Central Plaza?
I called my brother-in-law this a.m., and he said he had just finished searching the Internet for info on the gorilla that lived with a female trainer on Shore Road. It’s true, and a movie about him, “Buddy,” was distributed (don’t have a date). It appears someone threw acid in his face and he became too “crazy” to keep, and she sold him to the circus…he became known as “Gargantua.” Sad!
An elaboration on the note above about “Buddy”:
Buddy was the 1997 movie based on a wealthy socialite raising a gorilla. If you’re curious as I was about the “Buddy” story: This page, focusing on an exhibit on the gorilla that Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History had, tells the story of Brooklyn’s Gertrude Lintz keeping “Buddy” the gorilla as part of her “household menagerie” in Bay Ridge. A 1942 Time magazine article chronicles how a man named Richard Kroener helped to nurse the gorilla back to health and how he toured the country with the gorilla once Lintz sold him to the circus. Not a happy story.
The Internet Movie Database details the 1997 movie, which starred Rene Russo and also has parts of its story based on Massa, another of Lintz’s gorillas. In her review of what she called a “sugarcoated tale” rendered in the movie, Janet Maslin of The New York Times writes of the film’s strange psychological subtexts. The movie “includes mild gorilla violence,” the Times reports.
This neighbor in Bay Ridge, Gertrude Lintz, with her menagerie, was just a little unusual, to say the least. She must have been quite the talk of the town. For Kay, James, or anyone from Bay Ridge, was her collection of gorillas, chimps, St. Bernards, etc. a well-known neighborhood story when you were growing up?
Susan
I only heard about the gorilla since moving back to Brooklyn. The story sounds like the movie Sunset Blvd. For those who remember Woolworth’s on 86th St. and 5th Ave. … HFC Household Finance Company on the second and a bowling alley on the third. None are any longer there. It will now be a T.J. Maxx. Does anyone know if the story [is true] that Kate Smith lived on Shore Road?
This is the best info about Bay Ridge I have read in a long time. I know it started out talking about Coney Island but this is great. I grew up in Bay Ridge, went to St. Pat’s 1956-61. My sister also went to Fontbonne Hall. The Harbor theater with the kids’ Sat. shows, with the Matron with the hair net and the flashlight! All I can say was Brooklyn was wonderful to grow up in in the ’50’s.
Nancy
The diner by the Harbor Theatre was the Yankee Diner. Also had Daily’s Hardware.
Hinsch’s closed but is now reopened by Roger Desmond and the people who own Skinflints.
I remember my mother and the other parents would take us over to McCabe’s after leaving Jefferson baths. That was after Scoville’s closed.
Years would be from 1963/1964 to 1968/1969.
I have a brief but vivid memory of Scoville’s walk. This would be from the years 1952-56. I’d love to have contact with someone who might have history of this Coney Island strip from that time. Thanks.
Bill,
So many people have vivid memories of Scoville’s Walk. I’ll ask a dear friend of mine, whose family has memories of Scoville’s (she is the one who wrote about them in the comments above). I can poke around elsewhere as well, and you might also try the Coney Island History Project.
Warm regards,
Susan
I see that there are varying lengths to the “comments” left on this site. I hope no one minds my jumping in here with some of my almost-forgotten recollections of “Scoville’s Walk.” These reference the years 1953-55, part of my high school years.
I attending Grover Cleveland HS in Queens. So did Judy. However, Judy, for reasons I cannot clearly remember, lived in Coney Island, literally on Scoville’s Walk. We got to know each other quite well (boyfriend and girlfriend, as I’d call it now) and I would walk her to her subway stop at the end of each school day. Eventually, I was invited to come down to Coney Island and meet her family over a meal.
She and her family lived in one of the “apartments” right on Sco Wk. They had a basketball court right outside their front door and a 4-wall (closed in) handball court a little beyond that. I played handball with her there a few times.
Judy’s father (I was told) owned, or was part-owner of the large bar that was at the boardwalk end of Scoville’s. He also “owned” a large outdoor pool located somewhere nearby, also right off the boardwalk.
Needless to say, I found myself visiting her down there often and becoming more and more acquainted with the locale. Many, many happy moments and now memories.
Bill
Bill,
Something about your post, of sweet and fun memories and simple times, makes me want to head to Coney!
Thanks,
Susan
Scoville’s was at West 24th street. It took up the whole block with a big restaurant/bar on the boardwalk. It closed around ’63/’64.
The old 64th precinct was across the street from Hinsch’s, where the parking garage is now.
I have no difficulty whatsoever in my remembrance of the Cyclone, Parachute, or even the “horses.” However, I have different feelings toward Scoville’s; these are most definitely clear and emotional. I remember Scoville’s as a long alley-type passageway. My attention was fixed on the living quarters of my girlfriend and her family down closest to that bar/restaurant that was referenced. Does anyone remember the enclosed handball court that basically separated this living space for the bar, boardwalk, and beach? If this locale was still there, I’d jump on the Seabeach el (I think that’s what it was called) and to go to see it in a heartbeat!
WAB
I stumbled across this site looking for the “bay” number for Ocean Tide pool. Seems like it was #22.
I was a teen in the early 1950s and lived in the Fort Hamilton section of Brooklyn on Marine and 4th Ave. My friends and I would hitchhike to “Coney” via the Belt Parkway and then walk the boardwalk to the pool.
I recall that they had an infrared lamp and pen marker that they used to mark paid customers on the back of the hand. This allowed us to go back and forth between the pool and the beach area. That worked out good because that was where the girls would do their sunbathing on blankets and all we would bring with us was our bathing suits. I still remember our outrage when the pizza stalls on the boardwalk raised their price from 10 cents to 15 cents!
Enjoyed this site!! Brought back many very good memories, like hearing Frankie Laine singing “That Lucky Old Sun” on the jukebox.
John
Hi, John,
Gosh, these are great memories to write here, too — thank you! Isn’t it something how those memories can remain so vivid, like yours about the song, the prize of pizza, and the times at the pool and the beach.
So glad you enjoyed this site!
Susan
Everything you said I remember, too. The lockers would cost $15.00 for the season. They were in the area called “the chicken coop” The place was pretty dirty. Do you remember Mary’s sandwich shop?
Hi James,
Yes, I remember Mary’s. I often hearken back to the deli days in Brooklyn, circa early 1950s, when a “hero” would cost 25 to 35 cents! And a bottle of Coke or Pepsi was either 5 or 10 cents. You got more for your money with a Pepsi!
John
John,
Oh yes — Coke or Pepsi for a nickel or dime!
Susan
John, did you go to Hinsch’s (now Stewart’s)? Do you have a sister named Janie?
Hi James,
Yes, my friends and I spent many an evening hanging out inside and on the corner until the cops would ask us to move on. Also spent a lot of time in the pool hall on the corner of 5th and 86th. Can’t recall the name of the owner. No sister, but I had a brother, a year older, his name was Robert (Bob).
Hinsch’s sold the business a few years ago. I still recall old man Hinsch playing his waltzes on the jukebox when he got too tired of listening to our Rock & Roll stuff.
John
Hi, Susan,
I was curious to find out if you are aware of this Web site about Bay Ridge, Brooklyn? It’s http://bayridge.com It was very active a few years ago with postings on its “GuestbooK’ until they changed the format for postings.
If you go there, try Googling “Johnny White” — there are a lot of memories there.
John
Hi, John,
I know of various sites about Bay Ridge, and love the neighborhood. But obviously, I’ve missed this site! Thanks for the tip, and I’ll check out the “Guestbook” for some of those memories. I can see there are a lot of memories posted there — how awesome.
Susan
John,
I just looked for a moment and found one of your comments about guys (in their late teens) who used to swim from the Brooklyn side to Staten Island. Wow.
Susan
Susan,
Some of the “older” guys swam to Staten Island. Us younger guys would swim back and forth from Fort Lafayette, which stood where the footing for the Brooklyn-Verrazano bridge is now. We would start out from the Fort Hamilton Army pier, which jutted out and shortened the distance from the shoreline.
John
This may blow you mind. My father, who would be 112 now if he were alive, lived in Bath Beach. He and his best friends, the 3 (4) Stooges, would walk on the ice to Staten Island. The Narrows would freeze.
James,
Thats a great memory of your father. Did they call themselves that?
I can just envision the Narrows frozen…wow, beautiful. This sounds like something out of Winter’s Tale.
I can almost hear the wind howling, too.
Susan
My father referred to them by their first names. In about 1933, my father drove across country to LA to meet up with his friends. They wanted him to do a walk by in a film, but he said no. I have a photo somewhere of them with my father in a headlock.
James,
This made me laugh, picturing your father’s friends like the stooges!
Susan
I remember Scoville’s…the steam room and the lockers. You had to have an elastic wrist band with a metal disc stamped with your number in order to get in. It was great to shower off after the beach all day. We were little kids, but I remember it so clearly This was late 50s/60s.
Cheers
It’s so interesting how those very vivid memories stay alive, like the feeling of a shower, as a kid, after the beach all day.
Cheers to you!
Susan