Luna Park (Coney Island, 1903)
Luna Park was an amusement park that operated in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, from 1903 to 1944. The park was located on a site bounded by Surf Avenue to the south, West 8th Street to the east, Neptune Avenue to the north, and West 12th Street to the west. Luna Park was located partly on the grounds of the small park it replaced, Sea Lion Park, which operated between 1895 and 1902. It was the second of the three original, very large, iconic parks built on Coney Island; the others were Steeplechase Park (1897, by George C. Tilyou) and Dreamland (1904, by William H. Reynolds).[1] At Coney Island's peak in the middle of the 20th century's first decade, the three amusement parks competed with each other and with many independent amusements.
Location
Luna Park's co-founders Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy had created the "A Trip To The Moon" ride, which had been highly popular during the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and operated at Steeplechase Park in 1902. Luna Park opened on May 16, 1903, and was highly profitable until Dundy died in 1907. Thompson operated the park alone until 1912, when his lease was canceled. The Luna Amusement Company owned the park from 1911 to 1939; during the Great Depression, creditors foreclosed on Luna Park twice. The park was leased to a syndicate in 1940 and continued to operate during World War II. Over the years, the park's owners constantly added new attractions and shows.
The park's western half was destroyed by a fire in August 1944 and never reopened, while the eastern half closed in September 1944. Although some rides on Surf Avenue continued to operate after 1944, much of the site remained closed for several years; the area was redeveloped as the Luna Park Houses between 1958 and 1962. Though another amusement park named Luna Park opened nearby in 2010, it has no connection to the 1903 park.
Destruction[edit]
Fire and aftermath[edit]
A fire on August 13, 1944, destroyed much of Luna Park, causing $800,000 in damage.[166][167] Among the attractions destroyed in the fire were the Dragon's Gorge, the Mile Skyway roller coaster, the Coca-Cola tower, and various games and flat rides.[168][169] The western half of the park was destroyed, but the main entrance, administration building, swimming pool, and other rides near the park's entrance were not seriously damaged.[169] The undamaged part of Luna Park reopened on August 18[170] and continued to operate until September 15, 1944.[171] Before the fire, the park's business had suffered due to declining patronage and a lack of new attractions.[172] The few rides that survived the fire also operated during the 1945 season,[173] but the interior of the park remained closed.[174] During that season, Prudence Bonds leased the rides along Surf Avenue to Abe Siskin, Phil Pates, and Chick Guelfi,[175][176] who renovated the Ole Opry House attraction into a music hall called Little Old New York.[177]
In the two years after the fire, legal disputes ensued over the park's insurance payout,[178][85] which amounted to $152,000 and was paid to Prudence Bonds.[176] Miller filed several lawsuits, including one to evict Prudence Bonds, whom he claimed had illegally leased the attractions on Surf Avenue to Siskin, Pates, and Guelfi.[176][179] The Brooklyn Municipal Court initially ruled that Prudence Bonds had to leave by July 1, 1945,[179] but the ruling was overturned on appeal in August 1945.[175][176] The New York Court of Appeals, in July 1946, awarded the park to the Danziger brothers for $135,000.[85] The Danzigers immediately resold the park back to Prudence Bonds, estimating that it would cost $2 million to rebuild the site.[85][180] The park's interior remained closed, and some of the attractions had been sold or placed for sale, but the attractions on Surf Avenue were still operational.[85][181]
Demolition and redevelopment[edit]
In August 1946, the park was sold to Morton S. Wolf and Associates. The buyers announced that they would tear down the interior of Luna Park and build housing for military veterans and their families.[181][182] The plans called for 17 structures with a total of 625 three-and-four-room apartments. Wolf and Associates planned to preserve only the swimming pool, which was the only pool on Coney Island with a license to use ocean water.[181] The rides along Surf Avenue, formerly part of Luna Park, were not included in the sale.[183] That October, during Luna Park's demolition, the remains of the park were damaged in another fire.[184][185][186] During the 1947 operating season, Luna Park's facade (including its entrance) was demolished and replaced with additional concessions.[187][188] Despite Wolf and Associates' plans for the site, construction on the housing development never started. The remains of the park were visited only by "youngsters at play" and a fire inspector who visited once a week.[189] Several minor fires further damaged the park.[190] For instance, the remains of the Mile Skyway were destroyed in another fire in 1948.[191][190]
Wolf continued to rent the rides on Surf Avenue to Siskin, Pates, and Guelfi until 1948, when Karl Klarnet took over operations. Wolf sold the Surf Avenue frontage to the Bonra Realty Company in July 1948.[192] Bonra planned to replace the old buildings and entrance on Surf Avenue with two new structures for about $100,000.[193] The park's administration building on Surf Avenue remained vacant until May 1949, when it was also destroyed by a fire while being demolished.[194][195] In January 1950, the eastern half of the site was sold again to Ball Park Movies Inc., which wanted to build a drive-in theater.[189][196] By then, the site contained the remains of several rides, although all of the buildings had since been demolished.[189] Fred Trump acquired the park's eastern half from Ball Park Movies in October 1950, with the intention of constructing housing there.[197][198] Trump bought the park's western half, measuring 700 by 1,200 ft (210 by 370 m), in 1953 for $625,000.[199] This was one of several large residential developments being planned for Coney Island at the time.[200] Trump had assembled a 29-acre (12 ha) site, comprising not only the former Luna Park but also a strip of land stretching west to the New York City Subway's Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station.[201]
Trump had wanted to obtain financing from the Federal Housing Administration, which withheld funding after federal officials indicted Trump on charges of profiteering in connection with a separate development.[201] The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) took over the site and announced in December 1955 that it would build a housing development for $200,000.[201][202] The Coney Island Chamber of Commerce opposed the project, while the New York City Board of Estimate was in favor.[203][204] To comply with the Board of Estimate's requests, NYCHA revised its plan in early 1956 to exclude the attractions along Surf Avenue.[205] The site was temporarily used as a public parking lot during the 1956 operating season[206][207] and again in 1957.[208] NYCHA took title to the site in November 1956[209] and began constructing the housing project in July 1958.[210] The development was converted to a housing cooperative[211][212] prior to its completion in 1962.[213] A small part of the site, at Neptune Avenue and West 12th Street, was sold in 1960 and became a shopping center.[214]
Legacy[edit]
Reception[edit]
The day after the park opened in 1903, a reporter claimed that "the brilliance and beauty and weirdness of it all beggars description".[33] Soon afterward, the New-York Tribune wrote that the park was "most completely electrically illuminated and most attractively laid out, while there is nothing to which the most fastidious visitor can take the least exception in the way the attractions are presented or attention is drawn to them".[233] Russian author Maxim Gorky said of the park: "With the advent of night, a fantastic city all of fire suddenly rises from the ocean into the sky",[240] while another writer said that Luna Park's skyline "is utterly unlike anything else of its kind in the two Americas".[241] The Tribune wrote in 1904 that "people were at a loss for adjectives and exclamations to describe the City of the Moon last summer; they will be utterly swamped this year."[52] Not all commentary was positive; art critic James Huneker said "every angle reveals some new horror" at Dreamland and Luna Park.[242]
Luna Park's electric tower inspired the construction of similar towers at Steeplechase Park and Dreamland.[61] Billboard magazine described Luna Park and Dreamland in 1904 as the "twin sisters of magnificence";[243] the same magazine, in 1918, characterized Luna Park as a "real World's Fair".[106] Luna Park became so closely associated with Coney Island's amusements that, in 1921, the Standard Union called it "the heart of Coney Island".[244] In 1991, New York Times critic Walter Goodman described Luna Park as "a blazing architectural jumble, from Romanesque to Art Nouveau, alive with aerialists, tightrope walkers, jugglers and elephants."[245] John Kasson wrote in 1978 that, similar to the ornate vaudeville theaters and movie palaces of the early 20th century, "Luna appealed to popular notions of magnificence".[218]
Media[edit]
Before the park opened, it was featured in the short silent comedy Rube and Mandy at Coney Island.[246] The song "Meet Me Down At Luna, Lena" was recorded by Billy Murray in 1905 to promote the park, among others.[247] Roscoe Arbuckle's 1917 silent Coney Island featured Luna Park.[248][249] The 1928 Oscar-nominated King Vidor movie The Crowd includes scenes filmed at Luna Park,[250] and part of Harold Lloyd's 1928 movie Speedy was also shot at the park.[251]