The tragic history of Coney Island - New York's family funfair spoiled by Donald Trump's dad
Coney Island - the backdrop of the new Woody Allen film released last week, Wonder Wheel, starring Kate Winslet - is one of New York’s most nostalgic quarters, in its heydey the site of several amusement parks, parts of which remain as official city landmarks.
For myself, and many New York natives, the Brooklyn neighbourhood conjures memories of summer - enjoying ice cream and cotton candy with the sounds of carousels, its ageing roller coasters and other fairground rides in the background, and the smell of the salty sea air and hot dogs from the historic Nathan’s Famous shop on the iconic Coney Island boardwalk that permeates from the beach coast.
But most may be unfamiliar with the area’s darker days, which can be traced back to one of the city’s most infamous natives - US president Donald Trump - whose father was responsible for the demise of Coney Island’s last remaining theme park.
The Coney Island site was once the largest amusement area in the country at the turn of the century and was famed for its technological innovations at the time such as electric lights and roller coasters, as well as a showcase of one of the world’s most peculiar exhibits - a bizarre sideshow of rows of premature babies in incubators, tended to by doctors and nurses.
The incubator was an extraordinary feat for the medical world and had already been saving the lives of babies across the Pond in Europe. But it was introduced to America at Coney Island by French doctor Martin Couney, whose own daughter had been born prematurely, in the early 1900s.
Despite Coney Island's early success, the parks faced the threat of closures after the end of the Second World War, competing with the less crowded and therefore more appealing parks and beaches of Long Island, coupled with a series of fires which destroyed parts of its three major parks including the short-lived but grandest Dreamland (whose central tower was lit up by a million electric lights), Luna Park and Steeplechase Park - the longest surviving of Coney Island’s theme parks.
Several property developers, including Fred Trump, were keen to transform the grounds, which were protected by local zoning laws to remain as an amusement area, into residential complexes.
But Robert Moses, an urban planner and city official at the time, managed to use his influence to have Luna Park re-zoned in the Fifties for residential purposes to create low income housing.
Mr Trump also briefly owned Luna Park as well as Coney Island’s Velodrome site, but he lost both in 1955 after being blacklisted by the US Federal Housing Administration following a series of deficiencies uncovered from his financial statements.
Yet he managed to get his hands on Steeplechase following its closure in 1964. The then 19-year-old Donald was said to have been present at the signing of the contract for its purchase.
In 1966, he was reported to have marked the occasion in a “demolition party” at the park where guests were invited to enjoy hotdogs and champagne served by bikini-clad models and given bricks to throw at the stained glass windows of the park’s historic pavilion, which was eventually bulldozed, to celebrate its death.
However, following a decade of court battles, Trump Snr was unsuccessful in getting the park rezoned for the building of apartments and eventually leased Steeplechase to another amusement park owner at Coney Island who attempted to recreate a new version of the park.
With housing developments being built in the surrounding area, the amusement parks of Coney Island began to see fewer visitors and at one point city officials hoped to turn the area into a gambling hub, similar to Atlantic City in New Jersey, but the plans were never realised and many of the amusement parks were soon left abandoned from the Seventies.
Today Coney Island continues to serve the city as a seaside resort and amusement park complex offering more than 50 rides and attractions, including its newest - the Ford Amphitheater, a 5,000-seat open-air concert venue set on the boardwalk which opened last summer.
The site is now home to only two amusement parks: a reincarnated Luna Park and Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park - which houses the Wonder Wheel, a steel Ferris wheel built in 1918 made of both rocking and stationary cars. It is one of three original rides remaining at Coney Island protected as registered NYC landmarks, which also include the Cyclone and the Parachute Jump.
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The Cyclone, built in 1927 and originally operated by the historic Astroland Park from the Sixties before the park was closed in 2008, is now found in Luna Park and is one of the country’s oldest wooden roller coasters in operation.
Originally built for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the Parachute Jump - an imposing open-frame steel structure which has been known as the ‘Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn’ - is the only ride from Steeplechase Park that still stands today.
The colourful history of Coney Island has been kept alive through community initiatives such as the Coney Island History Project, which last year marked 50 years since Trump’s destruction of Steeplechase in a special exhibit highlighting the park’s tragic fate.
The Coney Island History Project, in its 13th year this year, offers several free exhibitions and tours of the site where visitors can glimpse some of its most treasured items, such as an 1824 Toll House sign - Coney Island’s oldest surviving artefact - which notes the days when the toll fee for a horse and rider to the site cost a mere five cents.
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Other historic pieces on display include Coney Island’s only original Steeplechase horse and the Cyclops head from the Spook-A-Rama ride at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park - said to be Coney Island’s oldest ‘dark ride’.
Wonder Wheel is out in UK cinemas in March.
