MetaFilter posts tagged with coneyisland

Lilliputia Redux

dirtdirt — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:40:15 -0800

In Kunming, southern China, a community of dwarves has set up its own village to escape discrimination from normal sized people. "As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people. But here there aren't any big people and everything we do is for us," said spokesman Fu Tien. This is not the first time that an intentional city of little people has been built - in 1904 circus man Samuel Gumpertz built Lilliputia, "The Midget City". A 1/2 scale reproduction of 15th century Nuremberg at Dreamland, Coney Island, in Brooklyn, but Lilliputia was built strictly for the spectacle. Lilliputia had a full-time population of as many as 300 little people, complete with its own relatively sized parliament, beach, theatre, stable with small ponies, and functioning fire department (which 'performed' by putting out set fires on schedule, several times day). In fact, in 1911, when Dreamland burned to the ground "only Lilliputia's midget fire fighters - confronted with the real thing after +/- 2,500 false alarms - put up a real fight against the holocaust; they save a small piece of their Nuremburg - the fire station - but otherwise their actions are hopeless."

"It wasn't as bad as the movie makes it seem"

jessamyn — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:48:05 -0800

"We used to find teeth in the yard. We used to find wigs, glasses, guns. Everything we found in the yard…nobody came back for them, though." May Timpano describes her life in the house under the rollercoaster where she and her boyfriend, rollercoaster operator Fred Moran, lived for 36 years in the former Kensington Hotel which had the Thunderbolt rollercoaster built around it in 1925. The house -- the model for Alvy Singer's childhood home in Annie Hall -- burned in 1991 and the roller coaster was razed in 2000.

Build your own Astroland

Fuzzy Skinner — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:36:26 -0800

Sure, you're sad that Astroland at Coney Island has closed for good. But buck up, l'il Astro-nut! You can buy the rides and build your own! (Astroland's website is still active for now.)

A unique sideshow

djgh — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:18:58 -0800

Waterboarding at Coney Island

Hava nagila, have two nagilas, have three nagilas; they're very small.

not_on_display — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:52:03 -0800

Claire and Merna Bagelman, better known as The Barry Sisters. Every Sunday from 1938 to 1955 on WHN in New York, they mashed Swing with Yiddish Folk as the main attraction on the radio program Yiddish Melodies in Swing.[via] "We take a tune that's sweet and low, and we rock it solid and make it gold." They are indeed a Hebrew National Kosher Classic. More Yiddish music webceptacles. It's Yiddish swing time, it's always springtime, every Sunday at 1! It's Yiddish swing time, it's dance and sing time. Come on, Let's have fun! Sit, bubbellah, and listen to some tunes on the Youtube radio. • Vi iz dus geseleh? • Coney Island • The Passover Medley • Yidl Mitn Fidl • Chiribim, Chiribom (?) and Tum Balalaika • Eshet Chail (linked to above) • Halevai (with Moishe Oysher) • Tzena • Channa from Havanna (video picture pastiche documenting Jews in Cuba) • Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head • several bits of tunes overlaid with some footage... • ...and of course, הבה נגילה (Hava Nagila)!

All Warm & Comfy Now?

davy — Sun, 12 Dec 2004 08:05:05 -0800

Bowed by Age and Battered by an Addicted Nephew 'They went out late. It was ugly weather. Six below zero in the Brooklyn night. Wind took garbage into the air. A blizzard was in the forecast. It was Lincoln's Birthday, 2003, in Brighton Beach. Not a night for humankind, but the sisters, one 73 and the other 70, didn't get holidays off, didn't get snow days. In years of miserable low points, it was one of the lowest. As they had done the day before and the day before that, Lillian and Julia hobbled out to Coney Island Avenue, a lineup of chromatic storefronts, to beg from strangers in their cars. They were known out there, regulars among the mendicants. The money was for their bilious nephew and his crack habit, their own blood who was smoking up their lives. He had already cost them their house, their savings, their dignity. "I need one more," he would tell them when he desired a hit, "one more." Not comply and he would fly into crazed tirades, blacken an eye, bruise their ribs. It had been this way for years, since their lives stopped being comprehensible. ' [From the New York Times; they'll want registration, if you haven't already.]

malphigian — Mon, 22 Jul 2002 12:14:38 -0800

Coney Island , home to the Mermaid Parade, the nation's oldest and best wooden roller coaster, a swell new music festival, and Sideshow freaks so empowered they even teach classes. The park has a rich history, and the future? ...
Disney?

gummi — Mon, 06 May 2002 01:59:37 -0800

Have you ever dreamed of running away with the circus? Did anyone ever call you a freak? Well, now’s your chance to become one! Coney Island USA is proud to announce its latest program- SIDESHOW SCHOOL! Tuition: $600.

grumblebee — Mon, 23 Jul 2001 09:48:36 -0800

Edison electrocutes an elephant at Coney Island. I never knew this horrifying bit of history until I read about it via rscharm's MeFi post.