#Coney island sidetalk full#

MAHER: Dick is also the keeper of a cherished Coney Island tradition - the freak show. We invented soft ice cream, and best of all we invented the hot dog here. The idea of an enclosed theme park: a Coney Island invention. Armed with a masters in drama from Yale heвЂ™s a passionate spruiker for Coney IslandвЂ™s past as well as its future.ДICK ZIGUN: It is the place that invented a lot of what weД¬onsider an amusement park. MAHER: Dick Zigun is Coney IslandвЂ™s unofficial mayor.

#Coney island sidetalk full#

277 feet up from the ground in a parachute that was always open, it had guide wires coming down so you didnвЂ™t go flying out to the sea.Д«ut when this was in the heyday there was nothing like it.Д«ased on 4 th July records 1923 there were five hundred thousand on the beach.ДICK ZIGUN: You want it to be loud, urban and full of half naked New Yorkers. It was a magnificent three arc roman entrance to the entrance to steeplechase. IвЂ™m not kidding! IвЂ™m not kidding! MAHER: A tour guide now in his seventies Captain Bob has been coming here since he was four.Д¬APTAIN BOB: This is where steeplechase was. Those are girls who are under five feet tall that weigh over 260 pounds. MAHER: Captain Bob is one of Coney IslandвЂ™s characters.Д¬APTAIN BOB: We might even see somebody from the 260 Club here today.Д¬APTAIN BOB: The 260 Club. ItвЂ™s the widest and longest boardwalk in the world. Scared the living daylights out of me taking that thing. If youвЂ™re afraid of heights, donвЂ™t take it.

VOICE OVER FROM FILM: Welcome to Coney Island the playground of the world.Д¬APTAIN BOB: When this was in the hey day there was nothing like it, it was so crowded.Д«ut itвЂ™s the only Ferris wheel that has those inboard and outboard cars on it, pretty interesting. Today the resort is a mere remnant of its former self But from the late 1800s to the 1960s Coney Island had no rival. A time when life was a little more simple and a little more innocent. MAHER: Coney Island is of a different time. You wonвЂ™t see it on television, you wonвЂ™t see it on Broadway tonightвЂ¦ Freaks from the four corners of the world, 40 nickels, one dime a tenth part of a dollar, weвЂ™ve got the show if youвЂ™ve got the dimes! SPRUIKER: Hurry hurry step this way! The strangest sights on the island.