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128-700: The Shore Theater (formerly known as the Coney Island Theater and alternately spelled Shore Theatre ) is a former movie theater in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City . The seven-story neo- Renaissance Revival building, with office space as well as a theater, is located at the intersection of Surf and Stillwell Avenues , across from Nathan's Famous and the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station . Completed in 1925, it

256-531: A $ 100 million entertainment complex between West 9th and West 15th Streets, with a "virtual-reality amusement park" as well as a movie theater multiplex . Concurrently, a four-phase, 873-unit housing development in Coney Island was completed in 1996. In 1998, Giuliani canceled Sportsplex and the entertainment complex, and instead unveiled another plan where only the parking lot would be built. The Sports Foundation had prepared another proposal that would allow

384-470: A 150-foot (46 m) domed ceiling. Charles Denson's pictures in 2006 showed that the theater contained several motifs that show the Halve Maen , a Dutch flyboat commandeered by Henry Hudson , as well as dancing mermaids. According to a blog post by Denson, there was also a mosaic fountain at the mezzanine level, marble columns, and a lobby ceiling with nautical-themed lighting fixtures. A plaster artwork on

512-402: A 1679–1680 journal, Jasper Danckaerts and Peter Sluyter noted that "Conijnen Eylandt" was fully separated from the rest of Brooklyn. The explorers observed that "Nobody lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs and others." By the early 18th century, the town of Gravesend was periodically granting seven-year-long leases to freeholders, who would then have

640-464: A 25-acre (10 ha) waterfront strip, which would be completed by 2002. Other proposals for the area included a $ 7.9 million restoration of the boardwalk, as well as a new high-school and college sports stadium. Some of Coney Island's iconic rides were designated as official city landmarks during the late 1980s. In 1988, the Cyclone roller coaster was made a New York City designated landmark. This

768-549: A bird's-eye view of the coast. The nearby "Camera Obscura" similarly used mirrors and lens to provide a panoramic view of the area. Coney Island became a major resort destination after the Civil War as excursion railroads and the Coney Island & Brooklyn Railroad streetcar line reached the area in the 1860s and 1870s, followed by the Iron Steamboat Company ferry to Manhattan in 1881. The 150-suite Cable Hotel

896-539: A competing revue to the undergraduates, called variably Revue and Integration or Revue and Imitation. The Moira Stuart Cup is competed for annually at the United Hospitals Comedy Revue, by all five of the University of London Medical Schools . It has been won by all medical schools at least once, with RUMS (UCL Medical School) and St George's Hospital Medical School achieving the most victories, winning

1024-638: A continued embrace of a unifying authorial presence in this seemingly scattershot genre, much as was earlier the case with Ziegfeld, Carrol, et al . With different artistic emphases, the revue genre is today above all upheld at traditional variety theatres such as the Le Lido , Moulin Rouge and Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, as well as in shows in Las Vegas. It is a current and fairly longstanding tradition of medical, dental, engineering, legal and veterinary schools within

1152-420: A formerly half-day journey to two hours. Most of the vacationers were wealthy and went by carriage. Inventor Samuel Colt built an observation tower on the peninsula in 1845, but he abandoned the project soon after. In 1847, the middle class started going to Coney Island upon the introduction of a ferry line to Norton's Point—named during the mid-1870s after hotel owner Michael Norton —at the western portion of

1280-487: A lease extension. The 1970s brought along further renewal plans, such as proposals to construct public housing, though the community was beset by social issues such as high crime and a drug epidemic. By 1975, the city was considering demolishing the Coney Island Cyclone in favor of an extension of the adjacent New York Aquarium. The proposed demolition was controversial, and after a refurbishment by Astroland ,

1408-403: A natural feature; the sand that is naturally supposed to replenish Coney Island is cut off by the jetty at Breezy Point, Queens . Sand has been redeposited on the beaches via beach nourishment since the construction of Riegelmann Boardwalk in 1922–1923, and is held in place by around two dozen groynes . A large sand-replenishing project along Coney Island and Brighton Beach took place in

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1536-416: A passive to an active concept. Of these amusement areas, Coney Island was the largest. At its height, it contained three competing major amusement parks— Luna Park , Dreamland , and Steeplechase Park —as well as many independent amusements. The area was also the center of new technological events and innovations including electric lights, roller coasters, and baby incubators . By the first decade of

1664-541: A resort to an accessible location for day-trippers seeking to escape the summer heat in New York City's tenements . Charles I. D. Looff , a Danish woodcarver , built the first carousel and amusement ride at Coney Island in 1876, at Lucy Vandeveer's bath-house complex at West 6th Street and Surf Avenue. Looff personally hand-carved the designs into the carousel. Looff subsequently commissioned another carousel at Feltman's Ocean Pavilion in 1880. Another early attraction

1792-572: A scaled-down Sportsplex to be built next to the minor-league baseball stadium. The minor league team was called the Brooklyn Cyclones, though naming rights to the stadium were sold to Keyspan Energy . Bullard, now no longer rebuilding Steeplechase Park, had wanted to restore the Thunderbolt as part of a scaled-down amusement park, but it was demolished instead. In 2000, the city approved the $ 31 million project to construct Keyspan Park using

1920-542: A shell road across the island to the beaches. In 1829, the company also built the first hotel on the island: the Coney Island House, near present-day Sea Gate. Due to Coney Island's proximity to Manhattan and other boroughs, and its simultaneous relative distance from the city of Brooklyn to provide the illusion of a proper vacation, it began attracting vacationers in the 1830s and 1840s, assisted by carriage roads and steamship service that reduced travel time from

2048-446: A simple design. On the southern part of the western facade, the wall is made of brick and there are three windows on each floor. The northern part of the western facade is a blank wall with an emergency staircase. The northern facade does not have any windows, but instead consist of slightly projecting blank walls. The Shore Theater had an auditorium in its northern portion, which in its heyday could fit 2,472 patrons. The theater contains

2176-496: A spa and shops on the ground floor, as well as hotel rooms in the former office space. According to the developers, the hotel was to have been completed in 2021. The renovation did not begin until early 2023. The southern portion of the Shore Theater (facing Surf Avenue) housed the offices, while the northern portion (away from Surf Avenue) housed the theater. The ground level contained storefronts housed within several bays . Above

2304-400: A thousand people homeless. The early 20th century additionally saw the infilling of a portion of the 3-mile-long (4.8 km) Coney Island Creek , thereby connecting Coney Island to the rest of Brooklyn. In the previous decades, there had been plans to dredge and straighten the creek as a ship canal , which were later abandoned. By 1924, local landowners and the city had filled a portion of

2432-412: A traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan , that took place in late 1975 and early 1976. Towards the end of the 20th century, a subgenre of revue largely dispensed with the sketches, founding narrative structure within a song cycle in which the material is culled from varied works. This type of revue may or may not have identifiable characters and a rudimentary storyline but, even when it does,

2560-511: A treatise on New York place names and said it was " Conyn's Island ", after the Dutch surname, and noted " there are already symptoms of the beginning of a tradition that it once abounded in Rabbits ". Other historians claim that rabbits were introduced to the island only after it was settled. The 19th century also saw the heavily Irish New York Tammany Hall political machine controlling development of

2688-574: A vocabulary of the spectacular. Burlesque , itself a bawdy hybrid of various theatrical forms, lent to classic revue an open interest in female sexuality and the masculine gaze. Revues enjoyed great success on Broadway from the World War I years until the Great Depression , when the stock market crash forced many revues from cavernous Broadway houses into smaller venues. (The shows did, however, continue to infrequently appear in large theatres well into

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2816-414: Is "point" or "corner of land". The "island" was originally several smaller historical islands, each being given a name by Dutch settlers, with the westernmost sand spit or point being given named Conyne Eylandt in early-17th-century Dutch maps, starting with the 1639 Manatus Map . There is no clear historical consensus on how the island got the name "Coney Island", in regular use in the first half of

2944-764: Is 11224. It is patrolled by the 60th Precinct of the New York City Police Department . Fire services are provided by the New York City Fire Department 's Engine 245/Ladder 161/Battalion 43 and Engine 318/Ladder 166. Politically, Coney Island is represented by the New York City Council 's 47th District. The area is well served by the New York City Subway and local bus routes, and contains several public elementary and middle schools. The Encyclopedia of New York City considers

3072-422: Is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn . The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to the north and includes the subsection of Sea Gate on its west. More broadly, the Coney Island peninsula consists of Coney Island proper, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach. This

3200-478: Is still extant, dates to the early days of Steeplechase Park. The first decade of the 20th century saw two more large amusement parks. Luna Park opened in 1903 on the site of Sea Lion Park, which had closed the previous year. The park contained a variety of attractions and exotic landscaping, lit by electricity at night; its flagship ride was A Trip to the Moon , an attraction based on Jules Verne 's novel From

3328-655: The Culver Line steam railway to West Brighton in 1875, before Corbin and Engeman had even built their railroads. For 35 cents, one could ride the Prospect Park & Coney Island Railroad to the Culver Depot terminal at Surf Avenue. Across the street from the terminal, the 300-foot (91 m) Iron Tower (also known as the Centennial Observatory), bought from the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition , provided patrons with

3456-727: The New York City bid of the 2012 Summer Olympics . A plan was developed by the Astella Development Corporation . When the city lost the Olympic bid, the plans were passed to the Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC), which made modified plans. Shortly before the CIDC's plans were to be publicly released, a development company named Thor Equities purchased all of Bullard's 168,000-square-foot (15,600 m ) western property for $ 13 million, later selling

3584-686: The Parks Department , a request that was granted in 1949. Moses then had the land rezoned for residential use, with plans to demolish "about a third" of attractions along Surf Avenue, one block north of the beach, and replace these with housing. Moses moved the boardwalk back from the beach several yards, demolishing many structures, including the city's municipal bath house, as well as several blocks of amusements. He claimed that fewer amusement-seekers were going to Coney Island every year, because they preferred places where they could bathe outdoors, such as Jones Beach State Park on Long Island, rather than

3712-679: The Shore Theater in 1925; several roller coasters in the 1920s including the Tornado , Thunderbolt , and Coney Island Cyclone ; and the Parachute Jump in 1941 contributed to the area's quality as an amusement destination. In particular, the Riegelmann Boardwalk enabled the crowds to be dispersed away from Surf Avenue, the main west–east avenue in the area. Despite staff shortages during World War II, Coney Island retained its popularity and

3840-580: The Statue of Liberty . Next to be developed were horse-racing tracks, and by 1890, Coney Island had three tracks: Sheepshead Bay Race Track , Brighton Beach Race Course , and Gravesend Race Track . Julian Ralph described Coney Island in 1896 as "the first made-to-order resort in America", with many businesses having "leaped from nothing into full fledged perfection". However, crime and corruption in Coney Island were prevalent. The main leader of this corruption

3968-586: The War of 1812 . Coney Island was so remote that Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick on the island in 1849, and Henry Clay and Daniel Webster discussed the Missouri Compromise at the island the next year. In 1824, the Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company built the first bridge across Jamaica Ditch (by now known as Coney Island Creek), connecting the island with the mainland. The company also built

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4096-474: The "mechanical gadget" attractions of Coney Island. Moses also announced that the Steeplechase Pier would be closed for a year so it could be renovated. In 1953, Moses proposed that most of the peninsula be rezoned for various uses, claiming that it would be an "upgrade" over the various business and unrestricted zones that existed at the time. Steeplechase Park would be allowed to remain open, but much of

4224-537: The 1609 expedition. A third posits that late 18th century Irish captain Peter O'Connor named it after Coney Island in County Sligo , Ireland, which has a rabbit population. In Irish 'coinín' (kun een) is the word used for a rabbit. Yet other theories suggest a Dutch etymology: one theory holds that the name had come from Conyn, the surname of a family of Dutch settlers who lived there, and another suggests that it came from

4352-536: The 1920s. The Coney Island Theater was built on the site of the Culver Depot , a former railroad terminal that was decommissioned after the new subway terminal had opened. One resident on the site refused to be evicted, resulting in a court case where he was eventually paid $ 5,000 to move away. The theater was constructed by the Chanin Construction Company , whose president Irwin Chanin said that he believed

4480-547: The 1930s and 1940s, with films such as "Frau meiner Träume" being made. Revues took advantage of their high revenue stream to lure away performers from other media, often offering exorbitant weekly salaries without the unremitting travel demanded by other entertainments. Performers such as Eddie Cantor , Anna Held , W. C. Fields , Bert Williams , Ed Wynn , the Marx Brothers and the Fairbanks Twins found great success on

4608-489: The 1950s.) The high ticket prices of many revues helped ensure audiences distinct from other live popular entertainments during their height of popularity (late 1910s–1940s). In 1914, the Follies charged $ 5.00 for an opening night ticket ($ 130 in 2020 dollars); at that time, many cinema houses charged from $ 0.10 to 0.25, while low-priced vaudeville seats were $ 0.15. Among the many popular producers of revues, Florenz Ziegfeld played

4736-413: The 1990s. Sheepshead Bay at the peninsula's northeast corner is, for the most part, enclosed in bulkheads . Two major parks, Kaiser Park and Coney Island Creek Park , are located on the northwest side of the peninsula along Coney Island Creek. A 2023 study found that Coney Island was sinking at a rate of about 2.6 ± 0.8 millimeters (0.102 ± 0.031 in) per year, making it among

4864-457: The 19th century with the advent of regular ferry service to the island, but several theories have been put forward. One possible etymology is from a Native American tribe, the Konoh or Konoi (the "Bear Band"), who once inhabited the island. A second theory suggests that it was distortion of the name of Henry Hudson 's second mate on the Halve Maen , John Colman , who was slain by natives on

4992-575: The 20th century, Coney Island was seen as a top getaway and "a symbol of Americans' increasing pride". By the late 1870s, Coney Island's hotels had drawn people from many different social classes, and attractions were being built. When the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company electrified the steam railroads and connected Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of the 20th century, Coney Island turned rapidly from

5120-627: The 20th century. Further redevelopment of Coney Island came with the opening of the New York City Subway to Stillwell Avenue in 1920 and the completion of the Riegelmann Boardwalk three years later. With this came the construction of structures such as Child's Restaurant on the Boardwalk, the Half Moon Hotel , Stauch's Baths, and various amusement rides and theaters, all during the Jazz Age in

5248-613: The American theatre. Rodgers and Hart , one of the great composer/lyricist teams of the American musical theatre , followed up their early Columbia University student revues with the successful Garrick Gaieties (1925). Comedian Fanny Brice , following a brief period in burlesque and amateur variety, bowed to revue audiences in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1910 . Specialist writers and composers of revues have included Sandy Wilson , Noël Coward , John Stromberg, George Gershwin , Earl Carroll , and

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5376-605: The British team Flanders and Swann . In Britain predominantly, Tom Arnold also specialized in promoting series of revues and his acts extended to the European continent and South Africa. With the introduction of talking pictures, in 1927, studios immediately began filming acts from the stage. Such film shorts gradually replaced the live entertainment that had often accompanied cinema exhibition. By 1928, studios began planning to film feature-length versions of popular musicals and revues from

5504-526: The Bullard deal by approving the construction of a minor-league baseball stadium on the site allotted for Steeplechase Park. Giuliani had wanted to build Sportsplex in order to improve sports facilities in the area, and to create a professional baseball team in Brooklyn. By the late 1990s, some $ 67 million had been secured for the development of Sportsplex. In 1997, developer Bruce Ratner proposed constructing

5632-564: The Cyclone reopened for the summer 1975 season. The abandoned Parachute Jump was left in situ, and the New York City Board of Estimate planned to tear down the structure. In the meanwhile, Coney Island was still affected by a perception of crime and deterioration of old rides, but by the mid-1970s, middle-class families started returning to Coney Island following the implementation of a unified admission ticket to Coney Island's amusement areas. The city continued to pursue litigation over

5760-517: The Dutch word for rabbit , "konijn", derived from a purported large population of wild rabbits on the island". There is little evidence for each origin theory, and there are conflicts between the pieces of evidence that do exist. The most popular idea is the translation of the Dutch word for "rabbit" into the English word coney , but that has its detractors and counter explanations. In 1816 politician and U.S. Founding Father Egbert Benson presented

5888-512: The Earth to the Moon . The following year saw the opening of Dreamland , which reproduced many attractions at Luna Park, but at a grander scale, with a large central tower and lagoon, a sunken plaza, and one million electric lights. Additionally, the City of New York made efforts to condemn all buildings and piers built south of Surf Avenue in an effort to reclaim the beach and create a boardwalk, though

6016-628: The Festival, with St. George's Medics Revue having been performing annually at the Fringe for 18 years and have sold-out their show for the last nine years. The BSMS Medic Revue has performed sellout shows in the Brighton Fringe Festival since 2008. The MDs Comedy Revue performed at the Fringe for the first time in 2015, to a sell-out audience, repeating this feat their second show in 2016 and their third in 2018. The Cambridge clinical school also now run

6144-579: The Stillwell and Surf Avenue frontages. Construction was expected to cost $ 2 million in total. In April 1925, the Coney Island Theater was leased to Loew's Theatres . On June 17, 1925, Loew's president Marcus Loew presided over the opening of the Coney Island Theater. The attendees on its opening day included Johnny Hines , Barbara La Marr , Mae Busch , Ben Lyon , Texas Guinan , Dorothy Mackaill , Virginia Lee Corbin , and John Lowe . Vaudeville

6272-644: The UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to put on revues each year, combining comedy sketches, songs, parodies, films and sound-bites. One of the most notable and funniest is the Australian National University's "Arts Revue". As well as performing at their respective universities, shows will often be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe . The Cambridge Medics Revue, St George's Medics Revue, and Birmingham Medics Revues have all performed at

6400-555: The Wonder Wheel. The New York Aquarium's new site opened in June 1957. At this point, there were still several dozen rides in Coney Island. During the summers of 1964 and 1965, there was a large decrease in the number of visitors to Coney Island because of the 1964/1965 World's Fair at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens. Crime increases, insufficient parking facilities, bad weather, and

6528-439: The addition of parking lots and reconstruction of part of the boardwalk. The city purchased a 400-foot-wide (120 m) strip of land along the shoreline, which would allow the boardwalk to be moved 300 feet (91 m) inland. At this point, Coney Island was so crowded on summer weekends that, according to Moses, a coffin would provide more space per person. Though ride construction was delayed due to material shortages caused by

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6656-431: The arable land and extending east through today's Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach . This was officially the first official real estate transaction for the island. Op Dyck never occupied his land, and in 1661 he sold it off to Dick De Wolf. The land's new owner banned Gravesend residents from using Guisbert's Island and built a salt-works on the land, provoking outrage among Gravesend livestock herders. New Amsterdam

6784-499: The area dwindled as the Dutch settlement grew and the entire southern tier of present-day Brooklyn, from Gowanus Creek to Coney Island to Gerritsen Creek , was purchased in 1645 from the Native Americans in exchange for goods. The goods were not recorded in the deed, but later accounts mention a gun, a blanket, and a kettle. In 1644, a colonist named Guysbert Op Dyck was given a land patent for 88 acres of land in what became

6912-615: The area west of Ocean Parkway (including Sea Gate and Nortons Point Light ) to be part of the Coney Island neighborhood. The neighborhood is situated on the western portion of the Coney Island peninsula , located on the western end of Long Island lying to the west of the Outer Barrier islands along Long Island's southern shore. The peninsula is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. It extends into Lower New York Bay with Sheepshead Bay to its northeast, Gravesend Bay and Coney Island Creek to its northwest, and

7040-510: The area's economy. Residents and politicians supported the idea of building casinos at Coney Island, which they felt would alleviate its poverty, crime, and property vacancy rates. However, there was substantial controversy over the plans to place a gambling site in Coney Island. The state's interest in legalizing gambling had subsided by 1981, and the New York state legislature failed to take action on such proposal. In an effort to reduce crime,

7168-435: The area's murder and felony crime rate. By the late 1980s, deadly shootings were common, particularly in the low-income housing developments inside Coney Island. Commercial activity also decreased, and by 1990, storefronts on Mermaid Avenue had decreased by 90%, from over 400 stores before the urban renewal to 39 stores afterward. In the mid-1980s, restaurant mogul Horace Bullard proposed rebuilding Steeplechase Park. On

7296-586: The area. The very first roller coaster at Coney Island was the Switchback Railway , a gravity coaster installed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson at West 10th Street in 1884. Nearby was the Elephantine Colossus , a seven-story building (including a brothel ) in the shape of an elephant, which opened the following year. Until its demolition in 1896, the elephant was the first sight to greet immigrants arriving in New York, who would see it before they saw

7424-443: The bandwagon and produced expensive revues such as Harmony Heaven ( British International Pictures , 1929), Elstree Calling (BIP, 1930), and The Musical Revue Of 1959 (BI P, 1960). Revues are often common today as student entertainment (with strong traditions in many universities in UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark). These use pastiche , in which contemporary songs are re-written in order to comment on

7552-580: The building. The theater was made an official city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2010. In January 2016, developer Pye Properties purchased the Shore Theater for $ 14 million. No official decision was made at first, though a hotel and entertainment complex were proposed. At the time, the cost of the retail space in the theater was estimated at $ 75 per square foot ($ 810/m). Then, in August 2018, it

7680-521: The capacity for 1,200 bathers. Hotel Brighton, also known as the Brighton Beach Hotel, was situated on the beach at what is now the foot of Coney Island Avenue . The Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway , the predecessor to the New York City Subway 's present-day Brighton Line , opened on July 2, 1878, and provided access to the hotel. Simultaneously, wealthy banker Austin Corbin

7808-463: The ceiling outside the auditorium was too badly damaged to be repaired. Commercial space occupied the first floor of the building's southern portion, while there was office space above it. These spaces were used by such tenants as a Head Start children's program, a Medicaid office, an office for a cigar company, and a dress manufacturer. The commercial space was occupied by a bar and then a Kansas Fried Chicken . Coney Island Coney Island

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7936-447: The city also began demolishing abandoned bungalows in Coney Island. By 1982, the area was filled with vacant lots, though several residential developments were being planned for Coney Island. Having finally acquired Kaufman's rides, the New York City government began advertising for developers to redevelop the former amusement park area that November. The Mermaid-Neptune Development Corporation constructed three residential developments at

8064-559: The city announced its plans to acquire the 125 acres (51 ha) of the former Steeplechase Park, a move that many residents supported but that Trump considered to be "wasteful". In January 1968, New York City parks commissioner August Heckscher II proposed that the New York state government build an "open-space" state park on the Steeplechase site, and that May, the New York City Board of Estimate voted in favor of funding to buy

8192-465: The college or courses in a humorous nature. While most comic songs will only be heard within the revue they were written for, sometimes they become more widely known—such as "A Transport of Delight", about the big red London bus, by Flanders and Swann , who first made their name in a revue titled At the Drop of a Hat . The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour in the mid-1970s consisting of

8320-535: The community included the Atlantic Yacht Club , which built a colonial style house along the waterfront. Between about 1880 and World War II , Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. Its development as an amusement area was concurrent with the erection of urban amusement parks elsewhere in the United States, which changed amusement from

8448-667: The cost of the amusement park nearly doubled, to $ 100 million. Concurrently, in December 1986, the New York State Urban Development Corporation formally proposed a 17,000-seat minor-league baseball stadium north of the boardwalk between West 19th and West 22nd Streets as well as 15,000-seat indoor arena north of the Abe Stark Rink. Negotiations were ongoing with the Mets and Yankees to ensure their support for

8576-401: The creation of such a ditch would allow them to ship goods from Jamaica Bay to New York Harbor without having to venture out into the ocean. In 1750, the "Jamaica Ditch" was dug through Coney Hook from Brown's Creek in the west to Hubbard's Creek in the east. The creation of the canal turned Coney Hook into a detached 0.5-mile-long (0.80 km) island called Pine Island, so named due to

8704-411: The creation of the Coney Island House, a seaside resort . Coney Island soon developed as a resort destination in the mid-19th century, development of which was helped by the construction of railroads after the American Civil War . A series of fires in the resorts in the 1880s and 1890s opened up large tracts of land for the development of theme parks, of which several had been built by the first decade of

8832-434: The creek. A major section of the creek was further filled in to allow construction of the Belt Parkway in the 1930s, and the western and eastern ends of the island became peninsulas. More fill was added in 1962 during the construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge . In 1937, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses published a report about the possible redevelopment of Coney Island, which would have entailed

8960-403: The doorway, and a carved stone marquee above it with the words "Coney Island Theatre Building". Dressed stone also surrounds another doorway under the marquee, as well as the piers at the extreme ends on the Surf and Stillwell Avenue facades. The seventh floor contains a central pavilion with five bays, containing terracotta ornamentation, as well as a porch. A vertical sign with the words "SHORE"

9088-451: The early 1900s, West Brighton had gradually become the most popular destination, and as such, became associated with the lively amusement area of Coney Island. In the 1890s, Norton's Point on the western side of Coney Island was developed into Sea Gate , a gated summer community that catered mainly to the wealthy. A private yacht carried visitors directly from the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Notable tenants within

9216-445: The early 2000s, the Shore Theater was not developed and continued to rot. Squatters and graffiti writers started to frequent the structure, and while the electricity still worked, the floor was littered with rubble, according to pictures taken in 2006 by area historian Charles Denson. Few people were allowed inside the building, which was heavily guarded; security was increased after a blogger was able to break in and take several images of

9344-523: The entrepreneurs who took advantage of the increased visitor counts was Nathan Handwerker , who in 1916 started selling hot dogs at Coney Island for a nickel each, and eventually expanded his enterprise into the Nathan's Famous hot dog chain. Coney Island's development as an amusement area continued through the end of World War II. The opening of the Wonder Wheel in 1920; the Riegelmann Boardwalk in 1923;

9472-412: The exclusive use of Coney Hook and Coney Island. In 1734, a road to Coney Hook was laid out. Thomas Stillwell, a prominent Gravesend resident who was the freeholder for Coney Island and Coney Hook at the time, proposed to build a ditch through Coney Hook so it would be easier for his cattle to graze. He convinced several friends in the nearby town of Jamaica to help him in this effort, telling them that

9600-517: The fastest-sinking locations in New York City; this is mainly because parts of the neighborhood were created by land reclamation . Coney Island has a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) and the hardiness zone is 7b. The original Native American inhabitants of the region, the Lenape , called this area Narrioch , possibly meaning "land without shadows" or "always in light" in reference to its sunlit south-facing beaches. A second possible meaning

9728-464: The funds from the canceled Sportsplex, and the minor-league baseball stadium opened the following year. Other major projects at the time included the reconstruction of Coney Island's sewers and the refurbishment of the Stillwell Avenue subway station, the latter of which was completed in 2005. In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took an interest in revitalizing Coney Island as a possible site for

9856-512: The greatest role in developing the classical revue through his glorification of a new theatrical "type", "the American girl". Famed for his often bizarre publicity schemes and continual debt, Ziegfeld joined Earl Carroll , George White , John Murray Anderson , and the Shubert Brothers as the leading producing figure of the American revue's golden age. Revues also had a presence in Germany during

9984-424: The ground floor is a double-height piano nobile along the southern and part of the eastern and western facades, which contains semicircular-topped windows corresponding to the bays below. The third through fifth floors have buff -colored brick exteriors and a pair of rectangular windows in each bay. The sixth floor has a similar window layout but with a terracotta exterior and a frieze above it. The seventh floor

10112-467: The island, and they may have gotten the name from the island in County Sligo rather than any tale of a rabbit population. Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to sight the island of Narrioch during his expeditions to the area in 1527 and 1529. He was subsequently followed by Henry Hudson. Anthony Janszoon van Salee was the first New Netherland settler to acquire land adjacent to Coney Island, in 1639. The Native American population in

10240-433: The land from Trump. Condemnation of the site started in 1969. The city ultimately purchased the proposed park's site for $ 4 million, with a stipulation blocking Trump from developing the site as apartments. Trump filed a series of court cases related to the proposed residential rezoning, and ultimately won a $ 1.3 million judgment. The Steeplechase Park site lay empty for several years. Trump started subleasing

10368-417: The last remaining large amusement park in Coney Island, closed permanently after the 1964 season. The surrounding blocks were filled with amusement rides and concessions that were closed or about to close. The rides at Steeplechase Park were auctioned off, and the property was sold to developer Fred Trump , who in 1965 announced that he wanted to build luxury apartments on the old Steeplechase property. At

10496-401: The live entertainment would start soon afterward. By the early 1970s, the live shows had ended and the theater displayed adult films . The building was sold in 1978 or 1979 to Kansas Fried Chicken owner Horace Bullard , who had bought numerous properties in Coney Island. Bullard unsuccessfully tried to renovate the theater into a hotel and casino. Despite the redevelopment of Coney Island in

10624-452: The local amusement community opposed the move. Eventually, the city government and the community reached an agreement mandating that the beach did not begin until 1,000 feet (300 m) south of Surf Avenue and that the territory would be marked by a city-owned boardwalk. In return, the city would demolish any structures built upon public streets to reclaim beach access. The original resorts lost patronage after horse racing in New York state

10752-407: The location. The attractions reached a historical peak during the first half of the 20th century. However, they declined in popularity after World War II and, following years of neglect, several structures were torn down. Various redevelopment projects were proposed for Coney Island in the 1970s through the 2000s, though most of these were not carried out. The area was revitalized with the opening of

10880-539: The main part of Brooklyn to its north. At its highest it is 7 feet (2.1 m) above sea level. Coney Island was formerly an actual island, separated from greater Brooklyn by Coney Island Creek, and was the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands. A large section of the creek was filled in the 1920s and 1930s, turning the island into a peninsula. The perimeter of Coney Island features manmade structures designed to maintain its current shape. The beaches are currently not

11008-421: The minor-league stadium. State senator Thomas Bartosiewicz attempted to block Bullard's plan, as he was part of a foundation that had promised another developer, Sportsplex, the right to build an amateur sports arena on the site. Construction was held up for another four years, and by 1989, Bullard and the city were ready to sign a contract that would allow the developer to construct a 60-ride amusement park on

11136-503: The neighborhood's western edge, with a combined total of 430 units. These developments were completed through the mid-1980s. Even so, the area still suffered from drug-related killings and other crimes, especially west of West 20th Street. Former amusement structures such as the Parachute Jump lay unused, and prostitutes roamed around the neighborhood at night. Through the 1980s, prostitution and drug use in Coney Island increased, as did

11264-416: The occasional use of prurient material, the revue was typically patronized by audience members who earned more and felt even less restricted by middle-class social norms than their contemporaries in vaudeville . Like much of that era's popular entertainments, revues often featured material based on sophisticated, irreverent dissections of topical matter, public personae and fads, though the primary attraction

11392-411: The onset of World War II , two new rides were constructed in 1946 at the end of the war. In August 1944, Luna Park was destroyed by a fire. Two years later, it was closed permanently and sold to a company who wanted to tear down the park's remnants and build Quonset huts for military veterans and their families. Moses asked the city to transfer Luna Park's land along the Coney Island waterfront to

11520-459: The peninsula housed almost 100,000 people. During 1966, developers tried to revitalize the Coney Island boardwalk as an amusement area. Trump destroyed Steeplechase Park's Pavilion of Fun during a highly publicized ceremony that September. In its stead, Trump proposed building a 160-foot-high (49 m) enclosed dome with recreational facilities and a convention center, a plan supported by Brooklyn borough president Abe Stark . The next month,

11648-412: The peninsula. Gang activity started as well, with one 1870s writer noting that going to Coney Island could result in losing money and even lives. The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad became the first railroad to reach Coney Island when it opened in 1864, and it was completed in 1867. Over the next 13 years, four more railroads were built specifically to transport visitors to Coney Island; this

11776-455: The piano nobile level, there are two narrow rectangular windows in between the two northernmost bays. The windows on the third through sixth floors do not correspond to the bays below, and there are seven windows on each floor. The northern part of the facade consists of a windowless blank wall with an emergency staircase from the theater affixed to it. The western and northern facades, both of which originally faced neighboring structures, contain

11904-429: The post-World War II automotive boom were also cited as contributing factors in the visitor decrease. During the summer of 1964, concessionaires saw their lowest profits in a quarter-century. Ride operators reported that they had 30% to 90% fewer visitors in 1964 compared to the previous year. A small amusement park called Astroland was announced for the boardwalk in 1962, to open the following year. Steeplechase Park,

12032-451: The present-day Coney Island was divided across several separate islands. All of these islands were part of the outer barrier on the southern shore of Long Island, and their land areas and boundaries changed frequently. Only the westernmost island was called Coney Island; it currently makes up part of Sea Gate . At the time, it was a 1.25-mile shifting sandspit with a detached island at its western end extending into Lower New York Bay. In

12160-438: The property to Norman Kaufman , who ran a small collection of fairground amusements called "Steeplechase Park" on part of the site. The city also leased the boardwalk and parking lot sites at extremely low rates, which resulted in a $ 1 million loss of revenue over the following seven years. Since the city wanted to build the state park on the site of Kaufman's Steeplechase Park, it attempted to evict him by refusing to grant

12288-468: The property to Taconic Investment Partners for over $ 90 million. Taconic now had 100 acres (40 ha), on which it planned to build 2,000 apartment units. Thor then went about using much of its $ 77 million profit to purchase property on Stillwell Avenue for well over market value, and offered to buy out every piece of property inside the traditional amusement area. Revue Owing to high ticket prices, ribald publicity campaigns and

12416-406: The relatively low cost of $ 20,000. This 460-by-210-foot (140 by 64 m) hotel, with rooms for up to 5,000 people nightly and meals for up to 20,000 people daily, was close to the then-rundown western Coney Island, so it was mostly the upper middle class that went to this hotel. The 400-foot (120 m), double-decker Brighton Beach Bathing Pavilion was also built nearby and opened in 1878, with

12544-507: The revue stage. One of Cole Porter 's early shows was Raymond Hitchcock 's revue Hitchy-Koo of 1919 . Composers or lyricists such as Richard Rodgers , Lorenz Hart , Irving Berlin , and George M. Cohan also enjoyed a tremendous reception on the part of audiences. Sometimes, an appearance in a revue provided a key early entry into entertainment. Largely due to their centralization in New York City and their adroit use of publicity, revues proved particularly adept at introducing new talents to

12672-501: The shorefront amusements and concessions would be replaced by residential developments. After many complaints from the public and from concession operators, the Estimate Board reinstated the area between West 22nd and West Eighth Streets as an amusement-only zone, with the zone extending 200 to 400 feet (61 to 122 m) inland from the shoreline. Moses's subsequent proposal to extend the Coney Island boardwalk east to Manhattan Beach

12800-536: The site bounded by West 15th and 19th Streets between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, Bullard wanted to build a $ 55 million amusement park based on the originals. The city agreed, and the project was approved in 1985. Bullard planned to open the park by mid-1986 to coincide with the Statue of Liberty 's centennial. However, the project was delayed while the New York City Planning Commission compiled an environmental impact report. By early 1987,

12928-495: The site occupied by Norman Kaufman, but for over a decade, was unsuccessful. It had no plan for the proposed state park, and in 1975 the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development nearly withdrew a proposed grant of $ 2 million to fund the proposed park. The city ultimately accepted the grant, though different city agencies still disagreed over whether to return the funds. Kaufman continued to operate

13056-476: The site until the end of summer 1980. The following June, the city paid Kaufman a million dollars for the rides, effectively evicting him, even though the amusements were estimated to be worth much less. In 1979, the state announced that it would be conducting a report on the feasibility of legalizing gambling in New York State. Mayor Ed Koch proposed that the state open casinos in New York City to revitalize

13184-508: The songs remain the focus of the show (for example, Closer Than Ever by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire ). This type of revue usually showcases songs written by a particular composer or songs made famous by a particular performer. Examples of the former are Side By Side By Sondheim (music/lyrics Stephen Sondheim ), Eubie! ( Eubie Blake ) Tom Foolery ( Tom Lehrer ), and Five Guys Named Moe (songs made popular by Louis Jordan ). The eponymous nature of these later revues suggest

13312-780: The stage. The lavish films, noted by many for a sustained opulence unrivaled in Hollywood until the 1950s epics, reached a breadth of audience never found by the stage revue, all while significantly underpricing the now-faltering theatrical shows. A number of revues were released by the studios, many of which were filmed entirely (or partly) in color. The most notable examples of these are The Show of Shows ( Warner Brothers , 1929), The Hollywood Revue of 1929 ( Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , 1929), Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 ( Fox Film Corporation , 1929), Paramount on Parade ( Paramount , 1930), New Movietone Follies of 1930 (Fox, 1930), and King of Jazz ( Universal , 1930). Even Britain jumped on

13440-590: The term was proprietary to Ziegfeld until his death in 1932. Other popular proprietary revue names included George White's "Scandals," Earl Carroll 's "Vanities" and John Murray Anderson 's Greenwich Village Follies . Revues are most properly understood as having amalgamated several theatrical traditions within the corpus of a single entertainment. Minstrelsy 's olio section provided a structural map of popular variety presentation, while literary travesties highlighted an audience hunger for satire. Theatrical extravaganzas , in particular, moving panoramas, demonstrated

13568-682: The theater would satiate "the great need in Coney Island for an all-year amusement". Theater designers Paul C. Reilly and Douglas Pairman Hall were hired to design the structure, construction for which began in May 1924. The Coney Island Theater distinguished itself from other area theaters in that it was constructed with brick , limestone , and terracotta as opposed to the wooden materials used in other Coney Island structures. In addition, it provided seven stories where other Coney Island buildings were only one or two stories. The theater also included offices intended for entertainment companies as well as shops on

13696-555: The time, residential developments in Coney Island in general were being built at a rapid rate. The peninsula, which had 34,000 residents in 1961, was expected to have more than double that number by the end of 1964. Many of the new residents moved into middle-income co-operative housing developments such as Trump Village , Warbasse Houses , and Luna Park Apartments ; these replaced what The New York Times described as "a rundown sprawl of rickety houses". Developers were spending millions of dollars on new housing developments, and by 1966,

13824-483: The town of Gravesend , on the southwestern shore of Brooklyn. The land patent included Conyne Island, an island just off the southwestern shore of the town of Gravesend, as well as Conyne Hook, a peninsula just east of the island. Both became part of Gravesend when its first town charter was granted a year later, in 1645. East of Conyne Hook was the largest section of island called Gysbert's, Guysbert's, or Guisbert's Island (also called Johnson Island), containing most of

13952-403: The venue now known as Maimonides Park in 2001 and several amusement rides starting in the 2010s. Coney Island had around 32,000 residents as of the 2010 United States Census . The neighborhood is ethnically diverse, and the neighborhood's poverty rate of 27% is slightly higher than that of the city as a whole. Coney Island is part of Brooklyn Community District 13 , and its primary ZIP Code

14080-482: The woods on it. Each island was separated by an inlet that could only be crossed at low tide. By the end of the 18th century, the ongoing shifting of sand along the barrier islands had closed up the inlets to the point that residents began filling them in and joining them as one island. Development of Coney Island was slow until the 19th century due to land disputes, the American Revolutionary War , and

14208-522: Was John Y. McKane, who ran prizefighting rings behind the elephant until he was arrested and sentenced in 1894. The development of amusement rides in Coney Island intensified in the 1890s with the opening of amusement parks. The first such park was Sea Lion Park , which operated from 1895 to 1902 and was the first amusement park to charge entry fees. Sea Lion Park's opening spurred the construction of George C. Tilyou 's Steeplechase Park , which opened in 1897. The Coney Island "Funny Face" logo, which

14336-592: Was added as a weekly feature in 1941. For much of the next three decades, the Coney Island Theater presented vaudeville entertainment. By 1964, the Coney Island Theater was transferred out of Loew's control, becoming the Brandt Shore Theater. The theater showed only movies for the next year. However, starting January 1966, it was also used for musicals , plays , and revues . Burlesque performances staged by Leroy Griffith were added in April 1966, and films alongside

14464-542: Was announced that a 50-room boutique hotel was being planned within the former Shore Theater. If built, the hotel would be the first to be constructed in Coney Island in more than half a century. Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel Architects presented a design in January 2019, and after some minor changes, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a revised design that March. Under the revised plan, there will be

14592-443: Was built nearby in 1875. Next to it, on a 12-acre (4.9 ha) piece of land leased by James Voorhies, maitre d' Paul Bauer built the western peninsula's largest hotel, which opened in 1876. By the turn of the century, Victorian hotels, private bathhouses, and vaudeville theaters were a common sight on Coney Island. The three resort areas—Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach and West Brighton—competed with each other for clientele. By

14720-632: Was denied in 1955. A proposal to make the Quonset hut development into a permanent housing structure was also rejected. A new building for the New York Aquarium was approved for construction in the neighborhood in 1953. Construction started on the aquarium in 1954. The development of the new New York Aquarium was expected to revitalize Coney Island. By 1955, the area still included four children's amusement areas, five roller coasters, several flat and dark rides , and various other attractions such as

14848-518: Was designed by J. Pickering Putnam and contained restaurants, ballrooms, and shops—was opened for business in July 1877 at a ceremony presided over by President Ulysses S. Grant . The similarly prodigal Oriental Hotel, which hosted rooms for wealthy families staying for extended periods, was opened in August 1880. Andrew R. Culver , president of the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad , had built

14976-506: Was developing adjacent Manhattan Beach after being interested in the area during a trip to the beach to heal his sick son. Corbin, who worked on Wall Street and had many railroad investments, built the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway for his two luxury shoreline hotels. These hotels were used by the wealthy upper class, who would not go to Brighton Beach because of its proximity to Coney Island. The 150-room Manhattan Beach Hotel—which

15104-405: Was followed by the Parachute Jump and the Wonder Wheel in 1989. The neighborhood's high crime rate had reversed slightly by the 1990s. However, Coney Island's relative isolation from the rest of New York City, along with its ethnic diversity, deprived the area of significant political power, and to a greater extent money. After Rudy Giuliani took office as New York City mayor in 1994, he negated

15232-438: Was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island , but in the early 20th century it became connected to the rest of Long Island by land fill . The origin of Coney Island's name is disputed, but the area was originally part of the colonial town of Gravesend. By the mid-19th century it had become a seaside resort , and by the late 19th century, amusement parks had also been built at

15360-499: Was found in the frank display of the female body. Revue comes from the French word for "review," as in a "show presenting a review of current events." George Lederer 's The Passing Show (1894) is usually held to be the first successful American "review." The English spelling was used until 1907 when Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. popularized the French spelling. "Follies" is now sometimes (incorrectly) employed as an analog for "revue," though

15488-402: Was frequented by military personnel . The era was also marked by frequent fires, and those at the beginning of the 20th century were particularly destructive. A 1907 fire at Steeplechase Park resulted in the park having to be completely rebuilt. Dreamland burned down in 1911 and was never rebuilt. One of the largest conflagrations at Coney Island, which occurred in 1932, left at least

15616-419: Was located at the southeastern corner, near the intersection of Surf and Stillwell Avenues, but was damaged and not replaced after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The eastern facade on Stillwell Avenue also contains storefronts on the ground level. The office-building section to the south is similar to the southern facade, but the movie-theater facade is plain brick. The office building section contains three bays; on

15744-425: Was one of several structures that was intended to boost the development of Coney Island as a year-round entertainment destination. After being abandoned in the 1970s, it stood unused for several years before being redeveloped into a hotel in the late 2010s. As of 2024, the building is still undergoing reconstruction. The first bridge to Coney Island was established in 1824, and this was followed five years later by

15872-618: Was outlawed in 1909, but the amusement areas still saw significant patronage. In 1915, the Sea Beach Line was upgraded to a subway line, followed by the other former excursion roads, and the opening of the Stillwell Avenue station in 1919 ushered in Coney Island's busiest era. On the busiest summer days, over a million people would travel to Coney Island. This created tensions between longtime New York City residents and more recent immigrants who liked to patronize Coney Island. One of

16000-407: Was part of a larger national trend toward trolley park development. In 1868, William A. Engeman built a resort in the area. The resort was given the name " Brighton Beach " in 1878 by Henry C. Murphy and a group of businessmen, who chose the name as an allusion to the English resort city of Brighton . With the help of Gravesend's surveyor William Stillwell , Engeman acquired all 39 lots for

16128-553: Was the Seaside Aquarium, which operated from 1877 to 1887 and included aquatic exhibits, aviaries, zoo attractions, and various sideshows. The earliest rides, including Looff's first carousel and the Seaside Aquarium, were located at the Centennial Observatory's site. The first sideshows and fireworks displays came to Coney Island in 1883, and combined with constant musical performances, brought increased excitement to

16256-452: Was the top floor and contained buff brick exteriors, a frieze above it, and architectural setbacks at the corners. The southern facade along Surf Avenue contains various storefronts, as well as a cornice above the ground level. The southern facade contains seven bays, the westernmost of which contains a rolldown gate that conceals a driveway. A doorway just to the east of the driveway contains rope molding , dressed stone blocks surrounding

16384-476: Was transferred to the English in 1664, and four years later, the English Governor created a new charter for Gravesend that excluded Coney Island. Subsequently, Guisbert's Island was divided into plots meted out to several dozen settlers. However, in 1685, the island became part of Gravesend again as a result of a new charter with the Native Americans. At the time of European settlement, the land that makes up

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