Various American Photographers

Approximately 385 photographs Chronicling the Heyday of Coney Island, New York, comprising Images of Famous Freaks, Steeplechase Park, Luna Park, and Dreamland, Rides, the Boardwalk, and More, primarily gelatin silver and albumen prints, both mounted and unmounted, some with a photographer's credit, some dated, and most identified, some framed, circa 1880s to circa 1950; together with 6 printed brochures and 2 ink drawings (393)

The collection of antiquarian, author, and folk art expert Frederick Fried

By descent to his daughter, Rachel Fried

Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1997

A list of images is available. Condition of the prints is variable. An attempt to describe serious condition issues has been made on the list; however, these are by no means complete.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The photographs in this lot comprise a visual representation of Coney Island in its heyday. Spanning the 1890s and 1910s, when the various parks—Sea Lion, Steeplechase, Luna, and Dreamland (all pictured in this lot)—were founded, to the 1950s, when Coney Island had fallen into decline, these photographs illustrate the American entertainment and theatrical revolution of the first half of the twentieth century. The imaginative showmen and entrepreneurs who created and defined popular and consumer culture with their inventions, amusements, spectacles, and parks at Coney Island, created not only a world-famous destination, but also transformed American attitudes and commerce along the way. 

The beauty of the beaches originally drew people to Coney Island, a barrier island discovered by Henry Hudson in 1609 and named Conyne Eylandt (Rabbit Island, for its many rabbits). Access to the area was difficult until the Shell and Plank roads were built in the 1820s and 1850s.  Prior to the 1890s, when the area became an extravagant playground, and entry to the ocean and beaches was made through bathhouses, Coney Island was divided into distinct sections defined by socio-economic status.  The west end of the island, known for its rough and tumble atmosphere and criminal element, attracted a distinctly different crowd from the eastern end, an exclusive, genteel resort area with luxury hotels, including Manhattan Beach Hotel, Brighton Beach Hotel, and the Oriental Hotel.  The Brighton and West Brighton areas, in the island's center, were where the middle and working classes frolicked in the surf and enjoyed bathing and dining on clams at Peter Tilyou's Surf House or champagne at Peter Ravenhall's upscale bathhouse.

Railroad expansion and pier construction fueled Coney Island's growth.  With the large crowds came new parks to entertain the masses.  In 1895, Captain Paul Boyton (pictured) opened Sea Lion Park, the first permanent amusement park in the United States.  It was a casual, rather ramshackle affair.  Boyton featured himself as an attraction, demonstrating a patented rubber diving suit for which he had achieved a certain amount of fame.  Other features of the park were its rides, including the frightening Flip Flap Railroad, a roller coaster with a vertical loop, a water lagoon ride, and a Shoot-the-Chutes ride.  Scarce attendance during the rainy 1902 season all but put Boyton out of business.  He accepted an opportunity to lease his property for 25 years to Frederick Thompson and Elmer 'Skip' Dundy, ride operators at the competing Steeplechase park who would go on to build Luna Park in 1903.

Boyton's main competitor at the time was showman George Tilyou, who had lived in Coney Island from the age of three.  As a youth, Tilyou had sold beach sand to Midwesterners and opened the Surf Theater with his father Peter in 1882.  Their vaudeville theater was situated in an alleyway leading to the beach. In 1892, Tilyou laid planking over the passageway and named it Ocean View Walk.  This boardwalk became known as the Bowery and was the heart of Coney Island. Tilyou was also responsible for bringing the first Ferris wheel to Coney Island in 1894.

Tilyou's greatest contribution, however, was Steeplechase Park (pictured), which opened in 1897.   The park provided lots of lively, clean fun for its patrons.  They enjoyed the antics at the Blowhole Theater, where they were not only the entertained, but were the entertainers as well. Women's skirts were blown above their heads (pictured), and midgets prodded participants with mild electric shocks as they exited.  Everyone thrilled to the physicality of rides like the Human Roulette Wheel and the Barrel of Love (both pictured), whereby gravity, jostling, bumping, and spinning were employed so that couples could hold onto each other—previously forbidden public behavior.  In July 1907, an 18-hour-long fire burned Steeplechase Park to the ground, but Tilyou rebuilt a bigger, better park, placing many of the rides inside his five-acre steel and glass Pavilion of Fun.  Within nine months, he was open for business again, and Steeplechase Park functioned for another 57 years until 1964, when it finally closed.  Today, the former location of the park can be identified by the now-landmarked Parachute Drop (pictured), a ride from the 1939 World's Fair that Tilyou bought and moved to Coney Island.

It was Tilyou who lured future Luna Park founders Frederic Thompson and Elmer 'Skip' Dundy (both pictured), to Coney Island.  Thompson, an architectural draftsman, and Dundy, a court clerk from Omaha, created a revolutionary amusement called 'A Trip to the Moon' for the 1901 PanAmerican Exposition in Buffalo. Always on the lookout for novel attractions, Tilyou invited the duo to bring their attraction to Steeplechase Park.  After successful attendance at the Moon ride during the 1902 season, Tilyou demanded a greater share of the profits. Thompson and Dundy refused, leasing the Sea Lion Park property from Paul Boyton and taking their Trip to the Moon with them.  Also leasing adjacent property, they decided to build their own park.  Among the photographs from this period in the lot offered here are two of an elephant named Topsy, illustrating an infamous and tragic event that showman Thompson turned into an opportunity for spectacle. In November 1902, while construction of Luna Park was ongoing, elephants performed much of the hauling.  Topsy killed one of her trainers after he fed her a lit cigarette, and Thompson decided that she would have to be destroyed.  Always the showman, Thompson advertised that Topsy would be electrocuted on 4 January, 1903, and a crowd of 1,500 witnessed the event.  Some of Thomas Edison's workers attached electrodes to her front right and left back feet and, within seconds after the current was turned on, Topsy died (pictured before and after the event).

More than sixty thousand attended the 16 May, 1904, opening of Luna Park, which cost Thompson and Dundy $700,000 to build. Named after Dundy's sister, Luna Park was the most elaborate amusement park ever constructed, with its expressive and exuberant architectural jumble of towers, minarets and covered in 250,000 lights.  According to Ric Burns, in his documentary on Coney Island, Thompson and Dundy had only $11 left between them on opening night.  The park was so successful that they were able to recoup their entire investment in six weeks. 

Thompson billed Luna Park as 'The Biggest Playground on Earth.'  Visitors were transported from their mundane, everyday lives by its sheer extravagant spectacle—the live circus performances, the avenues and promenades, the variety of ever-changing productions and amusements that gave the illusion of visiting other parts of the world.  The rides were popular as well, including The Whip, The Tickler, and Helter-Skelter (each pictured).  Thompson convinced Dr. Martin Arthur Couney (pictured) to open an infant incubator exhibit (pictured) at the park.  Couney had become an incubation expert during his medical studies in Europe and had operated and displayed functioning incubators at expositions in Berlin, London, Omaha, and Buffalo.  The Incubation Institution, essentially a hospital for premature infants, was not only one of the most popular exhibits at Luna Park, but also a medical success.  Of the 8,000 infants treated there, 80% survived.  Couney opened another incubation exhibition at Dreamland as well.

Millions came to Luna Park in its early years, but the situation began to change when Dundy died in 1907.  Within five years the profligate Thompson, who also owned the New York Hippodrome and produced Broadway plays, went bankrupt and lost his investment in the park.  Crazy Town (pictured), the last of Thompson's creations in Luna Park, opened in 1913.  Thompson died at 47 in 1919. The park continued to operate, though less creatively without Thompson's inspiration, until 1944, when it was crippled by a major fire.  It was demolished shortly after, and the land became a site for low-income housing.

Luna Park's success led former New York Senator and real estate developer William Reynolds and political bosses Pat McCarren, and Timothy Sullivan (pictured), to build and open Dreamland in 1904.  They hired showman Samuel Gumpertz (pictured) from St. Louis, where he ran two theaters and four amusement parks, to run Dreamland.  Gumpertz was drawn to show business from an early age, literally running away from home to join a circus.

Built for $2,500,000, the park was beautiful and colossal in its scale, and had four times as many lights as Luna Park.  Its 375-foot Beacon Tower (pictured), based on Seville's Giralda tower, stood in the center of a large lagoon, and was the park's focal point.  Gondolas carried passengers along a simulated Grand Canal at the Canals of Venice ride.  Its steel pier extended nearly a half-mile into the ocean, and Dreamland had the largest ballroom in the world, at 25,000 square feet.  Most of Dreamland's spectacles had a cultural, historic, or scientific focus. Among other attractions, Frank Bostock's circus was a permanent feature, as well as Lilliputia, known as Midget City, a functioning community built to scale for 300 little people (boxing midgets pictured). 

Sadly, Dreamland lasted only seven years.  At 1:30 a.m. on opening day in May 1911, a fire erupted as workers were trying to mend a leak in the Hell Gate ride's water flume.  By the morning, Dreamland's 15 acres was reduced to smoking rubble, as well as an equal amount of surrounding property, including Balmer's bathhouse (pictured before fire). 

There were several talented men who made contributions to Coney Island's well-deserved fame, and they are represented among these photographs.  La Marcus A. Thompson (pictured) built his first successful gravity-operated Switchback Railway, an early form of roller coaster (several pictured), at Coney Island in 1884.  Thompson brought the concept of the American roller coaster to commercial fruition, ultimately accumulating 30 patents relating to roller coaster technology. His inventions are featured in several photographs in this collection, including his most famous attraction, with designer James A. Griffiths, of the 1887 Scenic Railway on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City (pictured).  The ride is a rolling tour through elaborately created scenery and can be thought of as a precursor to more modern scenic park journeys, such as Space Mountain at Disneyland. 

Also included in this collection is William F. Mangels (pictured), an important figure in the development of amusement parks at the turn of the twentieth century.  Coney Island- based Mangels was an inventor and manufacturer of amusement devices, such as The Whip, The Tickler, Rough Riders Roller Coaster (all pictured), and a number of carousels (pictured), for which he created the galloping horse mechanism.  A historian of the amusement industry, Mangels managed his own American Museum of Public Recreation (pictured) from 1938 to 1940 and published a history of the industry in 1952, The Outdoor Amusement Industry: From Earliest Times to the Present.

Feltman's, on Surf Avenue, was the largest and most famous restaurant at Coney Island (pictured). German immigrant Charles Feltman, a former butcher who became a pie vendor at Coney Island, decided to offer another product from his cart--roll-encased pork sausages reminiscent of those from Germany.  These 'Frankfurter sandwiches' were accompanied by mustard and sauerkraut, and the hotdog, as we know it, was born.  Feltman used the profits he made and invested in an ocean lot, upon which he built a hotel and entertainment complex in 1874.  With its outdoor beer garden, restaurants, bands, and carousel, Feltman's was among the most popular destinations on Coney Island for dining, drinking and fun.  In 1915, a young Jewish immigrant from Poland, Nathan Handwerker, was hired to slice the hot dog rolls and to deliver the frankfurters to the men at the seven grilling stations in the restaurant.  Handwerker slept on the floor in order to save the $11 he made every week.  When the price of the franks went up, performers Jimmie Durante and Eddie Cantor encouraged Handwerker to create a cheaper version.  With $300 that he had saved, Nathan Handwerker left Feltman's in 1916 to open a stand selling all-beef hot dogs across the street.  The stand became an actual restaurant, Nathan's Famous, in 1925.  Charles Feltman died in 1910, and his sons and grandson carried on the business until 1946.

Coney Island began its slow decline as a significant entertainment destination after the First World War.  By 1918, subways reached Coney Island when the Stillwell Avenue station opened.  The crowd of 300,000 in 1913 grew to a million a day by 1923. Now, almost everyone could go to Coney Island, which became known as the 'Poor Man's Riviera' or, as Fortune magazine named it, the 'Nickel Empire,' where everything—the subway ride, the amusements, the hot dogs—each cost a nickel and were therefore less exclusive and more affordable to the lower classes.  To help accommodate the throngs, the city essentially took over the beach at Coney Island, building a two-mile-long, 80-foot-wide boardwalk, larger than Atlantic City's, that was completed in May 1922.  Other events changed the makeup of visitors as well.  The well-to-do stopped going to Coney Island when gambling was forbidden and the larger, more luxurious hotels closed.  In 1929, they found another, more desirable beach destination, Jones Beach on Long Island, a grand resort-like state park designed by Robert Moses. 

The Depression served to alter Coney Island's attractions further, as most could no longer afford the price of admission.  Evictions drove many to live in tents on the beach.  World War II also meant that visitors had less money to spend for amusement in general.  Despite the fact that there were alternative beaches to visit (Rockaway, Jacob Riis Park, Jones Beach), for most families the cheapest and easiest destination was still Coney Island.  Typically, on a summer weekend day, visitors would arrive early, bring their lunches and stay for the day, spending only subway fare.  In fact, less than half of the visitors spent a dollar.  This is quite a contrast to the $1.95 admission fee that people paid to enjoy all attractions at Luna Park in 1904. The all-time record number of visitors at Coney Island was 1,300,000 on July 3, 1947, fully one-fifth of New York City's population.

Over time, many of the remaining amusements closed—Ravenhall Baths (pictured) in 1963, Steeplechase Park in 1964, Washington Baths in 1968.  A 1964 article in the New York Times negatively affected the public's perception of Coney Island, suggesting that it was unsafe to go there. Business retracted significantly, and people simply stopped visiting Coney Island.

Since the mid-1990s, however, there are signs of improvement.  The Army Corps of Engineers refurbished the beach and the New York City Parks Department the boardwalk.  2001 saw the opening of Keyspan Park, home to the NY Mets farm team, the Brooklyn Cyclones.  The Stillwell Avenue subway station has been rebuilt.  In July of this year, the New York City Council overwhelmingly approved Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to revitalize the beachfront area.  According to the New York Times, the proposal involves establishing an '27-acre entertainment district between Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk, with 9.4 acres devoted exclusively to freak shows, arcades, and roller coasters and other rides.'  New residential zoning allows for apartments and high-rise hotels north and west of the amusement area.

The photographs offered here come in large part originally from the collection of antiquarian, folk art scholar, author, and avid collector Frederick Fried (1909 – 1994).  Fried, born in Brooklyn, became fascinated by carousels as a youngster when he would visit famed Coney-Island style carousel carver Charles Carmel's shop on Ocean Parkway, which was near his father's clock shop.  Fried co-founded the National Carousel Association in 1973 to educate the public about the history of these unique objects and to save the remaining carousels from destruction and dismantling by collectors. He believed that no other object could give greater joy than a carousel. Fried's passions also included Coney Island, American carved wooden objects, and New York City's civic architecture, and he authored four books on these subjects.  He was chief consultant on American Folk Art for the Smithsonian Museum, where his and wife Mary Hill Fried's archives reside.

Several of these photographs were exhibited at The Orange Chicken Fine and Decorative Art Gallery's exhibition, Freaks, Geeks and Carnies, in April and May 2001, and at Ricco/Maresca Gallery's Dreamland/Coney Island, 1905-1925 show, from June through August 2006.

We gratefully acknowledge that information for this note has come from a variety of sources, including Jeffrey Stanton's online articles about the history of Coney Island; Coney Island: A Documentary Film by Ric Burns and Buddy Squires; Adam Sandy's articles on the Amusement Park History and Ultimate Roller Coaster web sites; Roller Coaster Biographies by David Pescovitz; Barbara Williams's article, 'Remembering Fred Fried,' from Carousel News and Trader Magazine; Coney Island: The People's Playground by Michael Immerso; World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History of America's Ethnic Cuisine by Joel Denker, and the New York Times.