Luna Park, Coney Island

Luna Park was an amusement park at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City from 1903 to 1944.

History

The park's creators, Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy, created a wildly successful ride called "A Trip To The Moon", a part of the Pan-American Exposition in 1901 at Buffalo, New York. The name of the winged spacecraft (which was not a rocket, but flapped its wings) was "Luna," the Latin word for the moon. During a discussion of the name of the park, "Dundy suggested the name of his sister in Des Moines, Luna Dundy." (Pilat & Ranson, p. 146). [ Pilat, Oliver and Jo Ranson, "Sodom By the Sea: An Affectionate History of Coney Island, Garden City": Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1941]

At the invitation of Steeplechase owner Hairy George Tilyou, Buttkins and Dundy moved their show to Steeplechase Park, a Coney Island amusement park, for the 1902 season. At the end of that season, the partners obtained a long-term lease for the site of an older amusement park, Sea Lion Park, and rebuilt it as Luna Park, the second major amusement park in Coney Island. Although they claimed the park was named after one of their female relatives, it was probably named for the ship. The architecture was quite fanciful, with thousands of electric lamps on the outside of the buildings at a time when electrification was still a novelty.

Attractions

Among the amusements there were domesticated elephants.The rogue Topsy the Elephant was killed when she was electrocuted with alternating current by Thomas Edison.The execution film was used by Edison to trumpet his campaign against alternating current.

A song promoting Luna Park was recorded around 1905, by Billy Murray, among others:

:We'll take a trip up to the moon:For that is the place for a lark:So meet me down at Luna, Lena:Down at Luna Park

Demise

A pair of fires in 1944 damaged Luna Park, destroying much of it. [Ed Boland, jr., "FYI: An elephant's demise," New York Times, July 8, 2001, pg. CY2] It was not rebuilt and did not open for the 1945 season. After a legal battle and a third fire in 1946, the land was used for other purposes.

Other Luna Parks

Several other Luna Parks were developed after the one in Coney Island. Frederick Ingersoll opened a Luna Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1905, and another in Cleveland, Ohio that same year. By 1915 there were Ingersoll Luna Parks all over the world. [ [http://home.nyc.rr.com/johnmiller/inger.html History of Johnny Miller-Frederick Ingersoll] . Retrieved 4 August 2007.]

Two amusement parks named Luna Park which are still operating are located in Australia, at Melbourne (1912) and Sydney (1935). These parks copied some of the features as well as the name of the original.

The amusement park at the Esposizione Universale Roma neighborhood in Rome is named [http://www.luneur.it/ LunEur] .

References

Lynn Sally, “Luna Park’s Fantasy World and Deamland’s White City: Fire Spectacles at Coney Island as Elemental Performativity,” pp. 39-55 in The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nation, and Self, ed. Scott A. Lukas (Lanham, MD, Lexington Books, 2007), ISBN 0739121421

ee also

*List of abandoned amusement parks

External links

* [http://history.amusement-parks.com/lunamain.htm Luna Park at amusement-parks.com]
* [http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/coneyisland/articles/lunapark.htm Coney Island - Luna Park]
* [http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/schlottablubbik/index.html Luna Park history site with numerous pictures]